White House national security advisor Mike Waltz set up group chats beyond the one that featured a freewheeling discussion of U.S. military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, according to a new report.
President Donald Trump has agreed that Waltz was the initial cause of the stunning breach that inadvertently included a prominent journalist the security group chat that burst into the open last week when Jeffrey Goldberg wrote about it.
But Waltz has kept his role, as Trump seeks to avoid the staff turmoil that characterized his first term, where he forced out national security director Mike Flynn after 23 days on the job.
The internal political support from the highest level didn’t spare Waltz from ridicule on Saturday Night Live, which did a send-up of Signalgate that focused on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth accidentally joining a teen group chat where he inserted missives about nuclear subs.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Waltz has organized other group chats as well.
It described those chats as ‘other sensitive national-security conversations on Signal,’ an encrypted messaging app that the administration says is approved for sensitive conversations – although top officials are supposed to use government devices in highly secure environments to discuss classified information.
These include ‘separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as well as military operations
President Donald Trump has defended his national security advisor Mike Waltz, and the White House now says it considers the case ‘closed’
Waltz has said he takes ‘full responsibility’ for setting up the Signal group chat.
The White House went scorched earth last week on Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg as the scandal raged, even attacking his wife.
Trump has repeatedly expressed confidence in Waltz and the White House says he is ‘firmly behind’ his national security advisor.
One White House insider called Waltz, a Green Beret veteran of the U.S. Army and National Guard, a ‘f***ing idiot’ after the group chat became public.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the White House considers the case ‘closed’, although Republican and Democratic senators have asked the Pentagon’s IG to look into it.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has been able to ride out the scandal even after taking ‘full responsibility’ for the mishap
‘Saturday Night Live’ ridiculed Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth accidentally joining a teen group chat
The White House also said last week the national security counsel investigating how the journalist got added to the group chat.
‘As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team,’ she told reporters. ‘And this case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned.’
‘There have been steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again,’ she added. ‘And we’re moving forward. And the president and Mike Waltz and his entire national security team have been working together very well, if you look at how much safer the United States of America is because of the leadership of this team.’
