Dem
47
GOP
53
Do Republican senators have spines? Nope. Do university presidents have spines? Nope. Do TV stations have spines? Nope. Do the biggest newspapers in the country have spines? Nope. Do billionaires who own massive companies have spines? Nope. Do big law firms have spines? Mostly no, but maybe one. OK, finally, what about lowly magazine editors? YES!
Yesterday, The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, published (behind a paywall) what was said on the now-infamous SignalGate chat (except for parts that could compromise national security). But lots of (now only historical) information was released, including what kinds of planes took part in the attack on Yemen and which weapons were used on which targets. The discussion was not about the general theory of war. It was very specific about who was getting bombed and when. Interestingly enough, the one person you might think would be in the loop when you are starting a war, Admiral Christopher Grady, Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was not in on the chat.
Goldberg apparently figured that since the administration had announced that nothing classified was discussed in the chat, it would be much harder to convince a jury some day that he had knowingly released classified information. Still, he took a big risk because Donald Trump is not going to like this. If this story ends with the Secretary of Defense "resigning" or being fired, Goldberg might well rate a chapter in the next edition of Profiles in Courage.
Needless to say, with the publication, the story blew up yesterday. It was everywhere. Here is the AP story and here is Politico's, for example, but practically every major media outlet in the country had something on it. Even Fox covered it here. But Fox's take was that all those 17 hard-working defense people and one reporter worked together flawlessly with no backbiting to come to a worthy decision in an efficient manner, unlike the previous administration, where all they did was fight with each other.
On Monday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that no war plans were discussed. Here is part of a message he posted to the group chat hours before the strike:
We are not military strategists, but these sound like fairly specific war plans to us. If the message had fallen into the wrong hands, the safety of the pilots could have been compromised. God forbid that the Houthis knew all this in advance, shot down the planes, and killed the pilots or took them as hostages. At the very least, the Houthis could have made sure no one and nothing valuable was at the targeted sites.
On Tuesday, DNI Tulsi Gabbard testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee under oath that she could not recall whether specific timing or weapons systems were discussed on the chat. Either she has brain damage or she just committed perjury.
On Wednesday morning, NSA Mike Waltz tweeted: "No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS." At least he didn't lie under oath.
Democrats are having a field day with this, as you might imagine. Former Navy pilot Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has called for Hegseth to step down. He tweeted: "The Signal incident is what happens when you have the most unqualified Secretary of Defense we've ever seen. We're lucky it didn't cost any servicemembers their lives, but for the safety of our military and our country, Secretary Hegseth needs to resign." Other top Democrats who have called for Hegseth's head on a pike include Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA).
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is already under fire from Democratic voters for being a milquetoast, made it worse by saying: "Many outstanding questions are simply not answered." He was lobbed a softball thrown underhand from 3 feet away and he dropped it. He should have thundered from the floor of the Senate that Hegseth is a danger to American security and if Trump had any guts, he would have fired Hegseth yesterday. He could have added that Trump loved to say "You're fired" on television, but in real life he is a coward. At the very least, Trump could have asked Elon Musk to fire Hegseth. Musk is not afraid to fire people. Even one Republican, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a retired Air Force brigadier general, piped up, saying: "The White House is in denial that this was not classified or sensitive data."
One anonymous defense official said: "It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this. 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."
If the Democrats are smart, some member of the House should formally introduce a resolution to impeach Hegseth for endangering the lives of U.S. servicemembers. Mike Johnson will never even let the resolution go to committee, so the member should seek maximum publicity. Talk to every media outlet out there. Hey, members, we'd do an exclusive interview. Get the public all riled up about Hegseth not caring about the safety of our men and women in uniform. That is something people can understand and will put pressure on Trump to fire him.
This week the media has had more scoops than a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store. Wired Magazine also had one. It seems that Mike Waltz is really careless. He has a Venmo account. In case you are not familiar with it, Venmo is sort of PayPal Jr., intended for people to make small payments to their friends and make the payments viewable by friends, for example, splitting the check for a group dinner. Until late yesterday, Waltz' list of Venmo friends was public. Anyone could see who his friends, acquaintances, and professional colleagues are until Wired found the list and wrote it up. There were 328 friends, journalists, military officers, lobbyists, and others. A foreign intelligence service would give big bucks, euros, rubles, renminbis, or in a pinch, rials, to have a list of people who know Waltz well. Some of them could potentially be blackmailed into trying to pry valuable information from Waltz and deliver it to their handler. In the security business, you gotta be real careful. Waltz worked in the George W. Bush administration as defense policy director at the pentagon. He's supposed to know this stuff. Between the invitation to Goldberg and the public list of friends, that's two strikes against him. How many strikes does he get? In bowling, the maximum number of strikes is 12.
The Hill has a list of the players most affected by SignalGate:
Yesterday afternoon, Trump was still trying to downplay the whole thing to reporters in the Oval Office. He used one of his favorite terms. He called it a "witch hunt." He also said no harm was done because the attack was successful. He also blamed the Signal app, saying it might be defective. However, hours earlier, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Signal was an approved app used by several intelligence agencies due to its good security. On the other hand, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on the chat and yesterday he said inviting Goldberg was a "big mistake."
Our take: They are all floundering and hope it will soon pass with no consequences. Maybe they will be lucky, but remember, Republicans hammered on Hillary's e-mail server for years because there might have been an important classified message there that leaked out, although none was ever reported. If Democrats are smart, they will just pound on this as a sign that the administration is incompetent and doesn't care about national security. Frequent repetition of a line like, "Huh. How many American soldiers does Pete Hegseth have to kill with his carelessness before he gets fired?" might be advised. (V)