National News

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that he had shared "war plans" after accidentally texting secret military information to a reporter ahead of a strike on Yemen.

During a rant on an airport tarmac Wednesday, Hegseth suggested he had been acquitted of wrongdoing after The Atlantic described his text messages as "attack plans" instead of "war plans."

"Nobody's texting war plans!" the defense secretary exclaimed to reporters. "I noticed this morning out came something that doesn't look like war plans. And as a matter of fact, they even changed the title to attack plans because they know it's not war plans."

"There's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information," he insisted. "My job, as it said atop of that, everybody's seen it now, team update is to provide updates in real time, general updates in real time, keep everybody informed. That's what I did! That's my job!"

ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

"And with President Trump's leadership, our enemies are on notice."

As Hegseth walked away, he continued to get peppered with questions.

"Mr. Secretary, how do you square what you said with what your messages show?" a reporter yelled. "Mr. Secretary, did you share classified information? Mr. Secretary, did you declassify that information before you put it into action?"

Watch the video below or at this link.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins clashed with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday during a press briefing when Leavitt denied Collins a chance to ask a followup question.

Earlier this week, a bombshell report in The Atlantic alleged that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared secret war plans in a Signal chat while inadvertently revealing them to a reporter who had been errantly added to the group.

The administration responded by denying any classified information was transmitted through the chats and The Atlantic responded Tuesday by publishing messages showing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the precise times that American missiles were scheduled to strike at Houthi rebel groups inside Yemen.

Collins asked Leavitt if she stood by the administration's claims that there had been no classified information in the messages given what she now knows.

ALSO READ: 'Dancing around': Senator slams Trump officials for ducking questions over 'huge mistake'

Leavitt complained she'd been "asked and answered the same question" several times and noted that the president "feels the same today as he did yesterday."

Collins asked for a follow-up and spoke while Leavitt called on someone else.

"I'm not taking your follow-up," snapped Leavitt.

"I have a follow-up on something you just said, Karoline," said Collins.

"Kaitlin, I'm not taking your follow-up. Philip, go ahead," Leavitt said

After the briefing, host Boris Sanchez noted that the White House might be trying to do counter-programming to get people off of talking about the Signal scandal by announcing possible auto tariffs. The Dow Jones immediately began falling, Sanchez said.

"We're being told by our reporters that markets started trending downward. Yes, it appears that the White House is trying to counterprogram this story. And I want to go to CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who's in the room now. Caitlin, I found it interesting, first, that she rejected your question and said that she had already answered it, even though she didn't directly address the substance of what you were asking. And then that she rejected your follow-up, which is atypical."

Collins reported that Republicans on Capitol Hill see the White House as trying to twist itself into knots trying to say that the Signal chat contents weren't classified when it is overwhelmingly likely that they were given that they revealed the precise timing of military strikes.

See the clips below or at the link here.

- YouTube youtu.be

- YouTube youtu.be

During a House Oversight subcommittee meeting Wednesday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) unleashed on DOGE chairwoman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for supporting the Trump administration's desire to cut federally-funded media outlets National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System.

"Greene and other GOP members grilled the heads of NPR and PBS on allegations of perceived bias to determine whether to continue federal funding," according to The Daily Beast.

"It should not be surprising that the president is doing everything possible to make it more difficult for the media to hold him accountable, and for the public to be informed about his reckless and illegal behavior — yet here we are," Crockett began before asking the media leaders about how stripping their funding would hurt the public at large.

Witnesses included NPR CEO Katherine Maher, PBS CEO Paula Kerger, Heritage Foundation senior fellow Michael Gonzalez, and Alaska Public Radio president Ed Ulman.

ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

"Isn't it true that without these stations' broadcasts, Americans in rural communities would lack access to lifesaving information and public safety alerts?" Crockett asked Ulman, who answered in the affirmative.

Crockett continued, "In your opinion would eliminating funding for stations in rural America like WNGH, Channel 18, in the chairwoman's district would hurt Americans?"

"It would hurt Americans, yes," Ulman answered.

Crockett then launched into Greene, with whom she has a contentious working relationship.

"In fact, Georgia Public Broadcasting serves as the official distributor of evacuation route during state evacuations, and the chairwoman is here advocating to strip their funding. Look, the DOGE agenda isn't about efficiency; it's about breeding corruption at the expense of the safety of the American people, particularly rural and remote parts of the country. They don't care about public safety. They don't care about emergency management. They don't care about free speech, all of which are harming the American people."

Crockett continued, "To be clear, free speech is not about whatever it is y'all want somebody to say. And the idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bull----. We need to stop playing because that's what y'all are doing in here. You don't you want to hear the opinions of anybody else."

Crockett went on to read the First Amendment as Greene repeatedly banged the gavel and announced "the gentlelady's time has expired."

Watch the clip below or at this link.