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Salon
Salon
Politics
Alex Galbraith

Atlantic editor may share Yemen texts

Jeffrey Goldberg is considering releasing messages he was accidentally sent by top Trump administration officials regarding American war plans in Yemen.

The Atlantic editor-in-chief revealed he's weighing sharing the content of the messages after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied sending any sensitive information in a group chat over the encrypted messaging app Signal.

"Maybe in the coming days, I'll be able to let you know that, 'OK, I have a plan to have this material vetted publicly.' But I'm not going to say that now, because there's a lot of conversations that have to happen about that," Goldberg told "The Bulwark" podcast on Tuesday. "My colleagues and I and the people who are giving us advice on this have some interesting conversations to have about this. But just because they're irresponsible with material, doesn't mean that I'm going to be irresponsible."

Goldberg shared his story of being added to the group chat inadvertently in a story for The Atlantic on Monday. Since its release, Trump administration officials have resorted to outright denials and personal attacks. Hegseth called Goldberg a "so-called journalist" who was "peddling hoaxes." 

Goldberg said the defensive reaction is par for the course for Trump officials. 

"At moments like this, when they're under pressure because they've been caught with their hand in the cookie jar or whatever, you know, they will just literally say anything to get out of the moment," Goldberg said.

In the face of Hegseth's refutation, Goldberg said that the messages he was sent included targets the military was "trying to kill in the next two hours." That leak has been met with a shrug by the GOP. 

“A mistake was made. It happens,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters on Monday.

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