Jimmy Kimmel shredded Trump administration officials involved in the Signal leak after inadvertently giving a journalist a front-row seat as they hashed out secret war plans for an impending U.S. strike in Yemen.
Hours after reports surfaced on Monday, the Jimmy Kimmel Live host recounted events of how White House National Security adviser Mike Waltz appeared to have mistakenly invited The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeff Goldberg to an encrypted chat called the “Houthi PC small group” days before the wave of air strikes on Houthi targets earlier this month.
“[Goldberg] thought somebody was trying to fool him, he thought it was disinformation,” Kimmel quipped. “Turned out it was just a bunch of fools because the strike happened exactly as described in the text.”
“In other words, our national security is being guarded by a bunch of doofs you wouldn’t trust to throw your cousin a surprise party,” he added.
The late-night host teased what would happen if a similar security breach occurred during the Biden administration.
“If Joe Biden’s top-level military team accidentally texted these plans to a journalist, Laura Ingraham’s e******* would be so rock strong it would break through the wall like the Kool-Aid man,” he said of the Fox News host.
Goldberg wrote that he uses the encrypted messaging platform under his initials “JG,” and was added to the chat on March 11. Kimmel questioned why no one managed to spot Goldberg in the group or asked who the mysterious interloper in the chat was
“No one thought to ask, ‘Who is JG? What are these initials?,’” he continued. “They could have been leaking secrets to Jeff Goldblum for all they know.”
Kimmel appears to be the only late-night host who addressed the controversy so far, as the story broke shortly before both The Daily Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert began recording. Meanwhile, Late Night with Seth Meyers is off the air this week.
Waltz, a former Green Beret and Florida representative, used the common encrypted messaging app to form the group chat with colleagues on the National Security Council’s “Principals Committee.”
Signal is not an official communications channel available to top government officials.
Along with Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, are among officials in the chat who had previously condemned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while in office.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East and Ukraine negotiator, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller were among others who appeared to be included in the Signal channel.
No one managed to spot Goldberg in the group, even when he left the chat – which would have notified members.
