Rubio breaks silence on leaked Signal chat: 'Someone made a big mistake'

Rubio reaffirms no intelligence divulged in Signal text exchange

Cailin McFall / FOX News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for the first time, on Wednesday addressed the Signal-chat controversy and conceded that "someone made a big mistake" when a journalist from the Atlantic was added to Signal text chain that included Washington’s top national security heads. 

"This thing was set up for purposes of coordinating," Rubio told reporters from Jamaica, noting the point of the text exchange carried out on the encrypted messaging application was purely so officials knew how to communicate with their various counterparts. 

But the revelation that potentially classified information was exchanged on a site that has been the target of Russian hackers, and that the chain included an editor from the Atlantic, sent shockwaves globally – though the Pentagon maintains that no classified intelligence was exchanged in the messages. 

"Obviously, someone made a mistake. Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist," Rubio said. "Nothing against journalists. But you ain't supposed to be on that thing." Read more and see video here.