Sunday, April 20, 2025

SignalGate gets even worse

SignalGate continues and gets worse.  As with the first revelation that Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, was leaking and sharing details of the US attack on Yemen before and as it happened on a non-secure Signal chat, this new information again involves Pete and Signal but a different group.  Signal, AP reminds, "is a commercially available app not authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information" And this one again begs the question, "Was he drunk?"


Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart (REUTERS) report, "U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.  The revelations of a second Signal chat raise more questions about Hegseth's use of an unclassified messaging system to share highly sensitive security details and come at a particularly delicate moment for him, with senior officials ousted from the Pentagon last week as part of an internal leak investigation."


For any who have forgotten the first non-secure Signal chat on the attack on Yemen was a chat involving Pete, Vice President JD Vance, Diretor of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabar, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, NSA advisor Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe (who named an undercover CIA agent in the non-secure chat) and, by accident, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg who wrote about it here.

 

Natasha Bertrand, Jake Tapper, Haley Britzky and Zachary Cohen (CNN) explain:


 The chat was set up during Hegseth’s tumultuous confirmation hearing process as a way for his closest allies to strategize, two of the people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth continued using the chat, which had more than a dozen people in it, to communicate after he was confirmed, the people said.

The revelation comes as some of Hegseth’s closest advisers have begun sounding the alarm about the secretary’s judgment, including his former press secretary, John Ullyot, and three former senior officials Hegseth fired last week — his top adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, who served as chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense.    

“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot said in a statement obtained by CNN.  


Was he drunk?  This newly revealed chat includes his wife and his brother who have both already raised eye brows.  Robert Mackey (GUARDIAN) notes,  "Hegseth has previously been criticized for including his wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, in sensitive meetings with foreign leaders, including a discussion of the war in Ukraine with British military leaders. Phil Hegseth, the secretary’s younger brother, was hired as a senior Pentagon adviser and is the defense department’s liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. It is unclear why either would need to know about the details of strikes plans in advance."  It's also unclear, at this point, who Hegseth didn't share war plans and deatils with regarding the US strike on Yemen.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Tweeted, "The details keep coming out. We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him."  Too weak.  Weak on national defense Chump.   Christopher Wiggins (THE ADVOCATE) notes:


Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday publicly condemned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling him “unfit to lead.” New revelations showed Hegseth shared classified U.S. military plans—including details of a Yemen airstrike—with his wife, brother, personal lawyer, and others in an encrypted Signal group chat. The disclosure comes weeks after Hegseth was revealed to have discussed plans for a military strike in an unsecured Signal chat to which The Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg had been added.

“Of course, advance information on US combat operations is classified,” Buttigieg, a Navy veteran who served as an intelligence officer, wrote on Facebook. “Pretending otherwise is an insult to our troops, who all know this. The Secretary is unfit to lead.”


Pete's an Afghan War veteran,  Senator Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran.


How many times does Pete Hegseth need to leak classified intelligence before Donald Trump and Republicans understand that he isn’t only a f*cking liar, he is a threat to our national security?

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— Tammy Duckworth (@duckworth.senate.gov) April 20, 2025 at 5:47 PM

Senator Michael Bennett Tweeted, "Pete Hegseth’s continuing contempt for our intelligence community and abdication of his duty to our armed forces and the American people are completely unacceptable – and dangerous. President Trump must remove him immediately."


US House Rep Sydney Kamlager-Dove posted to BLUESKY:


After Pete Hegseth fired three top aides last week over Signal-gate, it’s now been revealed that Hegseth shared attack plans in yet another Signal chat. Hegseth has repeatedly put our troops’ lives and national security at risk—he must be fired.

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— Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (@repkamlagerdove.bsky.social) April 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM


These calls join earlier ones.  Dan Lamothe (WASHINGTON POST) reminds, "In the aftermath of the first error coming to light, President Donald Trump supported Hegseth, but the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sens. Roger Wicker (Mississippi) and Jack Reed (Rhode Island), requested that the Defense Department inspector general’s office scrutinize the situation. A review is underway."   Yash Nitish Bajaj (THE HINDUSTAN TIMES) notes, "After The Atlantic disclosed the first Signal chat, Hegseth said: 'Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.' At a Senate hearing, Tulsi Gabbard asserted the same claim."  Yes, they lied.  And they will most likely lie again.  In the meantime,  Chas Danner (INTELLIGENCER) observes, "Hegseth’s 100th day as defense secretary will be May 4 — if he’s still the defense secretary."


The following sites updated:




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