We are now in day three of the worst scandal to hit Trump 2.0 (which is a mere baby, at 66 days) and also the worst breach of classified information likely in the history of the republic. The last time a surprise like this popped out, Benedict Arnold had decided that he wanted to align with the folks back home and surrender West Point. In that case, Arnold was malicious. In this case, Hanlon’s law prevails: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Stupidity is rampant in Trump 2.0 and it certainly was rampant in SignalGate.
Now before we begin you need to know about DARVO. DARVO is an acronym which describes the Trump playbook to a tee. It means Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. That’s what Pete Hegseth did when this story first broke. That’s what Karoline Leavitt is busy doing. And Mike Waltz has jumped right in. Unfortunately, it’s.not.working. Whomever made the decision to play it this way was wrong. It’s only making things worse. This is Hegseth playing Arrogant Peacock and I’m sure they’re belly laughing in Beijing and everywhere else watching this.
You heard Hegseth say “no war plans were texted,” in his DARVO fashion. But unfortunately The Atlantic posted a story today showing those non existent plans. Whoops.
In The Atlantic’s initial story about the Signal chat—the “Houthi PC small group,” as it was named by Waltz—we withheld specific information related to weapons and to the timing of attacks that we found in certain texts. As a general rule, we do not publish information about military operations if that information could possibly jeopardize the lives of U.S. personnel. That is why we chose to characterize the nature of the information being shared, not specific details about the attacks.
The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions. There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared.
Experts have repeatedly told us that use of a Signal chat for such sensitive discussions poses a threat to national security. As a case in point, Goldberg received information on the attacks two hours before the scheduled start of the bombing of Houthi positions. If this information—particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen—had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face. The Trump administration is arguing that the military information contained in these texts was not classified—as it typically would be—although the president has not explained how he reached this conclusion.
Here’s a sample of one of the communications via chat.
The Hegseth text then continued:
- “1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
- “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
- “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
- “MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”
- “We are currently clean on OPSEC”—that is, operational security.
- “Godspeed to our Warriors.”
You can see more at the link. I think the paywall has been dropped due to the public significance of this story, but let me know if you can’t read the story. The madness continues.
CNN reports defense sources as saying that the chat definitely contained classified information because the operation had not yet started.
“It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this,” the official said. “We don’t provide that level of information on unclassified systems, in order to protect the lives and safety of the servicemembers carrying out these strikes. If we did, it would be wholly irresponsible. My most junior analysts know not to do this.”
“The information Secretary of Defense Hegseth disclosed in the Signal chat was classified at the time he wrote it, especially because the operation had not even started yet,” Natasha Bertrand, a CNN correspondent covering the Pentagon and national security, wrote on X, citing the U.S. defense official and another source who was briefed on the operation.
Zachary Cohen, a CNN reporter covering national security and justice, said on X: “Sources confirm to me & @NatashaBertrand what appeared to be true: the info disclosed by SecDef Hegseth in the Signal chat was highly classified at the time he wrote it.”
The Atlantic emphasized the severity of the leak: If someone “hostile to American interest” had been added to the group chat instead of Goldberg, the Houthis would have had time to prepare for the incoming attack.
“If this text had been received by someone hostile … The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic,” the authors wrote.
That’s the bottom line. America got lucky. You can’t depend upon luck in areas like this, you have to have competence. And we don’t have. So that leads to buyer’s remorse.
This case is really very simple when you boil it down: Hegseth is responsible for this, ultimately. Waltz is in fact responsible for putting Goldberg in the chat. In a sane world, one or the other would be fired or would resign. We do not live in a sane world. So what’s going to happen next?
The White House can continue with this ludicrous denial and that’s all it is, is ludicrous denial. Or, Trump can make a decision to nip this in the bud and demand the resignation of Waltz, but say it was Waltz’s idea and make him into a hero. That is a plausible scenario, and the only thing that would put out this conflagration.
Trump’s ego won’t allow him to admit that he made a mistake in hiring either Hegseth nor Waltz, but throwing Waltz under the bus and putting the fear of God into Hegseth might prevent a second occurrence of this. Somebody’s head has to go on a pike and since Waltz wasn’t confirmed by the Senate and Hegseth squeaked through with a tie breaking vote, most likely it won’t be Hegseth.
I think that’s the choice Trump is faced with. Maybe he should just toss a coin. If he doesn’t do something definitive to stop this, it’s only going to snowball. I’d say odds at this point are 50/50 Waltz will be gone by Friday and those odds could change.
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“But her emails”
We already knew they are hypocrites but this sends it to new heights (depths?)
That’s the big picture of the Republicans. With respect to Trump, he’s counting on bluster to fix this and it simply will not. I believe that he needs to cut Waltz loose and cut his losses in doing so. Or, he’s going to be in this sunken cost situation that he’s in now and he’d be better off sacrificing a lamb or two.
Actually, it IS possible for Hegseth to be removed by impeachment. No fewer than FOUR Attorneys General in just this century (Dubya’s Alberto Gonzalez*, Obama’s Eric Holder, Drumpf’s Bill Barr and Biden’s Merrick Garland) have had articles drafted at a bare minimum (none made it past the committee-level; the “case” against Garland doesn’t seem to have been any more than some hot air from Traitor Greene). Additionally, Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, was impeached (by a 214-213 vote in the House but it wasn’t even heard by the Senate). Also, two sitting Secretaries of the Treasury (and one former Secretary), a Secretary of Labor and a Secretary of Defense have had articles or resolutions of impeachment brought before them (on the Treasury case, one of the sitting Secretaries was also threatened with impeachment after leaving the office).
So, if a few GOPers who possess a spine (either as individuals or willing to share one) side with the Dems, Hegseth COULD be impeached. And it would be possible that when it made it to the Senate, enough GOP Senators could express remorse over their original confirmation votes to dump the bum. (I know–neither of those events is gonna happen but the former happening might actually put Drumpf on notice that enough GOPers want Drumpf to, you know, ACT presidential all the time.)
*Worth noting. The Gonzalez affair was damaging enough that he chose to resign within two months of the impeachment articles being presented to the House.
Petie Boy can choke on his own stupidity and lack of proper op sex procedures.