I haven't heard Trump and his minions offer that excuse yet, but it's surely coming. To date, we have:
1. That mean old Jeffrey Goldberg somehow inserted himself in the Trump Cabinet's Signal group chat. And then made up a whole bunch of lies. (Whoops! Goldberg was invited to the group chat in question, either by Mike Waltz or his deputy. And, unfortunately for you Trump Cultists, Goldberg has all of the texts to back up the stories he has written on the subject.)
2. A Deep State operative put Jeffrey Goldberg in the subject group chat. It's those damn Democrats all over again. LOL, you KNEW this one was coming. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence of this happening. And even assuming arguendo that it DID happen, why did none of these supposedly brilliant and well qualified Trump Cabinet members (or one of their assistants) fail to notice Goldberg's name or phone number in the group chat and call a halt to his participation? And how does Goldberg's inclusion in or exclusion from this Signal chat group excuse the use of personal cell phones and a commercial messenger app for such sensitive information?
3. No classified information was included in the group texts to which Jeffrey Goldberg was made privy. BWAHAHAHAHA!! This one is perhaps the funniest of all. Hegseth says that "No war plans were texted. They were attack plans." That's a first class attempt at parsing right there. Bill Clinton, eat your heart out. The chat group texts from Hegseth are hilariously telling. "We are a GO for launch." "We are currently clean on OPSEC" - i.e., operational security. (Apparently not.) Hegseth's texts discussed the precise time the attack would commence, the nature of the attack (MQ-9 drones, Tomahawk missiles, and F-18 fighter jets), the time that bombs would start dropping, and that the "Target Terrorist is @ his known location." If specific information concerning an impending military attack is not "classified information," then one has to wonder what IS.
4. All group chat communications were secure, even the texts sent to Trump's Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff. ROFLMAO. The Signal Messenger Application employs end to end encription, but it was developed as a commercial program, and is vulnerable to being hacked. A Defense Department memo issued a few days after this incident specifically advised that the Signal app had a vulnerability, and was the target of Russian hackers. Moreover, a DoD memo issued in 2023 noted that Signal Messenger should not be used for any nonpublic official information. Compounding the problem, Steve Witkoff was over in Russia at the time he was receiving and sending texts about the impending attack via this commercial program already known to be a target of Russian hackers. And he was using his cell phone. What could possibly go wrong there?!
5. But Hillary! LOL, what ABOUT Hillary? Can you say red herring?
1. That mean old Jeffrey Goldberg somehow inserted himself in the Trump Cabinet's Signal group chat. And then made up a whole bunch of lies. (Whoops! Goldberg was invited to the group chat in question, either by Mike Waltz or his deputy. And, unfortunately for you Trump Cultists, Goldberg has all of the texts to back up the stories he has written on the subject.)
2. A Deep State operative put Jeffrey Goldberg in the subject group chat. It's those damn Democrats all over again. LOL, you KNEW this one was coming. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence of this happening. And even assuming arguendo that it DID happen, why did none of these supposedly brilliant and well qualified Trump Cabinet members (or one of their assistants) fail to notice Goldberg's name or phone number in the group chat and call a halt to his participation? And how does Goldberg's inclusion in or exclusion from this Signal chat group excuse the use of personal cell phones and a commercial messenger app for such sensitive information?
3. No classified information was included in the group texts to which Jeffrey Goldberg was made privy. BWAHAHAHAHA!! This one is perhaps the funniest of all. Hegseth says that "No war plans were texted. They were attack plans." That's a first class attempt at parsing right there. Bill Clinton, eat your heart out. The chat group texts from Hegseth are hilariously telling. "We are a GO for launch." "We are currently clean on OPSEC" - i.e., operational security. (Apparently not.) Hegseth's texts discussed the precise time the attack would commence, the nature of the attack (MQ-9 drones, Tomahawk missiles, and F-18 fighter jets), the time that bombs would start dropping, and that the "Target Terrorist is @ his known location." If specific information concerning an impending military attack is not "classified information," then one has to wonder what IS.
4. All group chat communications were secure, even the texts sent to Trump's Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff. ROFLMAO. The Signal Messenger Application employs end to end encription, but it was developed as a commercial program, and is vulnerable to being hacked. A Defense Department memo issued a few days after this incident specifically advised that the Signal app had a vulnerability, and was the target of Russian hackers. Moreover, a DoD memo issued in 2023 noted that Signal Messenger should not be used for any nonpublic official information. Compounding the problem, Steve Witkoff was over in Russia at the time he was receiving and sending texts about the impending attack via this commercial program already known to be a target of Russian hackers. And he was using his cell phone. What could possibly go wrong there?!
5. But Hillary! LOL, what ABOUT Hillary? Can you say red herring?
