To Donald Trump, the SignalGate disclosure was a mistake. The CIA director said his involvement was legal, while the director of national intelligence appeared to dodge a senator’s questions about it. And the defense secretary forcefully denied sharing classified airstrike plans in a group chat − and attacked the journalist who received them.
As members of the Trump administration scrambled to answer questions this week about how, why and what they discussed on a group chat that included The Atlantic magazine’s top editor, they sent different messages about who was responsible − even as the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee called for an independent investigation.
“It’s difficult to tell whether this is a coordinated effort to confuse the situation or if the level of incompetence and disregard for security is so steep that they really don’t know who is at fault for this mess,” said Kurt Braddock, a public communication professor at American University. “It could very well be both.”
A week of scrambling
The confusion started after a Monday article in The Atlantic revealed how Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, had added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, with top officials discussing plans for a March 15 airstrike in Yemen.