JD Vance gave a very quick set of remarks to US Marines this afternoon, making no mention of the Signal scandal that is dominating headlines.

He talked about the importance of investing in the military and praised the Marines for their sacrifices to the US.

Minutes ago, White House Press Secretary Karoline said she needed to cut her media briefing short so it wouldn't overlap with Vance's speech.

Leavitt faced dozens of questions from reporters about the Signal chat group.

Image source, Getty Images

The White House briefing just wrapped up a bit earlier than usual, with Karoline Leavitt saying she didn't want to interfere with JD Vance's speech.

So let's pivot to that.

The vice-president is speaking to US marines in Quantico, Virginia as his team battles allegations that they mishandled sensitive military information. A reminder that Vance was one of the members of that Signal group chat which inadvertently included a journalist.

During his first few minutes of speaking, Vance is yet to address the Signal scandal that is gripping the White House. He talks to Marines about investing in the US military "like we never have before".

We're listening in and will bring you more updates as they happen.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

We've just wrapped up an unusually short - and tense - news briefing at the White House. It lasted 24 minutes.

The ending was abrupt, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt citing a desire to not "counter-programme" Vice President JD Vance's remarks at a US Marine Corps base in Quantico.

News briefings vary in length, but in this administration have rarely timed in at under 45 minutes.

As a reminder, we're now also going to hear directly from President Trump from the Oval Office at 16:00 ET.

Billionaire Elon Musk will look into how a journalist from The Atlantic was added to a Signal chat that included some of the highest-ranking officials in Washington DC, Leavitt says.

Musk, who has made news headlines for leading the charge to terminate thousands of federal workers, will now "figure out how this number was inadvertently added" to the Signal chat, she says.

Musk's assistance will help "ensure this can never happen again," Leavitt continues.

A reporter has just asked Leavitt whether Trump's team will review how often they'll use Signal in the wake of the scandal, and other applications like it.

Leavitt repeats her earlier remarks that the app is "improved", and claims that Signal is the "most safe and efficient way of communicating" when officials can't be inside a room together.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

As part of her defence of the administration, Leavitt says that Pete Hegseth - the defence secretary - and Mike Waltz would "never do anything intentionally" to put American lives at risk.

The attacks in Yemen, she says, were successful.

"We are not going to be lectured about national security and American troops by Democrats in the mainstream media who turned the other cheek with the Biden administration because of their incompetence," she says.

Specifically, Leavitt pointed to the deadly US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, claiming that Biden believed the operation to be "acceptable".

Image source, EPA

Reporters are continuously pressing Leavitt on why the White House would not describe details about airstrikes - as were discussed on Signal - as classified information.

Leavitt sticks to the messaging that has come from both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that "none of this was classified".

When reporters continue to pushback, Leavitt interjects: "Do you trust the Secretary of Defense, who was nominated for this role?

"Or do you trust Jeffrey Goldberg, who is a registered Democrat and an anti-Trump sensationalist reporter?" Leavitt says, continuing her attacks on The Atlantic's editor-in-chief who was inadvertently added to a group chat where top US officials discussed an impending strike on Houthi targets.

As Leavitt continues to be pressed by reporters, she says that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz - the one who allegedly added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief to the Signal messaging thread - has "taken responsibility" for the mistake.

The president "continues to have confidence in his national security team," Leavitt adds.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Getty Images

Karoline Leavitt often criticises members of the media during these briefings, and has often taken a combative tone towards some journalists - particularly those of the Associated Press amid its ongoing spat with the White House.

Her remarks today, however, demonstrate a harsher tone than we've seen before.

In nearly every answer of hers regarding Signal, Leavitt has included direct attacks on journalist Jeffrey Goldberg and his career as a reporter, accusing him of lying to help "get us into the Iraq war". Leavitt has also claimed Goldberg publicly discredited himself by "absurdly" reporting on allegations of collusion between Trump and Vladimir Putin in 2016.

Some reporters in the room audibly gasped when Leavitt started to speak about Goldberg.

As expected, Leavitt is being pressed by reporters about the White House's description of the Signal group chat conversation.

One reporter notes that the text messaging thread detailed the exact time of the planned attacks before they occurred as well as some of the military assets that were to be used.

He asks Leavitt, what would you call this discussion if not war plans?

Leavitt responds that the texts contained "sensitive policy discussions", but she adds, that the conversation should reassure the American people of Trump's "dynamic" military and intelligence team.

Leavitt again states that "no war plans" were discussed, and that "no classified materials" were sent in the group chat.

Image source, Getty Images

Leavitt has finished her opening remarks and is now taking questions from reporters, including one who asks how "comfortable" President Trump was with the conversations shared on the Signal messaging thread by some of his top officials.

Leavitt says Trump's response to the situation has remained the same. She says he himself has wanted to address the scandal.

Leavitt says Trump told her he will "tackle this story".

Leavitt also says that Signal is an "approved app" that the Department of Defense and CIA have loaded onto government phones because it is "secure".

After a lengthy criticism of the journalist who was inadvertently invited to a group chat with top US officials on Signal, Leavitt then pivots to attacking former President Joe Biden.

She claims the reason why Trump approved attacks on Houthis in Yemen in the first place was "because of Joe Biden's incompetence and pathetic weakness on the world stage".

Leavitt says the Houthis grew emboldened "immediately" after Biden took office in 2021.

"President Trump's strength and resolve eliminated those terrorists," Leavitt says.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Getty Images

In keeping with what has become standard practice, today's briefing begins with Karoline Leavitt touting what the administration sees as its most notable achievements of the last several days.

She then quickly pivots to attacking the media for coverage of "Signalgate".

"There were certainly no war plans discussed," Leavitt says, echoing a talking point she shared on social media earlier.

She directly attacks The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg as an "anti-Trump hater" and registered Democrat. She also criticises his career as a reporter, including during the Iraq War and the 2016 electoral campaign.

"The real story here is the overwhelming success of decisive military action against Houthi terrorists," Leavitt continues.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr/BBC

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has a briefing planned to begin shortly.

Reporters are filing into the room.

Those without assigned seats are crowding the aisles, jostling for spaces they believe will give them a higher chance of being called on.

Briefings are relatively infrequent in Trump's administration so far, with only one or two happening each week.

They are often crowded - but today promises to be particularly well-attended by the US and global media that covers Washington as the Signal group chat story continues to develop.

Without even the slightest exaggeration, I've not heard anything else being discussed among reporters since I arrived here several hours ago.

You can watch the briefing by clicking "watch live" at the top of this window.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

I've been exchanging messages with Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East and a retired CIA paramilitary officer, who since yesterday has been expressing concern with how the information in the Signal chat was being handled.

Of particular concern, Mulroy tells me, are the messages which depict a "real time order of battle sequence of an ongoing operation".

"It is highly classified and protected," he says. "Disclosure would compromise the operation and put lives at risk. Next to nuclear and covert operations, this information is the most protected."

Mulroy also pushed back on the assertion, from White House officials, that the contents of the group chat do not constitute "war plans".

The primary difference between "war" and "attack" plans - which are both sensitive and classified - is one of scale.

"War plans are generally the plan to conduct an entire conflict," he adds. "Attack plans stem from that and go down to the individual unit level and are very detailed."

"One could actually make the argument that attack plans are more sensitive, because they are more detailed and specific on time, place and manner."

In one part of the newly published Signal chat, CIA Director John Ratcliffe notes that the US is "mobilising assets" to help a strike, but that a delay would "not negatively impact" the agency's work in Yemen.

Ratcliffe has said there was no classified information discussed in the chat.

Image source, The Atlantic/BBC

The House Intelligence Committee has just wrapped up the public part of its session - it's now moving to closed questioning of the intelligence chiefs to talk about more secretive information that won't be broadcast. Here's what we learned:

• The Signal group chat leak was blasted by Democrats - in his opening remarks, Jim Himes said it could have led to the deaths of members of the US military
• A number called for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's resignation - including Raja Krishnamoorthi, who displayed large print-out screenshots of message sent in the chat
• Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said an "in-depth review" will be conducted by the National Security Council to determine how the reporter was added

• Gabbard - along with others being questioned - doubled down, saying "no classified information was shared" in the chat
• Meanwhile CIA Director John Radcliffe laid into the Atlantic reporter who released the messages, accusing him of "deliberately false and misleading reporting"
• Radcliffe was also involved in a heated argument over a question about whether Hegseth had been drinking before the messages were sent

Whether or not the information US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared is classified is at the core of Signal-gate.

Here are some of the details of the mission he wrote to officials - and a reporter who was inadvertently added to the Signal group chat, according to Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg:

Image source, The Atlantic/BBC

Image source, Reuters

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has hit back after the Atlantic, external published new details from the Signal group chat on a Yemen attack that its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to, doubling down that there was "no classified information" in the message thread.

"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," he said in a post on X.

"This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an 'attack plan' (as he now calls it). Not even close.

"We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes," he adds.

Hegseth's posts in the chat as released by the Atlantic include details about how the attacks would be carried out, their timing and military hardware that would be used.

There's a heated exchange between Democrat Jimmy Gomez and CIA Director John Ratcliffe over the disclosures by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Signal thread, which included military plans.

Gomez asks both Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard: "Do you know whether Pete Hegesth had been drinking before he leaked classified information?"

Media reports about Hegseth's alcohol use dogged his confirmation hearings before he was eventually approved to his post.

Gabbard says she has no knowledge of Hegseth's "personal habits", while Ratcliffe takes issue with the question, calling it an "offensive line of questioning".

Both Gomez and Ratcliffe talk over one another, with Gomez defending himself and Ratcliffe saying the lawmaker doesn't want to "focus on the good work that the CIA is doing".

Gomez say he has a "huge respect" for the CIA, but Americans need to know whether the defence secretary's "performance is compromised".