‘So A Wild Triumph!’ CNN Anchor Mocks Scott Jennings for Positive Take on Bombshell Leak
CNN anchor John Berman sarcastically asked ex-Biden White House official Dan Koh if the disastrous Trump administration leak was actually the “triumph” that GOP analyst Scott Jennings portrayed it as on Monday night.
The political media world was stunned Monday when Jeffrey Goldberg dropped a blockbuster report that revealed he was (apparently inadvertently) included in a text chain discussing detailed war plans on the encrypted Signal app.
Trump National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is the official who accidentally added Goldberg to a group chat in which the Principals Committee discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen — strikes that shortly came to pass.
Hegseth offered a stunning denial, claiming there were no war plans discussed when he was pressed by a reporter on Monday afternoon.
On Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Berman asked Jennings for his take, then sarcastically summed it up as “a wild triumph!”:
BERMAN: All right. Moments ago, Kaitlan Collins was reporting on her show, Scott, that there is shock inside the White House that this chat was texted to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Are you shocked?
JENNINGS: Well, sure. I mean, it’s a shocking thing and you know, they’ve admitted that it was a mistake and admitted that it’s authentic, so they’re owning up to it. I think they’re still, based on what I’ve heard tonight, trying to figure out how it happened. I’m not sure that National Security Adviser Waltz even knows Goldberg. In fact, I don’t believe he knows him and has never met him.
I did learn a few things in some of my conversations, if you’re interested. One is that the Signal program was preloaded on a number of devices and agency computers in this circuit when they got there. So, in their view, it was already in use.
Number two, in some of the messages, they talk about needing to go to the high side computers, which is the classified system. So, they clearly were knowing there was a line on what you could discuss in a chat like this versus classified system.
Number three, there is a dispute over whether the term war plans is being exaggerated.
And number four, look, I love the policy. It’s well-executed. You’ve got a thoughtful policy discussion going on, and we did what the Biden administration would not do, stop these people from harassing our shipping lanes and our boats and our Navy. So, good on the Trump administration for reversing a bad policy.
BERMAN: So, a wild triumph! And I will note that Pete Hegseth does not agree with you that it’s all authentic. He went and attacked Jeffrey Goldberg and said there were no war plans there.
Is it, Dan, the triumph that Scott just described.
KOH: Listen, I spent a significant amount of my time in the Situation Room from the Oval Office dealing with classified information. Now, Scott knows the amount of care that is taken to make sure that we are being respectful of the implications of American lives, if that information would’ve fallen in the wrong hands. You put away your phone, you take away your watch, anything that could potentially relay. That’s so important.
And the fact that 18 of the most senior government officials in this country were on a text chain showing war plans and not a single one of them, including the chief of staff, who’s supposed to be overseeing this, said, hey, maybe we shouldn’t do this anymore, should concern people regardless of party.
And one more thing, there were serious questions about whether the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, was qualified to be the secretary of defense. We got our answer today.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
More on the Trump Admin War Plan Leak:
- Trump Dismisses Bombshell War Plans Leak as a ‘Glitch,’ Goes to Bat for NSA Mike Waltz: He ‘Learned His Lesson’
- Wall Street Journal Calls Out JD Vance for Trying to ‘Block’ Trump’s Strikes on Houthis: ‘Mr. Trump Now Knows’
- Fox’s Peter Doocy Mocks Trump Admin Over Cabinet Group Chat: ‘Well, They Did Promise to Be the Most Transparent White House Ever’
- ‘That’s A Lie!’ Jeffrey Goldberg Smacks Down Hegseth Denial Over Blockbuster Leak
- Fox’s Lawrence Jones Makes Excuse for Sharing ‘Top Secret’ War Plans on Signal: ‘They All Use It’
- CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Destroys Trump Admin Over Bombshell Leak — With Brutal Cuts of Their Own Words
