MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire reported that President Donald Trump is taking a wait-and-see approach to the explosive report about his national security team conducting war plans over a group chat that included a reporter.
National security adviser Michael Waltz added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to an encrypted group chat, apparently by mistake, on the Signal app in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared top-secret plans for attacks against the Houthi militia in Yemen, which happened two hours later.
"Let's start by clearly saying what this is," Lemire said. "This is one of the most stunning national security stories we've had in decades. This is an extraordinary breach of security here and, in fact, in one of the last texts in the exchange that Jeffrey saw is Pete Hegseth saying operational security seems intact – obviously not the case.
"There is so much here. First of all ... Signal is not meant for this. This is a commercial [app], anyone can go to the app store and download Signal. These sort of conversations should be in highly encrypted government phones, government communication devices, and some of this stuff should only be done in a [sensitive compartmented information facility], one of those secure rooms where you're not allowed to bring phones. So there's all sorts of security breaches here."
"It does seem like Mike Waltz, now security advisor, is the one who inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, who we might add, is a well-respected journalist, and that it was Pete Hegseth, despite his denial," Lemire added. "He says there are no war plans, but yet in these messages are timed, placed, sequences of attacks, saying this will happen and then this will happen and then this will happen, which appears to be the very definition of a war plan. So a stunning breach here."
Lemire, a "Morning Joe" co-host and former White House bureau chief for Politico, said the president seems to be watching to see how media coverage plays out before holding anyone accountable.
"In terms of what happens next, I heard, same as to what was reported there, that Trump is watching the media coverage," Lemire said. "He met with Waltz last night, though a supportive statement from the press secretary came out after that meeting. So at least for now, it appears that Waltz's position is safe. I think Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, will be the other who comes in under a lot of scrutiny here, since he was the one sharing this information in the chat. Others who were there include the secretary of state, DNI head, other – treasury secretary, all represented. They will they were nominally involved, they didn't contribute much to the text messages that we should note."
"These were war plans, these were bombs being dropped in Yemen," Lemire added, "and they were saluted by emojis in this group chat here – American flags, hearts, prayer hands, whatever it might be – just simply a stunning lack of operational security, and let's recall, of course, that Donald Trump's first presidency was launched on the heels of a campaign about Hillary Clinton's alleged mishandling of classified and sensitive information – nothing compared to this."
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