297
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

Summary

White House insiders blame National Security Adviser Mike Waltz for a group chat error that exposed military strike discussions to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.

Waltz mistakenly added Goldberg to a Signal chat about potential strikes in Yemen, involving key officials like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and JD Vance.

Trump has defended Waltz but is reportedly weighing his options.

Some aides urge resignation to avoid forcing Trump to make a decision. Critics call Waltz reckless, but House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes his resignation.

top 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 172 points 1 month ago

No, every person on that chat (other than the editor from the Atlantic) should lose their clearance and be fired. They were all using an unapproved, off-record system for discussing matters of national security. They are all responsible.

[-] el_muerte@lemm.ee 32 points 1 month ago

Beyond that, every member of the chat could see who else was in it and not a single one put in half a second to scan through the other names/initials to verify they knew everyone included.

[-] obviouspornalt@lemmynsfw.com 23 points 1 month ago

No, every single member of that chat should have pointed out that the communication violates multiple clear, long existing federal laws about how communications about federal government business is to be conducted, especially about military operations, and refused to communicate via signal instead of approved channels.

All of them violated multiple laws.

[-] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 month ago
[-] whostosay@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

You're mad about her emails? In a time where his laptop exists?

[-] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

As long as they find this Ben Ghazi guy idgaf.

[-] whostosay@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

That son of a bitch

[-] AreaKode@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Buttery Males!

[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

Jeffrey Goldberg should lose his job too but for unrelated reasons. Good on him for publishing this responsibly but he sucks too. He was arguably the main cheerleader for the 2nd Iraq war.

[-] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Shocking. You shitcan the infosec practices and human resources you've built up for decades, and then wonder why your new seive doesn't make a good bucket.

We've got some absolute geniuses running things here.

[-] gndagreborn@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I'm stealing this analogy

[-] distantsounds@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago

When the most responsible person in the chat is the journalist added in error…

[-] MuAraeOracle@real.lemmy.fan 13 points 1 month ago

Somehow the kids knew they needed an adult in the room...

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 month ago

The crimes each member may have committed exposes them to multi-decade prison sentences.

They're urging someone to resign? RESIGN?

Let's see the court cases. Each one of those hypocrites.

[-] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago

Good luck with that. It will never happen.

[-] D_C@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

Exactly.
Orange ShitGibbon had boxes and boxes of top secret stuff in his unlocked toilet right next to a fax machine yet nothing happened.
Not only did nothing happen to him, he also got voted back in again. Ffs.

[-] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

two words: presidential pardon.

No one will spend the time, money and effort to prosecute these people when they can just wave the whole thing away with a signature.

[-] Flisty@mstdn.social 0 points 1 month ago

@FiskFisk33 @corsicanguppy why not make him do it. Make him sign his approval to every "mistake" his cabinet makes.

[-] Flisty@mstdn.social 0 points 1 month ago

But then I don't really think I understand US politics. To me it makes no sense why there isn't an impeachment charge against him every day. He's providing enough ammo. If he's going to flood the zone, flood it right back.

[-] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 1 points 1 month ago

Me neither. I would have thought this was exactly the kind of situation impeachment was meant to stop. I am thoroughly confused.

[-] FrChazzz@lemm.ee 24 points 1 month ago

One thing I want to know is: who did Waltz think he was adding? Is there another Goldberg in the administration (or a foreign one?) out there? Or is his name right under Gabbard’s in the contacts list?

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 month ago

I think the journalist just went by his initials as did a few other people in the chat, so it could be as dumb as just having someone with the same initials. Which is notably not how government systems work, for exactly the reason that you need to know exactly who you're communicating with and the system should make mistakes like this unlikely.

Obfuscating your identity makes sense of you're trying to talk to leakers or doing something shady and want to allow some deniability should the conversation be compromised. Which begs the question of why so many of them already had their Signal accounts set up that way.

[-] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 3 points 1 month ago

I saw speculation about another person in the administration with the same initials. I think they work at the US Trade Representative (?).

[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

Maybe it was Moldbug but Waltz can't type with his thumbs very well.

[-] eran_morad@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Thing is, they’re all fucking idiots.

[-] Zippygutterslug@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Buttery males

[-] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

Actually, I blame one single fucking idiot as well.

[-] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I blame approximately 77.3 million idiots

[-] timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

And 90 million lazy idiots too.

[-] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 month ago

I always forget how low the bar for "average" is. But for the average person to realize how epically stupid Trump and his goons are takes things like this to happen.

What gets me more depressed is that nearly 4.1 billion people on earth are below average.

We are governed by goobers.

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

Sadly this is hardly enough either

[-] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

100%. The entire time I was typing it, I thought, "events like this just expose the magnitude of the dark underbelly."

[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 month ago

There is no passing the buck for matters of national security. The "party of law and order" should know that. They crucified Hillary for far less.

[-] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

They will all get away with it, mark my words.

[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 month ago

No argument here. They absolutely will.

[-] francis_milesaway@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

"The buck stops here" - ?

[-] jj4211@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

They consider the sin not to be using unapproved services using an unapproved service, the sin is the guy who got them caught.

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Every damn person on that chat was a giant fucking idiot and it's responsible for the data spill here with their collective agreement to use a non approved communication tool, taking about and continuing to talk about classified data on a unclassified environment, and then not self reporting they're were complete morons for violating security that a new hire would have known better than to do.

[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

At least two senior aides have suggested that Waltz should resign to avoid putting Trump in the “bad position” of having to decide whether to fire him, Politicoreported.

Yeah, that’s it. How dare he do this to Dear Leader and The Cause.

How dare he make Leader have to lie away the US government risking national security and avoiding FOI.

If anyone is flying today maybe ask the NSA people left at the airport why you can’t carry butter if buttery emails make plane sounds. Or maybe let us know if the boot leather tastes a bit buttery, maybe that’s how they polish them.

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

I use this app. If I saw a new person added to a casual group chat, I'd ask about it. I'm not an idiot who sucks Trump's dick, though.

[-] pleasegoaway@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

The trump regime is incompetent, evil, and rotten to the core.

[-] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

The outlet also pointed out that Trump’s lack of social media posts suggested he was weighing his options.

He's having quiet time to reflect on the choices he's made or he's so senile that he can't think one thought at a time.

this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
297 points (98.7% liked)

politics

23250 readers
3297 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS