Did Something Happen on Signal Last Week?

Reader J sent me an email yesterday wondering what the Democratic response to Signalgate looks like. (And, look, I hate adding “gate” to any scandal, but when in Rome DC…)

My response was that the Sunday shows were pretty depressing, if you’re a Democrat, because the main character the Democrats sent to them was Sen John Mark Warner. Warner was on three of the big shows and my Sen Michael Bennet was on one of them. Even if you, like me, think the Sunday shows are an anachronism and more-or-less irrelevant, it’s still a big signal from the Democrats that they’re picking a designated spokesman instead of flooding the zone with everyone who knows anything about national security.

Other than that, I’ve heard very little from Democrats recently about a scandal that, if the tables were turned, the Republicans would talk about ad infinitum and ad nauseum.

On yesterday’s Greg Sargent podcast, Jennifer Rubin and Sargent chatted about Signalgate. The discussion referenced this Politico story claiming that Hegseth is in trouble because he’s an unqualified moron (my gloss). Rep Don Bacon (R-NE-2) represented the PVI of his Omaha district (EVEN) by telling the truth, saying that intentionally putting classified information on an unclassified app is the “real crime”. Bacon is a retired Brigadier General in the Air Force, and I’m sure he’s personally disgusted by this whole thing, even though he’s not going to do anything to risk his political career over it.

Apparently some Republicans are going to, maybe, push for an investigation of Signalgate, which I think is the smart political move for them and all other criminals — hide out until the heat is off. While I’m giving Republicans advice, I’d suggest that they use the Merrick Garland strategy of delaying any real consequences for as long as possible. I’ll add some more advice: at the end of this, just make sure that you throw Hegseth under the bus. There are a hundred other morons who are lining up for the job, and Trump is pretty good at finding a scapegoat and firing them.

One of the biggest tells that Trump is losing his grip is that he hasn’t already found a scapegoat and fired that person yet. Trump’s schtick is that he hires people that looked good, but in the end they disappointed him. Apparently, he’s decided that he doesn’t have to bother with that charade anymore.

I guess if the Democrats really wanted to meet the moment, they could have their shadow Defense Secretary have a hearing where experts highlighted the stupidity of using a commercial messaging app to talk about operational details of a military operation, but if I seriously wrote that, I might as well turn this into a blog about unicorns, hobbits, wizards or some other imaginary creatures.