‘Simply Not True!’ Jeffrey Goldberg Obliterates Mike Waltz for Claiming They Had ‘Never Communicated’ Prior to Infamous Leaked Chat
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg called out National Security Advisor Mike Waltz for claiming the two “never communicated” prior to Goldberg’s inclusion on the infamous Signal chat in which top Trump administration officials discussed sensitive national security information.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, moderator Kristen Welker played a clip of Waltz speaking on Fox News earlier in the week trying to explain how Goldberg’s number was in his phone.
“If you have somebody else’s contact and then somehow it gets sucked in … it gets sucked in,” Waltz told Fox’s Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle Tuesday.
Sunday on Meet the Press, Goldberg — The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief — scoffed at Waltz’s explanation, and accused him of completely lying.
“This isn’t The Matrix,” Goldberg said. “Phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones. I don’t know what he’s talking about there. You know, very frequently in journalism the most obvious explanation is the explanation. My phone number was in his phone because my phone number is in his phone. He’s telling everyone that he’s never met me or spoken to me. That’s just simply not true. I understand why he’s doing it. But you know, this has become a somewhat farcical situation. There’s no subterfuge here. My number was in his phone. He mistakenly added me to the group chat. There we go.”
Photos emerged on Wednesday in which Goldberg and Waltz were spotted together at a 2021 event. Goldberg, prior to this interview Sunday, has largely deflected on questions about whether he knows Waltz — leading many observers, like Mediaite’s Colby Hall, to question whether Waltz has previously leaked to Goldberg intentionally.
Goldberg, on Sunday, did not go any further in describing the extent of his contact with Waltz — but did go on to completely reject the premise that the information on the group chat was not classified, as two top Trump officials said under oath this week.
“When the texts are coming over, as I’m watching them unfold, it’s 11:44 a.m. on a Saturday,” Goldberg said. “Pete Hegseth is promising that U.S. war planes are taking off in 30 minutes to bomb enemy targets that we know are protected by anti-aircraft batteries, OK? So if that’s not the most sensitive information, the most secret information in the world, I simply don’t know what the meaning of classified, or secret, or top secret is. Because American pilots were about to fly into possibly a deadly situation, and the Secretary of Defense is telling everyone on the group chat — which, by the way, included me — that these pilots were about to go into harm’s way.”
He added, “I was sort of aghast when I’m watching this unfold.”
Watch above, via NBC.
