Maggie Haberman Says Trump Doesn’t Want to Fire Mike Waltz Because That’d Be ‘Giving in to the Media’

CNN’s Maggie Haberman said President Donald Trump has been reluctant to fire National Security Advisor Mike Waltz because such a move would be viewed as “giving in to the media.”

Waltz is at the epicenter of the biggest scandal so far in the second Trump administration after he inadvertently added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat with top officials. They discussed forthcoming airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen that were carried out this weekend. Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who shared detailed information about the strikes, have faced calls to resign.

Haberman appeared on Thursday’s installment of The Source on CNN, where she said Trump and his allies have tried to divert the public’s attention elsewhere.

“Nobody wants this – in the Trump administration – to continue,” she said. “They have tried talking about a number of other issues – tariffs, executive orders, about law firms, executive orders about history and cultural institutions. This is not going away.”

She went on to say that Trump does not want to fire anyone over the self-inflicted security breach because he would appear “weak.”

“Trump is very clear that, according to a number of people I’ve spoken to, he does not want to fire someone because he sees that as giving in to the media,” Haberman added. “People around him see that as weak. And I think you will hear that for a while. Whether this is sustainable for them is another story.”

She concluded that the story “is showing no sign of abating and they are not helping make it go away with the amplified attacks so frequently.”

Waltz has accepted responsibility for the leak, but insists he does not know how it happened.

“I take responsibility. I built the group,” he told Fox News on Tuesday.

Watch above via CNN.