Right-wing media scramble to downplay security breach from Trump officials’ leaked group chat
On March 24, The Atlantic published a bombshell story from Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg reporting that he had been mistakenly added to a group chat on the messaging app Signal in which senior Trump administration officials discussed plans for a U.S. military strike in Yemen. As controversy mounts over Trump officials’ inclusion of Goldberg and their use of Signal to discuss military operations, right-wing media have frantically attempted to defend the Trump administration from criticism by offering a laundry list of sometimes conflicting excuses.
Right-wing media figures accused Goldberg and The Atlantic of “lying” about details of the story, while others downplayed the seriousness of the messages or denied that there was any classified information discussed in the chat. Some claimed the messages were a “coordinated operation” by Goldberg or were intentionally “leaked” by the Trump administration and “makes them look kind of good.” Others have argued the chat demonstrates “how much better this administration is at conducting foreign policy than the previous Democrat administrations” and “sends a really clear message” to “freeloaders” in Europe.
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