The White House has spent the week trying to downgrade the revelation that top national security officials discussed plans for US strikes in Yemen for Houthi Fighters over Signal, a commercial messaging application.
In a stunning violation of national security, Defense Minister Pete Hegseth revealed specific operational details before the group’s attacks – which involuntarily included the Atlantic editor -in -chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Michael Waltz, the national security adviser who added Mr Goldberg to the conversation, said he took “full responsibility” for the leak.
Many Democrats called on Mr Hegseth to resign. But Trump’s administration tried to divert or bypass the issues. (Mr. Trump said the scandal was a “witch hunt”.)
As part of a regular check-in during Mr Trump’s first 100 days, the New York Times asked five voters what they are thinking about in response to the administration.
Dave Abdallah was not happy with the way Mr Trump and his surroundings continued to downgrade the breach of the security security.
“It’s completely wrong,” said Mr. Adballah.
The breach, he added, could cost us soldiers. “This is a serious, serious mistake,” he said of the whole case.
Mr Abdallah, a real estate broker who migrated to the United States from Lebanon as a child, voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 elections. It was a protest over the handling of the War of the Biden Administration in Gaza. Mr Abdallah also hopes that Mr Trump’s foreign policy could bring peace and stability to the region.
So far, it has been disappointed.
The fight has recently repeated between Israel and Hamas. Now, Mr Abdallah believes that Mr Trump, his administration and his supporters prove hypocritical as they face reactions to the signal case.
He recalled that he saw a recent Tiktok video showing old Republican clips criticizing Hillary Clinton for the use of a private computer server when he was a minister during Obama’s administration. The video then showed images of the same critics, now Mr Trump’s supporters, lifting the signal conversation as a big deal and making excuses.
Such excuses hit Mr Abdallah as impatient. “I just can’t understand it,” he said of the signal conversation. “So definitely should be on the table to get rid of someone.”
– Kurt Streeter
“I don’t think anyone has to be fired over it because it’s not as serious as many people think.”
Perry Hunter, 55 years old, from sellersburg, ind.
When Perry Hunter first heard that Trump’s officials accidentally included a journalist in the signal conversation, he thought it was a major mistake by the administration and that there should be consequences.
But, as he had in response to many Trump -related news events from the inauguration, Mr Hunter said he took time to find out the details before deciding what he thought about the situation. This time, he ended up believing that the scandal was not very scandal, saying that the conversation did not include specific war plans, reflecting the white house description. This gave the messages benign to his eye. (Defense experts have been shocked by the level of detail in the conversation.)
“Someone was wrong, definitely,” he said, adding, “I don’t think anyone has to be fired over it because it’s not as serious as many people think they are.”
Mr. Hunter, a high school teacher, would have thought differently, he said if the Americans had been killed because of information shared in the conversation. In this case, he said, “Then, yes, one has to lose their job and someone has to go to prison.” He added, “I think it’s one of those things that got lucky and better to learn from it.”
Listening to the Democrats criticizing the administration for the breach, he said they were hypocritical for them to be so upset. The breach of errors made by employees involved in the withdrawal of the Biden administration from Afghanistan or the use of the private email server by Mrs Clinton for official communications was compared.
“No one we know was responsible for these situations,” Mr Hunter said. “And there was a failure. Failure of great time, in all these situations.”
– Juliet Macur
“If it happens again, even in one or two or three years, then no one learned anything.”
Tali Jackont, 57 years old, from Los Angeles
“I have to tell you. I was shocked,” said Tali Jackont, a teacher. “There are things that can’t happen and happened.”
Mrs Jackont compares her to how close military secrets are maintained in Israel, her home country. When Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, conducts a business, no one claims responsibility, even if it seems obvious, he said. “No one will tell you until I tell you,” he said.
He was not willing for anyone involved to be fired at this point, “but there must be better attention,” he said.
Has the administration learned its lesson? “Time will say,” said Jackont. At the moment it looked as if they were brushing it mostly under the carpet, he said, but talked about the conversations that could happen behind closed doors.
“If it happens again, even in one or two or three years, then no one learned anything,” he said. “And it will be. I don’t want to use the word disaster, but a great shame.”
– Campbell Robertson
“Imagine someone from another country with malicious intentions, they get this information and hurt our military.”
Jaime Escobar Jr., 46 years old, from Roma of Texas
As the mayor of a small border city, Jaime Escobar Jr. knew how important it was to protect sensitive government information. So when he read the news about the signal conversation, he was worried that these officials were trying to remove the issue very quickly.
“This is very much. It’s a hard pill to swallow,” he said on the subject. “There must be a strong message. We cannot allow this to happen. Imagine someone from another country with malicious intentions. They get this information and hurt us as well.”
Mr Escobar, who voted for Mr Trump after years as a Democrat, remained agitated that officials were not able to control something as simple as they received the information, such as a journalist.
“This is a big mistake, and they just have to be very careful about it,” he said. “It’s a lesson to learn very quickly and simply cannot be repeated.”
At the same time, he felt satisfied that Mr Waltz, who acknowledged the creation of the group conversation, accepted responsibility.
“He got it, whether it was his own mistake or not, it’s like,” Well, I’m the responsible for national security, “he said. As for further consequences?” Well, that should be up to the president. “
– Edgar sandoval
“The Left didn’t have much to fight or defend itself. It seems that this could give them a place. ”
Isaiah Thompson, 22 years old, from Washington, DC
When Isaiah Thompson learned that Trump’s senior officials have shared sensitive war details on the signal, he immediately wondered how any member of the federal government could make such a mistake. Then he wondered how the Democrats – and not the Republicans – would react.
“The Left didn’t have much to fight or defend itself.” I don’t know how the federal government could have gotten so wrong. “
Mr Thompson, a student who voted for Kamala Harris but supports the Greens Party, said the signal conversation was just another example of lack of accountability or control and balance in Trump’s administration. He also hesitates to support Mr Hegseth’s or Mr Waltz’s firing over their roles in the signal scandal – at least not yet.
“Deep research must be carried out before being fired or asked to resign,” Thompson said. “But the president does not face this pretty seriously. This was a violation of national security.”
– Audra DS Burch
