Congressional Cowards is a weekly sequence highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—irrespective of how disgraceful or lawless his actions.
As fury mounts over the Trump administration’s leaking of labeled army operations in an unsecure Sign group chat that included a reporter who didn’t have a safety clearance, GOP lawmakers have continued to downplay the seriousness of the scenario.
The ridiculous defenses—starting from lies concerning the contents of the messages to conspiracy theories about how the reporter obtained added to the dialog within the first place—are even rankling some Trump administration allies, who instructed Politico that President Donald Trump and his crew have to come clean with the error, fireplace these concerned, and finish the controversy.
However that message has clearly not been heard by congressional Republicans, who’re nonetheless defending the monumental fuck-up that risked U.S. troops who had been finishing up an assault on a insurgent group in Yemen—at the same time as extra particulars emerge confirming that labeled data was shared on an insecure platform.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, mentioned that he stands by the Trump administration officers who had been concerned—together with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared within the chat the precise timing of the forthcoming assault and the weapons programs that will be used.
“President Trump and his team have admitted that having a journalist in the group text was wrong, will be reviewed and falls in the category of ‘lessons learned’ so that it doesn’t happen again. I think President Trump has handled this matter well. Further, I believe that all the participants in the chat were under the impression they were using an appropriate and secure form of communication. This will also fall into the category of ‘lessons learned,’” Graham mentioned in a press release.
He ended with, “I continue to support all members of President Trump’s national security team. Lessons learned.”
Equally, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Republican of Florida, mentioned in an look on CNN that this was simply an trustworthy mistake made by rookie administration officers who didn’t know any higher than to share labeled data on a textual content chat together with a reporter.
“Keep in mind, they’re simply beginning within the job. This sport simply began. Let’s have a look at how they do the following two years, after which we are able to decide them. However not due to one mistake that they put a reporter—perhaps they made a mistake they usually put that … pay attention, those who don’t have any sins, they will throw the primary stone,” she mentioned.
GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who has change into an everyday on this sequence for saying idiotic issues, mentioned that anybody might have made the identical mistake.
“All of us make errors. I do not know the way it occurred. It may need been a communication drawback with anyone within the communications division,” Tuberville instructed CNN, saying that there should not be any investigations.
In the meantime, Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned the blunder will not be a fireable offense, which he actually wouldn’t be saying had this been carried out by Democratic administration officers.
“I don’t think someone should have lost their job over that because an errant number found their way onto a dialogue,” Johnson mentioned throughout a information convention on Tuesday.
True to type, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio lied concerning the conflict plans leak totally.
“The signal chat didn’t contain classified information. Terrorists were killed. Americans are safer,” Jordan wrote on X.
And whereas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas admitted on his podcast that the Sign chat was “a huge screwup,” he then downplayed the seriousness of it.
“It’s sort of comparable to a butt dial,” he mentioned.
I don’t find out about you, however once I unintentionally butt dial somebody, they often simply hear me telling my children to placed on their footwear, not spilling labeled intel that might get folks killed.
Finally, whereas Republicans shirk their duty to analyze the apparent safety failure and to carry the Trump administration accountable, Democrats are filling that void.
For instance, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, rating member on the Home Judiciary Committee, despatched a letter to Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi demanding solutions to what he described as “one of the most humiliating and dangerous national security breaches in modern American history—one that put the lives of American service members and intelligence officers carrying out military operations abroad at risk and a rupture in national security protocol that almost certainly violates federal criminal and civil statutes.”
Within the letter, Raskin demanded to know if there’s an FBI investigation into the safety breach, if there have been different situations of labeled data being mentioned in improper settings, and if the Trump administration is utilizing Sign to conduct different official issues.
And in a letter to Trump, Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries known as for “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history” Hegseth to be faraway from his administration.
“His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law,” he wrote. “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should be fired immediately.”
