The Ongoing National Security Debacle

Morning Dispatch

Traitors.

We now have confirmation that Donald's advisors did in fact share classified military details about the Yemen strikes, which we all knew to be true despite days of denials from every level of the regime. But I want to start with the man who accidentally invited a journalist into the Signal chat in the first place: National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz who made an appearance on Laura Ingraham’s show. His goal was to do some damage control. But because, like Donald, he is woefully unprepared for anything requiring nuance or maturity, he only made things worse, first by launching into an absurd attack on The Atlantic journalist and editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who broke this story because, well, he’s the guy Waltz invited into the Signal chat in the first place.

MIKE WALTZ

I could tell you for 100%, I don't know this guy. I know him by his horrible reputation and he really is the bottom scum of journalists. And I know him in the sense that he hates the president, but I don't text him. He wasn't on my phone. And we're going to figure out how this happened.

So that’s his defense, “I don't know him, but I hate him.” How exactly, then, does that explain how Goldberg got into the chat if he wasn't on Waltz’s phone?

Waltz claimed that he was willing to take full responsibility. He even refused to blame his staffers, which is completely out of character for somebody who works for Donald. But then he suggested that somehow Goldberg’s phone number was accidentally mixed up with somebody else’s contact information:

MIKE WALTZ

You've got somebody else's number on someone else's contact. So of course I didn't see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else. Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical means is something we're trying to figure out.

Two things occur to me here. First, what Waltz is admitting to here is that neither he, nor anybody else in this high-level group chat bothered to vet the attendees. Second, it sounds like Waltz is trying to implicate Goldberg in something potentially nefarious, as if the journalist inexplicably knew to use somebody else’s contact information as a Trojan horse to get into a Signal chat he couldn’t have possibly known existed.

After claiming he would take responsibility Waltz does everything he can either to downplay this debacle as some kind of innocent mistake that could happen to anybody, or evading responsibility entirely by implying rather insidiously that Goldberg somehow orchestrated the whole thing.

Yesterday, Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and F.B.I. Director Kash Patel (which I cannot type without feeling sick) testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee and, not surprisingly, also denied what we already knew to be true--that there was indeed classified information discussed in the Signal thread.

Under questioning from the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, Gabbard said:

I can attest to the fact that there were no classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time. . . . I defer to the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Counsel on that question. There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal. . . . The Secretary of Defense is the original classification authority for determining whether something's classified or not. And as I've understood from media reports, the Secretary of Defense has said the information was not classified.

Then during a press conference, Donald said the following:

There was no classified information. As I understand it, they used an app, if you want to call it an app, we always want to use the best technology. This was the best technology for the moment, but again, it wasn't classified. So, they probably viewed it as being something that wasn't that important. It wasn't classified information. So, this was not classified. Now if it's classified information, it's probably a little bit different.

There's so much to talk about there, but let's start with the low-hanging fruit. First of all, we call it an app, because it’s an app. And Donald clearly still doesn’t understand the classification system his own government uses. After all, he’s the guy who thought he could declassify things in his head. Then we have the Director of National Intelligence telling us she has to defer to the expertise of two people even though she's their boss. She's the one who's supposed to know these things. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reports to her. How could he possibly know something she doesn't know? Well, it’s because she does know. And that means that our Director of National Intelligence, also known as Putin's girlfriend in Russia media circles, perjured herself in front of Congress.

Yesterday, The Atlantic released the full Signal thread, proving everything these people have been saying is a lie. To put this all in context, I want to walk through the chronology.

• On Thursday, March 13th, Mike Waltz created the Signal chat group called “Houthi PC Small Group.” and asks for agency points of contact for the next 72 hours of planning.

  “Team: establishing a principles group for coordinating on Houthi. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening. Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple of days and over the weekend. Thx.”

  Some of the participants responded included Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, J.D. Vance, John Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe then shared the name of an active CIA intelligence officer on an unsecured line. The Atlantic, of course, redacted this information. Why would you redact such highly sensitive information about a human intelligence officer? Maybe out of respect for the fact that the CIA keeps its officers’ names secret so they’re not jeopardized in future overseas missions. And National Security Advisor Mike Waltz doesn't seem to care about such consideration because he revealed the identity of a CIA officer in an unsecured Signal chat.

  If I were that CIA officer, I would be very, very worried right now, and I would be extraordinarily angry that these people who have such positions of power and authority put my life in danger for nothing.

• On Friday, March 14th, J.D. Vance expresses concern over the economic impact of a strike and floats the idea of delaying the mission. Hegseth replies not with a military argument--remember he's a Fox guy--but with a PR strategy. “Messaging is going to be tough—nobody knows who the Houthis are—which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed and 2) Iran funded.”

  Then, unbelievably, he continues. “We can easily pause and if we do, I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC.”

  Let's pause for a second here. After strategizing about how to blame Biden, which is pretty much one of the only things they know how to do, Hegseth says states that he will enforce OPSEC, which means operational security, a process of identifying and protecting critical information from adversaries in order to prevent the compromise of operations and maintain secrecy. That is their idea of operational security in a an unsecured chat, one that is absolutely disallowed for such use by their own government, that included a journalist.

• Then we get to the big reveal on Saturday, March 15th at 11:44 AM. Hegseth sends a team update and lists minute by minute when the United States will launch F-18s , when drones will hit targets, and when the first bombs will drop.

  This was not generic planning. These were real world strike times that were released before the operation began, on Signal, an encrypted non-secure messaging app, to an unvetted group because there was somebody in that group who did not belong there, should not have been there, and whom they did not want there.

  New York Times Pentagon correspondent, Helene Cooper put it very bluntly. “This is where the rubber meets the road. He access described operational details that could have been used to bring down those planes.”

• Then came the damage assessment, also in the chat.1:48 PM Waltz: “Building collapse had multiple positive id. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job.”

  Then he clarifies that “The first target—their top missile guy—we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed.”

  At 2:01 PM Vance writes back, “Excellent.”

  Thirty minutes later, Mike Waltz who is apparently a prepubescent idiot, responds with fist pump, flag, and fire emojis.

  At 5:20 PM Hegseth wraps it up. “CENTCOM was/is on point. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readout so far.”

  At 5:21 PM Steve Witkoff responds with a few more emojis because what better way to celebrate bombing people than with emojis?

  6:35 PM TG, who is absolutely Tulsi Gabbard. Do not listen to that perjurer tell you otherwise, closes with, “Great work and effect.”

These were the war plans. This is what these breathtakingly shameless liars claimed never happened. But it all did happen, didn't it?

They denied the texts existed; they denied that any classified information was shared. Then in order to deflect from their crimes, they attacked Jeffrey Goldberg, who was there at their invitation, intentional or otherwise. They've been caught red-handed.

What's going to happen? I don't know, but I think that depends partially on whether or not any of the Republicans in the Senate care enough to do something. They know, to a person, how serious this is. In a sane world, they understand that every single traitor in that chat would be fired and tried under the Espionage Act. It also depends on how the Democrats continue to handle this. This is a golden opportunity for them to take up this cause and make it clear to the American people that they, and they alone, care about the national security of this country and for the citizens in it.

So far, they're doing a good job, but they and the media cannot let this story go because it’s huge. And it must continue to be. The ramifications of this are enormous. The repercussions for every single one of these unqualified treasonous hacks should be devastating.

We already know what Donald Trump is going to do—he’s trying to set up Jeffrey Goldberg. Waltz and Hegseth have followed his lead. Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary called Goldberg’s account a hoax, even though he was a witness to the crime the people in the upper echelons of the Trump regime committed in real time.

Donald said this earlier today, “I happen to know the [Goldberg’s] a total sleaze bag. The Atlantic is a failed magazine,” etc., etc. It’s very clear what’s going on here--they're trying to change the subject, and in the process, they're trying to make Jeffrey Goldberg and the media the enemy once again so none of us will believe our lying eyes.

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I want to give a shoutout to Jeffrey Goldberg and The Atlantic because, sadly, what they did here, the level of transparency they provided is unusual in the current media environment. People who have that kind of incendiary, serious information sometimes wait a year or two to publish it in a book when it is no longer useful to us. So thank you. If I didn’t already subscribe to The Atlantic, I would subscribe now.