Leavitt attacks Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg amid group chat controversy

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt began her press briefing with an angry attack on Jeff Goldberg amid the group chat controversy before ending her briefing early by citing a speech by the vice president.

The tense televised briefing came just hours after the Atlantic published the full text of the group chat that VP JD Vance , Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth , National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and other top officials held before the bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.

Leavitt was defending difficult terrain, on a day when top intelligence leaders got hit with repeated questions about the weapons systems and attack information that was included on the text chain – which included Goldberg as an unintended recipient. The Republican Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker said Wedndesday that the information should have been classified.

'Goldberg is an anti-Trump hater,' she intoned from the White House podium. 'He is a registered Democrat. Goldberg's wife is also a registered Democrat and a big Democrat donor who used to work under who Hillary Clinton ,' she said.

That jab brought into the fray Goldberg's wife, Pamela. She ran the International Fund for Women and Girls at the State Department when Clinton was secretary. She also served as a human rights officer for the UN in Liberia during the civil war. The personal attacks on Goldberg, who published a detailed account on the 'war plans' group chat, took a cue from President Trump, who called him a 'scumbag'.

She said Goldberg 'discredited himself by absurdly claiming that President Trump was Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign by peddling the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax that tried to hijack President Trump's first term by inventing the suckers and losers hoax to help Joe Biden in the 2020 election by peddling a hoax about President Trump involving Gold Star families to help Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, which our campaign at the time, vigorously denied.'

Goldberg penned a 2020 article in the Atlantic that said Trump skipped a visit to the Aisne-Marne American cemetery in France amid poor weather and complained, '“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.' Trump has repeatedly denied it, although former Trump Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly corroborated the account in 2023 and 2024.

Reporter after reporter tried to press Leavitt on the group chat. At the briefing. She showed signs of frustration told her servicemen and women would face 'consequences' even while Waltz was getting a 'mulligan.'

'I have now been asked and answered the same question using different language multiple times. If anybody has another question, there's a lot of different things going on in the world. We have tariffs possibly being implemented later today, the President is going to talk about that at four o'clock this afternoon,' she said.

Then she immediately turned to a conservative TV reporter whose question began: 'I wanted to first and foremost, thank the administration for the election integrity law executive order, because so many journalists for four years were banned from talking about this very subject. Then, about 22 minutes into the briefing, Leavitt decided to cut it short, citing an upcoming speech by Vance. 'I would hate to counter program the Vice President of the United States,' she said.

Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Visit our profile page and hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.