Early this morning, The Atlantic dropped a bombshell piece of reporting – something I don’t say lightly in the Trump 2.0 era – from its CEO Jeffrey Golberg.
After receiving the Waltz text related to the “Houthi PC small group,” I consulted a number of colleagues. We discussed the possibility that these texts were part of a disinformation campaign, initiated by either a foreign intelligence service or, more likely, a media-gadfly organization, the sort of group that attempts to place journalists in embarrassing positions, and sometimes succeeds. I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president. –The Atlantic
Or, more succinctly:
All along, members of the Signal group were aware of the need for secrecy and operations security. In his text detailing aspects of the forthcoming attack on Houthi targets, Hegseth wrote to the group—which, at the time, included me—“We are currently clean on OPSEC.”
“Can you imagine if this happened under [Obama/Hillary Clinton/Biden]” is a trope that has basically run out of gas, but… can you imagine?
Of course, this story contains many severe implications for U.S. national security and foreign policy, not to mention the standing of several officials at the highest level of our government.
While Democrats in Congress prepare their response…
…journalists and commentators Goldberg’s decision to voluntarily leave the chat.
The Signal chat group, I concluded, was almost certainly real. Having come to this realization, one that seemed nearly impossible only hours before, I removed myself from the Signal group, understanding that this would trigger an automatic notification to the group’s creator, “Michael Waltz,” that I had left. No one in the chat had seemed to notice that I was there. And I received no subsequent questions about why I left—or, more to the point, who I was.
Of course, this story does beg the question: how often is business of major political and economic significance being conducted via group text?
Tired: DC is actually just Veep.
Wired: DC is actually just Burn After Reading.
While this all plays out, my thoughts and prayers go out to anybody attending bar trivia in the next 48 hours in Washington, DC.
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