Quotes
The President is on the rampage. It's not safe to talk. I'm keeping my head down."
However, the conversation was cut short as the aide cryptically warned
We won't be using it very much... That's one of the prices you pay when you're not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always the best, frankly. If it was up to me everybody would be sitting in a room together. The room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and lead floor."
He statedWe made a mistake. We're moving forward."
The ex-Army Special Forces officer from Florida conceded
Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number there? … Of course I didn’t see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else. Whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean is something we’re trying to figure out.”
When the Fox host asked how Goldberg’s number ended up in the group, Waltz responded
It’s embarrassing, yes. We’re going to get to the bottom of it, ... We’ve got the best technical minds looking at how this happened.” ... A staffer wasn’t responsible. I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything is coordinated.”
Waltz said, adding ... When Ingraham asked “what staffer is responsible” for adding Goldberg to the Signal group, Waltz respondedWhat it was, we believe, is somebody that was on the line with permission, somebody that was with Mike Waltz, worked with Mike Waltz at a lower level, had, I guess Goldberg's
Trump said in an interview with Newsmax, referring to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic
The whole thing is just very flummoxing to me, because I haven’t seen this kind of unserious behavior before,
Goldberg told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki
From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of f***-up imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe,
said former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg
I'm not sure it requires any particular attention,
he said, ... according to the New York TimesYou know, some of the guests have commented that Signal's highly encrypted, ... I'll just say this, if you think Signal is equivalent to U.S. government secure telecommunications, think again."
he added
We can't read your messages or listen to your calls, and no one else can either, ... privacy isn't an optional mode — it's just the way that Signal works."
the website saysThere is no world in which this information should have been shared in non-secure channels. Hegseth is in so far over his head that he is a danger to this country and our men and women in uniform."
Similarly, Democratic Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, a Marine veteran, wrote on X
I couldn't imagine anybody would use Signal,
he told CNN's Kasie Hunt on the show The ArenaHow can you conduct official government business over a nonofficial channel? Maybe there's some in extremis situation, when you're—you're on Samoa or something, and there aren't any official channels. But ... they were, they were in Washington, probably in their offices."
He continued
Our current secretary of Defense hadn’t shown a lot of evidence of running a large organization or, let alone running a large organization well, and he got put in charge of the largest organization in the United States of America and the most important organization in the world – which is the U.S. Department of Defense,
he told Collins
And, if there’s no accountability for a screw-up like this, especially from a president who used to fire people every day on television for sport, what are we even doing here?”
he added
We can't have someone in the Oval Office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified,
Trump said during that campaign – one of many attacks on Clinton for what he said was a clear violation of federal law
This is an outrageous national security breach, and heads should roll,
he saidI'm thinking to myself, I'm glad Mike Waltz didn't invite a Houthi into the group or a Russian spy, or an adversary of the United States.”
Speaking to MSNBC, Goldberg poked fun at Walz, saying
Worcester Council schedules special meeting on explosive DOJ police report, ... The Worcester City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss a Department of Justice (DOJ) report that outlines how members of the Worcester Police Department (WPD) used excessive force, engaged in discriminatory practices and engaged in illegal sex acts with vulnerable women.”
by Adam Bass, MassLive