Leaks, Lies, and True Patriots: The White House Thinks You're Stupid.
All those government officials… and yet, the only true patriot in the chat was the guy who wasn’t even supposed to be there.
Kudos to the Trump administration; when the story broke yesterday that the nation’s top officials discussed war plans on an unclassified chat (and nobody noticed a reporter was included)… I really didn’t think they could make themselves look any worse.
I’ll be sure not to underestimate them again.
Today started with the most ridiculous tweet ever from the White House Press Secretary:
It was so obviously false, I thought maybe Leavitt had gone rogue; surely the administration’s not going to attempt to simply deny the whole story? And yet, sure enough, when John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel testified a few hours later at the Select Committee on Intelligence about the highest ranking military and intelligence officials in the country discussing war plans on an unclassified chat app, they too denied sharing classified material.
IT IS CRUCIAL that Americans see what is happening right now, because it’s SINISTER:
Jeff Goldberg COULD have broken the story in the two hours before the strike, but he didn’t, because he didn’t want to put Americans in danger.
Leavitt said “Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump,” but she fails to acknowledge a key point: the only reason they were successful and effective is because Jeff Goldberg is an excellent journalist and waited until it was safe to report. If a reporter with less experience or lesser morals had been included in that chat, we don’t know if the operation would have been successful.
Stating “No classified material was sent to the thread”... that is the government blatantly gaslighting its citizens, straight-up. The group chat discussed the details of a military operation, in enemy territory, that had not happened yet; one doesn’t need to be a soldier to realize that’s fucked up.
I cannot stress this enough: The only reason the White House can even attempt lying right now is because they know Jeff Goldberg IS, in fact, a good reporter.
The Bulwark interviewed Jeff Goldberg just a few hours ago, where they discussed the White House’s claims of no war plans or classified materials being included in the group chat:
Jeffrey Goldberg: “Look… I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years. I know what sensitive technical information looks like, okay? That’s all I’m going to say.”
Tim Miller: “Let’s go to that national security lawyer question then, because I think the White House, now the Secretary of Defense and the White House Press Secretary, have said you’re lying, said there are no war plans there, no classified information. The obvious question is, shouldn’t you now demonstrate it? Shouldn’t you publish the text?”
Jeffrey Goldberg: “No, because they’re wrong. They’re wrong.”
Tim Miller: “But how can you prove that they’re wrong? Should you provide them to the House and Senate special committee on intelligence maybe?”
Jeffrey Goldberg: “Lemme just put it this way: my colleagues and I, and the people giving us advice on this, have some interesting conversations to have about this. Just because they're irresponsible with material doesn’t mean that I’m going to be irresponsible with this material... I’m sticking to my principles here.”
With the White House calling him a liar and sensationalist, with half the internet convinced he’s crooked… he has the proof. He could make all the attacks against him go away. He could simply hit publish on the whole thing and let the Trump administration face the fallout for the mess they made, and it would be SO WELL DESERVED…
Thanks for showing the WH press sec's comment. I hadn't seen it and it's an important piece that everyone should see. Also thanks for the link to the Bulwark's talk with Goldberg, another essential I hadn't seen.
I watched a bit of Laura Ingraham last night to see how she would spin it and it was weaker than I expected.
This is a rogue administration. I would recommed taking in David Fromm's assessment on Times Radio, the video is on Youtube, titled Trump is malignant. . . .
Is anybody still surprised that this cabinet, led by a convicted criminal and rapist, who stole many, many classified documents for vainglorious purposes of himself, and haphazardly kept those in a non-secure spot and moved them several times and lied about having those documents, that such a cabinet of alcoholics, ignorant juniors, flatterers of Trump hoping to financially benefit, and wife cheaters, who are clearly unaware of what government should be, and unfamiliar with the nature and structures of democracy, so really, are you surprised of the latest breach of security?
No wonder that others find the USA not a reliable partner to other nations in interactions with this administration and seek their alliances elsewhere—thiis early in the second term?