President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, has repeatedly landed in hot water in recent days, beginning with an uproar from Democrats over a Signal chat leak with high-ranking national security officials that has since snowballed.
Trump and his administration, however, repeatedly have defended the national security leader publicly.
Waltz, who previously served as a Florida congressman and as a decorated combat Green Beret, has come under fire from Democrats and critics since March, when the Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a firsthand account of getting added to a Signal group chat with top national security leaders, including Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, while they discussed strikes against Yemen terrorists.
Signal is an encrypted messaging app that operates similarly to texting or making phone calls, but with additional security measures that help ensure communications are kept private to those included in the correspondence.
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR MIKE WALTZ TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR ‘EMBARRASSING’ SIGNAL CHAT LEAK
The Atlantic’s report characterized the Trump administration as texting “war plans” regarding a planned strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Trump administration has maintained, however, that no classified material was transmitted in the chat, with Trump repeatedly defending Waltz amid the fallout.
NSC CONFIRMS MIKE WALTZ AND STAFF USED GMAIL FOR GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION
“As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team,” Trump administration press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the media in brief remarks outside of the White House’s press room Monday afternoon. “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 continued. “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.”
TRUMP REVEALS WHO WAS BEHIND SIGNAL TEXT CHAIN LEAK
Fox News Digital has compiled a timeline of accusations and outrage directed at and involving Waltz since the Atlantic’s first report on the chat leak.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the matter, but did not immediately receive a reply.
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