Republican calls for probe of Signal chat grow

[struggle4progress]

Republican calls to investigate a group chat in which White House national security officials shared sensitive military information have intensified, with Oklahoma Senator James Lankford saying an inquiry would be "entirely appropriate".

Lankford stopped short of calling on officials to resign when speaking to CNN on Sunday, but joined other Republicans who have broken with US President Donald Trump over the chat.

The Trump administration has downplayed the unclassified Signal messages, in which Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and others shared potentially classified details about an upcoming attack on Yemen ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3r8d7q0200o

[struggle4progress]

1. Vance's role in Signal chat angers senior Republican lawmakers

March 30, 2025, 9:00 AM EDT
By Gordon Lubold and Courtney Kube

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance’s last-minute concerns about President Donald Trump’s decision to strike the Houthis in Yemen, raised in a now-public Signal chat with other top U.S. officials, have left senior Republican lawmakers angry.

Some are upset because they think Vance was trying to block a directive from Trump. Others, reflecting a broader debate inside the administration and the GOP over the wisdom of embarking on a stepped-up campaign against the militant group, are upset about the side he took.

Trump has campaigned and governed on the idea that America should be put first and its traditional allies and conflicts overseas second. But his administration is now making moves that reflect the potential for a protracted military campaign against the Houthis ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/jd-vances-role-signal-chat-angers-senior-republican-lawmakers-rcna198697

[struggle4progress]

2. Official Was Reportedly Involved in Other Questionable Signal Chats

The Mike Waltz story gets dumber.
By Lucas Ropek
Published March 31, 2025

The Trump administration made itself look more incompetent and dysfunctional than usual last week when the Secretary of Defense accidentally texted details of a secret bombing mission in Yemen to the head editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. “Signalgate”—as it has come to be known—has spurred fresh scrutiny of the White House, as concerns swirl over the team’s ridiculous approach to OPSEC. Now, a new report claims that the official responsible for the debacle was also involved in other secret conversations on the app.

National security advisor Mike Waltz has taken responsibility for adding Goldberg to the infamous Signal chat, and screenshots published by The Atlantic clearly show that he was the one to do it. However, the Trump administration has also now put Waltz in charge of finding out how this happened, as if there’s some big technical mystery that needs solving. As Waltz runs point on his own fuckup, a new story claims that he may have been involved in several other ill-advised chats. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Two U.S. officials also said that Waltz has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national-security conversations on Signal with cabinet members, including separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as well as military operations. They declined to address if any classified information was posted in those chats.

Critics have speculated that the Trump administration has been using encrypted civilian messaging apps as a way to circumvent public transparency regulations—a decision many security experts seem to think is mind-numbingly dumb. The report doesn’t share much information on how many other Signal conversations Waltz may have been involved with. Gizmodo reached out to the White House for comment ...

https://gizmodo.com/trump-official-was-reportedly-involved-in-other-questionable-signal-chats-2000582922

[struggle4progress]

3. House Intel Democrats call for damage assessment

by Rebecca Beitsch - 03/31/25 6:58 PM ET

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Monday requested an independent assessment into Trump administration officials’ use of Signal to discuss an airstrike, asking that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard initiate such a process and delegate it to another official.

The letter calls for a damage assessment of the fallout related to the chat, something Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) noted requires Gabbard to initiate a probe and turn over the contents of the underlying material that was disclosed ...

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/5224432-house-intel-democrats-signal-chat/

[Renew Deal]

4. The biggest question is why were they using Signal?

It’s not an approved system for communicating confidential information as far as I know. It’s actually a bigger question than how dumb is Mike Waltz?

[struggle4progress]

6. They're collectively as smart as a truckload of gravel. I'd bet on the following conversation:

Donnie: My team needs to discuss war plans. What would you suggest?
Vladdy: Why not use the Signal app?
Donnie: But is it secure?
Vladdy: It's affordable and it's completely safe! And if my guys ever find any problems with it, you'll be the first to know!

[mopinko]

9. because at a certain point, it all goes away.

depending on how u set it, the messages self destruct in hours or days or weeks.

[struggle4progress]

5. "Go F-- Yourselves, A-holes! Love, America"

... Titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans,” the host kicked off Last Week Tonight by calling it “one of the greatest headlines I read this week, alongside, ‘Monkeys Chase British Tourist Out Of Hotel Pool In Thailand: ‘Scariest Moment Of My Life‘; ‘This Octopus’s Other Car Is a Shark‘; ‘Lots of fun, good weather greets guests during Deerfield’s 24th annual — wait for it — Testicle Festival.'”

Oliver then honed in on the emojis used in the chat, called “Houthi PC Small Group,” deployed by people like National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, who along with another colleague responded with the various icons: fist, American flag, muscle, flame and prayer hands.

“Those clearly aren’t the right emojis to send after a bombing because the right emojis are no emojis,” the political comic said ...

He continued, “This is something of a motif for this administration: deeply unserious people doing deeply stupid things with massively serious consequences” ...

https://deadline.com/2025/03/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-signal-group-chat-emoji-trump-1236354365/

[Lovie777]

7. At home in the USA..................

feeling unsecured because we have idiots at the helm regarding 1) homeland & national security 2) very poor economic future 3) loss of jobs, insecurities of high prices 4) healthcare 5) education 6) law and order party (GQP) that they are not and have been lying for over 60 years or so 7) stock market haven't trickled down to us in many years 8) civil rights, women right, voting rights in danger of disappearing 9) Democracy disappearing 10) Freedoms disappearing....................

et al

[gab13by13]

8. Here we go again,

I'm glad I will be able to go golfing soon.

What weak sauce messaging over what these traitors are doing.

Magats will get Musk to investigate, how pathetic.

Magats have been using Signal since they regained power and are going to continue using it.

Hey DEOMOCRATS start screaming that Hegseth and Waltz need to resign or be fired by Krasnov, and then they need to be prosecuted for their crimes under the espionage act and Federal records keeping Act.

If Democrats can't keep this breach of national security on the front page, then we are lost.

My offer still stands to be their public relations director, for free.

I have been calling for every Democrat to do town halls, been calling fir it for 2 months now. It will be up to us, the people, to throw out the billionaires.

Bernie and AOC shouldn't be leading the Democrats, Schumer and Jeffries should be. How many town halls has Ken Martin organized?

I donate to Indivisible because I believe it has organized more town halls than Democratic leadership has.

Continue on with the Magat talking points. Who the fuck is going to investigate Signal and come back with a truthful analysis? They are using personal phones with the Signal App that self-deletes government conversations. What the fuck is there to investigate?