Fox News presenter Jesse Watters floated a conspiracy theory that Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg "catfished" the nation's top military officials and tricked his way into a now-infamous group chat coordinating an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Watters downplayed the security breach on his Tuesday show, likening it to a normal citizen accidentally adding someone to a group chat instead of top military officials adding a journalist to sensitive war plans.
Trump and his officials have been scrambling to save face, with Trump downplaying the embarrassing incident as "something that happens" and branding the Atlantic a "failing magazine.”
On Wednesday, a full copy of the exchange was released by the Atlantic as the White House tried to paint the embarrassing breach as a “coordinated media campaign.”
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz suggested on Tuesday to Fox News' Laura Ingraham that Goldberg may have sent him contact information using someone else's name, which duped him into adding him to the group chat.
“Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name, and then you have somebody else’s number there?” Waltz asked.
Ingraham sarcastically said she'd never make such a mistake.
“Right? You’ve got somebody else’s number on someone else’s contact. So, of course, I didn’t see this loser [Goldberg] in the group. It looked like someone else,” Waltz said. “Now, whether he did it deliberately, or it happened in some other technical means, is something we’re trying to figure out.”
Watters played the clip on his show and then claimed that journalists sometimes use this trick to give politicians their cellphone numbers.
"Journalists like Goldberg will sometimes send out fake names with a contact with their cells to deceive politicians. Waltz says Elon [Musk] and Big Balls [one of Musk's DOGE staffers] are on the case. This wouldn’t surprise me if Goldberg sneaked his way in — he’s the lowest of the low," Watters said.
Watters went on to describe Waltz’s slip-up as a case of “fat fingers.”
Trump officials were grilled by Congress after the breach. They insisted no classified information was shared during the chats, but refused to share the content of their messages, even though they claimed they only contained unclassified information.
Goldberg initially told CNN he did not want to publish what was included in the group chats because he feared the information should remain confidential, at risk of putting US service members in danger. However, after the hearing, the Atlantic published screenshots of the entire group text to prove that Trump officials were lying.
"There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared," the Atlantic story reads.
The screenshots shared by the Atlantic include precise times when attacks, including fighter jet engagements and missile launches, were to occur.
"If this information—particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen—had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face," Goldberg and his co-author, Shane Harris, wrote in the story.
Goldberg was asked about the Trump administration's response to his initial story during an appearance on the Bulwark Podcast. He chalked up the response to the Trump administration thrashing around for a way to save face.
“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. I get the defensive reaction," he said. “But my obligation, I feel, is to the idea that we take national security information seriously.”
Putin worse than gangster and making mockery of ceasefire, Ukraine officials say
A beloved library that united the US and Canada faces new border restrictions
The 'state secrets privilege' sounds mysterious. Here's what it is and how it works
Defiant White House blames Signalgate on ‘coordinated’ media campaign
Trump names ‘first buddy’ and DOGE head Elon Musk to investigate Signal blunder
