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By Sydney Kashiwagi

The Associated Press

Hello and welcome back to another D.C. Dish! 

Minnesota-native turned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth dominated the headlines Monday over his first scandal leading the Pentagon.  

THE PLAY-BY-PLAY: The Atlantic's Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg penned a firsthand account Monday about how he got looped into a Signal group chat with Hegseth and other top U.S. national security leaders who were discussing a detailed play-by-play about their plans to bomb the Houthis in Yemen. 

“The specific time of a future attack. Specific targets, including human targets, meant to be killed in that attack. Weapons systems,” Goldberg described the contents of the chat on MSNBC. "Even weather reports."

There have been calls for accountability and a possible investigation on what went wrong coming from both sides. Some have even called for Hegseth's resignation or firing. 

Though Hegseth denied he was texting war plans and tried to discredit Goldberg instead, the National Security Council said the group text was authentic.

"AS A MINNESOTAN": DNC Chair Ken Martin called Hegseth “the worst export from Minnesota that we’ve ever seen” and said the defense secretary needs to resign or be fired.

SILENCE FROM FINSTAD: GOP Rep. Brad Finstad, Minnesota’s only member on the House Armed Services Committee, could not be reached for comment on the text gaffe and whether Hegseth should be investigated. Finstad also has not said anything publicly about the incident.  

“The Republican majorities in both the House and Senate must immediately launch Congressional oversight investigations into this outrageous incident to understand if the inappropriate use of Signal is a widespread practice within the Trump Administration, whether the Espionage Act was violated, and how this security lapse impacts our relationships with intelligence-sharing partners around the globe," Rep. Betty McCollum, who serves as a ranking member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said in a statement.  

The Minnesota Star Tribune

STAUBER HOLDS TELE TOWN HALL: GOP Rep. Pete Stauber held a telephone town hall that drew 17,000 attendees Monday night. He got to more than a dozen questions, many of them focused on the reshaping of the federal government. 

"I was wondering about Elon Musk calling Social Security a 'Ponzi scheme.' My employer and I paid into the system for 49 years, and it's an investment. It's not a 'Ponzi scheme' and it's not even an entitlement scheme," said Greg from Duluth. 

ON MUSK AND SOCIAL SECURITY: Stauber said he disagreed with Musk, who previously said he thought Social Security was "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time."

"I disagree that it's a Ponzi scheme," Stauber said. "It's an earned benefit that our seniors have paid into."

HE'S STICKING TO TELE TOWN HALLS: "When are you going to show up for an in-person Town Hall [in] the district, I would like a specific date or a promise of a date, that we as constituents can hold you to," Joshua of Pine Tree asked. 

But Stauber indicated he would continue to focus on tele town halls instead. 

"We've been doing them, telephone town halls, for six and a half years, and they're popular," Stauber said. "It allows the people to stay in the comfort of their own home. And I'm going to continue to do telephone town halls."

ON DELISTING GRAY WOLVES: Scott from Bovey, Minn., asked Stauber for an update on a bill he co-sponsored to get the gray wolf delisted, which passed the U.S. House last year. 

Stauber said then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer refused to bring the bill to the Senate floor in the last Congress when Democrats were in the majority. But he said he plans to pass it out of the House once again this year and is confident Senate Majority Leader John Thune would bring it to the floor of the upper chamber for consideration this time. 

ON MINING IN DULUTH COMPLEX: His town hall came on the heels of President Donald Trump signing an executive order last week aimed at increasing American mineral production, which Stauber said he was "confident that this directive will put the Duluth Complex and our tremendous mineral wealth in the Superior National Forest at the forefront of these important discussions."

WALZ CONTINUES TOWN HALLS: Gov. Tim Walz is hitting the road again and plans to hold another town hall, this in time, in Texas, with former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke. 

NOT INTERESTED: Sen. Amy Klobuchar isn't interested in Schumer's job as he's faced calls to step down following his vote to avert a partial government shutdown and move the Republican-backed continuing resolution forward. 

"Senator Schumer is the leader of the caucus. There were differences within the caucus about the path forward on the six-month budget, but Senator Klobuchar and Democrats in the Senate remain focused on working within Congress, in the courts, and alongside their constituents to fight back against the extreme actions of this administration," a spokesperson for Klobuchar said when asked if the senior senator has any interest in Schumer's job as Senate minority leader and what she thinks about the calls for him to step aside. 

"Democrats have stood and will stand together against the across-the-board tariffs that are so damaging to Minnesota’s economy as well as the reductions in health care, veterans care, medical research and the like," the spokesperson continued. 

BREAKING FROM THE PACK: Of the top three Democrats in Senate leadership, Klobuchar, the No. 3, was the only one who broke with Schumer and Democratic Whip Dick Durbin in voting against advancing the bill. 

Her vote shielded her from calls from the progressive wing of the party to step aside and gained her encouragement from others to take Schumer's job. 

KEEPING TABS ON THE SENATE RACE: Rep. Kelly Morrison, who hails from the same neck of the woods as former state Sen. Melissa Lopez Franzen, the second official Democrat in Senate race, won't back her or any other Democrat in the primary. 

MORRISON OPTS TO NOT ENDORSE: "We've got such a deep bench here in Minnesota, and some really great people running for office, I think I would stay out of a Democratic primary and I've told my friends and colleagues that," Morrison recently told me.

Morrison's Third Congressional District includes Edina, where Lopez Franzen is also from.

FIRST GOP AD: Republican candidate Adam Schwarze released his first ad in the race. "Things got worse and they got woke. But America is rising," Schwarze can be heard saying in the ad. Schwarze introduced himself to voters as a 20-year veteran and Navy SEAL from Bloomington. 

The Minnesota Star Tribune

OFF TO A CROWDED START FOR EICHORN'S SEAT: Several candidates have lined up for an anticipated special election to replace former Minnesota Sen. Justin Eichorn following his arrest in an underage prostitution sting, including Nisswa mayor and former state GOP chair Jennifer Carnahan (pictured above), my colleagues Ryan Faircloth and Allison Kite report. 

Along with Carnahan, Republicans Keri Heintzeman, Josh Gazelka, Angel Zierden, Steve Cotariu, John Howe and Doug Kern have also announced campaigns for the open Senate seat.

Heintzeman said she was a district director for Trump’s 2024 campaign and is married to GOP state Rep. Josh Heintzeman. Gazelka describes himself as a business leader and is the son of former Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka. Read more.

Walz will meet with PGA leadership at 7:30 a.m. 

At 9 a.m., he'll speak at United Steelworkers Training Day. 

At 10:30 a.m., Walz will hold a call with State Auditor Julie Blaha. 

At 11 a.m. he will hold a call with Attorney General Keith Ellison. 

And at 2 p.m., he will meet with leaders in the Legislature. 

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