Marjorie Taylor Greene leads a House hearing at the U.S. Capitol on February 26, 2025. Getty Images
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene lashed out at a British reporter on Wednesday, telling her to "go back to your country" when asked about a recent security blunder by the Trump administration. The incident occurred after a leaked group chat on Signal revealed U.S. plans for a military strike in Yemen.
The situation began when Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of a major publication, was accidentally added to a Signal chat with top U.S. defense officials. The group discussed specific attack times and strategies for striking Houthi targets in Yemen. Goldberg was mistakenly included by national security adviser Mike Waltz, which led to the sensitive details being exposed.
The leak has sparked serious concerns about why high-ranking officials were sharing classified information on a messaging app and how they failed to notice an outsider was present. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was part of the chat, is now under heavy scrutiny.
During a press meeting, Martha Kelner, a British journalist, asked Greene if the Defense Secretary should face consequences for the mishap. Before Kelner could finish, Greene interrupted her.
"Wait, what country are you from?" Greene asked. When Kelner replied that she was from the United Kingdom, Greene shot back, "We don't give a crap about your opinion or your reporting. Why don't you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem? You should care about your own borders."
Kelner kept pressing Greene about the Signal incident, but Greene shut her down, saying, "No, no, no, we're done," and refused to answer any further questions. She then turned to an American journalist and invited him to ask his question. However, the male reporter stated that he wanted Greene to respond to Kelner’s question. Greene ignored him.
Instead, she used the moment to criticize the Biden administration, blaming it for "open borders" and praising Trump and his team for doing "a great job." The heated exchange was captured on C-SPAN and quickly went viral, being viewed millions of times online.
After the press conference, Kelner followed Greene and asked if Hegseth should resign over the Signal chat scandal. Greene firmly said, "Absolutely not," adding that he was "doing a great job" before walking away.
In response to the leak, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz vowed to investigate the incident, claiming that he had no connection to Goldberg. "We're going to get to the bottom of it. I just talked to Elon [Musk] on the way here, and we have the best technical minds looking into how this happened," Waltz said.
Meanwhile, Senator Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called for a swift Inspector General probe into the leak. He is working alongside Democratic Senator Jack Reed to arrange a classified briefing on the issue.
