Perhaps none of the revolting incidents of the past several years showing how partisanship and confirmation bias have made public agreement on reality impossible—Can we agree that this is not a good thing?—is more clear cut than the Signal Chat Ethics Train Wreck.
I am morose.
On the Trump-Deranged, Axis pounces! side, we have Hillary Clinton’s op-ed for the New York Times. It is archived, for some reason: if that link doesn’t work, I put the whole thing in a comment here. The fact that Clinton, of all people, would have the utter gall and lack of self-awareness to write the thing is damning enough; that the Times would print it and that its mostly Trump deranged subscribers would read it without ending their subscriptions, going into shock or hurling themselves out the nearest window supports Humble Talent’s Comment of the Day (#2!) posted last yesterday. Note his title.
I’m going to quote the appropriately uncivil conservative assassin Ace of Spades on this for two reasons. He writes of Clinton’s critique,
“This drunken Satanic sow illegally used her own server so that her communications would be protected from exposure by records retention laws. This was a secret server until someone discovered it — she did not disclose it so that the federal government could copy all of these messages. She did not disclose it so that people fililng FOIAs would even know what records to request. And she sits her in Her Satanic Hubris and accuses others of using Signal to “avoid records retention” laws. By the way, in case you don’t know this, Biden approved the use of Signal for communication precisely because it was more unhackable than the easily-hackable federal systems.”
Reason #1 is that Ace is right, and the venom is appropriate. Talk about ethics estoppel! The fact that Donald Trump and the Electoral College saved America from this vile, dishonest, sinister and destructive woman should alone ensure the former a place in the pantheon of national heroes and the latter enshrinement in the “Best Ideas of the Founders’ Hall of Fame.”
Reason #2 is this final sentence: “By the way, in case you don’t know this, Biden approved the use of Signal for communication precisely because it was more unhackable than the easily-hackable federal systems.” Here is Ace attacking Clinton for her ridiculous hypocrisy, and in the same post citing Biden as an authority to justify the Trump team’s use of Signal, which blew up in their collective faces! For years, Ace has derided Biden as a drooling puppet, but now, when it is convenient, he cites one of “his” “decisions” to excuse the Trump Administration for a security breach, when the whole thrust of the administration since inauguration day has been to reverse, condemn or remove as much of what was done or decided during the last four years. Wow—Flagrant hypocrisy while justly pointing out flagrant hypocrisy! How can anyone trust the Right when it covers a story like that? The Trump Administration should trust in absolutely nothing the Biden Phantom Presidency left behind until it has been tested, verified and tested again. The Biden team used Signal? That doesn’t excuse Hegseth and Waltz having a high level meeting about a military operation using the platform, it makes it worse.
On the opposite side of Hillary’s astounding op-ed, we have, appropriately, the Daily Signal’s analysis by conservative warrior and Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro. Ben’s obviously an intelligent and analytical guy, and not because he’s another Harvard Law School grad, since we have many of those running around right now who are making no sense whatsoever. Ben takes the Trump supporters’ line, hook and sinker, arguing that what happened “is, of course, a serious mistake,” but “it is not, however, a scandal of major magnitude.” What??? A “serious mistake” that calls into question the competence of multiple members of the Trump Administration’s national security team is by definition a major scandal. Of course it is. This is like Democrats arguing that the aspiring assassin’s near miss as he shot Trump’s ear was just a “serious mistake” by the Secret Service, but not a “scandal of major magnitude.” No wonder the public is confused, conflicted, ignorant and stupid when this is how it receives information.
Here are Shapiro’s two arguments for why nobody should get too upset that Jeffrey Goldberg, the openly hostile editor of The Atlantic who has proven that he will happily cross ethical lines to “get” Trump and his political allies, was accidentally included in a group chat regarding a U.S. military operation in Yemen:
“First, this was obviously a mistake. It was not a purposeful leak of intelligence information to our enemies. And Hegseth has claimed that it did not include names, targets, locations, units, routes, sources, methods, or other classified information. This would mean that no criminal activity occurred.”
Let’s see…counting Ben’s rationalizations, we have
- #4. Marion Barry’s Misdirection, or “If it isn’t illegal, it’s ethical.“
- #5. The Compliance Dodge
- #8. The Trivial Trap or“No harm no foul!”
- #13A The Road To Hell, or “I meant well” (“I didn’t mean any harm!”)
- #19. The Perfection Diversion, or “Nobody’s Perfect!” and “Everybody makes mistakes!”
- #19A. Donald’s Dodge, or “I never said I was perfect!”
- #20. The “Just one mistake!” Fantasy
- #22. The Comparative Virtue Excuse: “There are worse things.”
and I quit checking in disgust before running down the list to #71. The Trump administration can’t afford careless, stupid, reckless mistakes. No administration can, but when 90% of the news media is determined to bring a President down and when you in particular—I’m looking at YOU, Mr. Defense Secretary!—were confirmed despite the thinnest resume and the fewest qualifications for your job in U.S. history, something this embarrassing threatens the entire administration’s agenda. It also places the President in ethics zugswang: He can’t afford to can Hegseth, which would be treated as an admission that he appointed an incompetent simply because he was loyal, and he can’t afford not to, because that would prove that Trump’s branded “You’re fired!” insistence on job performance and accountability is a double standard and a sham. Biden didn’t fire anyone, even the most grossly incompetent. Now Trump is faced with a major botch on the watch of the most controversial and questionable of his Cabinet appointments. Hegseth, more than anyone else, cannot make high profile “mistakes.”
Yet believe it or not, Shapiro’s second reason is even worse than the first one:
“Second, procedure-based scandals have gone the way of the dodo bird. When James Comey refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton in 2016 on the basis that she had not intended to disseminate classified information—and that her negligent handling of classified information did not constitute lawbreaking—he essentially wiped out all similar potential scandals in the future. When the Department of Justice doubled down on that approach with regard to President Joe Biden’s classified documents violations, that perspective was reinforced. That’s why when the DOJ targeted Trump over classified documents violations, the Right correctly responded with outrage. This scandal is procedural in nature. It doesn’t match up to the ire unleashed by some of the Trump administration’s loudest critics.”
Oh! I see! The scandal doesn’t count because it’s procedural in nature! James Comey, an incompetent partisan hack, let Hillary off the hook and the Biden Justice Department used its own double standards to seek to put the likely Presidential nominee of the Republican Party behind bars while letting Biden off for substantially the same acts, and therefore the public a should shrug off incompetence by the Trump Administration which voters put in place because they were dissatisfied with the way Comey, the Deep State, and the Democrats ran the country! Brilliant!
Shapiro’s argument reduces to Rationalization #1: “Everybody does it.”
Disgusting.
_________________
Don’t get the reference in the meme above? Blame the U.S. education system.
Ethics Alarms 
I disagree with some of your analysis, but part of my criticism springs from the fact that you can’t get objective coverage of anything in the media these days.
I think it may be important that Signal was approved by Biden’s administration. From what I have heard, the intelligence service wanted it to be used. It is being used by several departments (from what I understand). Why is this important? Because it is an answer to the complaint that they were using a commercial service that they knew would not be preserved pursuant to the record retention laws. There is an implied nefarious intent in their use. So, it counters a very specific criticism of their behavior.
The same goes for several of Shapiro’s rationalization. It is important whether the leak was intentional and whether it was criminal. I see lots of (stupid) people on Facebook claiming that all of the participants on the thread should be arrested. Shapiro is countering that narrative. Because those calls are out there, Shapiro’s remarks are relevant because they help to clarify what the actual issue is. And, by the way, he never states (or even implies) any judgment on the ethics of the matter. So, I do not see how this is any sort of rationalization. It clarifies an important issue.
I agree, though. Trump cannot afford such a stupid mistake. And, I am not sure who is to blame here. Most people are pointing at Hegseth, and that might make sense if this is a Defense Department operation. It might as easily be the fault of someone in intelligence.
Do we know who set up the thread? Do we know who added Goldberg? Do we know whether or not someone on the thread deliberately added Goldberg for the specific purpose of sabotaging Trump (it has happened before), because that could be criminal, if not treasonous?
I wish I had the answers to the questions I need in order to make any kind of intelligent judgment about what happened.
-Jut
Valid observations, but…
1. The scandal is what the scandal is. I don’t care it it’s illegal or not, and the fact that it wasn’t a crime doesn’t mitigate its inexcusable nature.
2. If Ace had said “the Biden administration,” I wouldn’t have a problem with it. He said “Biden.”
3. Somebody has to be fired. Just like with Disney’s “Snow White”: if nobody is publicly made the scapegoat, then the message is “Hey, we don’t care, and nobody is responsible.” I’d sell my Disney stock on that basis alone.
I agree. Someone should be fired. And, Trump should be very public about how that, the ability to fire people, distinguishes him from Biden (and Obama?). I am not sure that it should be Hegseth. My first choices would be: 1) whoever put the thread together; and/or 2) whoever added Goldberg. And, maybe it is Hegseth who is ultimately responsible as this was a military operation. However, considering that keeping things secret is a central function of the intelligence sector, Goldberg’s participation is as much an indictment of their competence as Hegseth’s.
-Jut
Jut
You articulated all of my concerns, although I was not considering what any pundit like Shapiro states. I pretty much ignore my side and their side arguments from anyone not involved.
If Waltz knew Goldberg and deliberately put him in the loop firing is just the start of what should await him, but I don’t put much stock in that given that Goldberg has never refuted Waltz’s statement to that effect. Waltz should identify the person he delegated responsibility in populating the chat group so we know who else could be involved. No subordinate should be protected at NSA if they had a hand in this.
I don’t buy the idea that Hegseth should shoulder the responsibility because it was a military operation. It was a joint effort and he did not populate the chat group.
This feels like a train wreck upon a train wreck. Now, there’s speculation that Waltz knew Goldberg, even though he claims otherwise.
As for Clinton, wow Just wow. Even the most negative way to look at this only shows gross incompetence. There’s no indication of anyone trying to actively hide classified information on a private server like she did.
I think the Times should publish her op-ed but it should be countered with another one that takes hers apart, and there should be multiple stories in the “news” section that also highlight what she did. That would be more straight analysis.
I joked that even people who hated Trump could at least celebrate that he ensured Clinton would be gone from the presidency forever. She has since shown she is in favor of speech codes and weaponizing the justice department against her political enemies.
Democrats need better voices than AOC, Clinton, Sanders, or Schumer. As easy as it is to go after the excesses, I want a liberal party that isn’t going into crazy land.
Jack, I’ll see you a Hillary Clinton and raise you a Lanny Davis: Professional Advice to Trump Administration: ‘Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself’ | RealClearPolitics
Unbelievable. The Clintonista of all Clintonistas lecturing anyone on being forthright! What a joke. The mind boggles. If this joker shouldn’t be estopped from saying anything about timely disclosure, “estoppel” should be thrown out of usage.
And of course, Lanny Davis has been the brains of the entire Clinton operation since 1970 when they met at Yale.
No one will get fired by the administration for this. I’d bet long odds on that, though could be wrong.
The Atlantic journalist may be prosecuted though. Pour l’encourager les autres.
How do we know a hacker isn’t responsible? I promise you that cell phones are quite hackable and this is not something that the team Trump would want to promulgate.