'Gosh, how the heck did he get in?’ Anderson Cooper mocks Trump aide in group chat debacle
CNN's primetime anchor Anderson Cooper had a stern message for President Donald Trump's national security advisor, who expressed bewilderment late Tuesday that a journalist "somehow" found himself in a group chat with other top Cabinet officials during a discussion over secret war plans.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a Signal group chat containing 18 senior Trump administration officials, Goldberg wrote in a piece for his publication. The group chat discussed imminent plans for military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
In the chat, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed operational information about the upcoming strikes, including weaponry, targets, and timing, Goldberg noted. The airstrikes later commenced, leading Goldberg to conclude the chat was legitimate and prompting him to leave.
ALSO READ: 'The Hard Reset': Here's how the U.S. is exporting terrorism around the world
Experts have called the fiasco a significant breach of national security protocols, but Trump defended Waltz and suggested a staff member may have added Goldberg to the chat. On Tuesday night, Waltz suggested Goldberg may have had something to do with it.
"You know, Laura [Ingraham], I'm not a conspiracy theorist," Waltz said before floating a conspiracy theory. "But of all the people out there, somehow this guy who has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia hoax, gone to just all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president of the United States. And he's the one that somehow gets on someone's contact and then gets sucked into this group."
Waltz's explanation was firmly rejected by Cooper, who opened his eponymous show late Tuesday to point the finger squarely back at Waltz.
"In a breach of national security by the Trump administration, that's stunning, and reaction to it by the president and his top advisors, that's shocking, but not surprising," said Cooper. "The president has a seemingly cavalier attitude towards the use of a commercial communication platform Signal to discuss highly confidential military and political discussions, and his publicly cavalier attitude about his national security officials accidentally including a reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic on the group chat."
Cooper said the saga was not "surprising" as it "follows a very well-known playbook by President Trump" — "downplay, disparage, then deny."
Later in the segment, Cooper sarcastically remarked, "classic," as he played a clip of Trump disparaging Goldberg.
Cooper then turned his gaze onto Waltz, who also took a turn disparaging Goldberg — and questioned how Goldberg managed to get into the chat.
"We are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room," Waltz told reporters earlier in the day.
"Gosh, how the heck did he get in that room?" Cooper retorted, continuing to lay on sarcasm. "What's interesting about that is that according to Goldberg, if he wants to know who let him into the online room, he could look in the mirror. Goldberg says it was that guy, the national security advisor, who added him to the Signal chat in the first place. And none of the high-level officials in the chat seemed to notice someone with the initials JG was in that chat."