BURSTJeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, brushed off the risk of a legal threat from the Trump administration after he reported on a Signal group chat featuring top Trump administration officials.
“Jeffrey, I don't have to tell you this, the administration has taken legal action against news organizations,” NBC News’s Kristen Welker said Sunday on “Meet the Press,” following clips of Trump administration officials slamming Goldberg. “Are you concerned that this administration will come after you?”
“No. I don't get bullied. I'm not worried about that,” Goldberg replied. “They’re obviously being very, very silly there. There's a playbook that, and you know this as a journalist, I'm not the only journalist to be the target of these kind of attacks.”
In his Sunday interview, Goldberg also pushed back on an earlier claim from national security adviser Mike Waltz, who was a part of the chat that Goldberg was mistakenly added to.
Waltz had said Tuesday that Goldberg’s phone number was “sucked in” to his phone via “somebody else’s contact.”
“This isn’t ‘The Matrix,’ phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones,” Goldberg said Sunday. “I don’t know what he’s talking about there.”
“You know, very frequently in journalism, the most obvious explanation is the explanation,” Goldberg added. “My phone number was in his phone, because my phone number is in his phone.”
Goldberg detailed his time in the group chat in a report last Monday that rattled Washington and resulted in heightened fears around national security.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.