The Houthi PC Small Group – Joyce Vance – March 25, 2025

The memes may be epic, but it’s no joke.

The Signal chat consisted of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and, as you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, the Editor in Chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. There were others, but Goldberg declined to name at least one of them because of the sensitive nature of their identity given the position they hold in government.

Signal is not a secure, approved means of what is referred to in the government as “high side” communication for classified or sensitive information. Goldberg reported on the texts he received after he was invited to join the chat. While he was trying to decide if the group was an attempt to punk him or something legitimate, he received messages including information about timing, targeting, and targets of a possible U.S. attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. When the attack materialized on schedule over the weekend, he understood that he had somehow been added to a chat among principals.

Today, government officials, including White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitt, claimed none of the information was classified. At a previously scheduled hearing of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (On her MSNBC show Monday night, Rachel Maddow said it was happening because “God keeps a calendar”) Maine Senator Angus King questioned Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard about how it was possible that the kind of sensitive information that circulated in the chat wasn’t classified. It included attack sequences, timing, weapons, and targets. Gabbard responded that she would “defer to the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council.”