Just imagine what they'd be saying if this happened under a Democratic administration. The "but her emails" crowd continues to downplay the massive screw-up, where Trump administration officials included a reporter on an unsecured Signal chat where they were discussing a US bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Republican Sen. James Lankford made an appearance on CNN's State of the Union this Sunday, and was asked about the breach by host Dana Bash. Sadly Bash allowed Lankford to pretend that using Signal is an acceptable form of communication for these officials to be discussing classified information, and didn't ask him at all about the national security risk and risk to our troops, or that it's a way to skirt FOIA requests.
BASH: The Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, he said the incident raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information.
He wants the Pentagon Inspector General to investigate. Do you also want an independent investigation into how all of this happened?
LANKFORD: It's entirely appropriate for the Inspector General to be able to look at it and be asked two questions. One is obviously how did a reporter get into this thread in the conversation?
And the second part of the conversation is, when individuals in the administration are not sitting at their desk in a classified setting on a classified computer, how do they communicate to each other?
Currently it's through encrypted apps, is how that communication happens. The next question is, is that the right way to be able to do it?
Obviously that's the way it has been done for quite a while now, while they're out on the road.
But I do want to remind everybody this is about the Houthis attacking the Americans. That's the story behind the story here is that Houthis have attacked American ships 170 some odd times, so for the Trump administration to push back on them is an entirely appropriate thing to be able to do, and they are pushing back on them strong to be able to stop their attack on American warships.
BASH: Yeah, and certainly nobody is questioning that. The question is about the plans, and whether or not it was appropriate to be discussing them on the app that we were just discussing.
You said it's appropriate for the Inspector General to look at it. Are you calling on the inspector General to do so because we don't believe that's happened yet?
LANKFORD: I do believe that Roger Wicker has actually called on that -- that Jack Reed and Roger Wicker together have gone back and said, hey, we need to have the Inspector General take a look...
BASH: And you agree with that?
LANKFORD: ...at this to be able to examine that. I do. I think it's entirely appropriate.
Again, there's two questions. One is how did a reporter get in this conversation? And the second one is how do members of the administration talk to each other when they're on the road on things that are clearly timely?
The launch of an American strike on the Houthis is a timely issue. They can't all go to their desk, sit in the SCIF to be able to have that dialogue. Where and how do they have that dialogue? What's the most secure way to do it?
BASH: The National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said it was a mistake to use signal. He has taken responsibility.
The Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not, even though he's the one who shared the specific information about the timing and aircraft being used in this strike.
Should he take responsibility as well, Senator?
LANKFORD: I think he just joined into an encrypted app. I don't see it as much of an issue because again they all believe that this was a closed circle of conversation.
He's trying to give each other a heads up of what's about to happen, as we had given a heads up to our foreign partners overseas as well, to let them know what was about to happen as well.
So this is, this is normal communication on it. What's not normal is having a reporter in the middle of it.
BASH: You have no doubts about Secretary Hegseth's leadership.
LANKFORD: No, I don't see this as an issue of leadership, nor... I've heard some people calling for his resignation. I think that's way overkill in this.
He is stepping in and has actually led a very successful first attack here on somebody that had attacked the United States over and over again during the Biden administration and had very limited response. Pete Hegseth has actually organized and coordinated an initial response to push back and make them stop.
No one from this administration will ever be held responsible for anything as long as Republicans are in charge of Congress or have the numbers to obstruct Democrats.
