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What a day and it’s only 1pm.
FACE OUR FEARS: This administration is lying to us and will continue to do so unless we push back.
And Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic did just that. I was curious to see if he would actually release information about the Signal group chat that he found himself on which included sensitive information about a United States military attack in Yemen. For more on that, please read yesterday’s post.
Here’s a little snippet that The Atlantic shared today:
Gotta love a screen grab.
Since baiting Goldberg yesterday, daring him to release so-called “sensitive information,” he did what any smart journalist would do. He sat on it, waiting to see how deep of a hole the Trump administration would dig. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard would not say if she participated in Signal chats on her personal phone.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, asked Ratcliffe and Gabbard whether the chat mentioned targets, weapons, specific units or timing of the strike on Yemen.
“I don’t remember a mention of specific targets,” Gabbard said. “I believe there was discussion around targets, in general.”
“I think that’s consistent with my recollection,” Ratcliffe said when Kelly asked him the same question.
Democrats have asked for an investigation into the leak, which Ratcliffe and Gabbard have said contained no classified information.
No classified information? No mention of targets? This happened just a day ago and you can’t remember something this important?
Don’t worry, Goldberg has receipts:
REALITY CHECK: Any sharing of military information, classified or not, is a security breach.
Sharing national defense information is ILLEGAL under the Espionage Act and other federal statutes. This includes unauthorized disclosure, mishandling, or misuse of such information.
It is harder to spin this as anything other than a national embarrassment. Hegseth, at the very least, should resign.
And it further underscores the importance and necessity of a free press. Can you imagine if Goldberg wouldn’t have reported on this situation because of his “loyalty” to this regime? This is the job of journalists: Speak truth to power. Hold our officials and those in positions of power and authority accountable for their words and actions.
And in case you are wondering why they dislike Goldberg so much, they already have a bone to pick with him. He was the one that held Trump accountable for calling our military “suckers and losers” in 2020. He is not afraid of this administration and they don’t like that. He even had to temporarily move out of his home due to safety concerns, according to CNN.
Trump’s team denied the “suckers” and “losers” story, which his former chief of staff, John Kelly, later confirmed on the record.
It’s poetic, really.
And as we continue to stare down fascism in all of its forms, a free press is one of the only safeguards that we have that will demand of our government what we deserve: Integrity, honesty and transparency.
Without Goldberg and journalists working to use their power of the pen to uphold justice, the media is nothing more than a PR company for the Trump administration to manipulate and twist in their likeness.
Bullies rely on our willingness to back down. And I, for one, stand with Goldberg and with the facts — we must never succumb to fear.
Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.
- In solidarity, Natalie
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