After Endangering Troops, Trump White House Smears Journalist

After the Trump administration put troops in danger by sharing highly classified information on Signal "inadvertently," Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Jeffrey Goldberg.

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If there is one thing Trump excels at, it’s blaming other people for his mistakes.

Today their message is, ‘Hey don’t worry about how we shared classified information about upcoming US military strikes in Yemen with a random we didn’t know was even in the chat, because we had “inadvertently” added him. These things happen!’

Except these things do not happen when one is competent, and these are the very same people who wanted to lock up Hillary Clinton for receiving conducting Secretary of State business on her personal server, but it’s fine for them to share actual war plans on Signal with randoms.

After the Trump administration put troops in danger by sharing highly classified information on Signal "inadvertently," Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Jeffrey Goldberg… the journalist who reported the fact that they’d done so.

Here’s her statement:

“Jeffrey Goldberg is well-known for his sensationalist spin. Here are the facts about his latest story: 1. No “war plans” were discussed. 2. No classified material was sent to the thread. 3. The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible. As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread. 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.”

As usual, there’s a lot of gaslighting and zero accountability here.

Most importantly, Signal is not an appropriate place for communication about classified material, and she does not actually even suggest that it is. Again, while Signal is encrypted, it’s not approved by the US government for discussion of classified material.

The BBC reported that Google Threat Intelligence Group “noticed increasing efforts to compromise the platform by individuals of interest to Russia's intelligence services” and CNN reported, “Pentagon regulations state that messaging apps "are NOT authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information.”

In Leavitt’s statement, she does not actually say that Signal has been approved. Rather, she says, “White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.”

Which platforms are those?

Because even lower-level classified clearance people know they would be fired and, as former Sec. Pete Buttigieg explained last night, perhaps even prosecuted and jailed, for sharing classified information on Signal.

He was asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, “Do you think someone should be fired over this?”

Buttigieg: “Absolutely. I mean, if I made a mistake like this as Lieutenant, I would be probably not just fired, but probably indicted and tried and maybe in prison.”

Trump’s History of Reckless Regard for U.S. Security