Jimmy Kimmel shreds ‘bunch of doofs’ in Trump administration over Signal leak
Jimmy Kimmel shredded Trump administration officials involved in the Signal leak after inadvertently giving a journalist a front-row seat as they hashed out secret war plans for an impending U.S. strike in Yemen.
Hours after reports surfaced on Monday, the Jimmy Kimmel Live host recounted events of how White House National Security adviser Mike Waltz appeared to have mistakenly invited The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to an encrypted chat days before the wave of air strikes on Houthi targets earlier this month.
“[Goldberg] thought somebody was trying to fool him, he thought it was disinformation,” Kimmel said. “Turned out it was just a bunch of fools because the strike happened exactly as described in the text.”
“In other words, our national security is being guarded by a bunch of doofs you wouldn’t trust to throw your cousin a surprise party,” he added.
Goldberg wrote that he was invited to connect on Signal by Walz on March 11. The journalist, who uses the encrypted messaging platform under his initials “JG,” said he was added to a group called the “Houthi PC small group” two days later.
Kimmel questioned why no one managed to spot Goldberg’s name or asked who the mysterious interloper in the group was.
“No one thought to ask, ‘Who is JG? What are these initials?,’” he continued. “They could have been leaking secrets to Jeff Goldblum for all they know.”
The late-night host teased what would happen if a similar security breach occurred during the Biden administration.
“If Joe Biden’s top-level military team accidentally texted these plans to a journalist, Laura Ingraham’s e******* would be so rock strong it would break through the wall like the Kool-Aid man,” he said of the Fox News host.
Waltz, a former Green Beret and Florida representative, used the common encrypted messaging app to form the group chat with colleagues on the National Security Council’s “Principals Committee.”
Signal is not an official communications channel available to top government officials.
Along with Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, are among officials in the chat who had previously condemned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while in office.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East and Ukraine negotiator, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller were among others who appeared to be included in the Signal channel.
No one managed to spot Goldberg in the group, even when he left the chat – which would have notified members.
Vance appeared to disagree with Trump’s wisdom on the strikes, noting: “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.”
Alongside leaking details of U.S. war plans, the vice president and defense secretary also shared their disdain for what Hegseth called “European free-loading.”
When probed by a reporter in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he didn’t know “anything about” the story.
Just hours after reports surfaced, Clinton took to X to write: “You have got to be kidding me.”
Source: independent.co.uk
