After The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally included on an encrypted Signal group chat about a military operation in Yemen, Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth said that the situation was not as it appeared to be, slamming the editor as “deceitful and discredited.”
“Nobody was texting war plans,” he told the press line when he landed in Hawaii on Monday.
He also called Goldberg “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
Watch the clip via CNN in the video below:
In his Monday story, “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans,” Goldberg wrote, “I have never seen a breach quite like this.”
He admitted that “it is not uncommon for national-security officials to communicate on Signal,” but noted that those kind of communications are usually restricted to planning and logistics, “not for detailed and highly confidential discussions of a pending military action.”
The messages were sent to Goldberg in the days leading up to the U.S. launching air and naval strikes against the Houthis in Yemen on March 15.
There were 18 people included in the group chat, including Goldberg, who says he was accidentally added by Michael Waltz, President Trump’s national security advisor.
He also wrote, “And, of course, I’ve never heard of an instance in which a journalist has been invited to such a discussion.”
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose use of a private mail server derailed her campaign in 2016, couldn’t help reacting with disbelief late Monday. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she tweeted on Monday.
On Fox News, Jessica Tarlov, the only left-leaning journalist on “The Five,” said, “I never want to hear ‘but her emails’ ever again.”
Also on Fox News, anchor John Roberts said there were “probably worse people” who might have accidentally been copied on the discussion, adding, “But it appears Goldberg has acted responsibly here in writing this article.”
