Well, America, who you gonna believe?
The Trump administration officials who royally screwed up with their Signal group chat about combat plans, or your lyin’ eyes?
“There was no classified information as I understand it,” said President Trump on Tuesday, a day after the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he’d been accidentally added to a group chat on the messaging app Signal in which the country’s top national security officials were blabbing about imminent plans to drop bombs on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I can attest to the fact that there were not classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time,” the dictator-curious Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified in a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting hearing.
“Nobody’s texting war plans,” insisted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reporters in Hawaii on Wednesday. And yet, as Goldberg reported, Hegseth described airstrikes that would be carried out by Navy F-18s based on an aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, and drone attacks launched from the Middle East. Giving an exact time, he wrote, “This is when the first bombs will definitely drop.”
Sounds like “classified or intelligence equities” to me.
Among the lineup for the rest of chat group: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security advisor Mike Waltz, who has taken responsibility for somehow including Goldberg.
The Trump administration, with its irrational destruction of critical services and institutions, with its incompetence and willful ignorance, is playing Jenga with our lives and American democracy. Remove a few more pieces of what holds this country together — the social safety net, the ability of our courts to protect us from tyrannical overreach, the facts about current events and U.S. history — and it’s all going to come crashing down. Maybe it already has.
“I know exactly what I’m doing,” said Hegseth, the Fox News weekend host elevated by the president to one of the most important jobs in the world because, it’s been suggested, he looks good on TV. In the short time the former National Guard infantryman has been the face of the mighty United States military, he has consistently shown he does not, in fact, know what he is doing.
During his first appearance on the world stage in Brussels, Hegseth foolishly ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine and suggested its borders could never be restored to what they were before Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. What a negotiator! He threw away Ukraine’s leverage before peace talks had even begun.
“He made a rookie mistake,” said Republican Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, who compared Hegseth’s comments to something that could have been written by Tucker Carlson — “and Carlson is a fool.”
In any case, since when does the person in charge of the American military — its 2.8 million people, its 750 bases in 80 countries, its $850-billion budget — get to enjoy a learning curve?
“Mr. Hegseth’s lastest mistake could have led to catastrophic consequences,” said the New York Times in a news story about the Defense secretary’s constant missteps. “In disclosing the aircraft, targets and timing for hitting Houthi militia sites in Yemen, Mr. Hegseth risked the lives of American war fighters.”
Arguing, as Trump and his allies have, that the information was not classified therefore no laws were broken is simply specious.
“It was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released,” Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi told reporters Thursday, appearing to rule out any sort of criminal investigation. And yet, the Espionage Act makes it a crime to handle national security secrets with such “gross negligence” that they fall into the hands of an unauthorized person, as the Signal chat did. It was also set to disappear after a set period of time, a violation of the federal law that requires all official communications to be archived.
“It’s by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now,” said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee during a hearing Wednesday. “Everyone here knows that the Russians or the Chinese could have gotten all of that information, and they could have passed it on to the Houthis, who easily could have repositioned weapons and altered their plans to knock down planes or sink ships.”
If the government officials in charge of keeping us safe don’t think details of an upcoming bombing mission should be held as tightly as possible and not splashed around an app that is vulnerable to enemy hackers, they have no business keeping their jobs.
If this arrogant group had an ounce of integrity or humility, someone — and it ought to be Hegseth — would resign.
At the very least, he should apologize for this colossal screw up and plead for forgiveness from the Americans he put in harm’s way.
Bluesky: @rabcarian.bsky.social Threads: @rabcarian
