When the news broke on Monday that a group of top Trump administration officials had convened a text chat to discuss classified information including war plans, those who worked for Hillary Clinton couldn’t help but highlight what they saw as the hypocrisy of the moment.
Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State became a controversial issue during her entire 2016 campaign. President Trump and his supporters used the controversy to claim that Clinton was “crooked” and not to be trusted.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, reported Monday that he was accidentally invited to an encrypted group chat on Signal where senior Trump officials deliberated classified details of attacks that took place in Yemen this month.
And in the hours after the text chat was revealed, aides who worked for Clinton scoffed at the news.
“To them the real national security threat doesn’t come from giving away your war plans, it comes from giving away your risotto recipes,” said Jesse Ferguson, a former spokesperson for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, referencing the contents of hacked emails from John Podesta, the former Clinton campaign chair.
One longtime Clinton aide said there is a big difference in Clinton’s use of emails on a private server and the instance facing the Trump officials, which included Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. (Both Hegseth and Rubio were among Republicans who criticized Clinton’s use of a private server during the 2016 presidential race.)
“Using private communications is a security risk at any level but there’s a big difference between emailing routine matters vs. discussing imminent military action in a live group chat — not to mention allowing an unauthorized person to join it,” the longtime Clinton aide said.
The aide added that the text chain should prompt an investigation and a need for transparency: “Who did it, how did it happen, and perhaps more important, how many other times was classified info discussed on group chats?”
On Tuesday, two top Trump intelligence officials denied that classified information was shared in the group chat. In a raucous hearing, both Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe downplayed the group chat and the question of whether Signal is the appropriate venue for such secret information.
At the same time, the group chat was the subject of criticism from both sides of the aisle. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) acknowledged “we dodged a bullet,” according to The New York Times. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, also admitted that the White House should “be honest and own up” to what happened.
A day earlier, Clinton herself couldn’t keep her thoughts contained.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she wrote on the social platform X, adding a big-eye emoji to the missive.
At the same time, other longtime aides have said it’s an argument that is moot at this point.
The group chat texts come at a time when the Democratic Party has debated the right messaging to win over voters on the heels of their 2024 presidential loss.
There is a thought among Democrats that they shouldn’t be relitigating narratives of past elections.
“I don’t think it cuts through to the public,” a second former senior Clinton aide said. “The people who care about that already voted the way I wanted them to vote in November. And the other people will never be sold on this whole idea that it was silly.”
Philippe Reines, who served as one of Clinton’s longest-serving advisers, put it this way: “Hypocrisy is a quaint concept that went the way of the dodo bird.”
Instead, Reines said that the group chat serves as the latest example of “a complete lack of judgment displayed by the highest-ranking officials, starting with the president.”
“He may not be on this chain, but it was his continued terrible judgment that led him to choose these Olympically inept clowns,” Reines added. “And he is choosing to let it slide, the surest way to ensure a repeat.”
Reines, who has worked closely with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and served on Clinton’s State Department staff when Robert Gates served as Defense secretary, said neither of them would conduct business like the Trump officials.
“A Secretary Panetta or Gates would never participate,” he said. “They’d be appalled. But when all you know is the text messaging chains with your Fox colleagues it all seems OK.”
“But it’s not OK,” he added. “Especially the emojis. That’s just embarrassing for America.”
