On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz stated that it is odd that Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who has “gone to just all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president of the United States, and he’s the one that, somehow, gets on somebody’s contact and then gets sucked into this group.” He also stated that Goldberg wasn’t on his phone, “a staffer wasn’t responsible. And, look, I take full responsibility.” Waltz also said that Goldberg’s contact “looked like someone else. Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean is something we’re trying to figure out.”
Host Laura Ingraham asked, “[H]ow did a Trump-hating editor of The Atlantic end up on your Signal chat?”
Waltz answered, “I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but of all the people out there, somehow, this guy, who has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia hoax, gone to just all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president of the United States, and he’s the one that, somehow, gets on somebody’s contact and then gets sucked into this group.”
Ingraham then cut in to ask “Is someone in your intel. team trying to cause trouble here? Because that’s the scuttlebutt out there.”
Waltz answered, “No. Look, this is a great group. The president has a great team. This is not first term.”
Later, Waltz added, “It’s embarrassing, yes. We’re going to get to the bottom of it. We have — I just talked to Elon on the way here, we’ve got the best technical minds looking at how this happened. But I can tell you, for 100%, I don’t know this guy. I know him by his horrible reputation, and he really is the bottom scum of journalists. And I know him in the sense that he hates the president. But I don’t text him. He wasn’t on my phone. And we’re going to figure out how this happened.”
Ingraham then asked, “So, you don’t know what staffer is responsible for this right now?”
Waltz answered, “Well, look, a staffer wasn’t responsible. And, look, I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
Ingraham then cut in to ask how Goldberg’s contact ended up there.
Waltz responded, “Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number there, right? You’ve got somebody else’s number on someone else’s contacts. So, of course, I didn’t see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else. Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean is something we’re trying to figure out.”
Ingraham followed up, “So, a staffer did not put his contact information?”
Waltz answered, “Of course not.”
He added, “I’m sure everybody out there has had a contact where it said one person and then a different phone number.”
Ingraham then asked, “But you’ve never talked to him before. So, how is the number on your phone? … How is the number on your phone?”
Waltz responded, “Well, if you have somebody else’s contact and then, somehow, it gets sucked in.”
Later, Ingraham raised concerns that “somebody got involved here who didn’t want the president to be successful” and there’s someone inside the White House orbit who doesn’t want the administration to succeed.
Waltz responded, “We made a mistake, we’re moving forward. And we’re going to continue to knock it out of the park for this president.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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