WH Spox Accused of Lying About Information in Signal Chat

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was called out Tuesday after she claimed there was no classified material sent in the now-infamous Signal group chat in which senior Trump administration officials discussed plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The day before, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in a bombshell report that Mike Waltz — Presidential Donald Trump’s national security adviser — inadvertently added him to a group chat with several other Cabinet members. The chat was created on Signal, a publicly available messaging app.

In the chat, a user under the name “Pete Hegseth” — Trump’s defense secretary — provided key details on the U.S.’s upcoming attack on the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Goldberg realized the legitimacy of the chat when the attack plans matched up with the news that broke shortly after.

Unsurprisingly, the report has left Washington, D.C. in a frenzy. While some have harshly criticized the Trump administration for putting such sensitive information in a commercial app, others have dismissed it as being not that big a deal. Hegseth, for example, resorted to attacking Goldberg’s credibility despite the White House’s confirmation of the authenticity of the chat.

On Tuesday morning, Leavitt did much of the same when she said:

Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin. Here are the facts about his latest story:

1. No “war plans” were discussed.

2. No classified material was sent to the thread.

3. The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.

As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread.

Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump.

Minutes later, Pod Save America co-host Tommy Vietor took issue with Leavitt’s insistence that nothing shared in the thread was classified.

“With all due respect to Karoline here (none), this is an obvious lie,” Vietor said. “They were discussing the names of specific individuals the US military was targeting with air strikes. That is absolutely, 100% guaranteed to have been classified information.”

More on the Trump Admin War Plan Leak:

1. 1. Trump Dismisses Bombshell War Plans Leak as a ‘Glitch,’ Goes to Bat for NSA Mike Waltz: He ‘Learned His Lesson’
   2. Wall Street Journal Calls Out JD Vance for Trying to ‘Block’ Trump’s Strikes on Houthis: ‘Mr. Trump Now Knows’
   3. Fox’s Peter Doocy Mocks Trump Admin Over Cabinet Group Chat: ‘Well, They Did Promise to Be the Most Transparent White House Ever’
   4. ‘That’s A Lie!’ Jeffrey Goldberg Smacks Down Hegseth Denial Over Blockbuster Leak
   5. Fox’s Lawrence Jones Makes Excuse for Sharing ‘Top Secret’ War Plans on Signal: ‘They All Use It’
   6. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Destroys Trump Admin Over Bombshell Leak — With Brutal Cuts of Their Own Words