Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, told Tim Miller on Tuesday’s Bulwark Podcast that the magazine is still considering whether or not to release the full Trump administration war plan texts he received via the Signal messaging app.
Goldberg spoke with Miller about how he was added to the text thread that included top Trump officials, the White House’s response and whether or not he should publish the full transcript.
“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,” The Atlantic’s editor told Miller.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the recent incident in which sensitive military strike plans against Yemen’s Houthi rebels were shared in a group chat that included a journalist, calling it “the only glitch in two months” of his administration. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers sharply criticized the administration, accusing it of recklessly mishandling highly classified information.
Top administration officials also maintained Tuesday that Democratic outrage over the incident was misplaced.
On Capitol Hill, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard assured lawmakers that the text messages discussing U.S. attack plans did not contain any classified information.
What To Know
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth denied the allegations while speaking to reporters in Hawaii.
“You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again,” Hegseth said.
More
AFP/Getty Images
Miller asked Goldberg if he would consider publishing the messages to demonstrate that the messages contained war plans, despite the defense secretary’s denial.
“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 said.
Goldberg called the Trump administration’s reaction “defensive.”
“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.
Goldberg said the chat group messages included “who they were trying to kill in the next two hours.”
“To me, that sounds like an attack plan. That sounds like a war plan,” Goldberg said.
What People Are Saying
Goldberg on The Bulwark podcast: “As much as I enjoy national security investigative reporting, I don’t need strike plans two hours before a launch. That should not be coming into my phone. I mean, I take this stuff very, very seriously and I take the responsibility not to get Americans killed very, very seriously.”
What Happens Next
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, told The Atlantic that it is “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added” to the chat group allegedly containing government officials.
Do you have a story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.
Update 03/25/25 2:09 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
