Signal fiasco too big to be dismissed as a 'glitch'
By Nia-Malika Henderson / Bloomberg Opinion
It was only a matter of time before President Trump’s national security appointees proved just how unserious and unprepared they are for their posts. Now, just two months into his second term, we’ve got “Signalgate,” a reckless conversation about war plans over a commercial messaging app with a journalist (inadvertently invited) reading along.
The administration wants to somehow blame that journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief. (Trump on Tuesday called the award-winning Goldberg “a total sleazebag.”) But even the attention-dominating Trump administration will have a hard time shifting the focus away from the extraordinary security failure of top officials, particularly National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who reportedly initiated the group chat and accidentally included Goldberg, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who provided sensitive details on an impending March 15 strike on the Houthis.
Nevertheless, they will try. Administration officials began by stonewalling Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. The contentious hearing included Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, both of whom were in the group chat. The two-hour session, where Democrats focused on the Signal chat and Republicans notably avoided asking about the security breach, only raised more questions.
There was dodging, obfuscating and a concerning failure to remember by people whose job it is to pay attention to and to recall the smallest of details, particularly when it comes to matters of war and peace.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-signal-fiasco-too-big-to-be-dismissed-as-a-glitch/