Alina Habba Calls Signal Leak Distraction: 'I Frankly Have Never Read The Atlantic'

2 days ago

Alina Habba defends Trump Administration officials including NSA Mike Waltz after a Signal group chat leaked to Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Well, I think that we were up front about it.

00:22We went in yesterday, as you saw, the better of the day, and got questions and answers

00:27by everybody, Tulsi, FBI, Kash Patel.

00:30Look, it is what it is.

00:32At the end of the day, this is, in my opinion, something that they're making a big to-do

00:37about nothing.

00:38This reporter that is trying to get clout that I also saw was on TV last night trying

00:44to brand his own name and talk about this.

00:47I'm not surprised.

00:48It's The Atlantic.

00:49I, frankly, have never read The Atlantic.

00:50I don't plan to.

00:52But we answered the questions.

00:53I'm going to defer to those answers from the Cabinet.

00:57Do you think any Trump administration officials should be held accountable, someone like Waltz,

01:01someone like Hexham, who was in this chat?

01:03Listen, we're allowed to have communications.

01:06That's period.

01:07The end.

01:08And the president spoke to this.

01:09We stand by Mike Waltz.

01:10He's doing a tremendous job.

01:11I think this is a distraction.

01:12I'm really not going to stand here and answer questions that the better part of yesterday

01:15was spent by the people that were actually involved answering.

01:19I was not a part of that conversation, but I will say this.

01:22We need to be looking at all the good things that we're doing, and every time to come out

01:25and to speak to the press and have it be a negative spin, it's much like what I've done

01:29for the better of four years.

01:30The negative spin needs to stop.

01:32Waltz has done a tremendous job, and let's talk about what he did.

01:34He took down the Houthis with Pete Hegseth, and that was important not for this country

01:38alone, but also for the world.

01:40So I'm very proud of the work that this administration is doing, and I would love if the press for

01:43once would focus on the actual facts and actions of this administration.

01:49This is just, this is frankly just noise.

01:50I'm used to it, but it's noise.

01:51The president said yesterday that no classified information was part of that, so releasing

01:55this today-

01:56Well, so did Radcliffe.

01:57Does that absolve Atlantic from any kind of-

02:00No.

02:01No.

02:02So did Radcliffe.

02:03If you look at it, so we have classifications, we have declassified conversations, and we're

02:06also allowed to use Signal 4, top-level official communications.

02:09We also have other means of communications that were used, and again, I'll speak to that,

02:14that this is, I'm not here to defend the Atlantic.

02:17It's a typical thing where a journalist is trying to make a name for himself, and I think

02:20he's making quite the name for himself, which is not a very good one.

02:23Thank you, everybody.

Alina Habba Calls Signal Leak Distraction: 'I Frankly Have Never Read The Atlantic'

Category

Transcript

Recommended