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Amid the ruckus over Signal’s chat leak, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg questioned whether national security officials should use this application on their phones.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg said that those who invited me to Signal chat are now attacking me as Trump extended support to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. (Courtesy: X/@LucasSa56947288 and Reuters)
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic and the man in the middle of the Signal chat leak which has rocked the Trump administration, said on Thursday that the people who invited him to the chat are the same ones who are now attacking him like “a sleaze bag”.
After the release of the chat, Goldberg has been named a “sleazebag” and a “loser” by United States President Donald Trump and has been called a “scum” and liar by US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, who has also taken responsibility of the mistake.
How Did Goldberg Get Entry Into Signal Group Chat?
Speaking about his sudden entry into the meeting of the US administration’s top officials in an interview with BBC, Goldberg said that he received a message on his phone through the Signal messaging app. This app lets users send encrypted messages to each other and is popularly used by journalists and government officials.
He received a message from an account under Waltz’s name and assumed that it was a hoax.
“I wish there was a Le Carré quality here, you know,” Goldberg said while referring to the late British spy novelist. “But he asked me to talk. I said yes. And next thing I know, I’m in this very strange chat group with the national security leadership of the United States,” he added.
Goldberg watched as cabinet officials – including Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA director John Ratcliffe and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – spoke about sensitive information related to the military operation in Yemen.
Waltz claimed that he had never met Goldberg. “I wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him if I saw him in a police lineup,” he said.
However, Goldberg differed. While speaking to BBC, he said, “He can say obviously whatever he wants, but I’m not commenting on my relationship or non-relationship. As a reporter, I’m just not comfortable talking publicly about relationships that I may or may not have with people who are newsmakers.”
Goldberg Questions Trump Admin’s Choice Of Using Signal
Goldberg said that the bigger question in the entire incident is, “should you, as national security officials, be doing this on Signal on your phone?”
“Once Donald Trump said there was nothing to see here, essentially, and once Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe said there was no sensitive information, no classified information, et cetera – we felt like, hm, we disagree. They’re saying that, and we’re the ones who have the texts, so maybe people should see them,” he said while speaking to BBC.
On Wednesday, Trump extended his support to Hegseth and said that he was “doing a great job” while slamming the press for a “witch-hunt”.
He further called Goldberg as a “sleazebag”.
The White House further claimed that the information shared by The Atlantic was not technically war planning.
Speaking about these claims, Goldberg said, “If Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defence, is texting me, telling me the attack was about to be launched on Yemen – telling me what kind of aircraft are going to be used, what kind of weapons are going to be used, and when the bombs are going to fall two hours after the text is received – that seems sensitive information, war-planning information to me.”
When asked about what he feels by the way he is being attacked by the highest levels of the government for the leaked chat, Goldberg said, “This is their move. You never defend, just attack. So I’m sitting there, minding my own business. They invite me into this Signal chat and now they’re attacking me as a sleaze bag, I don’t even get it.”
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Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)