Accountability is MIA in Signalgate

Be honest. If Kamala Harris was in the White House and it turned out that Vice President Tim Walz, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the Director of the CIA, and other senior administration officials were discussing classified details about an imminent attack on foreign soil using an unauthorized commercial messaging app and included a journalist with no security clearance and no need to know about the plans in the chat, Donald Trump, Fox News, and the rightwing echo chamber would rightfully be screaming “LOCK THEM UP!” The fact that has not happened because the shoe is on the other foot speaks volumes about the hypocrisy of the Republican Party and the absurdity of their frothing indignation over Hillary Clinton’s emails.

We should be thankful that the journalist who was looped into the chat – Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine – was the only person in the group who displayed integrity and professionalism and kept quiet until after the military carried out the attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. It is hard to imagine that a Tucker Carlson or Alex Jones would have kept their mouths shut to avoid compromising a military plan had members of a Biden or a Harris administration been as grossly negligent as Trump’s cabinet members.

Anyone who ever served in the military or an intelligence agency and worked in a classified environment should be outraged over this egregious security breach, and that should be true regardless of party affiliation. Anyone who ever held a security clearance knows that had ordinary military members, civilian employees, or government contractors committed such serious misconduct, their security clearances would have been revoked immediately and they would have been escorted out of their offices with their belongings in copier paper boxes as criminal investigations commenced.

In 2015, General David Petraeus, who was then serving as Director of the CIA, was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000 after pleading guilty to the unauthorized retention and disclosure of classified information to his paramour, who was an Army intelligence officer with a security clearance. The seriousness of the Petraeus security breach pales in comparison to the current debacle.

As I was driving through Avery County recently on my way back to Asheville, I saw a campaign sign from the 2024 election that was still posted along the side of the road. It said “Kamala = Crime, Trump = Safety.” A sign that read “Trump = Crime, Chaos, and Vulnerability” would be more accurate and honest. I suppose, however, that if you live in the MAGA bubble where lies are treated as facts, cruelty is considered Christian, Canada is our enemy, and Vladimir Putin is our pal, then an administration that pardons domestic terrorists and handles national security material like it’s a year-old copy of Garden & Guns magazine is the paradigm of safety.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was at the center of the two-pronged security breach: transmitting classified information by unauthorized means and disclosure of classified information to a journalist with no security clearance and no need to know about the classified war plans. Hegseth, a former Fox News host, was a controversial nominee to lead the Department of Defense, and initially it appeared his confirmation was in jeopardy as Senator Thom Tillis was working to persuade some of his Republican colleagues to vote against Hegseth. Tillis assured Hegseth’s former sister-in-law that if she would provide an affidavit about his excessive drinking and abuse of his second wife, he would spearhead the effort to tank Hegseth’s nomination. Tillis was on-track to scuttle the nomination, and then Trump threatened to support a Republican primary challenger and take Tillis out in the 2026 election, and Tillis folded and fell in line. Trump claimed that the military lowered its standards to facilitate DEI. What is clear is that Senator Tillis lowered his standards to facilitate Trump and confirm Hegseth to lead the military.

Eighteen-year-old military recruits are held accountable if they fail to meet minimum standards. How about those serving in senior leadership positions? It’s not likely in an administration where standards and accountability have gone missing in action.