The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Mixed Signal: Top Trump Officials Responsible for Major Security Breach
Tue, 25 Mar 2025
Jen Psaki speaks to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, about how he was mistakenly included on a group chat of high-ranking Trump officials discussing secret war plans. Goldberg reflects on being a firsthand witness such an unprecedented leak and reacts to the backlash from Secretary Pete Hegseth. Later, Senator Adam Schiff gives insight into how Congress is reacting to Goldberg’s revelation and how both Republicans and Democrats are ready to hold the administration accountable. Next, Jen highlights on the growing unpopularity of Elon Musk after he trashed social security and threatened its elimination, and why it is a political gift to Democrats. Jen talks to Governor JB Pritzker about Musk's sweeping layoffs and their impact on Illinois, and Former Senator Sherrod Brown reflects on how he is stepping up to address the struggles of American workers. Check out our social pages below:https://twitter.com/InsideWithPsakihttps://www.instagram.com/InsideWithPsaki/https://www.tiktok.com/@insidewithpsakihttps://www.msnbc.com/jen-psakihttps://bsky.app/profile/insidewithpsaki.msnbc.com
Chapter 1: What shocking headline did Jeffrey Goldberg report?
OK, I'm going to start tonight with one of the most shocking headlines I have ever seen. Here it is. The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans. That was literally a headline in The Atlantic just this morning. And it was written by the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Because last weekend, Jeffrey Goldberg knew that the U.S. would strike Houthi rebels in Yemen.
And he knew, he knew that two hours before the world did. Because a bunch of senior Trump officials were texting with him without realizing it. Jeffrey Goldberg is standing by here in studio for his first cable news interview since dropping that complete bombshell of a piece earlier today.
There's really no way to do this story and kind of catch you, get you up to speed on it, do it justice, I should say, other than to just take you through it piece by piece. So that's what I'm going to do. I've read it about 10 times today. I've highlighted it. I've got lots of notes, all the things. We're going to go through all of it.
Chapter 2: How did the Trump administration accidentally leak war plans?
Now, what Goldberg lays out here is so crazy, so dangerous, so irresponsible, you really have to hear it to believe it. The story starts like this. On Tuesday, March 11th, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz, which, as you all know, is the name of Trump's national security advisor.
Now, Goldberg writes, I did think it was somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration's contentious relationship with journalists and Trump's periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me.
It's not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them. That does happen. We're going to talk about that. But the story continues. Because then two days later, Goldberg got a notification that the Waltz account had added him to a group chat called the Houthi PC small group.
Now PC in the national security world typically stands for principles committee, which is typically made up of literally the highest ranking national security officials in government. Just to give you kind of a sense of how high-ranking the people in the chat were, there was a user named M-A-R, as in Marco Antonio Rubio, the Secretary of State, and another user named J.D. Vance.
There was also a Scott B. from Treasury. I think we know who that is. And a user named Pete Hegseth from the Pentagon. And yet, as Goldberg wrote, I had very strong doubts that this text group was real because I could not believe that the national security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. I'd have a hard time believing that too.
I think anybody who spent time around national security information and government and reporting on it would too. Because at this level, the discussion about this level of sensitive issues is only supposed to happen on a few different channels, a few different ways.
Usually they happen in what's called a SCIF, which stands for Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities, hence SCIF, because it's much easier to say and remember. But that's basically where computers storing classified information can be accessed to where conversations about things like war plans and even topics that are a whole lot less sensitive should happen.
Skiffs are where the situation room is. And they're so sensitive and so secure that you can't even bring in your phone, your Apple Watch. They literally make you take it off. AirPods, any electronic device, you can't bring into a skiff. And most of these officials pretty much always have access to these facilities.
I mean, the vice president and high-level national security officials even have skiffs set up in their homes. And whenever they travel, on domestic trips, on international trips, they have skiffs set up there, too. A vice president could say to a staffer, I need to make a secure call. And the staffer can set that up, just to give you all a sense of this.
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Chapter 3: What were the consequences of sharing sensitive information?
What I will say in this continuation of his reporting, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this signal conversation, is that the Hegseth Post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.
I just have to pause on this for a moment, because the level of sensitivity of that kind of information is typically not seen by many officials in the government, no matter what your level of security clearance is. And this was done, again, over a group chat.
So the point here is also that it was a matter of time, really, before Goldberg would know whether or not these messages were legit, because there was so much detail and so much about timing and operational details in these group chats. And he also wrote that it was possible Houthi targets would soon be bombed.
And sure enough, when the time came, Goldberg checked X, or Twitter, whatever you're calling it these days, searched Yemen, and explosions then were being heard across and out of the capital city.
And then one account after another started posting celebratory reactions and messages on this same group chat, including a fist, flag, and fire emoji from the account identified as Mike Waltz, otherwise known as the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States. And so finally, after everything he had just witnessed, Goldberg was pretty sure that this was the real thing.
And we're going to talk to him more about this in a moment. And he wrote, the signal chat group I concluded was almost certainly real. Having come to this realization, one that seemed nearly impossible only hours before, I removed myself from the signal group.
No one in the chat had seemed to notice that I was there, and I received no subsequent questions about why I left, or more to the point, who I was. And then this morning he sent emails to several people who were on the signal chat. People like Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, Michael Waltz, the National Security Advisor, John Ratcliffe, the Director of the CIA, others.
And he asked them some pretty freaking valid questions. Like, is the Hootie PC small group a genuine signal threat? Did they know that I was included in this group? Was I on the off chance included on purpose? If not, who did they think I was? Did anyone realize who I was when I was at it or when I removed myself from the group?
Do senior Trump administration officials use Signal regularly for sensitive discussions? Do the officials believe that the use of such a channel could endanger American personnel? Some serious questions for a serious issue and breach here. And here's the statement he got back from the spokesperson for the National Security Council.
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Chapter 4: How did Congress react to the leak?
I have no, I have no idea. I have no idea who, in other words, who Mike Waltz was looking for. I don't know. He didn't answer that question for me.
The thing about signal chats is you have to invite people. You have to list the names to create a group. So there was a consciousness adding of you to this group.
Yes.
In the in the there's been a lot of effort to respond. I mean, you you I noted as I just kind of gave the summary of the piece, you got a response from the National Security Council spokesperson. No, no.
Yeah. And every agency has been saying, just ask the National Security Council.
Just ask them, punting it to them.
Well, what's going on on a, you know, a. You could read the tea leaves here. It's Mike Waltz put this group together, not me. Don't ask me. Ask him. That's what's going on.
But every one of those individuals should have known that they shouldn't be having these conversations.
Look, we all like to think that we're really good at digital hygiene, but most of us are not good at digital hygiene. And if there's a lesson here... I mean, a lesson for a normal person living in the world, it's know who you're texting with. I mean, it's kind of basic.
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Chapter 5: What is Elon Musk's role in political discussions?
the Secretary of the Treasury need to know the precise attack sequence of this upcoming operation. Again, I don't want to talk about weapons systems, packages, targets in any specificity because, you know, I just I'm trying to be I want to be a responsible person and I'm more interested in the decision making anyway than I am in the actual technical details of it. But
The whole thing is just very flummoxing to me because I haven't seen this kind of unserious behavior before. And, you know, and the secretary of defense, all due respect in that presentation, seems like a person who is unserious and is trying to deflect from the fact that he participated in a conversation on an unclassified commercial messaging app that he probably shouldn't have participated in.
And there are receipts for it, which is always a danger of that. Jeffrey Goldberg, this reporting, you never know what you're going to wake up to in this day and age. We woke up to this today. Thank you so much for taking the time. Anybody can read this piece online on the Atlantic site. Thank you so much for joining me. And we have to take a 60 second break. It's a very quick one. Stick with us.
We actually have Senator Adam Schiff is going to he's standing by to join me. Something tells me he's going to have some thoughts about this. He's the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. So we'll look forward to talking about that in just a moment. Welcome back. As I previewed right before the break, I have a great guest joining me now to talk about this story.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Senator, it's great to see you. We had talked about having you come on the show long before. There's so many things to talk to you about. But this story is just I've been wondering all day what your reaction was when you read it. Did you read it five times like me?
What was your reaction when you read this story in The Atlantic?
It is stunning. I can understand Jeffrey's disbelief or thought that is this somehow contrived because it is so stunning and so incompetent and so dangerous in terms of the planning for this operation and who might have been on this text chain. But what really leaps out at me is.
is that you have the director of national intelligence, you have the head of the CIA, and no one, it appears, bothered to say, hey, folks, should we really be talking about this here? Should we really be using a unclassified channel to talk about an operation, a detailed military operation that's going to take place in a few hours? That is just so striking to me.
And it shows both a level of incompetence, but also a certain kind of arrogance that, you know, some of the folks on that had to know that they should never be discussing these things on a signal chat. But there is a feeling that they're beyond accountability. I mean, who's going to hold them accountability? They can break whatever rules.
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Chapter 6: How are Musk's layoffs impacting American workers?
Not only was Musk there, he was also a huge topic of conversation.
The partnership with Doge and Elon Musk has been incredible at EPA.
I'm very grateful to you and very grateful for the partnership with Doge.
Elon, thank you for your partnership. Thank you for your team. You have uncovered so much fraud in our government.
Elon, I want to thank you. I know you've been through a lot.
Are these people under duress? What is happening? Now, Musk should really try to bottle up that praise and hold on tight because there is a growing concern about him right now, even among Republicans. NBC News is reporting that Trump allies are pressing the White House to dial back Elon Musk's media interviews because he won't stop attacking Social Security.
Just for a refresher, Musk has called Social Security the big one to eliminate, describing it as the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. So, yeah, you can kind of see why Trump's allies might want him off the airwaves. People like Social Security. One Republican lawmaker put it like this. The more of these Musk interviews, the more discussion we'll have.
I think the entire 2026 campaign will be a referendum on Musk if the billionaire's poll numbers continue to drop. Adding, you will see ad after ad with the chainsaw. Probably, yeah. And Democrats are starting to take full advantage of the political liability that Elon Musk poses to this administration.
Because over the weekend, some of the party's most effective messengers delivered some very effective messages about what's happening right now. I mean, take a listen to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Chapter 7: What measures are being taken to ensure national security?
I am outraged by this. This is, you know, of all the things that we've been talking about, Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, all the cuts that are affecting people's lives. We're talking now about our military. We're talking now about our national security has been compromised because they're using a texting app to share plans about how they're going to attack the Houthis abroad.
If someone had been on that chain that hadn't been a patriotic American like Jeffrey Goldberg, If someone who wanted to maybe get something out of it had been on that chain, it would have gone abroad. It would have been broadcast to other people. The Houthis would have known that our soldiers, our pilots were coming and their lives would have been lost.
So this is not you know, we're not kidding around anymore. You know, the confusion that they're causing, the chaos that they're causing, the Trump administration, that is, is now gone to the Defense Department, our intelligence agencies, and is being effectuated so that our military is being put at risk and our national security is being put at risk. We can't stand this any longer.
I mean, Pete Hegseth, which everybody knows he's unqualified to be the defense secretary, is responsible here. Donald Trump should fire Pete Hegseth.
I think a lot of people would agree with you. Governor J.B. Pritzker, I love that you never hold back. It's great. Thank you so much for joining me. Look forward to talking again soon. We'll be right back. The only thing missing, everyone, from a town hall event in Ohio this weekend were the actual senators. They're pretty pivotal, right?
About 1,400 people showed up to an event organized by the group Indivisible. But the chairs reserved for the Republican senators? Those were empty. In the meantime, one Ohio Democrat is stepping up. Today, former Senator Sherrod Brown launched a new nonprofit focused on amplifying the struggles of American workers and pressuring politicians to actually listen.
And joining me now is former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Senator Brown, it's great to see you. Let me just start. I want to ask you about your announcement today. It's great to see you. I want to ask you about your announcement today, which is exciting. I think people are happy to hear about that. I just want to start by asking you about...
The two Republican senators who didn't show up to this town hall and there were empty chairs there. I mean, you know Ohio politics probably better than anyone. They're avoiding town halls. How do you think people are going to take that in Ohio?
I think people voted for change, but they didn't vote for the kind of change that they're bringing. More tax cuts for the rich, more people, you know, buying more help for Elon Musk, cuts to veterans benefits, threatening Social Security. People... You know, I don't think either party has served the public well enough, frankly.
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