The Senate Intelligence Committee Lit Up Trump Officials Over the Group-Chat Debacle

[mcar]

This thing is not over. Not by a long shot.

By Charles P. PiercePublished: Mar 25, 2025 5:40 PM EDT

happy accident, or by the intervention of a giddy Deity, on Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee had scheduled its annual national threat assessment hearing. This brought before the committee Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI director Kash Patel, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and a couple of other members of the intelligence community one day after it was revealed that the editor of The Atlantic had been invited to a group chat with most of these people regarding the imminent attack by the United States on Houthi rebels in Yemen. It surely comes as no surprise that the tap-dancing from the witness table was something unseen on TV since the last time TCM ran Singin' In The Rain.

The general subtext of the testimony was a not-subtle attempt to shift the blame to people who weren't there—to National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and even to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Meanwhile, both Ratcliffe and Gabbard were parboiled by Democratic senators as they first tried to dodge the fact that they were on the group chat and, when called on that, they either claimed that there was nothing classified discussed on the chat, or that they couldn't talk about certain subjects because they were, well, classified. Ratcliffe had a particularly hard time; for a CIA director, he didn't seem to have much to do with intelligence, in any sense of the word. First, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado lit him up.

I am curious about whether... did Jeff Goldberg somehow—did he create a hoax that allowed him to become part of this Signal thread? Please answer the question. Don't insult the intelligence of the American people. Did he invite himself to the signal thread?

Dir. Ratcliffe: I do not know how he was invited...

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a64289945/national-security-intelligence-testify-atlantic-texts/

[gab13by13]

1. Denver Riggelman

Just stated on msnbc that the Senators didn’t ask the right questions.
He stated they need to get questions from experts.

One question Eric Swallwell would have asked was are you going to continue using Signal?

[mcar]

2. So we're going to continue criticizing Democrats

Last edited Wed Mar 26, 2025, 10:26 AM - Edit history (1)

for not saying exactly the right words? While the Rs on the committee completely ignored the issue?

This is why we fail.

[Stuckinthebush]

3. Boom

Well stated