Karoline Leavitt Asked: Would Yemen Strike Have Been Called Off If Leaked Chat Was Published First?

3/27/2025

Karoline Leavitt is asked if the Signal group chat had been published prior to the Yemen strike whether the launch would have been called off.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Just for, you know, for American service members who are going to have to carry out these missions

00:04in the future, what I guess the message that's coming from the response to all this that

00:11we're hearing is that, you know, nothing sensitive happened.

00:15And I guess the logical conclusion of that is that if these messages had gone out publicly

00:22prior to the launch, that that wouldn't have been a risk to service members.

00:26I don't know that they're comfortable with that.

00:28Can you explain, you know, had these messages been published, would the plans have moved

00:35forward?

00:36Would the launch have still taken off?

00:37What I can tell you is that the President, as the Commander-in-Chief of our United States

00:41Armed Forces, and Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is an incredible man and a war fighter

00:46himself, take the lives of our American service members with the utmost responsibility.

00:52And they would never do anything intentionally to put their lives at risk.

00:58And again, they are working hard on that every single day, and we are protecting our service

01:02members while also restoring peace throughout this globe.

01:06It's something the previous administration has not done.

01:08And I would just add one more point.

01:11We are not going to be lectured about national security and American troops by Democrats

01:17and the mainstream media who turned the other cheek when the Biden administration, because

01:21of their incompetence, left 13 service members dead in Afghanistan, and not a single person

01:27in the previous administration was held accountable for that botched withdrawal.

01:31Joe Biden said, in fact, it was a great operation.

01:35That is despicable.

01:36It's unacceptable to this President and this Secretary of Defense.

01:39The National Security Advisor has taken responsibility for this inadvertent number being added to

01:44the messaging thread.

01:45But above all, we take the lives of our troops, safety, security, prosperity around the globe

01:50with the utmost seriousness.

Karoline Leavitt Asked: Would Yemen Strike Have Been Called Off If Leaked Chat Was Published First?

Category

Transcript

Recommended