Trump NSA Mike Waltz Takes 'Full Responsibility' For Yemen Chat Leak
US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said he mistakenly added a journalist to a group chat in which top American officials discussed impending strikes in Yemen
US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Tuesday claimed “full responsibility" for the Yemen chat leak on the Signal app, which has triggered a political firestorm even as President Donald Trump downplayed the growing scandal.
Waltz said he mistakenly added a journalist to a group chat in which top American officials discussed impending strikes in Yemen. In his first interview on the security breach, he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham: “I take full responsibility. I built the group; my job is to make sure everything’s coordinated."
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He, however, said he does not personally know The Atlantic magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist who was inadvertently added to the chat. He added that technical and legal experts were looking into the breach but insisted he had “never met, don’t know, never communicated" with the journalist.
Trump’s top aide suggested that the leak was the result of him mistakenly saving Goldberg’s number under another name. “Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number?" he said.
WHAT DID TRUMP SAY?
Trump has denied that any classified information was shared and defended Waltz over the breach. He said he will “look into" the use of the Signal app as he put on a united front at a meeting with his national security adviser (NSA). As Democrats scented blood for perhaps the first time since the Republican returned to power in January, he doubled down by attacking Goldberg as a “sleazebag" and said “nobody gives a damn" about the story rocking Washington.
Goldberg, meanwhile, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about targets, weapons and timing ahead of the strikes on March 15. He also revealed highly critical comments by top US officials about European allies.
“There was no classified information," Trump told reporters when asked about the chat, saying the commercial app Signal was used by “a lot of people in government".
He said in an interview with Newsmax later on Tuesday (March 25) that someone who “worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level" may have had Goldberg’s number and somehow been responsible for him ending up in the chat.
(With agency inputs)
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