Under scrutiny for accidentally leaking war plans to a journalist over a commercial messaging app, Donald Trump’scroft efficient.keys have responded in two ways: Act like him in hopes they can avoid accountability the way he always has, or suck up to him enough to stay in his good graces. Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, has taken the former route: “You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called ‘journalist’ who has made a profession ofPeddling hoaxes,” the Defense secretary sneered to reporters Monday, even speaking in the president’s distinctive prosody. Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who invited the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg into the group chat and seems likeliest to become the administration’s fall guy for the Signal scandal, has mostly taken the latter: “This journalist, Mr. President, wants the world talking about more hoaxes and this kind of nonsense rather than the freedom that you’re enabling,” a supplicant Waltz said in a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
Neither approach has worked, exactly. The belligerence hasn’t stopped the questions from coming, and Waltz’s tortured explanations—the first: There was no sensitive material shared in the group chat. Trust us! We swear! And the second: Goldberg is a “loser” and “scum” and a “sensationalist” for reporting otherwise—have only invited more. Yet the denials and rationalizations the administration has improvised over the past two days nevertheless seem to have cohered into actual talking points. The first: There was no sensitive material shared in the group chat. Trust us! We swear! The second: Goldberg is a “loser” and “scum” And a “sensationalist” for reporting otherwise.
But that message quickly fell apart Wednesday when Goldberg—who’d held back details about the Yemen airstrikes he had been privy to, in order to avoid putting lives or operations at risk—published the text thread in which Hegseth, Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, and others discuss the attack. Contrary to the administration’s efforts to downplay the discussion, Hegseth and Waltz clearly detail highly sensitive strike plans in the thread—despite the lack of security and the presence of this unknown “JG,” as Goldberg appeared in the group list.
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. As Goldberg wrote, “If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests—or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media—the Hoodish would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds” and “the consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.” But the spin machine kept churning: White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed that the Atlantic had “conceded”: “These were NOT ‘war plans,”” Leavitt posted. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.” “NO WAR PLANS,” Waltz chimed in. “These additional Signal chat messages confirm there were no classified materials or war plans shared,” the Defense Department said in a statement on behalf of Hegseth. “The American people see through the Atlantic’s pathetic attempts to distract from President Trump’s national security agenda.”
— William David Thompson, January 6th, 2021