Atlantic editor says Trump official lying about leak

The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg dropped a bombshell report last week about having been included in a group text on Signal by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

Waltz pushed back, saying he did not know and never talked to Goldberg before, but now that claim is being challenged.

The texts are leaked

Most of us were stunned when the report broke regarding leaked text messages about an attack against the Houthis under the guidance of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

While the White House said these were not war plans, that was all semantics based on the information I saw in the texts, and my military friends agreed.

For instance, one of the published texts stated, “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package). 1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME) — also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s).”

These are times, equipment, and strike packages. So, while they are not technically war plans, as the Atlantic initially stated, then later changed it to “attack plans,” when you look at the entire text stream, any intelligence officer with their salt would have been able to figure this out rather quickly.

Mike Waltz pushes back

It is believed that either Waltz or someone in his office put Goldberg’s number on the chat, be it on purpose or by mistake. Based on who the reporter is, I am leaning into this being on purpose.

After the report came out, Waltz stated, "This one in particular, I've never met, don't know, never communicated with,” so he had no idea how that number got into the text group. He later added, "I can tell you for 100 percent: I don't know this guy … Wouldn't know him if I bumped into him, if I saw him in a police lineup."

When Trump was initially asked about the report, he stated that he believed it was someone on Waltz's team who did it. But if Waltz was the one who created the group, the fingers start to point in his direction.

Now, this could have been a mistake, if say, for instance, Waltz had someone else in his phone with a similar name or the same initials. But again, why would anyone be in contact with a reporter from the Atlantic, a clearly left-leaning publication?

You are lying

After Waltz denied contact with Goldberg, Goldberg published a picture of Waltz standing directly in front of him at a book launch in 2021.

Goldberg told CBS News, "If your eyeballs see us together, then I guess your eyeballs are seeing us together."

In a different interview, he added, “This isn’t ‘The Matrix.’ 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.”

The Trump administration continues to try to brush this under the rug, but we really do need to find out how this happened. And if it was Waltz who added Goldberg to the text stream, I hate to say it, but he has to go. We simply cannot have these types of mistakes being made.