Mitch McCann: US Correspondent on the White house group chat saga

The White House says screenshots of a top US officials group chat didn't contain classified information. 

The Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a group thread on the encrypted messaging app Signal. 

Screenshots made public overnight include exact timings of drone and missile attacks on the Iran-backed Houthis, followed by updates on targets hit. 

US Correspondent Mitch McCann told Andrew Dickens the Democrats claim the messages were classified. 

He says they're now calling on Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who sent some of the messages, to resign. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sir, we're off to America. A much McCann goodbarding to you.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Andrew, good morning. How are you good.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
So this group chat thing goes on. I think I
watched the late night shows last night, and what everyone
was amazed at is how the administration is doubling down
that this did not happen, that this is alone, that
Jeffrey Goldberg is a discredited journalist. Do we have enough
out there yet to say this really did happen.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, there has been a change this morning. Well, the
government firstly has acknowledged this is a real chat that
happened over Signal. But the question the administration has, while
it calls this a hoax, says that they don't know
how Jeffrey Goldberg got into the chat. Did he do
something that allowed himself into the chat? Really kind of
hard to believe sort of stuff. And for people that

(00:43):
are just starting to follow this, this is the story
where a prominent US journalist from the Atlantic was accidentally
added to a group on this messaging app called Signal
alongside some of Donald Trump's closest top cabinet officials. Now,
they weren't discussing what they were going to have for dinner,
they were discussing bombing Yemen, and the journalist were sitting
there watching this whole thing unfold. The latest development Andrew

(01:06):
this morning is that Jeffrey Goldberg has decided, because Donald
Trump says it wasn't classified, to release the entire chat. Initially,
he hadn't done that because he said some of the
information might be classified. He shouldn't be doing it. But
he has decided this morning to do that. And the
Democrats say the contents of these messages that he's released
today proved that it was classified information, and they're now

(01:29):
calling on Pete Higgsseth, the Secretary of Defense, to resign.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Wow, well that won't happen. Pete, seems very bold. Now
let's get to some real big stuff. Russia, Ukraine. Russia's
made some demands before they're going to start any ceasefire
in the Black Sea.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, that's right. Both Russia and Ukraine have said that
they're committed to a ceasefire in the Blank Sea, but
it remains unclear if this is actually going to happen
and how it could work in practice. This is because
the Kremlin has said, yes, well we'll go along with
the ceasefire, but we have some things that we want
before this actually happens. It says it's not going to
agree to the ceasefire on the water unless it's agricultural bank,

(02:07):
it's State Agriculture Bank and other banks involved in sort
of trade and fertilizers and things are reconnected to the
international payment system known as SWIFT. And there are a
few other sanctions that it wants pulled back as well
before it's going to agree to this. Now, Ukraine says,
this is madness because you just forgiving Russia what it wants.

(02:27):
But the Trump administration is going to consider this and
they're going to come up with an answer in the
next couple of days. But it is movement, but Russia
here it seems really dictating the terms of how it's
going to move on this.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Mitch, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
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