The Text Chain That Should END Trump’s Presidency

Summary

Bulwark Takes: Episode Summary — "The Text Chain That Should END Trump’s Presidency"

Podcast Information

• Title: Bulwark Takes
• Host/Author: The Bulwark
• Description: The news cycle doesn’t slow down, and neither does The Bulwark. Bulwark Takes brings you bite-sized takes on the news of the day from the entire Bulwark team, including Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, and Bill Kristol, and more.
• Episode: The Text Chain That Should END Trump’s Presidency
• Release Date: March 24, 2025

---

Introduction to the Scandal [00:00 - 02:05]

JVL opens the discussion by highlighting a groundbreaking article by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic. The article exposes a significant security breach within the Trump administration where high-ranking officials, including National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, were using the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military operations against the Houthis in Yemen.

Notable Quote:

• JVL [00:00]: "It's one of the most astonishing security breaches I've ever seen in the history of America."

Sarah Longwell emphasizes the gravity of the situation, describing the conversation as both dangerous and idiotic. She prepares listeners for an in-depth analysis of how such high-level discussions occurred on a non-secure platform like Signal.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [00:53]: "We're going to pull out all the different parts of the things that this journalist... was able to glean from being inadvertently added to a signal chain of all of the highest people..."

---

The Signal Group Revelation [02:05 - 05:22]

JVL recounts how Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a Signal group conversation comprising influential figures like Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, and Tulsi Gabbard. The group was openly discussing plans to conduct strikes in Yemen to secure shipping lanes, revealing operational details that pose serious national security risks.

Notable Quote:

• JVL [02:02]: "It's Death of Stalin. Right. This is when people are like, oh, it's Veep, not House of Cards. That's not quite true because Veep is funny, but it's not sinister."

Sarah points out the absurdity and recklessness of such high-level officials debating military operations over an encrypted, yet commercially available, messaging app.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [02:05]: "Because bombs bombing people is at the center of this conversation."

---

Detailed Examination of the Group Chat [05:22 - 11:07]

JVL and Sarah delve into the specifics of the Signal conversation. They highlight how JD Vance expressed concerns over the necessity and political viability of the proposed strikes, questioning why the U.S. should intervene to aid European shipping interests given that only 3% of American shipping passes through the contested lanes compared to 40% of European shipping.

Notable Quote:

• JD Vance [04:57]: "I think we should wait on this. Plus, the politics are bad. How are we going to sell the politics to the American people?"

Sarah underscores the unprofessionalism and the blatant disregard for operational security, noting the use of emojis and informal language in discussing serious military actions.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [05:01]: "And the politics are bad. How are we going to sell the politics to the American people?"

---

Security Breaches and Operational Failures [11:07 - 15:04]

The conversation shifts to the broader implications of using Signal for such high-level discussions. JVL explains the inherent security risks, including the potential for messages to be accessed by unintended parties, such as personal contacts or even adversaries.

Notable Quote:

• JVL [11:07]: "Michael Waltz had provided the group an update... including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing."

Sarah points out that this breach is not an isolated incident but indicative of a systemic problem within the government’s communication practices.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [10:42]: "The idea that this is like a one off... This is how the American government is planning national, major national security incursions, bombings."

---

Consequences and Government Dysfunction [15:04 - 20:49]

JVL speculates on the potential fallout, questioning whether Congress will step in with hearings and oversight. Sarah doubts immediate congressional action, highlighting the chaotic nature of the administration's operations.

Notable Quote:

• JVL [15:04]: "Do you think there will be any congressional oversight in the wake of this historic security breach?"

Sarah humorously compares the administration’s handling to accidental missteps in everyday communication, emphasizing the unprofessional and haphazard approach to governance.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [17:13]: "Imagine their conversations when they... send a text to the wrong person. It happens, but this is on a national security level."

---

Official Response and Public Perception [20:49 - 22:59]

The hosts discuss the official response to the leak. Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, confirmed the authenticity of the Signal group but downplayed the breach by labeling it as a "demonstration of deep and thoughtful policy coordination."

Notable Quote:

• Brian Hughes [22:59]: "This appears to be an authentic message chain... a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials."

Sarah critiques this response, arguing that it fails to address the fundamental security flaws exposed by the incident.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [22:59]: "Their spin is like, well, what's in the chain is just them being thoughtful about it. No, it's like the opposite of them being thoughtful."

---

Implications for National Security and Governance [22:59 - 23:45]

JVL and Sarah reflect on the broader implications, suggesting that this incident is merely the "tip of the iceberg" and indicative of deeper issues within the government’s operational protocols.

Notable Quote:

• JVL [23:38]: "This is the part of the iceberg that is visible above the waterline."

Sarah agrees, emphasizing the need for vigilance and continued scrutiny to prevent further breaches and restore functional governance.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [23:38]: "And, well, and we just, we gotta, we gotta. We got visuals on the below the watermark, and it ain't pretty."

---

Conclusion and Call to Action [23:45 - End]

In the closing remarks, JVL urges listeners to stay informed and engaged, portraying the situation as critical to the future of American governance. Sarah reinforces the importance of public awareness and continued fighting to reclaim a functional government.

Notable Quote:

• JVL [23:45]: "Hit, subscribe, hit follow. Stay with the channel. We are on this stuff 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Sarah adds a final note on the necessity of public vigilance to counteract the administration's undermining of governmental integrity.

Notable Quote:

• Sarah Longwell [23:45]: "Keep fighting. Good luck, America."

---

Key Takeaways

• Severe Security Breach: High-ranking Trump administration officials discussed sensitive military operations on the non-secure, encrypted messaging app Signal.
• Operational Failures: The use of Signal for national security communications exposes critical vulnerabilities and a lack of proper protocol adherence.
• Government Dysfunction: The incident suggests systemic issues within the administration's operational practices, potentially leading to governance paralysis.
• Public Awareness and Action: The hosts emphasize the importance of public vigilance and engagement to address and rectify the administration's failures.

Implications

This episode highlights alarming lapses in national security protocols and governmental operations, suggesting that the Trump administration’s handling of sensitive information poses significant risks to American national security. The discussion underscores the urgent need for legislative oversight and reforms to prevent future breaches and ensure effective governance.

Transcript

[JVL]

Hey, everyone, it's JVL here with my best friend Sarah Longwell, publisher of the Bulwark, to talk about a blockbuster article in the Atlantic today by Jeffrey Goldberg about how the Trump administration security team included him on a signal message group in which they openly discussed American war planning for attacks on the Houthis in Yemen. It's one of the most astonishing security breaches I've ever seen in the history of America. But her emails and it's, I mean, I guess, Sarah, before we're going to go deep into this, but just off the bat, what are your reactions and am I overselling how mind bogglingly incompetent, like criminally incompetent this is.

[Sarah Longwell]

Here's what I'm going to say. We are going to go deep on this. We're going to talk about it. We're going to pull out all the different parts of the things that this journalist, the editor of the Atlantic magazine, was able to glean from being inadvertently added to a signal chain of all of the highest people, the command of the highest people of the American government. Just casually chatting about this on a signal chain. Here's the thing, JBL is going to be outraged. There is nothing about this that is funny, but I am probably going to laugh some and I'm going to laugh some because the level of idiocy on here is so complete that the level of dangerous. How dangerous? None of that. I just want to be clear. None of that's in dispute. But also these people are unbelievable clowns and I'm going to laugh at them a little bit. That's how I'm going to start. Okay, JBL set the stage. What did we just read? Because I just read the whole thing.

[JVL]

It's Death of Stalin. Right. This is when people are like, oh, it's Veep, not House of Cards. That's not quite true because Veep is funny, but it's not sinister. Death of Stalin is funny, but sinister. And that's, that's, I think what this is. Okay.

[Sarah Longwell]

Because bombs bombing people is at the center of this conversation.

[JVL]

Right, Right. And also placing American intelligence and military personnel in danger is part of this as well. Yes. So here's what happens. Jeff Goldberg gets a DM on signal from somebody identified as Michael Waltz. Michael Waltz is Donald Trump's national Security advisor.

[Sarah Longwell]

Previously. Also kind of a normal Republican, like.

[JVL]

Sure.

[Sarah Longwell]

Like by old standards. Right. He's a, he's, he was a neoconish, thought he'd be good on Ukraine till we saw he was going to flip on everything. But anyway. Yes, Mike Walls.

[JVL]

So Mike Walls invites Jeffrey Goldberg to join this Signal group. And Jeff thinks that this can't possibly be real. He assumes that this is like Project Veritas style sting operation trying to make journalists look silly or that it's maybe even a foreign trap, you know, some foreign intelligence service, like. But. But, you know, Jeff's like, I'm a journalist. I'm going to play along and see what I say.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yeah, but hold on, just to be clear, Signal is like, for people who don't use it, which I'm not sure how common this is. It's more. It's like a WhatsApp. It's like encrypted.

[JVL]

Encrypted messaging.

[Sarah Longwell]

Encrypted messaging. So a lot of people use it in government and politics. And you can set it to delete automatically over an hour or over days or whatever. And so if you make a chain, it often it goes away. Is kind of the right.

[JVL]

But it is a commercially available product.

[Sarah Longwell]

That's right.

[JVL]

Like, this is not.

[Sarah Longwell]

Anybody can download it on their phone.

[JVL]

Not military grade. Right. This is, you know. Anyway, we'll talk about security risks at the end of this. A number of names which appear to coincide with high profile people appear in this group. Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Pete Heath, Stephen Miller, Tulsi Gabbard, some others. And they begin a discussion about going after and conducting a strike in Yemen against the Houthis to open up the shipping lanes. Now there follows a brief policy discussion in which JD Vance interestingly deviates from the President and thinks that the president hasn't really been informed. You know, President hasn't gotten all the relevant information. And what J.D. vance is fixated on is that only 3% of American shipping goes through these lanes, but 4, 40% of European shipping does. And why should we be bailing out the Europeans? I think we should wait on this. Plus, the politics are bad. How are we going to sell the politics to the American people? And they go back and forth a little bit. Hegseth is, you know, deferential, says, look, we could delay, but. But, you know, like, really, we're the only people who can do this. And then there's a discussion about, well, we got to make sure the European Europeans remunerate us for this. So it is literally like shakedown. Like, well, wait, is.

[Sarah Longwell]

Is it is the word remunerate, isn't it? Remunerate.

[JVL]

Oh, great, thanks. Cut that out, Sebastian. Now leave it in. And the point is, they want to get paid. Show that pay dead men his money is what. Is what the national security team is worried about in all this. And they talk about how they loathe all caps. The Europeans.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yes.

[JVL]

And it's. It's amazing. I mean, you know, you see what people are saying inside. But. But here's.

[Sarah Longwell]

Here's freeloaders. European freeloaders.

[JVL]

Yeah, yeah, they're our allies, but sure, we'll just call them freeloaders. I'm gonna. I'm gonna read. Read something here from. They're gonna read a couple passages. Let me. Let me start with this one. At 11:44am the account label Pete Hegseth posted in Signal A Team Update. And this is Jeff Goldberg here. I will not quote from this update or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East Central Command's area of responsibility. What I will say in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this signal conversation is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US Would be deploying, and attack sequencing. In response, the vice president, J.D. vance, texted, I will say a prayer for victory. At which point two other users subsequently added the prayer emoji. This is the part where you can laugh, Sarah.

[Sarah Longwell]

Oh, I laugh throughout this.

[JVL]

The. The. The fact that J.D. vance is still doing his kayfabe here about, like, oh, you know, pray for victory. Fucking guys. So at this point, Jeff Goldberg still isn't sure that all this is genuine. You know, he's just watching this and thinking, well, this can't be right. And so he. He goes. And so this is two hours before what is supposed to be the go time, according to the signal message. So Jeff is just sitting in his car at a supermarket and scrolling through Twitter looking to, you know, searching Yemen. Yeah.

[Sarah Longwell]

So basically, just to be clear, he's. He's saying, if this is real, then we're going to see bombs fall.

[JVL]

We're going to see bombs dropping.

[Sarah Longwell]

He knows. And so he starts being like, okay, let's. Is it. Is it happening?

[JVL]

And sure enough, two hours later, like, all of a sudden, bombs reported. So here this is the.

[Sarah Longwell]

So imagine you're Jeffrey Goldberg singing in a car. You've been on this signal chain of the highest national security officials in America. You're accidentally added as a reporter. You think it's a disinformation op. You haven't said anything, but all of a Sudden it becomes clear to you that you have been privy this entire time to the machinations of a bomb strike and that they're just tossing it into a signal chain together. And it's Tulsi Gabbard and Mike Walls and Joe Kent and the vice president and Jason Miller. Jason or Miller?

[JVL]

Stephen Miller.

[Sarah Longwell]

Stephen Miller. I knew a Stephen Miller. All of them. Pete Hegseth. All of them together. And now you're like, oh my God, this is real. I've been, listen. I've been for real listening to this the whole time. Okay, go ahead, read it.

[JVL]

I'm just reading. Reading again. This is Jeff Goldberg at 1:48. Michael Waltz had provided the group an update. Again, I won't quote from this text except to note that he described the operation as an quote. Amazing job. I'm gonna. Susie Wiles texted. Oh yeah, she's kudos to all. Most particularly those in theater and centcom. Really great. God bless. Steve Witkoff responded with five emoji, two hands praying, a flex bicep and two American flags because America. Fuck yeah, I. So there are so many levels of this. The first being but her emails. This is Jeff Goldberg then goes and talks to a bunch of national security lawyers and it's like, is this, is this, is this cool? Can you do this? And the general consensus is, oh my God, are you kidding me? Because for one thing, signal is a very, very strong encryption. But anybody who has your normies for normies and anybody who has your phone can get into it. Your kids can open your signal account. Right. If they come and pull over your phone. Like this is, you know, it is device specific. And another thing is all of this is taking place outside of official record keeping.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yes. Because it deletes. Right.

[JVL]

We will not have done in on government communications platforms which preserve essential communications for presidential records.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yes.

[JVL]

Huh. But.

[Sarah Longwell]

Okay, keep going.

[JVL]

No, I mean this is.

[Sarah Longwell]

It's so. From a security standpoint, it is so one of the things that is revelatory about this is that this is clearly the fact that this is happening in this instance means it's happening in all the instances.

[JVL]

Yes.

[Sarah Longwell]

Okay. So like I just. The idea that this is like a one off, whatever. No, this is just a one off where the journalist accidentally got added. This is how the American government is planning national, major national security incursions, bombings.

[JVL]

Probably how DOGE stuff is being done. It's probably how NIH stuff is being done. All of this stuff is being done non secure channels, just creating a new.

[Sarah Longwell]

Signal chain, throwing seven or eight people on It.

[JVL]

Right.

[Sarah Longwell]

And then people are writing back with emojis. Right. Like, how does one interpret that? Is it. Is it clear what we mean by a strong muscle emerge?

[JVL]

I mean, I accept prayer hands. American flag. American flag speaks for itself.

[Sarah Longwell]

I do too. I do too.

[JVL]

President Camacho would have responded that way.

[Sarah Longwell]

Wait, can I. All right, so. So, so yes. So that the. I want. I want it to not be lost that the entire American government is now being run off book, essentially. Like, right. It's being done off book and it's being deleted. And Goldberg goes into this, that the. The chain you can see and any chain you're on, if you're on signal, you can see when it's set to delete. And it was. I think at one point it was set to a week, another point four weeks. But like, the point is it was set to delete, meaning that there was going to be no record of these high level officials discussing this operation. Okay. And also. So we can assume it's happening across government. But also in there is the. Are the things that got shared which illustrate how these high level officials are thinking about things. So we hit this slightly, but I want to. I want to stomp on it. VP says. Oh, no, I'm sorry. The. I. The. The user identified as Hegseth. Right. So this is Pete Hegseth responded as JD Vance is. Is putting up some. A bit of a. He's the one saying, I'm not sure we should do this. And he's saying it because he's like, this doesn't impact us very much as Americans because J.D. vance is, you know, his, his Amer. He's bought in very much to the total isolationism of America first. Right. But then, so Hagstat says, vp, I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It's all caps. Pathetic. But Mike is correct. We're the only ones on the planet parentheses on our side of the ledger who could do this. Nobody else. Even close question is timing. I feel like now is as good a good as time as any given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go. But potus still retains 24 hours of decision space. At this point, the previously silent SM joined the conversation. That's Stephen Miller, as I heard it. Okay. I just want you to. Okay. He says, I feel like now is as good a time as any. Okay. And then. Okay, it's good as time. As. And as SM said, as I heard it, the President was clear green light. But we soon made clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. Eg, if Europe doesn't remunerate, then what? Meaning, so they don't pay us back for going. Going and. And opening up their shipping lanes. If the US Successfully restores freedom of navigation at a great cost, there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return. So these guys are just like, kind of freewheeling it up on the signal chain, being like, well, we need to do this, and where is public opinion? And it's like, oh, my God, they're not even in a room together. They're not even having, like, a high level meeting in the skiff for the situation room.

[JVL]

You know what? Let me. Let me. Let me throw one bright side at you, right? Silver lining. At least Pete Hegseth still sees us on the opposite side of the ledger from Russia and China.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yeah, on our side, that's true. No, that was a bright spot.

[JVL]

Pete Hegseth still does view America as nominally allied with NATO countries. Yay.

[Sarah Longwell]

Big win. Big win. Those countries. Can you imagine? Wait, tell me this. So I know enough to be dangerous on some of the security stuff, but if you're a foreign adversary, what have you learned from this instance?

[JVL]

I mean, maybe nothing you didn't already know.

[Sarah Longwell]

Just get up on their phones, honestly, because they're just going to talk about the national security stuff in ways that are.

[JVL]

They're as dumb as we think they are.

[Sarah Longwell]

They're as dumb as we think they are.

[JVL]

What. What you learn if you're the Chinese is that There is no 4D chess going on here. These people are exactly what they look like. And that's all you need to know. That is all you need to know. I have a question for you, Sarah. Do you think there will be any congressional oversight in. In the wake of this historic security breach? Dude, do you think. Do you think the Senate Republicans and the House Republicans are going to call some hearings?

[Sarah Longwell]

I don't know. I don't know about that. Here's. Here's the. Listen, I think they're probably not. Wait, here's what's really funny. So anybody who's on signal has experienced the moment when you're. When you either yourself or somebody else leaves a chain, a signal chain that you're on because, right. People put you on signal chains that you don't want to be on. And so you're like, I'm leaving this group because they're just talking about nonsense. So Jeffrey Goldberg, after this operation takes place, and he is privy, and I Would just like to say, unlike them, these people who are operating insanely due to their roles and breaching all kinds of security, Jeffrey Goldberg remains committed to his position as a journalist who will not betray national security secrets. And so he is not reporting on all of the things on the chain that would like that. He doesn't want to. That would compromise our national security. Right. So he is doing them still a huge favor by not putting operational security things in. But anyway, so after all this happens, he says, okay, now I know this is real, so I'm going to get out of it. So he leaves. But when you leave, it sends a message like it says in the thing, like, Jeffrey Goldberg has left the conversation. SARS left the signal chat. And so the fact that it sounds like he had to reach out to them.

[JVL]

Yeah.

[Sarah Longwell]

To. To confirm its authenticity. None of them, Susie Wiles or anybody else went, uh, oh, oh, shit, we should probably.

[JVL]

I mean, maybe there was another signal thread in which they discussed that. I don't know. I.

[Sarah Longwell]

They went over to their other thing.

[JVL]

Being like, they set up another dm. Was that Jeff Goldberg?

[Sarah Longwell]

Wait, do you have.

[JVL]

Do you have a guy in your office named Jeff Goldberg? That wasn't. That wasn't the Jeff Goldberg, was it?

[Sarah Longwell]

This is the part that makes me laugh so hard, is like, have you ever done this? Every human has had this experience where they accidentally. Have you ever done something where you're thinking about somebody because you're so mad at them, and then you accidentally send the email to them? Or like, you know, because they're top of mind, or like you send a text to the wrong person, you're like, oh, that wasn't for you. And usually it's benign, but like, can you imagine their conversations when they. Or. Or. Or they didn't notice?

[JVL]

Yeah. And they just didn't notice. Oh, Jeff Goldberg must be so and so's deputy, who I don't care about. Right. Isn't Jeff Goldberg Tulsi's deputy, man? Isn't that guy named Goldberg? They all look alike. Right. I mean, you could imagine something like that.

[Sarah Longwell]

Who do you think they meant to put on there?

[JVL]

I don't know.

[Sarah Longwell]

I kept being like, how do you accidentally add Jeffrey Goldberg to your single signal chain about bombing? But also, we should note they confirmed the authenticity of it. Like when he went to them. This is real. This wasn't an accident.

[JVL]

So this is the most boring question in the world, but I have to ask it anyway. Can you imagine Fox News right now if this had been the Biden administration?

[Sarah Longwell]

Oh, My gosh.

[JVL]

Right? I mean this would be the only story for weeks.

[Sarah Longwell]

Weeks wall to wall dementia Biden includes Fox News reporter on decision on on signal chat with high level. Now granted, the only thing good about this was that the actual president wasn't on it, but the actual vice president, which by the way, I mean it is just such a read in. It is really fascinating. Is such a read into how their decisions are being made. And like I gotta say the part where the VP is texting, oh, by the way, Marco Rubio is also on this chain. It doesn't look like he weighs in, but mar. The Secretary of State Mar. Marco Antonio Rubio. Oh, he just put in the chat. He was designated somebody as like who his person was who was handling this. So he designated somebody. He's in the chat, Rubio's in the chat. But the thing about the vp, where is this part where he says, I can't, I don't know where it is, but he basically says like, I'm in Michigan today, so I can't really think about this. But I disagree with the idea. It was like you are getting asked to weigh in on the bombings. You're saying you disagree, but also you don't really have time to like get into it right now because you're in Michigan.

[JVL]

I'm like a political event who. Political event in Michigan.

[Sarah Longwell]

Who is in charge, who is doing stuff.

[JVL]

I mean, this is like if in the bulwark slack one of us is like, I think we're gonna use this Getty image for a piece. Sarah, what do you think? And you're like, yeah, I'm busy right now. I don't really love the photo, but I don't have time to talk about it except, you know, they're talking about blowing people up. I, It's. I mean, this would be the end of any normal presidential administration.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yes.

[JVL]

Because the, the, this thread, as you say, is itself a, an unbelievable scandal, but is clear indication that this is happening up and down the government and that the entire, all of this. And it isn't like they're governing like normal. That's the thing. It isn't like, you know, look, it's, it's a fairly normal government, but they just happen to be going off the books in their comms. They are assaulting the federal government, attempting to dismantle it brick by brick and they're trying to not leave a trail. And you know, if we had a legislative branch that had not abdicating leaving their posts, they are actively colluding on it. The legislature, you know, they're, they're like, they're into the project, but if. If we had a real legislative branch, this would. This would basically stop government. Government functioning for the foreseeable future. While Congress investigated this and a whole bunch of people either fired, resigned, or went to jail.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yes, Yes.

[JVL]

I don't even know what else to say. Do you have anything else there, Sarah?

[Sarah Longwell]

I'm trying to find the part where when the guy came back. Oh, here it is. Here it is. Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, responded two hours later, confirming the veracity of the signal group. This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we're reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. Hughes wrote the thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security. So this is their spin. So their spin is like, well, what's in the chain is just them being thoughtful about it. No, it's not. It's like the opposite of them being thoughtful about it. Like, they're having, like, a high level sort of debate, but not in a room together and like, not in deep coordination. And also, if one of them left their phones in a taxi cab, like, the entire thing could be accessible, or.

[JVL]

If their kid took the phone or any, you know, their assistant picked up the phone. I mean, you know, in my head, Canon Jeff Goldberg responded to that official statement with prayer hand, prayer hand, bicep, two American flags. And I just. This is. We're only eight weeks in, Sarah. We're only eight weeks in. And I, you know, I feel like every day is a question of how much worse can it get. This is pretty bad. But also, this is. This is the part of the iceberg that is visible above the waterline.

[Sarah Longwell]

Right?

[JVL]

And.

[Sarah Longwell]

And, well, and we just, we gotta, we gotta. We got visuals on the. Below the watermark, and it ain't pretty.

[JVL]

Yeah, horrifying. Guys, hit, subscribe, hit follow. Stay with the channel. We are on this stuff 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because the only way through this and to take back the government and restore it to actual functioning is to flood the zone beyond this. Don't get tired. Keep fighting. Good luck, America.