Democrats were quick to pounce on the complete breakdown in standards when top Trump administration officials were caught discussing war plans on a group chat, to which a reporter was accidentally admitted.
One of those Democrats was Hillary Clinton. In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Clinton talked about the hypocrisy and stupidity of the Signal leaks and how it seems that “President Trump and his team don’t actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws.”
It was interesting to have Clinton, of all people, opine on this. Clinton and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both committed major lapses in national security safety, and both seemed to make every excuse under the sun when caught.
Clinton eventually apologized. Hegseth is trying to speak the idea into existence that war plans aren’t war plans.
Playing politics with clearances, classified information and state secrets has become an absolute disaster, and Congress needs to step in and hold our politicians and their political appointees to the highest standards. And by that, I mean the same standards that thousands of Americans in the military and civil service are held to.
When I was a young Lance Corporal in the Marines, I had a file on my desk marked “Secret.” I got up and poked my head out of one of the doors to my office to ask another Marine a question. While I was chatting, an officer walked in through the other door and saw the file on my desk, my back turned to it. I almost lost my rank that day and was extremely lucky just to escape with enough chewings-out for a lifetime from that officer, my lieutenant, from my staff sergeant and from my sergeant.
This is a common story among many who have served either in the military or the civil service. Some of us made mistakes and there were dire consequences when it came to handling classified materials. That is why there is so much anger, frustration and confusion when political appointees get away with being reckless with national secrets.
Clinton’s opinion piece was a great message, but it was carried by the wrong person. Of course, a lot of Democrats don’t care, and that is also part of the problem. As we are seeing from the Trump administration, their spin on the Hegseth-Michael Waltz fiasco has already had some voters rushing to defend the indefensible by claiming that it isn’t that serious.
This partisanship is already frustrating when you are dealing with corruption, crimes, scandals and lying. But it is on a whole other level when you realize that these politicians don't understand that what they did absolutely put the country in danger.
When Barack Obama became president, he famously refused to give up his Blackberry and his incoming administration tried to find a way for him to keep using it. After modifications were made and rules set, Obama got to keep his phone. Of course, they had to ensure that the leader of the free world wasn’t using an unsecured device, but it seems that the security protocols have failed to keep up with an ever-evolving world of smartphones, social media, encryption apps and nefarious hackers.
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