Changes are expected after a Signal chat included a reporter, who then wrote about the sensitive information from that call.
That’s according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who fielded questions from reporters during a joint press conference Wednesday with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Jamaica.
“This thing was set up for purposes of coordinating how everyone was going to call,” Rubio said, per The Daily Wire. “When these things happen, I need to call foreign ministers, especially of our close allies. We need to notify members of Congress. Other members of the team have different people they need to notify as well. And that was the purpose of why it was set up.”
Rubio acknowledged a “big mistake” was made.
The Atlantic, who was inadvertently invited to join the chat, published messages from the Yemen war strikes Signal chat.
“Obviously, someone made a mistake,” he continued. “Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist, nothing against journalists, but you ain’t supposed to be on that thing. So they got on there and this happened.”
Rubio said the information that was shared did not threaten the lives of U.S. troops.
“I’ve been assured by the Pentagon and everyone involved that none of the information that was on there, though not intended to be divulged — obviously that was a mistake and that shouldn’t have happened and the White House is looking at it — but that none of the information on there at any point threatened the operation or the lives of our servicemen,” he said. “And in fact, it was a very successful operation, and it’s an ongoing operation, but that was the intent behind it.”
Rubio also concurred with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who said there were “no war plans on there.”
“This was a sort of description of what we could inform our counterparts around the world when the time came to do so. Again, I think the White House is looking at this entire thing. How did that journalist get on there? Why was this the appropriate I think there’ll be reforms and changes made. So this never this was not going to happen again. It can’t,” Rubio said. “But I wanted everybody to understand why this thing was even set up in the first place, and also understand very clearly the mission was successful and at no point was it endangered.”
