SOMEHOW, IT GETS WORSE

The publication of the full “war chat” Signal thread shows Pete Hegseth brazenly lied. Now, even some Republicans are demanding answers.

• The White House and MAGA Republicans continue to malign Jeffrey Goldberg, the reporter accidentally invited into a secret group chat dedicated to planning a military strike. So The Atlantic brought receipts. The magazine published texts it had previously withheld because they contained planning, sequencing and targeting information about the US military’s attack on Houthis in Yemen 11 days ago. The texts show that Hegseth’s insistence that “nobody was texting war plans” is false. They’ve also divided the MAGA faithful from Republicans who perform that Herculean task of supporting Trump while still sometimes taking American national security and diplomacy seriously.

• “The statements by Hegseth, (Director of National Intelligence Tulsi) Gabbard, (CIA Director John) Ratcliffe, and Trump — combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials 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,” Goldberg and Atlantic reporter Shane Harris wrote.

• The texts show exactly what Goldberg said they did: Hegseth posting to the chat — two hours before the attack began — details on the warplanes, drones and missiles would be used, and critically, when. And a new wrinkle: National Security Advisory Mike Waltz (who added Goldberg to the chat in the first place) texted the group that the Houthis’ “top missile guy” entered a building to visit his girlfriend and that the building had collapsed.

Trump’s team is now parsing the difference between “war plans” and “attack plans” to justify Hegseth’s false statements, and maintains that none of the information in the chat was classified. But even that’s misleading.

• The Defense Secretary and the President have authority to decide what information is classified. That means Pete Hegseth is in charge of deciding whether Pete Hegseth posted classified information to a reporter on Signal. The real point — as laid out in numerous executive orders and military manuals — is whether that information could potentially harm U.S. national security or endangers troops. Announcing planes, missiles, and targets on Signal two hours before an attack does exactly that. And in a world where Donald Trump is on the record claiming that he can declassify information in his mind, debating whether he or Hegseth think something is classified doesn’t mean much.

There’s another crucial moment here: We’re witnessing the first time in Donald Trump’s second term when he has lost control of the narrative.

• Trump had been dominating the news cycle with a storm of DOGE cuts, deportations and chainsaws. But now, all that has given way to a scandal that Trump and his minions can’t control. Trump, true to form, has tried to downplay this debacle, even while tacitly acknowledging the magnitude of the problem. “It’s something that is not a big deal,” Trump claimed on a Wednesday morning radio program. A breath later, the president said: “You don’t want it to happen in the future. You can’t have that happen.” Clear leadership directives, got it!

• Republicans who specialize in national security are clearly outraged. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said the White House is “in denial” that the texts don’t contain classified or sensitive info, and that “they should just own up to it and preserve credibility.” (“Preserve,” you say? LOL!) “It should have never happened and must not happen again,” added Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), who chairs an Armed Services subcommittee.

• Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee — the one whose Republicans approved Pete Hegseth as a qualified SecDef — wrote the administration demanding an independent Inspector General investigation. He also promised his committee “will be looking into this… It appears mistakes were made. No question.”

• Accountability, we dare say, is not Donald Trump’s forte, especially in this second, unleashed Trump presidency. Back in 2017, the Justice Department still clung to its independence when Russian interference led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Contrast that to today: Attorney General Pam Bondi has shown zero desire to get to the bottom of the Signal scandal. Asked in congressional hearings Wednesday if his agency would investigate, FBI Director Kash Patel (who wrote a children’s book featuring “King Trump”) refused to comment.

But… don’t worry! Elon Musk is leading a probe into how Goldberg’s number was added to the chat! The president’s biggest political donor will surely get to the bottom of this.

NEWS NEWS NEWS

The Trump national security team’s sloppiness doesn’t end with Signal! Wired reports that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and at least one other “Houthi PC small group” chat member left their Venmo profiles public. In Waltz’s case, “hundreds” of officials, journalists, lobbyists and other personal and professional contacts were left exposed. All more opportunities for foreign intelligence services to exploit. Great work!

A Democrat won a state Senate seat in a heavily Trump-leaning Pennsylvania district, lifting Dems who’ve suffered under dismal poll numbers and an angry party base in Trump’s second term. Democrat James Malone narrowly won in the 36th senatorial district, in Lancaster, where Trump beat Kamala Harris by 15 points last November. Meanwhile a new poll in a deep-red Florida congressional special election (Mike Waltz’s old seat!) suggests the race could be much, much closer than Republicans would like it to be.

The Trump Administration has hired a well-known conspiracy theorist and vaccine propagandist to lead its studies into already-debunked links between vaccines and autism. The Department of Health and Human Services — led by O.G. vaccine propagandist Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — hired David Grier, who has published papers establishing a false link between vaccines and autism. Grier was also sanctioned a decade ago for practicing medicine without a license in Maryland. One expert called it “a worst-case scenario for public health” and “a slap in the face” to science. Very cool, guys!

Donald Trump says he’s considering launching a “compensation fund” for Jan. 6 defendants. To be clear, “compensation” is what you give people who’ve been wronged. This would be a slush fund to pay thugs who attacked cops while trying to overturn an election Trump lost.

Early voting has begun in a closely-watched race that will determine the ideological tilt of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. The official election day is next Tuesday, April 1. Elon Musk is pouring a record $18 million into this one, and reprising his infamous $100 payments (yeah, they’re bribes) to voters who sign a petition. Musk says he’s all in for the conservative in the race to ensure Wisconsin protects the razor-thin House GOP majority by staying the most heavily-gerrymandered state in America.

Trump continued his authoritarian campaign against law firms he doesn’t like. This time Trump signed an order going after Jenner & Block, which has represented clients challenging Trump policies in court. The firm also once employed former federal prosecutor, Russia investigator, cable news contributor and podcaster Andrew Weissman. This is the fourth firm Trump has targeted with sanctions if it represents clients he doesn’t like. Some of Trump’s moves have already been blocked by the courts. Still, another firm, Paul Weiss, agreed to a humiliating list of Trump demands, including providing $40 million in free services to Trump causes.

Democrats mocked Republicans for targeting PBS and NPR in House hearings Wednesday, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) attempts to cut federal funding to public broadcasting. “Is Elmo now, or has he ever been, a member of the Communist Party of the United States?” asked Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) “He’s obviously red.” Garcia also expressed his faux-outrage at Bert and Ernie’s “extreme homosexual agenda.” It’s obviously no laughing matter. Greene pledged that Republicans will proceed with their plans to defund PBS and NPR. Yes, they’re targeting Elmo, Bert and Ernie. WTF, guys.

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