Speaking to Fox News personality Laura Ingraham, national security adviser Michael Waltz suggested that Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg hacked his phone to gain access to a Signal chat with high-level Trump administration officials, particularly Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussing military strategy surrounding war strikes in Yemen.
Waltz made this claim even though he had previously acknowledged setting up the Signal group in question, while President Donald Trump suggested that it was one of Waltz’s associates who added Goldberg.
He said:
"I built the group. My job is to make sure everything's coordinated. ... Have you ever had somebody's contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else's number there?"
"You've got somebody else's number on somebody else's contact so of course I didn’t see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else. Now whether he did it deliberately, or it happened in some other technical mean is something we’re trying to figure out."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Despite repeated denials from the Trump administration this week that any sensitive information had been leaked, The Atlantic stood by its reporting, asserting that top officials, including Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance, had discussed key details of the strikes, such as targets and weapons systems.
Notably, Waltz's comments on Fox News came after he took “full responsibility” for inadvertently allowing Goldberg to access the discussions.
And as people pointed out, whatever he said now did not make sense.
Waltz's Fox News appearance came after Florida Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz mocked him for using a strange series of emojis—consisting of fist bump, American flag, and fire emojis—while discussing war plans.
Holding up a sign featuring the emoji series, Moskowitz said that "when we're in a chat with friends when we're talking about who we're going to bomb and all of that. ... I'm holding this up."
Meanwhile, Hegseth has declined to confirm whether he shared classified information on Signal. Currently traveling in the Indo-Pacific, he has only dismissed questions, insisting he did not disclose “war plans.”
Despite efforts by the Pentagon and White House to deflect criticism by attacking Goldberg and The Atlantic, the magazine has stated that Goldberg repeatedly contacted the White House both before and after publication to seek clarification on the Signal chat and ensure that releasing the full messages would not compromise security.
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