In-town pool #1: Alina Habba on The Atlantic's reporting

Good morning!

Alina Habba just spoke to reporters at the sticks about the Signal chat. It was mostly her saying that reporters were making a big deal out of nothing.

"We were upfront about it. We went in yesterday, as you saw, for the better (part) of the day and got questions and answers by everybody."

"Look, it is what it is. At the end of the day, this is — in my opinion — something that they're making a big to do about nothing. A reporter that is trying to get clout."

"I frankly have never read The Atlantic. I don't plan to, but he answered the questions, I'm going to defer to those answers from the cabinet."

"We're allowed to have communications. That's period — the end."

"We stand by Mike Waltz; he's doing a tremendous job. I think this is a distraction."

"I would love if the press, for once, would focus on the actual facts and actions of the administration. This is just — this is frankly just noise."

"We're also allowed to use Signal for top level official communications. We also have other means of communications that were used."

(h/t to Geoff Earle of the Daily Mail for the help)

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Shira Stein

Washington correspondent

The San Francisco Chronicle

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