On Friday, US President Donald Trump described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "very smart man" and a "great friend of mine" while emphasising that tariff talks would "work out very well between India and our country".
Yemen war plans leak: ‘Not a serious lapse’, says Trump
He said a junior staff member working for NSA Mike Waltz inadvertently added Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the magazine The Atlantic, to a chat group that included senior govt officials
President Donald Trump on Tuesday (March 25) downplayed the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen's Houthis this month to a group chat that included a journalist, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration as Democratic lawmakers heaped criticism on the administration for handling highly sensitive information carelessly.
Trump said that a junior staff member working for national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the magazine The Atlantic to a chat group that included 18 senior administration officials discussing planning for the strike.
‘Not a serious lapse’
President Trump told NBC News that the lapse “turned out not to be a serious one," and expressed his continued support for national security adviser Mike Waltz.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he's a good man," Trump said.
Also Read: Trump officials ‘accidentally’ shared Yemen war plans with journalist
“It was one of Michael's people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there. There was no classified information, as I understand it. There was no problem, and the attack was a tremendous success," continued the president.
We made a mistake: Waltz
Mike Waltz said he wasn’t sure how Goldberg ended up on the chat.
“This one in particular, I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with,” he said.
“We made a mistake, we’re moving forward,” said Waltz, and said that he took “full responsibility” for the incident.
Also Read: 2 killed, several injured in US airstrikes targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels
Use of Signal criticised
But the use of messaging app Signal to discuss a sensitive operation has opened the administration to blistering criticism from Democratic lawmakers who expressed outrage at the White House's and senior administration officials' insistence that no classified information was shared.
Senior administration officials have struggled to explain why the publicly available app was used to discuss such a delicate matter.
Trump said that the administration would not be using the messaging app “very much” to discuss sensitive information in the future.
“We won’t be using it very much,” said Trump.
(With inputs from agencies)