The Atlantic Chief Editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, responded to the rejection of the Trump administration on Monday’s article of the publication about a signal chat discussing an American attack against Hutíes in Yemen, according to which he accidentally shared with Goldberg.
Speaking to ABC News, Goldberg said that the White House is getting involved in a semantic game by focusing on its use of “attack plans” instead of “war plans” in its follow -up report, which was published on Wednesday.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief, The Atlantic, speaks with ABC News, March 26, 2025.
ABC News
“Everything does not make sense. It makes no sense. They are throwing all these smoke quausers to avoid being interrogated about why they were so reckless that they had sensitive conversations as this sign, and why they invited a journalist and did not even know that the journalist was there,” he said Wednesday. “I mean, war plan, attack plan. I mean, you know, it is simply not a meaningless talk, but the attack is actually a precise term for what they were doing.”
Shortly after Wednesday’s article was published, the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in an X “these were not ‘war plans’.”
“The Atlantic has granted: these were not ‘war plans,'” Leavitt wrote. “This whole story was another deception written by a Trump enemy who is known for his sensationalist turn.”
Goldberg told ABC News that he and the Atlantic felt that they had to respond to the White House attack for their credibility.
“And I thought, you know, at the end of the day, I thought, okay, let’s let people decide, read these messages, read simple English and decide if you think it is appropriate that the Secretary of Defense and the national security advisor of the president of the United States should say these things in a commercial and private application that is not allowed to use, and then make your decision,” he said.
Goldberg published parts of the Chat of the Signal Group on Monday, including the messages of Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.
On Wednesday, Goldberg published more messages from the group chat, detailing the time of the attack and the weapons involved. Initially, these messages were retained due to concerns about classified intelligence of the United States.
“We ask all these agencies, is there anything, even though the president says there is nothing here? He said to ABC News.” The CIA asked us to have something, and we did so, because we take it. We take it seriously. “
Goldberg said he will continue to defend himself.
“When their backs are against the wall, they tend to call people, but I’m not threatened,” Goldberg said. “That is something irrelevant to me. We just have to continue doing our job, no matter what people say about us.”
