Donald Trumpʼs US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has taken responsibility for an incident involving a Signal chat in which attacks on Yemen were discussed and where a journalist was accidentally added.
"I take full responsibility. I built the group. Itʼs embarrassing. Weʼre going to get to the bottom of it," Mike Waltz said.
He explained that his office employee was not at fault for adding the journalist to the group chat. In fact, another contact was supposed to be added, but the number mistakenly ended up in someone elseʼs list. He said they are now trying to figure out whether it was a mistake or a technical problem. Waltz did not say who exactly was supposed to be added to the chat.
The National Security Advisor added that he did not have the contact information of The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added to the chat, and noted that he allegedly has a terrible reputation.
"Iʼm not a fan of conspiracy theories, but of all people, for some reason this man, who lied about the president, lied to the families of fallen soldiers, lied to their lawyers, visited the Russian Federation with false stories, went to all sorts of events to lie and smear the president of the United States, ends up in someoneʼs contacts, and then ends up in this group," Waltz said.
He also repeated Trumpʼs thesis that the journalistʼs presence in the chat "in no way influenced" the strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
What happened?
The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine Jeffrey Goldberg said that he was accidentally added to a chat on the Signal messenger, where the American operation against the Houthis was being discussed.
He was added to the chat by an account under the name Mike Waltz, the name of the US Presidentʼs national security adviser. According to Goldberg, the chat contained information about targets, the weapons the US would use, and the sequence of attacks. Shortly after, direct attacks on Yemen took place.
There were only 18 people in this chat, including accounts writing on behalf of the Vice President JD Vance, the Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Trump advisor Steve Witkoff, and others.
Goldberg then sent emails to a number of officials who were present in the chat, asking if he was genuine and if they knew they had added a journalist to it. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, responded, confirming the authenticity of the Signal groupʼs message.
The US President Donald Trump, commenting on the situation, supported Waltz. He also stated that although the journalist from The Atlantic accidentally got into a private chat about military plans, his presence "in no way affected" the strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
The US administration intelligence chiefs say they did not share any classified material in the Signal chat room where an Atlantic journalist was accidentally invited.
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