Comments
ACCORDING TO LIZ - How many remember that it was Hegseth who, as a Fox News on-air analyst, drove the attack on Clinton’s use of her BlackBerry on a public server, manufacturing the controversy that helped put the Orange Cheat-o in the White House in 2016?
Ably assisted by whomever prompted the FBI to reopen the investigation just 11 days prior to Election Day after having, with the concurrence of the Department of Justice, cleared her of any malfeasance months before?
“Any security professional, military, government or otherwise, would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct and criminally prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information.” That was Hegseth’s opinion then.
And now?
Virtually every other person participating in the “Houthi PC small group” chat on Signal – such a pivotal government-rending moment that it has already been knighted “Signalgate” – including the heads of the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has gone on record in past lives calling for immediate and stringent disciplinary measures in the event of any breach of security protocols.
Especially given that a multitude of knowledgeable government officials including prior national security personnel – not to mention anyone who has read the released transcripts who are not beholden to the administration – have voiced profound skepticism over Trump’s claim that no classified information appeared in the chat.
How can a chat delving into the what, when, and who of airstrikes on a foreign nation and consequent fatalities, not to mention risk to Americans, be considered minor?
Calling Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic and a foreign affairs authority, a “sleazebag” as a diversionary tactic shows how far the mighty have fallen. Although in this case it has come to be expected that the coal-black heart of the president would prefer to call people names than accept any accountability for his own actions or those of his hand-picked bootlickers.
Hegseth joining in, labeling Goldberg a “hoax-monger… peddling in garbage” even though it was on his watch that the journalist was included. Attacking that journalist won’t score any brownie points for America in the press… nor with its purported allies that were repeatedly dissed on the chat.
There are too many parallels to the LA City Council scandal that tanked the careers of Kevin De Léon, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo, to go into detail here but, while it captivated Los Angeles, it was hardly as life-threatening and internationally explosive as Signalgate.
In its continuous and often conflicting denials, the Trump administration – I hate to lavish the term “government” on the chaos swirling in Washington these days of “get your eyes off this problem and… and… look over there, more tariffs!” – is blatantly espousing total lack of accountability.
For the Signal breach, for any of their missteps and overt lies, for their abuses of our freedoms and the plummeting devaluation of the credibility of the United States and almost guaranteed there will be more of the same and similar, again and again and again.
Until we take the matches away from the irresponsible coterie that continues to flatter the First Ego.
Until we-the-people insist that accountability and consequences apply equally to all.
[For Pete Buttigieg’s measured assessment, Hegseth’s irrational response, and Goldberg’s confirmation of the seriousness of the security breach, check this out.]
(Liz Amsden moved from LA TO Vermont and is a regular contributor to CityWatch on issues that she is passionate about. She can be reached at [email protected].)
