The Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation are calling on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign or be fired in the wake of recent revelations that he was part of a group chat that included a prominent journalist in discussions about launching an attack on Houthi extremists in Yemen.

The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, detailed in a series of reports this week that the former Fox News host shared sensitive military plans over the commercial messaging app Signal after Goldberg had been mistakenly added to the chat by National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.

The chat between top Trump administration officials — which also included Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — contained operational details about an impending strike on the Iran-backed militants, according to transcripts posted by Goldberg and confirmed by administration sources.. Hegseth’s messages, sent before the operation commenced, spelled out specific timings for the attack and the types of weapons the Pentagon planned to deploy.

A day after grilling Gabbard and Ratliff about the Signal chat in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet issued a statement Wednesday demanding that Hegseth and Waltz step down.

“President Trump’s senior-most national security officials should never have used an unsecured group chat for highly-sensitive battle-planning,” Bennet said on X. “Hegseth and Waltz’s continued denial of any wrongdoing only makes it worse. For the sake of our national security and the safety of our troops, Hegseth and Waltz must resign.”

Hegseth has insisted that no classified information or what he termed “war plans” or “attack plans” were shared on the chat, telling reporters the was simply providing “general updates in real time (to) keep people informed. ““That’s what I did. That’s my job,” Hegseth said Tuesday, adding that the strikes carried out by U.S. troops were “devastatingly effective.”

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, an Aurora Democrat and former Army Ranger, called Hegseth’s and other members of President Trump’s national security team’s actions “completely outrageous” and blasted the administration’s response to the leak during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday.

“It is outrageous, and it is a leadership failure, and that’s why Secretary Hegseth, who undoubtedly transmitted classified, sensitive operation information via this chain, must resign immediately,” Crow said.

Calling the incident “a systemic failure by some of the highest-ranking officials in our government,” U.S. Rep. Diane DeGette, a Denver Democrat, said the Trump administration was “gaslighting the public about what exactly happened.”

“At a minimum, Pete Hegseth and Michael Waltz must resign,” she said in a statement.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Brittany Pettersen also said Hegseth needs to go.

“We must always prioritize the safety and security of our service members and our country,” Pettersen said on X. “Sec. Hegseth has failed that basic mission. He must step down, and everyone involved with this heinous breach of security must be held accountable.”

Neguse, the assistant House minority leader, put the onus on President Trump in a post on Bluesky: “Secretary Hegseth should be fired IMMEDIATELY.”

In contrast, the Republican House members from Colorado who have spoken publicly about the Signal leak have stood by the Trump administration.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, a Colorado Springs Republican, said in an interview on Fox21 on Wednesday that he was proud of Waltz for acknowledging the mistake and stressed that classified information had to be treated with “the utmost respect.”

“I go to classified briefings, and I have an obligation to the United States government, to the men and women that wear the uniform, to make sure that classified information is protected,” Crank told the news station, adding that the White House should investigate the matter.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Windsor Republican, told Axios Denver that she thinks Hegseth is doing “a fantastic job” as defense secretary and said he has her “complete and total support.”

A spokeswoman for Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, an Army veteran and former police officer, declined to comment.