Trump security chief takes 'full responsibility' for Signal war plans leak
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Donald Trump's National Security Advisor Mike Waltz admitted that he accidentally added a journalist to a Signal group chat about military strikes.
Waltz told Fox News' Laura Ingraham he 'built the group' but claimed the 'mistake' may have actually been an act of subterfuge by the journalist.
'I take full responsibility,' Waltz said during his tortured explanation of the debacle on Tuesday night.
'I don't text him,' Waltz said about The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. 'He wasn't on my phone, and we're going to figure out how this happened.'
The national security advisor was pressed on how the journalist was included in the conversation about military strikes in the Middle East.
'We have the best technical minds looking at how this happened,' he claimed.
Waltz then floated the idea that the journalist did something to wiggle his way into the text chain.
'We're going to figure out how this happened,' he reiterated, adding his team is working to determine if the journalist 'did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean is what we are trying to figure out.'
The conflicting answers did little to shed light on a scandal surrounding the messages among government leaders about planning an attack on Houthi fighters in Yemen, that included details on weapons and strike coordinates.
Reacting to the national security advisor's appearance, one U.S. official slammed Waltz as a leaker and a traitor to the administration.
'He never liked the president and he leaks,' they told DailyMail.com.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he does not know how journalist Jeffrey Goldberg's contact information 'gets sucked into this group'
Ingraham appeared confused with Waltz's answers at times, repeatedly asking him whether a staffer put together the group chat on the Signal messaging platform
It was the national security advisor's first appearance addressing the scandal since the journalist who was added to the sensitive chat, Goldberg, published a story about being added to the top secret group on Monday.
'Have you ever had somebody's contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else's number there?' Waltz asked Ingraham.
'What I can tell you for certain, wasn't reaching out or talking to him at all,' Waltz said, later adding he doesn't know the reporter, despite Goldberg saying the pair have met.
The national security boss said he was so concerned about how the reporter got into the chat that he has spoke to Elon Musk, the president's self-proclaimed tech support, about investigating the matter.
Waltz also skewered Goldberg, ridiculing his past reporting and making myriad accusations against him.
Trump's advisor made it seem like it was Goldberg's fault for being added to the group chat with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and more.
Waltz told the Fox News host that Goldberg the 'scum' of journalists and said he has a 'horrible reputation.'
Waltz struggled to send a clear message about who was exactly to blame for the ordeal, vacillating between saying he was responsible and it was Goldberg's fault.
Waltz suggested that Goldberg may
Practically all Republicans have tried to explain away the scandal as a non-issue.
Waltz noted how the operation was a success and the attack on the Houthis last week was 'an incredible strike.'
'They don't want to talk about the success here,' the national security advisor complained.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., even suggested earlier in the day that former President Joe Biden bears some blame for the Signal chat fiasco.
'The Biden Administration authorized Signal as a means of communication that was consistent with presidential recordkeeping requirements for its administration — and that continued into the Trump Administration,' Cotton said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was on the group chat, similarly noted in a Senate hearing Tuesday that Biden officials used Signal.
He confirmed to congress he was indeed on the controversial chat and that no classified information was shared on the chat.
