The Atlantic's Editor Jeffrey Goldberg on How He Was Texted Secret War Plans on Signal
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it's being called a reckless and. devastating breach of National Security. Revelations that top Trump officials. inadvertently shared secret US military. plans with a prominent journalist by. mistakenly adding him to a group. chat today Atlantic magazine. editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. explains how he initially thought the. messages were a scam and now what he. makes of the enormous Fallout since. going public. [Music]. [Applause].
[Music]. it's Wednesday March. [Music]. 26th Jeffrey is that you yeah it's. me uh well hello Jeffrey you've had. quite a week it's only Tuesday morning. yeah tell me what we're doing what what. is this for what is so this I'm with the. daily I'm my name is Rachel Abrams I'm. oh the daily yeah I'm familiar with it.
podcast in the New York Times local. newspaper in New Yorker know we're just. we're just starting out so thanks for. bearing with us no that's great it's. cool so did you have a lot of listeners. uh yeah wec up my mom my dad my mom um. and my. [Music]. mom Jeffrey and I talked on Tuesday. morning it was a full day after a story. came out about how he'd been added. accidentally to a group chat with top. Trump Administration officials.
so Jeffrey we have never met before but. yesterday I think I texted you I emailed. you I called you I called your publicist. I was desperate to get you on the show. to talk about your story and the. reaction to it should have tried signal. should have tried signal that's right so. as we're hinting at you just wrote. something that really everybody is. talking about so tell us where does the. story begin well the Story begins in. Earnest about March 11th I received. received a message request on signal.
from someone identified as Michael Waltz. he's the National Security adviser. United States signal the secure. messaging app yeah the commercial. non-government endend encrypted app that. a lot of people in journalism and. outside of Journalism use because it's. allegedly safer right and I don't know. Waltz I've met him a couple of times but. it struck me as unusual because I have a. somewhat contentious relationship with. the Trump Administration or more to the. point with Trump but certainly in the.
normal bandwidth of Washington. experience for a magazine editor covers. politics and foreign policy and National. Security to get a message request from. the National Security adviser if it was. indeed him I accepted the request forgot. about it couple of days later I'm. included in a group called the houie PC. small group can you translate that for. us you have deep experience in foreign. policy as a journalist as you've said. what does houth PC small group mean to. you in this moment who are obviously the.
iran-backed terrorist organization that. runs part of Yemen and been obviously. attacking shipping attacking Israel for. the last year and a half becoming a. quite a menaced international shipping. PC stands for principles committee. meaning that small group of principles. cabinet members people who run. intelligence agencies and you are. certainly I think we need to point out. not a principal in this context no I I. have never been to a principal's meeting. right clear yeah yeah yeah um so that's.
what PC stands for small group is uh not. actually that small it was 18 people 19. people I wouldn't consider that a small. group I would consider it a medium group. and who is in the group at this point JD. Vance Michael Waltz and the secretaries. of State Defense treasury CIA director. director of National Intelligence Etc I. mean again people who are identified as. such on my phone but I'm an.
appropriately suspicious journalist and. obviously for reasons I can go into I. think this is a setup of some sort I. think this is a a hoax a deception a. non-state actor trying to entrap a. journalist I don't know what it is but. the on the face premise of this is. ridiculous so it had to be something. other than what it was reporting to be. right basically like you being on a. group chat with really top tier. officials in the administration you're. not believing this is the real thing I. maybe maybe I can be included on. something having to do with like the. Easter egg roll or something at the.
White House but I'm not going to be I'm. not going to be in this and even though. you think it's fake at this point I'm. sure you're still kind of curious you're. watching this thing well yeah I mean cuz. what if what if I mean let's let's let's. be honest you know you become a. journalist cuz the the most interesting. place on the planet is the other side of. a closed door right so I got to watch it. one one way or the other you know so. what do they start. discussing well the first text in this. chain is from Michael Walt saying that.
he's setting up this discussion group. this is on a Thursday I guess for. basically you know we're heading into. this weekend there's this sort of. elliptical promise of something. happening over the next 72 hours and the. Michael Walt's. username asks these other principles to. give their weekend POC point of contact. in case there's a reason to have a. further discussion and so one after. another six or seven people respond Mar. Rubio or the person playing Marco Rubio.
responds with a name from somebody from. from the state department and so on the. defense department Etc and most. interesting in this moment to me is that. the CIA director John Ratcliffe names a. person and says this person is going to. be representing the CIA in this. discussion now what I learn over time is. that the person he names is an active. CIA officer whose name has never been. discussed in public I.
thought like this is really weird m i. what what is what is happening here but. that's the initial foray and then the. next day there's a really interesting. substantive policy debate about whether. the US should ramp up its military. activities against the houthis in Yemen. and there's a lot of criticism in the. chain of the Biden administration's. inability to get the houthi situation. under control mainly what there is. there's a lot of resentment expressed.
toward the Europeans for not being able. to float navies that could actually do. this work and and criticism the. Europeans for not being able to pay you. know the sort of thing that we've heard. for a while from these guys and JD Vans. starts the conversation out by saying he. disagrees with the decision to attack. Yemen at least right now he goes on to. say that we're sending the wrong message. to Europe and why do we have to do this. and it's the European shipping that's. that's in danger not American shipping. and furthermore the president doesn't.
really understand the consequences of. doing this and JD Vance is he's doing. this in front of half the cabinet people. who work for the president he's telling. them I disagree with the president and. also I'm not sure he gets it and JD. Vance is playing the role that we. understand JD Vance to play which is. like kind of a soft isolationism it's. like wh why are we fighting Yemen what. are we doing and then the more kind of. traditional muscular interv iist.
philosophy is represented by Michael. Waltz The National Security adviser and. Pete hexit the secretary of defense is. yes we recognize that Europe is pathetic. and this is what hexi says about Europe. in all caps by the way you know they. recognize this European Dynamic but. they're they're more interested in just. like let's get this thing going against. the houthis so this conversation just to. recap is them discussing whether ramping. up attacks on the houthis militarily. will be a good political strategy and. you're telling it sounds like they're.
having a kind of a polite disagreement. um JD Vance is seemingly disagreeing. with the position that Trump has and. that disagreement seems like it hinges. on whether or not we're making the. Europeans pay enough which is something. we've talked about on the show quite a. bit right exactly so just I want to. check in with you here because in this. moment do you still think that this is a. hoax are you starting to sense that it. could be real I am suspected that it. could be real because it's pretty.
accurate depiction of what these guys. sound like yeah but I again and let me. put this in like the it can't be true. that's what's keeping me from believing. that it's true it can't be true it can't. be true MH like come on like you know. I've been around this world for a long. time they don't they don't do this no. Bob Woodward has spent an entire career. trying to infiltrate groups like this so. how could you possibly have just been. added to a group chat yeah yeah I mean. you know and and and also it's weird.
that. substantive government conversations. will be taking place over signal because. signal is not by the US government. standards secure in part because. obviously it's open to technically open. to anyone including yours truly and I I. know that previous administrations um. have used different messaging services. but not for not for. substance right I mean I think in the. Biden Administration it's a it's a good. example they used signal but my.
impression is based on on some reporting. my impression is that they used signal. to do things like setting up lunch. appointments or hey I've just left Saudi. Arabia I'll call you from a skiff when I. get to whatever and just to be clear. this the skiff is a the skiff is a is a. compartmentalized facility that is built. to protect conversations electronically. you know you can't even take your phone. or your Apple watch or your Fitbit um. these are very very very very secure.
facilities and by the way the senior. people in the National Security. apparatus of the United States have. these things built into their houses. when they're serving so they can just go. down to the basement and make the secure. phone call right and and the whole idea. is to protect these conversations from. foreign. surveillance so what happens after this. how does the discussion progress from. here well it progressed very quickly so. that on Saturday the 15th I am running.
some errands and the signal chat lights. up and probably the most important text. in this entire series of texts comes. from the account user Pete heith um who. provides what I would call basically the. attack sequence a summary of the war. plan and you know it's. it's detailed it tells the exact time. that attack will be launched it tells. the exact time the effects of the attack. will be felt in Yemen. um it talks about the weapons packages.
being used it talks about some specific. targets like actual military planning. that is a settle business and about to. happen a forthcoming attack on Yemen I'm. also sitting there in my car it's 11:44. a.m. eastern time I get this text the. the text. promises that the effects of the first. wave of attacks will be felt in Yemen at. 1345 1:45 p.m. Eastern time so it's 2. hours M right and I'm thinking to myself.
hm well I guess in 2 hours I'm going to. find out if this is a real chain or not. right definitively MH so you know I. basically just kind of sit there and at. 15 155 or so I go into Twitter and I you. know put Yemen in the search bar and. then sure enough there bombs falling all. over Yemen just as the user identified. as Pete heith promised 2 hours early.
breaking news overseas right now where. officials are confirming that US Air and. Naval assets hit dozens of houthi. Targets in Yemen including missiles. radar drones and air defense systems. these are the most significant air. strikes since president Trump returned. to the White House and the first time us. Jets have struck these Iranian backed. houthi rebels in Yemen since president. Trump returned to the White House Trump. announced the strikes on social media. threatening the houthi rebels with quote.
overwhelming lethal Force the US says it. will keep attacking Targets in Yemen. until the houthi stop their assault on. global Shipping in the Red. [Music]. Sea I want you to describe to us what. you're seeing in this group chat after. the attacks start it's a couple of. updates on. um the consequences of the attack that's. all I'll say the damage that they think. that they have have done combined with.
some you know. congratulatory texts um and this is of. course where they start using emojis. emojis which emojis are they using. before the attack started there was the. prayer Emoji used by a couple people and. then during the attacks when the reports. are coming in that that's going well. from the American perspective there's. the flexed bicep I guess emoji there's. the fire Emoji there's an American flag. Emoji sometimes they repeat it a couple. of times. you know and there I'm sitting there.
watching that and going wow you know. every workplace is the same huh so what. do you do next so you know I'm sitting. in the car I'm watching the signal chat. react to the Yemen attack uh I'm. realizing that this is almost certainly. a. real signal group and not some sort of. deceptive disinformation campaign and so. then I had to begin to make a series of. decisions Consulting with colleagues. that ultimately led me to remove myself. from the signal group later that day.
knowing that the group administrator in. signal and the members I believe uh of. of a group as well are notified that you. have left the group I assumed at that. point that Mike Waltz was going to call. and say uh hey who who is this uh or. call and say why'd you leave the group. and and then I would say you know. director waltz or whatever do you know. do you even know who this is but no. nobody look the I mean here's the the.
truth of it is nobody noticed when I was. added and nobody noticed when I was left. and can you tell us why you decided to. leave the group chat you know I I think. people can make their own deductions. here but I can't get into for various. reasons the conversations I subsequently. had with colleagues and others about my. decision making all I will say is that I. I remove myself from the group. understanding the consequences of that. and what I do is I decide oh I have to. write a story about the world's weirdest.
signal group on Monday I texted and. emailed the relevant people in the in. the chat I used the signal contact I. sent long emails to a large number of. players in this drama saying uh you know. asking various questions and what did. what was the response well I mean I got. one official response back from the. National Security Council which you know. came pretty quickly saying apparently. this is a real chain and we're. investigating why a journalist was.
inadvertently invited to the chain but. you know I think they had to acknowledge. it and they did once they acknowledge. that it's real I published our first. piece on the. [Music]. subject we'll be right back.
Mr President your reaction to the the. story the Atlantic that said that some. of your top uh cabinet officials and. AIDS have been discussing very sensitive. material through signal and included an. Atlantic report for that what is your. response to that you I don't know. anything about it I'm not a big fan of. the Atlantic it's to me it's a magazine. that's going out of business you're. talking about a. deceitful and highly discredited.
so-called journalist who's made a. profession of pedaling hoaxes time and. time. again I just can't to this moment get. over the idea that during the days that. group was going on not one of the. participants said we shouldn't be doing. this on Signal do you believe that this. warrants a congressional. investigation well it will common sense. as this was a major screw up and.
somebody should be held accountable. clearly I think the Administration has. acknowledged it was a mistake and. they'll tighten up and make sure it. doesn't happen again else you can say. about mikon disciplin. no Jeffrey I want to talk about the. immediate reaction this is such a breach. of security protocols can you explain. the hazards of this from a security. point of view yeah put aside the the.
weirdness of inviting a journalist by. mistake I mean okay it's hard to put. aside obviously given what's happened. but one of the things that people don't. understand I think about why there are. rules governing privileged conversations. within the National Security Community. is that signal might be endtoend. encrypted and it might be very hard to. hack but foreign intelligence Services. spend a lot of time trying to Target the. actual devices that belong to government.
officials right like in other words the. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is. walking around with a cell phone in his. pocket it should not surprise anyone to. know that the Chinese government is very. interested in knowing what's going on. inside that phone and it uses all kinds. of methods where in a remote way you can. Target that phone and in this particular. scenario this particular attack on the. houth if a foreign adversary had gotten. this information that you saw what is. the worst case scenario like can you. just play out the possibilities a little. bit if if somehow the houthis understood.
that American war planes were heading in. their direction that would give them. conceivably more time to prepare a. response which would obviously put the. pilots of those planes in danger you're. the National Security adviser United. States you're the CIA director you don't. want your Target in Yemen to know that. in an hour or so he's going to get blown. up so yes like if you put this stuff out.
in the wild and in signal and you're not. talking about this in a secure way face. to. face theoretically the the danger level. goes up I mean I I this is so like I. this is so obvious to me like logic. dictates this yeah I just I just don't. want to Breeze over it I want to make it. really clear for people that the reason. that it is important for the government. to take all of these precautions and. conceal these types of plans is that. this information getting out there could. compromise a military Mission it could. put military service members at risk.
those are greater risk right greater. risk greater risk those are the stakes. here well also the success and failure. of your mission right of course and. because these are the stakes did they. break any laws here like we're talking. about sort of how things are typically. done but did the existence of this group. chat adding you was any of this illegal. I can't answer that question I'm not a. National Security lawyer we've. interviewed National Security lawyers. who say that you know there are various. risks associated with doing this the way. they did it um that will be discovered. in the fullness of time and there's a.
lot of chatter right now in military. forums and government fors of people who. are saying I'm an army captain in the. artillery right but every year I have to. be recertified in cyber security and I. have to watch you know videos of how to. make sure that your information is. correct and what kind of information can. you put on your personal phone and what. kind of information can't you put on. your personal law and there are people. who get kicked out of the military there. are people who go to prison for.
compromising security at a much lower. level than we're about to attack Yemen. here's how the attack is going to go mhm. right right so I can imagine that if you. are a member of the military or the. state department you are frustrated to. say the least that's that's what you're. because you are held to a very very high. standard that these folks at least for. now do not seem like they were holding. themselves to right right and that's why. there was no sympathy among government. employees there's no particular sympathy. for Hillary Clinton for having a. government emails on her personal server.
but still there's not you know guys you. make these rules you got to follow them. is there any chance that anybody on this. group chat could believably say that. they didn't know that they were supposed. to take different kinds of precautions I. mean I guess you can say that it's the. beginning of an Administration they're. two months in but his ignorance of the. law you know does that absolve you of. following the rules although some of. them have obviously served Marco Ruby. was on the intelligence committee John. Ratliff was the former dni Pete hexi.
served in the Army and so on also like. here's the thing I mean even at that. level there's a kind of an orientation. moment here's your office here's your. computer here's your skiff here's your. skiff this is the computer that you can. communicate with other intelligence. agencies with but you cannot have your. personal email on it it's a closed. system and this is the computer that you. get to use to do internet research and. this is the you know I mean you're. presumably told all this stuff it really.
makes you wonder what else is being. communicated this way how many other. small groups are there and also why. would these folks be communicating this. way I mean just you know why why you. know why tell me cuz going into a skiff. is a pain in the neck even if it's in. your basement I mean I had to go to the. supermarket maybe they got to go to the. supermarket I mean you know you got to. go to the supermarket you got to go take. your kid to Little League I mean all. these people do have security details. mind you they're driv and armored. Suburbans and they have very extensive.
Communications devices associated with. those Vehicles you mean the idea is to. make it maximally convenient and by the. way this is so that's it that's it's. convenience that's I don't know I I I or. or if you talk about an on Signal you're. obligated to make a copy of that. discussion and send it to an official. government account so that it can be. archived by the National Archives but. signal is a disappearing app obviously. you know the messages disappear well.
they can you can set it to disappear is. that what happened here yeah and these. were set to disappear I see and so there. is the plausible explanation that. they're like we just want to have real. talk and we don't want this to be. archived forever in the National. Archives right okay so that sounds like. it potentially could be a legal problem. well I mean so it's convenience and also. a way of having a way of protecting your. conversation from future congressional. oversight it's it's a lot of other. things I think the natural question is. to say under normal circumstances there.
would probably be an investigation led. by Congress Democrats are obviously. calling for that but it just feels like. there must be so little interest in an. investigation from anybody with a power. to do it and I just want to give you. some examples of the reaction to your. story that make me say that because over. the past 24 hours the Republicans have. really played this down how speaker Mike. Johnson has said this is not our issue. Senator John Kennedy said a mistake was. made it happens a house called it a. learning moment Trump himself said Mike.
Walt is a good man he's learned a lesson. do you think there will be any. consequences for the people who. initiated or participated in this breach. of National Security nothing that's been. said by the administration so far. suggests to me that they're treating. this seriously or treating it the way. they would treat it If This Were. Democrats who had done this you. mentioned Hillary Clinton earlier but I. want to bring it back to her for a. second because it seems noteworthy that. a lot of the people on this signal chat.
and certainly president Trump all of. these people made a very big deal about. Clinton and how she used a private email. server for official business when she. was Secretary of State everybody. remembers the chance lock her up and. every turn they described what she did. as a very serious breach of National. Security that should face consequences. and I just can you for a second putting. aside whether or not this is. hypocritical could you ruminate on whe. whether you think what you have seen is.
as serious more serious far more serious. just by comparison to what she did if. this is not a big deal then people like. Pete Heth and Marco Rubio and all the. rest have to go back into time and say. that Hillary Clinton wasn't a big deal. either MH right I mean this is this this. is this kind of arid dispiriting. Washington game where when you commit a. crime it's the worst thing that ever. happened on the planet and when I do it. it's perfectly acceptable and. understandable. here's the thing and and this is sort of.
what I would love to say to Pete hegi 6. months ago if Tony blinkin and Jake. Sullivan and Lloyd Austin the Secretary. of State the National Security adviser. and the Secretary of Defense in the Joe. Biden administration were communicating. with kamla Harris over signal about an. imminent military attack and describing. to kamla Harris which weapons are going. to be used in the attack and they. mistakenly included a. journalist in that conversation do you.
really think Pete hexi would say it's. not a big deal do you think that they. think that the mistake here is being. accidentally included and this getting. out or having you signal in the first. place what I understand from inside the. White House I've talked to a couple. people and obviously read some of the. reporting in the last period of time. they think that um Mike Waltz is a dope. for including me in the chat and they're. really focused on that I mean there's. not a fantastic record of Democrats. being completely assiduous about the.
storage and safekeeping of classified. information I mean no nobody's perfect. here but we're coming out of a situation. where the the current president was. actually. indicted for high hiding classified. information in a bathroom this is the. president of course who is known to have. discussed classified operations on The. Veranda of maralago so you know the tone. is set from the top I mean there are. people who take security very seriously.
uh and there are people who don't take. it very seriously I wouldn't you know I. don't think anybody would say that. Donald Trump is one of those presidents. who took it extremely seriously right I. think this sort of speaks to the. question I asked you about whether you. think there are going to be any. consequences because like all the. examples you just laid out those suggest. that maybe these are folks that think. the mistake here was most likely just. including you which makes me wonder do. you think that you are going to be now. targeted by the administration and I. just want to quote from Pete Heth here.
because immediately after your story. came out he denied that he had shared. War plans he said that you yourself were. a deceitful and highly discredited. so-called journalist who made a. profession of pedaling hoaxes time and. time again and just given how aggressive. this Administration has been toward the. Press generally I just wonder if you. think you might be the only one. ironically that could face any. punishment from this oh I don't I don't. think about that and by the way those. are words that hurt I'm really sorry.
that he said that Donald Trump has. called me terrible things for 5 years. just a few months ago he called me. a radical left disgraceful I something I. can't even remember it's like a bunch of. words the usual words that he uses when. he's mad at a reporter so a I'm used to. it B I don't care C I'm GNA do my job. harder when I'm running up against. opposition d this is our current reality.
in America and someone has to just keep. trying to do accountability journalism. even though there are a lot of pressures. on people not to do accountability. journalism I got to push back on you. because every journalist at a major. institution right now is thinking about. whether or not the administration is. going to be more aggressive with its. journalists and when you are in the. position that you found yourself you are. Consulting with people like at the. Atlantic we you know there's there every.
major news organization has teams of. lawyers has people to talk to when you. find yourselves in situations where. you're wondering what should I do next. are there any legal consequences and you. had mentioned earlier that people could. deduce why you left that chat ultimately. and I respect the fact that you can't go. into the details but I do want to ask. you whether part of the reason why you. left was that you were concerned you. could get in trouble for it like were. you worried at all that you had stayed. in that chat too long and and not just. you the people that you're talking to at. the Atlantic that presumably you're.
getting advice from I'm going to your. honor I'm going to respectfully decline. to answer that question on the grounds. that I can't answer the question I take. the nation's laws very seriously but I. am not in a position to discuss. decisionmaking related to the type of. material that I was seeing I understand. and obviously at the end of the day the. Atlantic published your story and I just. want to zoom out for a second because as. we mentioned earlier you have covered.
foreign policy for decades you have. covered a lot of white houses and I. assume that this is not the first time. that you have had to weigh the public. interest in publishing information that. could be embarrassing or that the. government doesn't want you to publish. this is not the first time that you've. weighed that against you know National. Security risks and clearly you decided. that the story was worth publishing in. the public interest to know how National. Security leaders are flouting security. protocols and I'm wondering as you're.
sitting here now at 11:41 a.m. on. Tuesday how are you thinking about this. calculation do you think that we're. safer now knowing what you reported. first and foremost what I discovered was. what I consider to be a massive security. breach right a breach you can drive a. Mac Truck through the idea of reporting. and the idea of having a free press and. the idea of holding government officials. accountable is that you make the world a. better place by telling the citizens. what's going on what the government is.
doing and so let's assume that this is a. functional government and responds the. ordinary ways to the discovery of flaws. with any luck they'll tighten up their. procedures and and policies I guess the. answer to my question depends on if they. actually do anything yeah I mean I don't. know it's too early to say I mean we all. can speculate about the unusual. qualities of this Administration and. whether they respond in the way that. other administrations would respond to. these kind of events or these kind of. Revelations do you think that this event.
was so egregious that it'll break. through just actually just a regular. people or is this going to be kind of. the same thing that we're so used to. which is one side gets very upset the. other side tries to dismiss it downplay. it until it eventually goes away like is. this so bad that it will break through. to the immunity people feel to claims of. hypocracy. look 10 years ago Donald Trump insulted. the War record of John. McCain I listened to that I thought oh.
well that's it for the Donald Trump. campaign because the one thing you don't. do is attack war heroes but the rest is. history we know what what happened four. years ago five years ago I reported that. Donald Trump referred to the World War I. and World War II war dead as suckers and. losers and there are people who said so. what there's always a contingent of. people these days who say so what for. partisan reasons and so I've gotten out. of the prediction business the ordinary. rules of political physics don't really.
apply anymore but if it does get brushed. off like what does that say to. you says that we're in a dangerous place. successful. countries respond to observable Reality. by changing course to account for that. reality if these guys go back to using. signal to discuss War planning that's on. them that is what you would call.
Reckless Behavior if they're going to. not change certain procedures because. they don't like the media or because. they think that the Democrats are also. bad it doesn't it just doesn't sound. like a healthy country it doesn't sound. like a healthy way to run a. [Music]. country Jeffrey I want to thank you very. much for your time thank you.
during a contentious hearing on Tuesday. in front of the Senate intelligence. committee two members of President. Trump's cabinet who were included in the. Tex exchanges with Jeffrey Goldberg CIA. director John Radcliffe and Director of. National Intelligence telsey gabard both. denied that any classified material was. shared in the messages that prompted. expressions of disbelief from several. Senators including Angus King of Maine. and independent uh secretary HF uh put. into this group text a detailed.
operation plan including targets the. weapons we were going to be using attack. sequences and timing um and yet you've. testified that nothing in that Tech in. that chain was classified wouldn't that. be classified what if that had been made. public that morning before the attack. took. place Senator I can attest to the fact. that there were no classified or. intelligence equities that were included. in that chat group at any time and at.
one point during the hearing Democratic. senator John oaf of Georgia pressed. Radcliffe to acknowledge the seriousness. of the situation director Radcliffe this. was a. huge mistake. correct. no a national no no you no no director I. asked you a yes or no question and now. you hold on a national political.
reporter you. can was made privy sensitive information. about iment military operations against. a foreign terrorist organiz mistake of. adding a reporter and that wasn't a huge. mistake that wasn't a huge mistake I. think they characterize this an. embarrassment this is utterly. unprofessional there's been no apology. there has been no recognition of the. gravity of this error meanwhile. after we spoke with him Jeffrey Goldberg.
rejected the claims from Radcliffe and. gabber that there was no classified. material in the messages saying quote. they are. [Music]. wrong we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you need to know. today Ukraine and Russia agreed to cease. fighting in the Black Sea and to hash.
out the details for halting strikes on. energy facilities and what would be the. first significant step toward a. ceasefire 3 years after Russia launched. its war against Ukraine but the deal. falls short of a complete pause and. fighting and it remains unclear how and. when the limited truths would be carried. out and president Trump signed a pardon. for Devon Archer a former business. partner of Hunter Biden whose. Congressional testimony 2 years ago go. helped to fuel House Republicans. investigation into the Biden family.
Archer who had been convicted in a fraud. case earned fans on the right after he. testified against Hunter. [Music]. Biden today's episode was produced by. Clare tennis ketter Carlos predo and. Mary Wilson it was edited by Paige cowt. and Maria burn contains original music. by Pat mccusker Alicia beup and Rowan. nisto and was engineered by Chris Wood.
our theme music is by Jim brunberg and. Ben lansburg of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Rachel Abrams see you tomorrow. [Music].
