Atlantic journalist pushes back on Hegseth comments: ‘He was texting war plans’

Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, pushed back on comments from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the journalist’s access to a group chat with information about an attack on Houthi rebels from top Trump administration officials.

When asked about Goldberg’s access to the chat, Hegseth told reporters Monday that “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins noted the comments from Hegseth in an interview with Goldberg on Monday night.

“I want to start by getting your reaction to what we heard from Secretary Hegseth there, saying that ‘Nobody was texting war plans.’ Given you were privy to this group chat, is that how you saw it?” Collins asked.

“No, that’s a lie. He was texting war plans,” Goldberg responded. “He was texting attack plans. When targets were going to be targeted; how they were going to be targeted; who was at the targets; when the next sequence of attacks was happening.”

Hegseth on Monday also called Goldberg “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”

Goldberg was added to a group chat featuring Trump administration figures including Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz, in which they discussed plans for an attack against Houthi rebels. The Atlantic journalist detailed his experience as a part of the chat in a Monday report that rattled Washington.

The chat’s existence was confirmed by National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes.

“I’m sitting in a Safeway parking lot, watching my phone and realizing, ‘Oh my God, this might be real. I think Pete Hegseth just sent this group actual targeting information, actual sequencing of an attack,’” Goldberg told Collins on Monday.

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.