The White House spent the week trying to minimize the revelation that the best national security officials discussed plans for the US strikes in Yemen on the Houthi militants on Signal, a commercial messaging app.
In an extraordinary violation of national security, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, revealed specific operational details before attacks in the group chat, which inverted the Atlantic publisher, Jeffrey Goldberg. Michael Waltz, the national security councilor who added Goldberg to chat, said he had taken the “full responsibility” for loss.
Several democrats asked Mr. Hegseth to resign. But the Trump administration has tried to deviate or evade problems. (Mr. Trump said the scandal was a “witches hunt”.
As part of a regular check-in during the first 100 days in office of Mr. Trump, the New York Times asked five voters what they thought about the administration’s response.
Dave Abdallah was not happy with the way Mr. Trump and those around him continued to minimize the violation of the safety of the signal chat.
“They have totally wrong,” Adballah said.
The violation, he added, could have cost us soldiers their lives. “This is a serious and serious mistake,” he said about all the relationship.
Mr. Abdallah, a real estate broker who immigrated to the United States from Lebanon as a child, voted for the candidate of the green party Jill Stein in the 2024 elections. It was a protest for the management of war by the Biden administration in Gaza and is concerned that Mr. Trump would not have helped the situation. However, Mr. Abdallah hoped that Mr. Trump’s foreign policy could bring peace and stability to the region.
So far it has been disappointed.
The fight recently taken between Israel and Hamas. Now, Mr. Abdallah believes that Mr. Trump, his administration and supporters are proving hypocritical while dealing with a repercussions for the signal affair.
He recalled that he saw a recent Tiktok video showing old republicans clips who criticized Hillary Clinton for using a private computer server when it was the state secretary during the Obama administration. The video then showed images of the same critics, now supporters of Mr. Trump, shaking off the chat of Signal like no big problem and making excuses.
These apologies hit Mr. Abdallah as sincere. “I just can’t understand it,” he said about the signal chat. “So it should definitely be on the table to get rid of someone.”
– Kurt Stere
“I don’t think anyone should be fired for this because it is not serious as many people think.”
Perry Hunter, 55 years old, of Sellersburg, Ind.
When Perry Hunter heard for the first time that Trump officials included a journalist in Signal’s chat, he thought it was a significant error on the part of the administration and that there was to be consequences.
But, just as he had done in response to many events of news related to Trump by the inauguration, Mr. Hunter said he had taken time to learn the details before deciding what he thought of the situation. This time, he ended up thinking that the scandal was not a scandal at all, saying that the chat did not include specific war plans, echoing the description of the White House. This made the benign messages in his eyes. (Defense experts were shocked by the level of detail in the chat.)
“Someone made a mistake, for sure,” he said, adding, “I don’t think anyone should be fired for this because it is not as serious as many people think it is.”
Mr. Hunter, a high school teacher, would have thought differently, he said, if the Americans had been killed due to the information shared in the chat. In this case, he said: “So, yes, someone should lose their jobs and someone should go to prison.” He added: “I think it’s one of those things that they had lucky and the better they learn from it.”
Feeling the Democrats criticizing the administration for the violation, he said it was hypocritical towards them to be so upset. He compared the violation of the errors made by the officials involved in the withdrawal of the Biden Administration by Afghanistan or in the use by Mrs. Clinton of a private e -mail server for official communications.
“Nobody we know was held responsible in those situations,” said Hunter. “And there was a failure, a great failure, in all those situations.”
– Juliet macuur
“If it happens again, even in one or two or three years, then nobody has learned anything.”
Such Jackkont, 57, from Los Angeles
“I have to tell you, I was shocked,” said Jackont, an educator. “There are things that cannot happen, and it happened.”
Mrs. Jackont compared him with what military secrets are strictly held in Israel, her country of origin. When the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, leads an operation, nobody claims responsibility even if it seems obvious, he said. “Nobody will tell you, until they tell you,” he said.
It was not anxious that anyone involved was fired at this point, “but there must be better attention,” he said.
Has the administration learned its lesson? “Time will say it,” said Mrs. Jackont. For now it seemed mostly by brushing it under the carpet, he said, but reflected on what the conversations could happen behind closed doors.
“If it happens again, even in one or two or three years, then no one has learned anything,” he said. “And it will be, I don’t want to use the word disaster, but a great shame.”
– Campbell Robertson
“Imagine some of another country with harmful intentions, take this information and will hurt us and our soldiers.”
Jaime Escobar Jr., 46, from Rome, Texas
As mayor of a small border town, Jaime Escobar Jr., knew how important it was to protect sensitive government information. So when he read the news on Signal’s chat, he worried that the officials in question were trying to wipe out the question too quickly.
“It’s just a lot, it’s a difficult pill to swallow,” he said about the problem. “There must be a strong message. We cannot allow this to happen. Imagine some of another country with harmful intentions, take this information and damage us and our soldiers.”
Mr. Escobar, who voted for Mr. Trump after years as a democratic, remained in difficulty on the fact that the officials were unable to check something simple like those who were receiving information, as a journalist.
“This is a big mistake and they just have to be very careful of this,” he said. “It is a lesson that must be learned very quickly and cannot be repeated.”
At the same time, he felt satisfied that Mr. Waltz, who admitted to create the group chat, accepted responsibility.
“He hired him, whether it was his fault or not, he is like” well, I am the boy responsible for national security, “he said. As for further consequences?” Well, he must be to the president. “
– Edgar Sandoval
‘The left did not have much with to fight or defend himself. It would seem that this could give them a support point. “
Isaiah Thompson, 22 years old, from Washington, DC
When Isaiah Thompson learned that the high officials of Trump shared the details of the war sensitive war, he immediately wondered how any member of the federal government could make this error. Then he wondered how the Democrats would react – rather than the Republicans.
“The left did not have much with to fight or defend itself. It would seem that this could give them a support point or something to repel on,” he said. “I don’t know how the federal government could have had something similar so cupboard.”
Mr. Thompson, a university student who voted for Kamala Harris but supports the green party, said that Signal’s chat was only another example of the lack of responsibility or checks and sales in the Trump administration. However, hesitates to support the dismissal of Mr. Hegseth or Mr. Waltz on their roles in the signal scandal – at least not yet.
“There must be an in -depth investigation before someone is fired or asks to resign,” Thompson said. “But the president is not dealing with him seriously. This was a violation of national security.”
– Audra DS Burch