By Zachary Stieber
Contributing Writer
National security adviser Mike Waltz has reiterated that he does not know The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, after the journalist suggested over the weekend that Waltz was not being truthful.
“Mike does not know Jeffrey Goldberg and does not recall ever meeting him,” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, wrote in an email on Monday.
Goldberg was added to a chat group on the Signal messaging app involving Waltz and other high-level Trump administration officials, an addition for which Waltz has said he’s responsible.
At the same time, Waltz has said he does not know Goldberg. “I can tell you for 100%: I don’t know this guy. Wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him, if I saw him in a police lineup,” he said during a recent appearance on Fox News.
Waltz also said that Goldberg was added because his contact information replaced that of another.
“If you have somebody else’s contact and then somehow it gets sucked in,” Waltz said.
Goldberg responded on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” saying that “phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones” and that he didn’t know what Waltz was talking about.
“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,” Goldberg said. “He’s telling everyone that he’s never met me or spoken to me. That’s simply not true.”
In recent days, a photograph showing Waltz standing in front of Goldberg at a 2021 event has been circulating.
Hughes said Waltz still maintains he does not know Goldberg.
“As a member of Congress, he met thousands of people at dozens upon dozens of public events,” the National Security Council spokesman said.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he does not plan on firing any officials who were in the chat.
“I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” he said.
The Signal chat involved a discussion of strikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
That included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth telling officials that it was confirmed that the mission was a go, based on the weather being favorable. He detailed when F-18s would launch and when drones would strike.
Waltz told the group later that the building into which the Houthis’ “top missile guy” had walked had collapsed after the strikes.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, during a recent briefing, characterized the chat as a “sensitive policy discussion,” adding later that Trump “continues to have confidence in his national security team.”
