Maryland Dems call for Pete Hegseth to resign over 'war plans' group chat

Carson Swick, Baltimore Sun on Mar 26, 2025

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Maryland Democrats are coming down hard on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his role in the biggest political scandal of President Donald Trump’s second term thus far.

“Somebody should take responsibility for this, and if there’s not a good explanation and they’re not able to state how it will not happen again in the future, they really should resign,” U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin said of the scandal.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Appropriations committees, on Wednesday night joined the chorus of those calling for immediate resignations.

“This Administration’s gross disregard for the handling of classified information puts American lives at risk,” he said in a statement. “Their inexcusable negligence in protecting the security of highly classified information — as well as their attempts to shrug off this incident — show an unacceptable level of disrespect for our national security and for the men and women who serve our country in uniform.”

Van Hollen said an investigation alone isn’t sufficient.

“If any other federal officials had been involved in this grave of a security breach, they would have been fired at once.”

Rep. Johnny Olszewski, a Baltimore County Democrat, referred to Hegseth’s testimony at a Senate hearing Tuesday, arguing the defense secretary illegally shared classified information and should be ousted.

“Yesterday, Trump officials swore under oath there was no classified information in their Signal group chat. Today, we learned they not only shared classified information — time-stamped missile strike schedules — but they also lied about it,” Olszewski said in a statement. “Secretary Hegseth shared the schedule, put our troops in grave danger, and then lied about doing it. He must resign immediately.”

The scandal began Monday when Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic magazine, published an explosive story showing that National Security Advisor Michael Waltz had accidentally added him to a group chat with Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and other Trump administration officials on the encrypted messaging app Signal. The contents of the group chat included discussions about military operations against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on March 15, and a second Goldberg story published Wednesday showed Hegseth’s message discussing the scheduled times of American airstrikes.

Olszewski’s statement stopped short of calling for Waltz to resign, though it described his actions “highly concerning” and worthy of a “full and thorough” investigation.

Raskin said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ statement calling Hegseth “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history” spoke for many in the Democratic caucus. January’s vote to confirm Hegseth, a former Fox News host, only passed when Vance intervened to break a 50-50 tie in the Senate.

In calling for Hegseth’s resignation, Olszewski joins Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and a growing number of Democrats. Wyden called for both Hegseth and Waltz to resign Tuesday following the aforementioned Senate hearing.

Divided GOP response

Responses to the scandal from Trump administration officials have varied to perhaps the greatest extent seen during the president’s second term.

Hegseth and Waltz forcefully downplayed the details of their discussion and asserted the group chat had not contained any classified information.

“The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,” Hegseth posted on X Wednesday, quipping that the contents of the chat amounted to “some really shitty war plans.”

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the breached group chat as a “big mistake” while speaking to reporters in Jamaica as part of his ongoing Caribbean trip.

“Obviously, someone made a mistake. Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist,” Rubio said Wednesday. “Nothing against journalists, but you ain’t supposed to be on that thing.”

In an X post Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to discredit Goldberg, describing the editor as a “anti-Trump hater” known for “sensationalist spin.” Leavitt claimed the White House is “looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread.”

Raskin described Leavitt’s characterization of Goldberg as a “pathetic response” and credited the editor for being responsible with the sensitive information he received.

“He wasn’t eavesdropping on their call, they looped him in (to the group chat),” Raskin said of Goldberg. “He didn’t understand what was going on.”

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the Eastern Shore Republican who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, defended Hegseth over the scandal at a fiery town hall Tuesday night — though this was before Goldberg released the entire text conversation. Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Waltz’s future.

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