Scott Jennings Gives Trump Officials Rave Reviews After National Security Leak: ‘Refreshing Thing for the Government’ To Admit Mistake
CNN’s Scott Jennings lauded the Trump administration over its response to a jaw-dropping national security leak in which a reporter was inadvertently given advanced notice of airstrikes in Yemen.
On Monday morning, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a report explaining that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz included him in a group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app. Soon after, Goldberg observed high-ranking officials including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth discussing possible airstrikes on Houthi rebels, which were eventually carried out.
“I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts,” Goldberg wrote. “What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
Waltz responded to the report by lashing out at Goldberg, who literally did nothing but accept an invite from Waltz to connect before being added to the group chat. Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday, Waltz took responsibility for the blunder.
“Look, a staffer wasn’t responsible,” he said. “I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
Hours later on CNN NewsNight, guest host John Berman remarked on the administration’s response.
“The main thrust of the White House argument all day seemed to be, ‘Jeffrey Goldberg’s still a bad guy, which explains how we managed to invite him on this group chat. And and secondly, it maybe wasn’t classified because Pete Hegseth sent it.'” Berman said, turning to Jennings. “Is that satisfying? I mean, that really was the message today from the White House.”
Jennings responded:
Yeah, and, you know, none of us have seen what was supposedly war plans. And there’s still a dispute over just how sensitive it really was. But I do think it’s noteworthy that the White House is able to acknowledge a mistake, say they’re gonna learn from it, say they’re trying to figure out the technical issues that led to it. I mean, they did own up to it. I mean, obviously, there’s been some rhetoric and hyperbole around Goldberg and others who, by the way, I agree, acted responsibly in this particular case, even though if I have some quibbles with what he’s done in the past. He did absolutely act responsibly here.
So, I think that’s actually kind of a refreshing thing for the government to say, “Ok, yes, effed up. We’ll fix it. This won’t happen again” – especially when you contrast it with previous military and national security snafus in our recent history in which no one was held accountable, no one was fired, no mistakes were admitted. Until the very end, Joe Biden was saying Afghanistan was a success. I like it here that Donald Trump, the president, said he’s a good man. But he learned a lesson. That tells me he and the president, with Waltz had a hard talk.
Watch above via CNN.
