Sen. Mark Kelly calls for Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth’s resignation amid Signal flap

PHOENIX – U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) on Wednesday called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign for sending text messages detailing military plans on an unsecure app.

“This is the ultimate, highest level of incompetence I’ve seen in operational security from a high-level official ever,” Kelly told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.

Kelly pushed for Hegseth’s removal after The Atlantic published screenshots of a Signal group chat involving top Trump administration officials that detailed plans for airstrikes on the Houthi in Yemen earlier this month.

Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reportedly were among the participants on the text chain.

How did The Atlantic get Signal text messages?

The Atlantic had access to the discussion because National Security Adviser Michael Waltz invited, apparently by mistake, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, into the chat.

In a Tuesday appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Waltz said White House technical experts were trying to figure out how Goldberg’s contact “may have been sucked in” when he built the message chain.

“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward,” said Waltz, who added that he took “full responsibility” for the episode.

Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked and is not approved for carrying classified information.

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, administration officials insisted that no classified information was included in the texts about U.S. attack plans.

The Atlantic initially ran a story about the chat Monday without releasing details about the military plans. But on Wednesday morning, the media outlet released the entire Signal discussion, showing that Hegseth provided the exact times of warplane launches, strike packages and targets before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen’s Houthis were airborne.

“When you read through the Hegseth portion of that Signal chain, … you see that he put on an unsecured app with a random person … operational information about a strike that was about to commence,” Kelly said. “This is the most sensitive information any government has.”

Mark Kelly recounts own military experience

Kelly, a former Navy pilot, said it could have been disastrous if the plans leaked any further.

“The element of surprise in a combat action is everything,” he said. “I’ll tell you, when I flew in combat over the first Gulf War, I had a missile blow up next to my airplane and I survived that. If they would have known I was coming ahead of time, I … very likely would have been shot down.”

He also noted that somebody on the Signal chat was in Moscow at the time. Russia is a strategic ally of Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“If the Russians got this information and it went to the Iranians and then to the Houthis, those pilots who launched off of that aircraft carrier about two hours after that comment in the Signal chain — the risk to them would have gone up significantly,” he said.

Kelly said the Signal incident is more evidence that Hegseth, a combat veteran and former Fox News host, isn’t fit to lead the Department of Defense.

“Two months ago, when we went through his confirmation hearing, I made it very clear to my colleagues that this guy was unqualified for this job,” Kelly said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Arizona) is calling for Hegseth and Waltz to resign or be fired.

“Hegseth and Waltz shared classified and detailed attack plans in an unsecured chat — information that could have cost American servicemembers their lives — and then lied about it to the public. This was gross incompetence at the highest level, and there must be accountability,” Stanton said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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