Yikes, even with all of this going on #Trump hasn’t even bothered to find out that #Signal is an app. He has no freaking idea what he’s talking about.

@Nonilex

Trying (no: really!) not to be too vulgar about this, but I can't help but think that all the 'Tiger Team' and 'SITREP' and 'OPSEC' texting between these middle-age men is a pretty strong Viagra for them

Most of them haven't been so *firm* about anything else in years and years

This idiot

#PeteHegseth spouts off on social media:

So, let's me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called "war plans" and those "plans" include: No names. No targets. No locations.

Rep #JimmyGomez, #Democrat CA, asked if #Gabbard or #Ratcliffe had any info as to whether #Defense Sec #PeteHegseth had been drinking the day he texted clearly #classified information on #Signal.
Gomez’s question resulted in an explosion of feigned indignation from Ratcliffe–accusing Gomez of inappropriate behavior. Gomez replied #Hegseth’s alcohol abuse was a concern to Americans & he’d sworn in his confirmation hearing he’d quit. Yet, Hegseth recently appeared at a podium in Europe w/a drink.

#Ratcliffe said the #CIA officer he had added to the #Signal chat was his chief of staff, who is not serving under cover. While he chastised #TheAtlantic for making it look as if he had revealed #classified information by including the name, the magazine said it had withheld the name at the urging of the agency. The CIA typically asks that the names of most of its officers be kept secret to preserve their ability to serve overseas in undercover roles in the future.

John #Ratcliffe, the #CIA director, said the newly released portions of the chat show that he did not share #classified information there. “My answers haven’t changed,” he said. “I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so. I didn’t transfer any classified information.”

"#NationalSecurity advisor has taken full responsibility for this, & the National Security Council is conducting an in-depth review, along w/technical experts working to determine how this reporter was inadvertently added to this chat," #Gabbard testified this morning.

#TulsiGabbard maintained that #classified info was not shared, but called the conversation "candid & sensitive."
#law #SignalGate #Signal #idiocracy #kakistocracy #JDVance #Hegseth #Ratcliffe #MikeWaltz #MarcoRubio #StephenMiller

Then there’s a bunch of self-congratulating & a ridiculous number of emojis.

#TheAtlantic’s #JefferyGoldberg also published all 18 #Trump officials who participated in this #Signal group chat (19 members with Goldberg counted).

And here are screenshots of the OBVIOUSLY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION texts:

As a general rule, we do not publish info about #military ops if that info could possibly jeopardize lives of #US personnel. That is why we chose to characterize the nature of the info being shared, not specific details about attacks.

The stmnts by #Hegseth, #Gabbard, #Ratcliffe, & #Trump—combined w/the assertions made by numerous admin ofcls that we are lying about the content of the #Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions.

#Ratcliffe said much the same: “My communications, to be clear, in the #Signal message group were entirely permissible & lawful & did not include classified information.”

#Trump, asked yesterday afternoon…, said, “It wasn’t #classified information.”

These stmnts presented us w/a dilemma. In #TheAtlantic’s initial story about the Signal chat—the “Houthi PC small group,” as it was named by #MikeWaltz—we withheld specific info related to weapons & to the timing of attacks…in certain texts.

At a Senate hearing yesterday, the director of national #intelligence, #TulsiGabbard, and the director of the #CIA, John #Ratcliffe, were both asked about the #Signal chat, to which #JeffreyGoldberg, the editor in chief of #TheAtlantic, was inadvertently invited by #NationalSecurity Adviser #MikeWaltz. “There was no #classified material that was shared in that Signal group,” Gabbard told members of the #Senate Intelligence Cmte.