General Discussion

"The story of National Security Adviser Mike Walz’s unbelievable SNAFU in adding an Atlantic journalist to a Signal group chat where top government officials spelled out their live-action war plans actually seems to be breaking through."

"Some combination of the utter buffoonery, text screengrabs and the 21st century of it all has given the story staying power. It’s showing up in polls, data, even online ad campaigns."

"The ephemeral news cycle got prolonged life, too, when the Trump administration both attacked the journalist and dismissed the contents of the conversation as unimportant and unclassified, prompting The Atlantic to call the officials’ bluff and release the texts in a followup story."

"For Democrats, it was manna from heaven, falling right into their laps. Some, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be fired. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) trolled Republicans with a blown-up version of emojis Walz used in the chat held aloft at a committee hearing. Unelecteds got in on the action too, Pete Buttigieg making a viral TikTok lambasting those involved."

"Democrats, much to the base’s chagrin, haven’t failed to make stories of Trump’s malfeasance break through as much as they’ve shied away from trying. Shrugging at the callousness of the American people and the speed of the news cycle, they haven’t put themselves in the driver’s seat of a Trump scandal."

"Democrats lack committee chairmanships and an enormous media apparatus dedicated to spreading their PR and propaganda. But that does not make them powerless. They could try to put a Benghazi-like tail on this thing, holding shadow hearings, campaigning for firings or resignations, making Republican-like hay out of the administration’s endangerment of the troops. As this story proves, Democrats are as bad as the rest of us at knowing which particular story will resonate outside of political circles."

"Will they sink their teeth into this one, using what power they have to sling it around the administration’s neck? Or will they content themselves with a glancing blow, hoping, as the news cycle trudges on, that Trump will again screw up in a salient way, freeing them to just sit back and wait?"