← The Majority Report with Sam Seder
The Majority Report with Sam Seder
2461 - Trump Team's Signal Leak Fiasco
01:22:01
It's news day Tuesday, where Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day, including the unsecure Signal chats scandal and the attack on social security. Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: Follow us on TikTok...
Loading summary
Transcript289 lines
- [00:00]
Sam Seder
Hey folks, did you know that an estimated 5 billion with a B plastic hand soap and cleaning bottles are thrown away each year? And if that's not bad enough, most cleaning formulas are 90% water. That of course is heavy to ship whether you're walking home from the grocery store or they're shipping it all across the country. Leads to excessive carbon emissions. Those products are often filled with nasty ingredients like chlorine and ammonia. That is a lose, lose, lose situation for you and the planet and your kids and your pets. Blueland is on a mission to eliminate single use plastic by reinventing cleaning essentials to be better for you and the planet with the same powerful clean you're used to. The idea is simple. They offer refillable cleaning products with a beautiful cohesive design that looks great on your counter. So all you got to do, you fill your reusable bottles with water, you drop in the tablets, you wait for them to dissolve. You're never going to to grab bulky cleaning supplies on your grocery run again. They got three bottles that I have on my counter right now. One is blue, one is pink, one is yellow. The yellow is like for everything, the all purpose cleaner. The blue is for the windows, which I never use because I never clean the windows, although I should because they're disgusting. And then the, the other one is for the bathroom, the pink one, which I don't know why actually now I think about it, I keep in the kitchen, but I use it in the bathroom. And a little tablet put the water in. Refills are started. Just $22 and 25 cents. You keep them in, in the little paper packets, compostable paper packets. So easy to store. You never have to go to the grocery store. It is fantastic. I've got also Blue Land things you drop in the toilet. I've got Blue Land for my dishwasher. Same thing, Tablets. No, plastic. Those plastic wrap things are wrapped in plastic. Where do you think that plastic goes? It melts. It's on your dishes, it goes into the water. It's horrible. Also we got pump hand cleaners too. So from everything from cleaning sprays, hand soap, toilet bowl cleaner, laundry tablets, all at Blueland products are made with clean ingredients you can feel good about. Blue Land is trusted over in 1 million homes, including mine. Get on. This Blue Land has a special offer for our listeners right now. Get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com majority. You don't want to miss this. Blueland.com majority 15% off. That's blueland.com majority get 15% off. Do yourself a favor, buy a bunch of it right up front. Get that 15% because you're going to love it. Okay, time for the show. It is Tuesday, March 25, 2025. My name is Sam Seder. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, incompetence, law breaking and warmongering all revealed in a top level Trump team signal text chain that they accidentally let somebody who had no business being there in on.
- [03:34]
Emma Vigeland
Oopsie.
- [03:36]
Sam Seder
Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to Times v. Sullivan maintaining crucial protection for news outlets. Also, Trump asked the Supreme Court to block a ruling to reinstate probationary federal workers. The Venezuelan deportations case to El Salvador makes it to an appellate court panel. Doge is breaking down Social Security as a corporate privatizer seeks Senate confirmation to run it into the ground. Next up, cuts at do at at the Department of Education put student loan programs completely at risk. DHS wants to eliminate FEMA and Louis DeJoy steps down as the US Postal Service postmaster in a frying pan to fire moment. Emboldened by Chuck Schumer's total and absolute capitulation, Senate Republicans now plan a new budget blueprint. Vote for April. Greenland says they didn't invite the US Delegation. Brain drain begins. European universities are now offering scientific asylum to US Researchers. Making me feel really bad I didn't study science. More Trump closing HHS long Covid office. The Israelis beat and arrest the Oscar winning director of or one of them of no other land. Also kill two more journalists, including an Al Jazeera reporter. All this and more on today's majority report. Well, okay, that was abrupt. I don't know. Yeah, it's abrupt.
- [05:51]
Matt Binder
But then if I'm not abrupt, I can't get Emma on screen fast enough. And then you panic and you're like, where's Emma?
- [05:57]
Sam Seder
Listen, it's never going to be right. I'm making that clear right now.
- [06:01]
Emma Vigeland
Really? Total Goldilocks Cedar over here.
- [06:04]
Sam Seder
Totally.
- [06:05]
Emma Vigeland
It is news day Tuesday, right? Okay, second for me to remember what day it is.
- [06:12]
Sam Seder
Yep, a lot of news, folks. And so we're a little bit jumbled, but this is like sort of how every day feels like. No. So we're scribbling, writing, printing things like two minutes into the beginning of the show, frankly.
- [06:28]
Emma Vigeland
But at least we finally have our first somewhat fun story out of the Trump administration. I mean, I think we're like, you know, we're over two months in and it's been really, really difficult to cover almost all of it. But this text signal thing is at least something we can mock.
- [06:46]
Sam Seder
This is also, and I think it is probably the, the first time that the administration square on is on its heels a little bit. I mean, I definitely think that there has been some panic around Tesla's stock price and we've seen sort of second order panic from the administration to make sure that Elon Musk gets caught or bad or whatever. He's sleeping and in the White House is still comfy. But this is the first one that feels like we may end up seeing and it's very reminiscent. People forget this, but starting sometime around now in the Trump administration, the first one, it was scandal after scandal. You had that guy, the head of the EPA was taking all sorts of like writing off all sorts of flights. I mean, everybody who got into the Trump administration the first time around was basically using it as their own little slush fund and they were dropping like flies. I don't think that's going to be the case in this administration. Not because they're not doing this, but because there's no one in there to find them and catch them doing this. I mean, honestly, I think like, you know, we have no inspector generals in these offices. We have no, they have cleared out and intimidated so many people already so early on, including like going after whistle lawyers to whistleblowers and big law firms and the Washington Post, cnn, ABC paying off. I mean, time and time again, whether these outlets and individuals have been cowed, it certainly sends a message to everyone that you may not want to stick your neck out a little bit because it's going to get lopped off. But in this instance, and in fact, I would argue that the reporter in this instance did the bare minimum in terms of the opportunity that was afforded them.
- [09:10]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, like we sit on Biden's declining mental acuity or like some of the stuff that was in that book War, the Woodward book. You sit on all of this information for years, but Goldberg couldn't stay in the chat for a little bit longer. Come on, buddy.
- [09:25]
Sam Seder
Well, we'll get to that. And it's sort of the, what's sort of fascinating is that there's a, there's an inherent contradiction in it. When we heard this story yesterday, we were on air, I think all of our first instinct was like, it's fake, right? Not fake. Not fake in terms of like, it's not real, but more like this is a little staged. Jeffrey Goldberg Obviously an Uber supporter of Israel and Israeli Zionism. He was a IDF prison guard. Some of us summer at a beach, you know, like a. Work at a restaurant. Others of us go be a guard.
- [10:10]
Emma Vigeland
In the idea committing war crimes to blow off steam.
- [10:13]
Sam Seder
And although, you know, that is a general statement, we don't know that he, yes, specifically was involved in any war crimes. But I mean, we do know that it's quite clear members of the IDF prisoner prison guards have committed war crimes. We saw a video of it, frankly. But that's aside, that's, that's not the point here. Apparently what happened, according to Jeffrey Goldberg, is one day he's sitting around and he, his phone gives him a notification.
- [10:46]
Emma Vigeland
This is March 11th was the date.
- [10:48]
Sam Seder
Yeah. And you've been added to Signal by Matt. What's it, Michael Waltz.
- [10:58]
Emma Vigeland
Mike Waltz.
- [10:59]
Sam Seder
Mike Waltz, Sorry. And you know, if you are, if you have Signal, this happens to you time to time.
- [11:05]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
- [11:06]
Matt Binder
Because they're trying to sell you crypto.
- [11:07]
Sam Seder
Usually people. Well, that happens to me on Skype all the time, constantly.
- [11:12]
Emma Vigeland
Right.
- [11:12]
Sam Seder
But on Signal, you know, if one of the people who, you know, who you're in their contact with will come in and they'll sign up and they won't know that you might want to select which contacts you're in, and they'll just blow it all out and you'll get this notice like, I haven't talked to this person like eight years and you think, are they adding me to Signal? And then you remember, oh, it's just.
- [11:36]
Emma Vigeland
A blanket, it's an automated thing.
- [11:38]
Sam Seder
And, and then a couple of days go by and all of a sudden he gets this notice that he's been added to a, a new group, New.
- [11:53]
Emma Vigeland
Signal group called a Houthi PC Small group. And PC stands for Principal Coordination.
- [12:03]
Sam Seder
And so he thinks this has got to be a joke. He thinks, he thinks it's either like a, some type of phishing thing. And supposedly he consults with people in the office and he's like, what should I do? And they're like, check it out, see what's going on. Because. Could also be. And this is the case, and you know, it's, it's understated because so many people don't want this to be a reason that Hillary Clinton lost. But I can tell you that people who work in the government and reporters all know, and you see it reported here and there and you just don't take it terribly to heart. But foreign countries, I've heard China, I've heard Iran, I've heard Russia, I imagine Israel, although I don't know if I've specifically heard that they have been going after reporters, journalists, government officials, campaign officials across the political spectrum, trying to get compromising stuff in some fashion or another or, you know, and so he was skeptical and then he gets in this. And the people who are on this include JD as in JD Vance. That's the, that's the Vice President Mar. The Secretary of State, Mark Antonio Rubio. And what happens as this guy's on the chat and because he joins it immediately, all of these people seconds say that they're here. So there are, they are all talking about like the primaries are saying who are their seconds who are also monitoring this. So for instance, Rubio writes Mike Needham for State, designating the current council, the State Department, as his representative. They all have representatives on this. I don't know if that's a. So it's not on their phone and they have their body person essentially with them to use their phone or if it's a way of making sure that they never, like they have maybe some, some type of plausible deniability or whatnot. Andy Barker for vp Tulsi Gabbard is here. Joe Kent for dni. Scott B. Would have been Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, Pete Hegseth, Brian McCormick for the NSC, representing to John Ratcliffe. All in all, there were 18 individuals, including National Security Council officials, Steve Witkoff, the President, troubled Middle east and Ukraine negotiator, Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff and someone identified only as sm who the reporter, Jonah Goldberg. Excuse me, Jeffrey Goldberg. God forbid, John. Jeffrey Goldberg assumed was Stephen Miller. And it looks like it's likely.
- [15:35]
Emma Vigeland
Stephen Miller, who seems to, according to like the way that he reported this text chain, is basically the point person for Donald Trump. And all of the, all of the administration's decisions as it relates to immigration and our foreign policy thus far seem very Stephen Miller.
- [15:54]
Sam Seder
He. Well, he massages me every night before I go to bed and get. And. And then this guy Jeffrey Goldberg, whose initials are JG So his initial showed up in this chat too. And apparently no one took the time to go. I guess nobody on this chat is the designated. Hey, just make sure that everybody on this chat is everybody that we think it is.
- [16:22]
Emma Vigeland
And we should also be clear that using a commercial encrypted app for national security conversations is unheard of. Like, it's illegal. It's illegal. There, there is supposed to be like a process by which national security information is communicated. And I was listening to some People talk about who previously worked in administrations that, like, if it's a holiday, you've got to go to your computer. You've got to, like, you can't do it on your phone. You can't do it on your phone and speak with this classified material. You have to go through a very official, encrypted, you know, government process on your physical computer. And let alone doing it on your phone, let alone doing it on your phone via a commercial app, you can download from the App Store that, like, you and I have to talk to, say, you know, I don't know, random other people in an encrypted way.
- [17:21]
Sam Seder
There's multiple legal issues with this just on its face. The first being 18 USC paragraph 793F makes it a federal crime for people who are entrusted with information related to national defense. I think it would be hard to argue that planning to bomb a country is not at least associated with national offense. I think we could have a strong argument as to whether it helps our national defense. But certainly these people would say it was a national defense question. Of course, just trying to be fair.
- [18:06]
Emma Vigeland
Oh, and apparently there was a CIA officer on the chat who Goldberg didn't identify because the CIA officer is undercover, obviously.
- [18:16]
Sam Seder
Well, is a active agent.
- [18:17]
Emma Vigeland
Active agent or whatever. Like, that name shouldn't be revealed. So the fact that the CIA officer was even included would indicate that it's about national security and national defense.
- [18:26]
Sam Seder
Well, it goes on to say, for information related to natural defense, quote, through gross negligence, permit classified intelligence to be delivered to anyone in violation of that trust. In other words, I don't know how you could characterize doing a chat on. In a unauthorized, arguably illegal mechanism in which you're having this exchange and not accidentally add a reporter to it who you've never met incidentally or never talked to. It's not like these guys are buddies. There's only two explanations for that, and that is a deliberate way of leaking something that they thought was in their benefit, which it's not. It's. It's hard not to sometimes, like, go to that. Because the second option is a level of gross incompetence and negligence that is borderline unfathomable. I mean, the second one I think it is, too. And, you know, one of the lessons I always talk about from Air America was people would write us at times, you know, because of the moves that the company would make, and say, there's a mole. You must have a Republican mole in your company. And I just remember thinking, like, if I was looking at this, from the outside, that would seem the most, the most obvious answer, because no one could really conceive of this level of incompetence.
- [20:12]
Emma Vigeland
But the third option is goes in hand with the incompetence, which is that they're attempting to avoid scrutiny and having record keeping of their actions.
- [20:23]
Sam Seder
Well, that's the second illegal thing, is that it became clear right to Jeffrey Goldberg that this, all of these messages were set to erase within four weeks.
- [20:36]
Emma Vigeland
And that avoids the Presidential and Federal Records act, which is what they're supposed to be documenting. So it begs the question, if they're doing this with our national security and doing this over an app store, encrypted app, not through official government channels, that would be able to keep records of their actions. How many other agencies are circumventing the Presidential and Federal Records Act?
- [20:59]
Sam Seder
Now, somebody in the IM just said, I mean, Hegseth was probably drunk when he set up the group chat. So cut him some slack. It appears as if it was Waltz who set up the group chat, which does not mean that Hagseth wasn't drunk during the entire time.
- [21:19]
Emma Vigeland
Good point.
- [21:20]
Brandon
That's what it means to be a mighty man of valor.
- [21:22]
Sam Seder
You can be drunk and be on a group text. The other thing. So that. So that's just sort of the legal aspects of this. But let's take a look at some of the exchanges here because it's sort of, it's fascinating. One. Well, let's go through it and we'll see. Here's J.D. vance. Oh, no, go back up because I think. Let's go up a little. Or maybe it starts here. Yeah. So J.D. vance says, Hegseth, if you think we should do this, let's go. I just hate bailing Europe out again. Okay, let's just start there for a second.
- [21:59]
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
- [22:02]
Sam Seder
They are bombing the Houthis because without the Europeans asking them to, because of what Israel is doing. So let's be clear, who it is is being bailed out here is not the Europeans. It is Israel.
- [22:28]
Emma Vigeland
But earlier in the, earlier in the exchange, and Goldberg doesn't use these as screenshots for some reason, the quotes Vance. 3% of US trade runs through the Suez. 40% of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary. The strongest reason to do this, as POTUS said, to send a message, meaning they're basically admitting there that they are bombing Yemen because the Houthis have been disrupting trade in the Suez in opposition to Israel's Genocide in Gaza because by the way, it's off their shores. So that's like a tale as old as time that they can do that. But like they're, they're admitting that they're doing it for capitalist reasons. They're. Because they're upset about the disruptions.
- [23:12]
Sam Seder
Not just that, but I say the opposite. They're doing it to send a message. They're not doing it because they think it's going to change their behavior. It has shown time and time again that the Houthis are not, are not responding to this. It's not even clear to me how much of that disruption is taking place right now. And so this is particularly when the bombing happened. Remember that? That was during the cease fire. And so, yeah, when he says the President's just sending a message, what it sounds like to me is the President just wants to bomb somebody to show that we can. And, and I think they chose. How do we Americans because of the dynamic between Israel and Saudi Arabia, both of whom Saudis. And we were engaged or at least we were enabling the Saudi bombardment of, of, of Yemen for, under Trump ultimately and Obama for multiple years.
- [24:20]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
- [24:20]
Sam Seder
And, and so it sounds like this is just a guy who wants to show, you know, this is a. Excuse the metaphor, but a penis measuring project. And so it's just for essentially to send a message. So we're not bailing out the Europeans in any way. We're bailing out the Israelis to the extent that anybody's being bailed out here.
- [24:48]
Emma Vigeland
But that's Vance's perspective on it when he says, and so that's what's revealing about these, the, these messages. Right. I just hate bailing out Europe again.
- [24:56]
Matt Binder
Well, that's what I was suspicious of it because. And I know, like, I think we believe it more now that more information's come up, but it seems like something he would want to be seen saying about something that's actually about protecting Israel. It's like, oh, I, the bailing out Europe thing, I don't know, it's flattering.
- [25:11]
Sam Seder
To him, but they say that in public. And then he goes on to say, let's just make sure our messaging is tight here. If there are things we can do up front to minimize risk. The Saudi, Saudi oil facilities, we should do it.
- [25:22]
Emma Vigeland
Oh yeah.
- [25:22]
Sam Seder
So we get here and Hegseth goes on to say, I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It's all caps. Pathetic.
- [25:33]
Matt Binder
It's weird to all caps it to your.
- [25:35]
Sam Seder
I mean, honestly, like what? Like, like you're in A just take a moment.
- [25:44]
Emma Vigeland
He's.
- [25:45]
Sam Seder
As disturbing as this is, these are the most powerful people in the world. Talking about using the most powerful killing machine developed by man.
- [26:00]
Matt Binder
Like it's fantasy football and you've got.
- [26:03]
Sam Seder
To all caps something to make your point. Like it is the tool of people who see themselves as incredibly weak and ineffectual, that you need to capitalize things like that. Or, you know, if you do it as a joke, which I could see, but I don't think he's making a joke here. It's pathetic. But Mike is correct. We are the only ones on the planet on our side of the ledger. The good guys who can do this. Nobody else. Even close question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go. But potus still retains 24 hour decision space. Do you know how much a guy like Peak Hegseth likes to write the words decision space? It is like he is just like it's total. He is. We got 24 hours of decision space.
- [27:02]
Emma Vigeland
I mean, I am so in on this. He was cast for this role.
- [27:06]
Sam Seder
Totally.
- [27:06]
Matt Binder
Tell that to your significant other. I need an hour of decision space on this one.
- [27:10]
Emma Vigeland
Well, no, his significant other doesn't get any decision space. And then SM Stephen Miller, most likely.
- [27:17]
Sam Seder
No picture, no representative.
- [27:21]
Emma Vigeland
Get it?
- [27:21]
Sam Seder
Also no representative. There was no. As far as we can tell, there was no someone from his office because.
- [27:27]
Emma Vigeland
It seems like he's speaking for Trump.
- [27:29]
Sam Seder
As I heard it, the President was clear green light. But we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. In other words, okay, so Miller understand the way this is going on. Hegseth is dicking around with J.D. vance. They're going back and forth. Vance is saying, I sort of don't want to do this. I sort of don't want to do this. And Hegseth is like, well, you know, buddy, whatever, you know, I hate it too, but I think maybe we should. But I'm. No, no. And. And then Miller comes in. The President was clear green light. There's no ambiguity here. And. But we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. For example, he says if Europe doesn't renumerate, then what if the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost, there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return. That's a huge if.
- [28:34]
Emma Vigeland
Did Europe give this, like, request to the administration because it said they're acting like they're acting, you know, they're acting to reopen shipping lanes and that they'll get some extraction from Europe later. But as Matt has been saying, this is for Israel. Israel wants this. Like attacking the Houthis and the branches of resistance to the genocide is in Israel's interests.
- [28:56]
Sam Seder
It may very well be an interest of that of those of, you know, European shipping.
- [29:02]
Emma Vigeland
But you have to like ask there if this is what they want, then sure. But maybe ask that before you demand something in return before taking an action for your proxy state as it commits genocide.
- [29:13]
Sam Seder
It is an interesting.
- [29:14]
Matt Binder
Who do you ask? The leader of Europe.
- [29:16]
Emma Vigeland
Right?
- [29:18]
Sam Seder
Hey, Europe. And then Hegseth is agree and then scroll down because we got more here. At one point maybe it's up higher where advance says. I'm not sure. Prior to him saying this, Vance says this order might be in contradiction to the President's. The President's got to go before that the President's policy on Europe and maybe see if you can find that. Okay, Right there, Right there. I think it is team. I'm out for the day doing an economic Michigan event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake. This is the way that Vance goes on at the beginning of this. 3% of US trade runs through the says 40 trade does. There's a real risk. Okay? The public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary. The strongest reason to do this, as POTUS said, is to send a message. Then he goes on to say, I am not sure the President is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. Okay? So in other words, from these guys perspective, the President wants to make a statement and that is we can bomb anybody. And maybe, maybe the President is getting a directive outside of these advisers or maybe it's one of the advisers on this group chat who is not revealing that they have given the President another reason that they're not expressing in the context of this group chat, which is also very possible. Understand these people, unlike us at the majority report, they don't go and sit at the commissary and eat together every day. They have their own agendas as they go into this. Now, Pete Hegs, this is really just basically to tread water and you know, and try and make it as long into the day as he can without.
- [31:24]
Emma Vigeland
Without a scotch because eventually he wants to be on the board of like Lockheed Martin and get millions of dollars.
- [31:29]
Sam Seder
But. But the other players on this have an agenda. Right? And so Vance doesn't want to do this because there's a mixed message. We're doing this to protecting the shipping lanes for Europe, but also we're done trying to take care of Europe. And so he says, I'm not sure the President is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. So, in other words, he's saying Trump's insane. He's insane. There's no coherence to his policy. It's literally 180 degrees apart. But I'm not going to be that explicit about it.
- [32:10]
Emma Vigeland
Also, why can't they just admit it's for Israel, then?
- [32:13]
Sam Seder
Well, this is the thing. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself, but there's a strong argument for delaying this. A month doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is. And that's why Stephen Miller comes in later and says, no, we're doing this. And I suspect there could be a reason that Stephen Miller knows that J.D. vance doesn't know.
- [32:37]
Emma Vigeland
Mm.
- [32:37]
Sam Seder
And that J.D. or maybe there's even a third party. Someone's not even on this. Who is convincing Trump to do this?
- [32:45]
Emma Vigeland
Netanyahu.
- [32:46]
Sam Seder
Netanyahu. I mean, who knows?
- [32:48]
Emma Vigeland
But do you remember April 2017? So almost exactly a very similar timeframe into his first administration. He dropped the mother of all bombs on Afghanistan. This is Donald Trump's playbook. He wants to have a show of force, even though he pretended to be the peace candidate. This is the hilarity of that claim.
- [33:07]
Sam Seder
It could. It could very well be that. And. But Stephen Miller comes in, says it is clear. And. Which suggests to me that Stephen Miller also wants this. Vance doesn't. Hegseth is willing to do whatever the big dog says. And he looks around and whoever is the big dog. And Stephen Miller comes in and says, we're doing it. It's a green light.
- [33:29]
Emma Vigeland
Well, Vance is thinking about being president in 2028, and he's trying to brand himself as the protectionist. And if Trump keeps escalating, this is an issue for him.
- [33:38]
Sam Seder
But it's quite clear that Stephen Miller is driving.
- [33:40]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
- [33:41]
Sam Seder
This bus, at least. And I don't know who else there is. You've got all the principles on here. And Stephen Miller says it's a green light. And then Hegseth is like, agree.
- [33:52]
Emma Vigeland
Oh, yeah. I mean, the director of the CIA is on this chat there. These are supposed to be the people most paranoid and diligent about these kinds of things. Can you go up to the emoji fest from Ratcliffe and Co?
- [34:03]
Sam Seder
Incidentally, this is after 53 people. People have been killed.
- [34:06]
Emma Vigeland
Oh, yes. So much fun in the. In the group chat. Excellent. JV is gotta be JD Vance, right? John Radcliffe. A good start.
- [34:15]
Matt Binder
You know, you're not really that invested in the group chat when you just responded with emojis.
- [34:19]
Emma Vigeland
Well, Mike Waltz started this group chat. Yeah. So punch America, fire.
- [34:24]
Sam Seder
Now. Kowalski from Nebraska on the IM just says, was that Israel ever mentioned in this thread? Because if not, that seems oddly suspicious.
- [34:34]
Emma Vigeland
And I think Hegseth does mention it at one point. Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus. Two immediate risks on waiting. This leaks and we look indecisive. Two, Israel takes an action first or Gaza's ceasefire falls apart and we don't get to start this on our own terms. We can manage both.
- [34:54]
Sam Seder
But so understand this was happening during the ceasefire and, you know, so there's a consciousness of Israel. But I do think this has to do with Stephen Miller basically maybe telling the president, hey, you got to show that you're willing to drop bombs on people and that's it. And it doesn't matter how incoherent it is in terms of policy, but this. And then I just want to. Lastly, before we. Oh, we got to take a break here. Let me read these. She's. Well, we'll get back to it in a second. Okay. Couple ads today. First, according to the cdc, which apparently still exists, but just barely. And I would say it's probably according to the. From the cdc, back when they were authorized to provide Americans with any type of guidance, fewer men than women meet the minimum daily intake recommendations for fruits and vegetables. Men are more likely to overvalue exercise and undervalue nutrition. Now, to be fair, this is just the research, but to be fair, I both undervalue exercise and undervalue nutrition. Just want to say that. But what has helped me, at least on the nutrition part, ritual. It's a multivitamin scientifically developed for men to help fill nutrient gaps in their diets. I've been doing ritual for multiple years now. I don't even remember. All I know is whenever I think of ritual, I think of how I used to. Every time I would go see the doctor once a year, he would do a blood test, come back, and he goes, you're short on vitamin D. And I would go to the. I would literally walk out of his doctor's office. I would go to, like, whatever the pharmacy was around there. I would buy some vitamin D. I would take it for, like, whatever, 30 days. Then I would Run out and I would stop. And that's happened for like, I would say like eight years in a row. Ritual will mail it to you. And that's one of the best parts about it for me. But the other thing that's great about ritual, it is super gentle on an empty stomach. Because the other problem I would have when I have to take anything is I'm like, when I remember to do it, I have not eaten and then I'm like, I'll wait until I eat and then I forget to do it. Ritual comes with 10 key nutrients in two delayed release capsules per day designed to dissolve later in the small intestine, which is apparently an optimal place to absorb nutrients. Like I say, you can take it on an empty stomach. It is rigorously tested, validated by third party for allergens, microbes and heavy metals. Ritual multivitamins are non GMO project verified gluten and major allergen free made traceable, which is super important. You know where the elements that you're taking come from. Some places don't have the same regulations that we had in this country, at least up until two months ago. And so it's good to know where this stuff comes from. Ritual uses scientific tools to select lower carbon packaging, prioritize sustainably sourced ingredients and set ambitious climate goals. Because Ritual is a female founded B Corp. Meaning they're holding themselves accountable to not just their company's financial health, but to the health of our people, of people and our planet. Essential for men is a quality multivitamin from company you can actually trust. Get 25% off your first month for a limited time at ritual.com/mainjury. That's ritual.com/mainjury, 25% off your first month. Also, going online without ExpressVPN is like not closing the door when you use the bathroom, which apparently is not appropriate. I guess now with today's. Even if I think you have nothing to hide, why give random creeps the chance to invade your privacy? Okay, this is presumably in a non like home setting.
- [39:11]
Emma Vigeland
Yes.
- [39:11]
Sam Seder
When you're at home, I mean it's okay. Or a restaurant might be you might want to close the door.
- [39:18]
Emma Vigeland
Or an office.
- [39:19]
Sam Seder
I want to thank ExpressVP. Well, we could start doing that too. I Want to thank ExpressVPN for supporting the Majority Report. Here's the deal. Visit expressvpn.com/majority. You get an extra free months free, four months free. All of your traffic, your Internet traffic follows flows through Internet service provider service, including mobile network providers. So they know every single website you visit. And in the US, ISPs are legally allowed to sell that information to advertisers. ExpressVPN reroutes 100% of your traffic through secure, encrypted servers, so your ISP can't see your browsing history. It hides your IP address, making it extremely difficult for third parties to track your online activity. It is super easy to use. You fire up the app, one click and boom, you're protected. It works on all your devices, phones, laptops, tablets, more so you can stay private on the go. They have an optional dedicated IP service engineered with innovative zero knowledge design. Not even ExpressVPN can track an IP address back to the user. For us customers, it comes with Identity Defender, a new suite of tools to get your data removed from data brokers, alert you when your data appears on the dark web, and even insure you against data theft for up to $1 million. Rated number one by tech reviewers like CNET and the Verge. Look, it's super easy to use, Very important, very helpful. It's also great if you want to watch some Netflix from a different country. I'm not saying I do that, but hypothetically. Hypothetically, my understanding is that's possible. But also, if you're in an airport, if you're in a mall, if you're in a store, anywhere there's a public WI fi, you know, maybe one out of 100 times there's some dude taking your information. But you know, this is a one of those, like, what is that 1% doctrine? Like, if it happens that one time, it is bad. So protect yourself. Protect your online privacy today by visiting expressvpn.com majority that's X, P R, E S S V P n.com/mainjury to find out how you can get up to four extra months, free. Expressvpn.com/main majority. I'm not sure what else there is to talk about this at this point, but this level of incompetence is astonishing. And the Democrats need to keep this in the news as much as they can. And I just remind you, like, had it gone to anybody else, this guy knew about the attack on Yemen two hours before. He also decided Jeffrey Goldberg to leave the chat after he is after the bombing in Yemen started, when he realized this is real.
- [42:36]
Emma Vigeland
He really should have milked it for as long as he could have. I can't believe it.
- [42:39]
Sam Seder
Well, here's the part that is in Congress, if you. And he left out stuff that he deemed to be too sensitive to publish. So if that's your attitude. Why are you leaving the chat?
- [42:58]
Emma Vigeland
Right?
- [42:58]
Sam Seder
Like, it's either one or the other. It's either I am an absolutist and I'm going to print everything and therefore I know I'm in an area where it's inappropriate and I should leave, or I know that I am going to reasonably protect things that are sensitive and I'm going to stay here because I can get a better sense of the operating, you know, the operations within the administration. And this is going to be, you know, this is a genuinely important news story.
- [43:33]
Matt Binder
Once in a lifetime chance for a journalist.
- [43:35]
Sam Seder
But I mean, aside from his personal ambitions, I mean, this is a once in a lifetime chance for the public to get information about just who is actually running this administration. And if there is a cohesive foreign policy. And when you have the vice president of the United States and it's not like he's kept at arm's length, when you have the vice president, United States saying, I don't think the president understands how incoherent his policy sounds right now, how on one hand he's telling Europe, we're not going to be your policeman. You need to pick up the slack here. You need to deal with this. And then on the other hand, we're going to go in and bomb the poorest country in the, in the world for three, for, you know, 3% of our shipping.
- [44:34]
Emma Vigeland
I'm, I agree with you that they should, they should use this story, obviously for their political advantage. I'm a little nervous about the reorientation of the Democratic Party's reaction to Donald Trump to once again a national security story. Like, I guess I just never felt, I don't think that Russia, the story had, even though obviously Trump had ties to Russia. It's obvious, I don't know if it had much political salience where they could have been hitting him on, you know, tax cuts for the rich. But this is a. I know, I know, I know.
- [45:12]
Sam Seder
Competence question.
- [45:13]
Emma Vigeland
No, it's a competence question. I just, like we're in the, we've had two stories this for the past week where there's been this anti oligarchy, you know, mass mobilization, people coming out in tens of thousands to hear AOC and Bernie talk. And then like now we have this like abundance kind of astroturf campaign. And now it's okay, this is a layup to return this talking about national security. Like, I think it's a good way to hit them, but I'm concerned that the party's going to take easy outs that's just my one fear.
- [45:46]
Sam Seder
I think if the Republicans give you this, you run with it for as long as you can. The Republican Party had a lot of value out of doing Benghazi for years. Years. And Democrats are very bad at this. They're very bad at it. They don't know how to do it. But this should be a question of competence. This should be a question of, like, every one of those people should be in front of the Senate right now to discuss how they did not notice. What are the protocols? First of all, what are you doing? How many times have you been on signal? How many. How much government information has been exchanged on signal? What other cabinet members are on signal? What other agencies are you.
- [46:36]
Emma Vigeland
What are you trying to hide?
- [46:37]
Sam Seder
What are you trying to hide by being on signal?
- [46:39]
Emma Vigeland
Yes.
- [46:41]
Sam Seder
What are the protocols to make sure that your signal is not accidentally adding a rando to your thing? I mean, honestly, like the level of security in a zoom for a parent teachers conference. When I get on the parent. When I get on zoom with my, my kid's teacher.
- [47:00]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
- [47:01]
Sam Seder
To find out what he's been doing in middle school, the level of security is higher than the top of the national security apparatus was in discussing war plans.
- [47:16]
Emma Vigeland
Yes. No, I agree. I agree.
- [47:18]
Sam Seder
We all look around the zoom and go, is there anybody in this zoom that we don't know?
- [47:25]
Emma Vigeland
Right.
- [47:26]
Sam Seder
And it's not like there was 500 people in there. There's 18 people. And I feel like there could have been a person whose job it was to say, hey, I'm going to just confirm with this list of people on the PC Houthi attack thread that they're all the same people that we think there is.
- [47:47]
Emma Vigeland
No, I think you're right. I think they've got to use it. I'm just flat putting a little pin in it to say this should be a part of the whole attack on the Trump administration and not, you know, the entire focus of like, say the MSNBC monologues for the next few weeks. I don't know.
- [48:07]
Sam Seder
Of course it will be on that. But, but I mean, this is, it should be a couple of days of keeping these people on their back heels if they have to, you know, get rid of Waltz or. This creates pressure on senators. I'll tell you here is Donald Trump answering questions on this, and then we'll take a look at a couple of senators because they're the ones ultimately that you leverage this against, because you can't, you know, Trump doesn't care. Nobody in the administration cares. But some of these senators who have been squawking about, you know, national security and blah, blah, they're going to have to justify this. And I don't. They should not be able to blow it off in the way they're trying to blow it off. But here's Donald Trump. Mr. President, your reaction to the story of the Atlantic that said that some of your top academy officials and aides have been discussing very sensitive material through signaling and included an Atlantic reporter for that. What is your response to that in our.
- [49:15]
Tulsi Gabbard
I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of the Atlantic.
- [49:18]
Sam Seder
It's.
- [49:18]
Tulsi Gabbard
To me, it's a magazine that's going out of business. I think it's not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what they.
- [49:26]
Sam Seder
Were using to coordinate on sensitive materials.
- [49:30]
Tulsi Gabbard
And having to do with what? Having to do with what? What were they talking about?
- [49:35]
Sam Seder
The Houthis. The Houthis?
- [49:37]
Tulsi Gabbard
You mean the attack on the Houthis? Well, it couldn't have been very effective because the attack was very effective. I can tell you that. I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the.
- [49:46]
Emma Vigeland
First, for the first time. Oh, my God. Word for word. What he said about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that might have been sincere, but he does this all the time now when he doesn't want to answer a question, he says, I don't know anything about it. Just if you track it, he does it every time.
- [50:02]
Sam Seder
Now, Mr. President, are you worried that you don't know anything about this? I mean, honestly, like this is the should cross that you did not know this. How is it that? Because it's not like Goldberg just wrote the article without telling the administration that they were writing the article.
- [50:26]
Emma Vigeland
No, he left the chat.
- [50:27]
Sam Seder
So the question is, we left the chat.
- [50:29]
Emma Vigeland
They would have been notified about it.
- [50:30]
Sam Seder
They didn't notice it. They did not notice it. And so the only time that they knew that Goldberg had been in the chat was when he went to the DNI and said, can you confirm that this was an actual confirmation, was an actual thread? So here's the thing. Here's the next question for Donald Trump. Why weren't you informed about this major, major leak? Who, whose job is it in the administration to keep you informed? It's not enough to accept he didn't know. Okay. If he didn't know, are you upset that you didn't know about this? Who is entrusted, Whose responsibility is this? If he says no, I'M not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not concerned. They're professionals handling which ones? Who are the professionals that handle it? The one that let the reporter into, from this horrible magazine into the chat like this. The press should not let this go. Well, every single journalist.
- [51:29]
Emma Vigeland
Now, of course, Politico is reporting that signal is not allowed to be downloaded on federal devices. So it looks like that they were likely using their personal cell phones, which.
- [51:39]
Sam Seder
Is also in violation of the Presidential Records act. And all sorts of. You're not supposed to use your private devices to discuss government business.
- [51:51]
Emma Vigeland
Unless they changed it. Unless they changed it to make it so that signal would be allowed to be downloaded on federal devices. But I doubt that. Right. I mean, again, this is all about avoiding the Presidential Records Act. And like Donald Trump did this with the documents that he hoarded in his bathroom down in Mar? A Lago. Like, he is aggressively trying to conceal the evidence of his actions from the public repeatedly. That's what the whole reason behind this is. And this, like the Epstein files, good example of that. He was saying how he was going to release them in the most transparent administration in history. And it's just a head fake.
- [52:31]
Sam Seder
Here is Tulsi Gabbard also on that call, and she is just coincidentally meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee today because they were trying to find out how big of an idiot the top members of the Senate of the, of the government's intel community is. Here is her response. Contact the defense secretary or others after this specific military planning was put out and say, hey, we should be doing this in a scif.
- [53:07]
Emma Vigeland
There was no classified material that was shared in that.
- [53:10]
Sam Seder
So then if there was no classified material, share it with the committee. You can't have it both ways. These are important jobs. This is our national security bobbing and weaving and trying to, you know, filibuster your answer. So please answer the.
- [53:29]
Emma Vigeland
I mean, yeah, we only have short clips because it's still happening.
- [53:32]
Sam Seder
But wait, but understand what's going on here.
- [53:34]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
- [53:34]
Sam Seder
She is not talking about what was on the rest of that conversation. And then she's saying there was no classified information there. Well, if there was no classified information there, Jeffrey Goldberg should be dumping the entire thing onto the Atlantic.com website right now. Right now. There is absolutely no excuse for him not to do that. People should be going to Jeffrey Goldberg and saying, why are you withholding this information that the head of the DNI has just said is not classified.
- [54:03]
Emma Vigeland
Yep. But we know that just by definition, the fact that there was A CIA officer on the chat whose name Goldberg did not want to release. That would indicate that that was pretty classified.
- [54:15]
Sam Seder
Well, and here's the other thing. The idea that knowledge of an attack, an imminent attack on another country is not classified. Well, then why weren't, you know, why weren't they going to reporters two hours beforehand and saying, hey, just want to give you a heads up. We're about to bomb Yemen. This is just. It's obviously a joke. But the. Every time they lie and all they're doing is lying, every time they lie, it raises another question that should be asked. Let's put up Holly. Here's Hawley. Now, here's the thing. They are going to go, and all of these Republican senators, they're going to avoid going into any situation where they may be asked a real question about this because they are afraid of this. Make no mistake about it, Josh Hawley doesn't run Delora Ingram's show unless he wants to make sure that he gets the first word out about it so that next time he gets asked. I already addressed this.
- [55:26]
Josh Hawley
Senator Hawley. I'll just read part of this piece in the Atlantic. The world found out shortly before 2pm.
- [55:33]
Sam Seder
Positive for one second. Just pause it. Positive. Keep it up there. Let me tell you what's going on in Holly's mind right now. Keep the smile. Don't move the face. Keep the smile. Don't move the face. Keep the smile. Don't lose the face. Show absolutely no reaction. Go ahead.
- [55:51]
Josh Hawley
Before 2pm Eastern on March 15, that the U.S. was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. And this reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, writes that I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that again, this is the article in the Atlantic that Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44am the plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. Senator, your reaction to this?
- [56:25]
Brandon
Well, I thought what the secretary of defense just said, Laura, was an outstanding statement. And listen, I mean, we don't know how much of this is accurate or not, but it looks like even if everything the Atlantic reported is true, is the president's advisers discussing among themselves options they might recommend to the president and.
- [56:41]
Sam Seder
Posit this is not options they might recommend to the president. This is. They are. It's quite clear that Stephen Miller says it's green light. Here's the plan. Go do it. If anything, they are discussing their queasiness about what the President has ordered and.
- [57:03]
Matt Binder
How to translate it into reality.
- [57:06]
Sam Seder
How are we going to deal with the fallout of this good selves options.
- [57:11]
Brandon
They might recommend to the President. And nobody can deny the success of what the President is doing here, which is what Pete Hegseth just underscored. And this is what the leftist media is reduced to. They can't argue with the policies which the American people support. They can't argue with this new demonstration of American strength that is keeping Americans safe at home and abroad. And so now we're, now we're griping who's not. I mean, come on, who's.
- [57:37]
Sam Seder
Go back again just to hear that. The way he's dismissing this. Who's on a text message or not? Can we all get on this next signal chat?
- [57:45]
Brandon
This is what the leftist media is reduced to. They can't argue with the policies which the American people support. They can't argue with this new demonstration of American strength that is keeping Americans safe at home and abroad. And so now we're, now we're griping about who's on a text message and who's not.
- [57:59]
Sam Seder
I mean, come on, griping about who's on a text message or not.
- [58:04]
Emma Vigeland
Who. What's the policy that he's referring to that the American people attack or Yemen.
- [58:10]
Sam Seder
Yemen.
- [58:10]
Emma Vigeland
Oh, that's interesting. Then Donald Trump shouldn't have run as the guy that was going to end the war in Ukraine on his first day and that he was going to bring peace through strength. Is this is killing dozens of civilians in Yemen and assaulting their capital. Peace here is, was he referring to the, the statement by Hegseth on the tarmac when he said he'd made in a wonderful statement. Because let's, let's look at that. Let's look at that. Because Hegseth says this after it was already confirmed by the national security spokesperson, Brian Hughes. I guess as another indication of the incompetence of this administration. The word didn't get back to the Defense Secretary that the White House has already confirmed the veracity of the text chain. And he says this to reporters. Can you share how your information about war plans against the Houthis in Yemen was shared with the journalists in the Atlantic and were those details classified?
- [59:13]
Brian Hegseth
So you're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax. So this is the guy that pedals in garbage. This is what he does. I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and.
- [59:44]
Sam Seder
Courage of our troops.
- [59:45]
Brian Hegseth
I've monitored it very closely from the beginning. And you see, we've been managing four years of deferred maintenance under the Trump administration. Our troops, our sailors were getting shot at as targets our ships couldn't sail through. And when they did shoot back, it was purely defensively or at shacks in Yemen. President Trump said, no more. We will reestablish deterrence. We will open freedom of navigation, and we will ultimately decimate the Houthis, which is exactly what we're doing as we speak. From the beginning, overwhelmingly.
- [60:18]
Emma Vigeland
Why were those details shared on Signal? And how did you learn that a journalist was privy to the targets, the types of weapons used? I've heard.
- [60:27]
Sam Seder
I've heard.
- [60:27]
Brian Hegseth
I was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans. And that's all I have to say about that.
- [60:33]
Sam Seder
Thank you.
- [60:35]
Emma Vigeland
Said it was authentic, right? So she says, the White House says it was authentic. Okay. Nobody was texting war.
- [60:42]
Matt Binder
We were signaling them.
- [60:44]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, right. It's not a text.
- [60:46]
Sam Seder
It's not a tweet anymore. It's a post.
- [60:50]
Emma Vigeland
I mean, you know, he's not lying when he breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the camera. Nobody was texting war plans.
- [60:58]
Sam Seder
The. The best part is, like, every. Every horrible thing you could say about Jeffrey Goldberg that in many instances I might agree with, makes it even weirder that you would have included him in this conversation. We've decided to take the most loathsome reporter in the country and secretly have them monitor everything we say on this Signal channel.
- [61:23]
Emma Vigeland
It's a good point, because if Waltz started invited him, that means that Goldberg's in his contacts.
- [61:30]
Sam Seder
Oh, yes. But they said that they didn't know each other. They had never talked before. Okay, but it's not uncommon, I would imagine.
- [61:37]
Matt Binder
But it makes the foul worse that you accidentally included a guy who is completely. To your characterization.
- [61:45]
Sam Seder
Let's be clear here. If you think that this guy, this reporter, is the scum of the earth, the worst, most lying, horrible person in the world, and you let him into the signal chat, who are you also inadvertently letting into the Signal chat? Like, if the worst of the worst. This is not like, okay, we accidentally let Charlie, Kirk and whatever. You know, we can trust Kirk. He's a great man, and he did the right thing or whatever it is. But for all we know, I mean, look, for all we know, one of these guys is just going, like, this week. It's Laura Loomer. I mean, Milo, what's to make. What. Why would anyone. Based upon the fact that they had zero protocols to prevent this. They had zero protocols and seemingly did not. Were not even aware that it had happened. Why in the world would anyone believe this is the only time it's happened? I mean, come on here.
- [62:52]
Emma Vigeland
I mean, this means that they have just told the world that they are doing government business on their phones, even if it's in through a commercial encrypted app. That basically is open season for any government official under the Trump administration for a. For a foreign government to hack their information.
- [63:08]
Sam Seder
But don't you think that they're not going to use their private phones anymore? I would imagine this is really. They've really learned a lesson here, and.
- [63:14]
Emma Vigeland
They'Re probably not going to use, I mean, private phones. It's like they're. They're individual private servers.
- [63:23]
Sam Seder
And let's cap this off with Jesse Waters trying to explain. I mean, they're worried about this. And frankly, anything, anything that takes a minute or more of their brain power in which to deal with is a positive at this point. Like anything you can find that in any way breaks their stride, slows them down, makes them confused, causes dissent, causes recriminations, is healthy for across the board.
- [64:02]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
- [64:04]
Jesse Watters
Did you ever try to start a group text? You're adding people, and you accidentally add the wrong person. All of a sudden, your Aunt Mary knows all your raunchy plans for the bachelor party. Well, that kind of happened today with the Trump administration. Mike Walsh was putting together a group chat.
- [64:18]
Sam Seder
Hold on, let me just help Jesse Waters here. You ever illicitly start a group text where it is illegal for you to actually have this group text on the app that you're using? And you're. Instead of talking about your bachelor party, which is raunchy, I guess you're talking about imminent plans to attack another country. Aircraft carrier movements, which in other. Which in other contexts, names, in just about every other one, everyone would consider to be highly sensitive material. And then you let your Aunt Marian. Good.
- [65:00]
Jesse Watters
With the Secretary of Defense, the VP and a bunch of other national security officials to collaborate on whether to strike Iranian proxies in Yemen who keep firing missiles and shutting down shipping. Well, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally added a reporter to the group text.
- [65:16]
Sam Seder
Whoopsie.
- [65:17]
Jesse Watters
Not a good reporter. Oh, Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic, one of the biggest artists around.
- [65:22]
Emma Vigeland
Can you pause really quick? Not a good reporter. Smash cut to a still of him next to Nancy Pelosi in case the geriatric Fox audience needed a visual cue to dismiss the story altogether.
- [65:34]
Sam Seder
Not a good reporter mean, oh, Pelosi.
- [65:38]
Matt Binder
The people that watch Fox love their good reporters, Right?
- [65:43]
Jesse Watters
Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic, one of the biggest hoax artists around. Well, he heard some things he probably shouldn't have, but could have been a wee bit of a security breach. But it's not like they homebrewed a server and then bleached it or kept classified documents in their garages next to their Corvette. I'm sure it won't happen again.
- [66:03]
Emma Vigeland
What? Trump.
- [66:05]
Matt Binder
Wow.
- [66:06]
Emma Vigeland
So just to recap, Trump took classified documents, kept them in the bathroom at Mar a Lago. When it was found out, the feds were like, hey, can you return those? He refused return them partially. They said, you didn't return all of them. And that was what prompted one of the four criminal probes into Donald Trump that he was undergoing over the past four years. The Biden iconic photo. Yeah, there we go. Right by the toilet. Biden had classified documents. This. That prompted them to look into Biden and Mike Pence, both. Pence, this is bipartisan. And Biden were like, shoot, we did have some files laying around. We'll voluntarily return them. And they're just using that example and not the first one, which kicked off all of that probe into the past. Officials having classified documents. It's so disingenuous. I can't even believe he can sit up there and make that case.
- [67:05]
Sam Seder
I can explain it to you.
- [67:07]
Emma Vigeland
Money.
- [67:07]
Sam Seder
No. You get a tax cut if you are a government agency and you hire a black person. That is, you get tax cuts if you're a government agency. That is what's going on here. Yeah, it's just like they easiest crowd ever. They just lie to their audience. They lie to their audience and they do it very, very effectively because you know their audience. Oh, well, I listen to Jerry, you know, Waters, whatever it is, Jesse Waters. And he just said it was a wee bit of a security breach. A wee bit of a security breach. We go back to that. That's good. You got to pull that. Will you please. That quote, It's a wee bit of a security breach. Okay. I mean, it's like, you know, but is it anything compared to bleach? You know, putting bleach on your. On your server? This was literally not a hypothetical breach. It was a breach full on.
- [68:12]
Emma Vigeland
Full on breach.
- [68:14]
Jesse Watters
Elaborate on whether to strike Iranian proxies in Yemen who keep firing missiles and shutting down shipping. Well, National Security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added a reporter to the group text and not a Good reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic, one of the biggest hoax artists around. Well, he heard some things he probably shouldn't have, but could have been a wee bit of a security breach.
- [68:39]
Sam Seder
That's gotta be a poll, a drop. Yeah. Oh, my God.
- [68:42]
Emma Vigeland
A wee bit. Wasn't he, you know.
- [68:47]
Sam Seder
I may have committed some light treason.
- [68:50]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [68:51]
Matt Binder
Their main, like, sort of attack is like, the press is nasty, but that contradicts their sort of emphasis here. It'd be much better to downplay how much they disagree with Goldberg 100%.
- [69:01]
Sam Seder
It's like we. Not only did we leak this information, we leaked it to the worst of the worst. But the idea is. But here's. I mean, that's. That's the way our rational brains work. But the way that it hits the Fox viewer is like, oh, we can't trust anything Goldberg saying anyways. So if anything looks bad, if they happen to go over and actually read the source material, which of course they won't. They're like, you can't trust them anyways. He's probably lying about half of it. They're probably making this up.
- [69:34]
Matt Binder
Multiple people have called him a hoaxer. I don't know Goldberg's background enough to know that he hoaxed anything.
- [69:40]
Sam Seder
No, I don't, to be honest with you. I have no idea.
- [69:43]
Emma Vigeland
But he's the editor in chief of the Atlantic, which is a paper that regularly publishes very flattering stories for national security purposes. That's probably why Waltz got his digits in the first place, as a plan to leak to him in the future.
- [69:56]
Matt Binder
Fat fingered it.
- [69:57]
Emma Vigeland
Yep.
- [69:58]
Sam Seder
Whoopsie.
- [69:59]
Emma Vigeland
Whoopsie.
- [70:00]
Sam Seder
Let's just listen. Do you have audio clip of Goldberg?
- [70:05]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. Here he is on MSNBC last night with Jen Psaki, just explaining how this went down.
- [70:12]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Strike against the Houthis. Right. I'm reading this and I'm like, oh, we're. They're really talking about a strike against the Houthis. Ratcliffe names. I mean, other people name other. Other people who are publicly named public figures. Radcliffe names a person. Not going to say the name. The whole real name person.
- [70:31]
Sam Seder
Say the name. Who is posit. Say the name. We've been told by the Director of National Intelligence none of this stuff was classified. Say it all. Dump it all. All of it. He should take every single photo he took of that text exchange and it should be on the Atlantic website within minutes right now. Because Tulsi Gabbard has said none of it's classified.
- [70:52]
Emma Vigeland
But he's not going to do that because, well, I know that you Know that. But like, that's, that's the same reason he didn' the stomach to stay in the group chat. Is he. They, like, this is classified.
- [71:01]
Sam Seder
Should have done it. It was just like, literally. Listen, it's like a bachelor party. It's like a bachelor party. You can find out like where everybody's hanging out. Maybe like, oh my gosh, we're going to be. I'm going to go. I'm going to go meet him at Benihana. They're all going to Benihana before they go to the dance club, before they go to the strip club. I'm going to go to Benihana, I'm going to hook up at Benihana and we're all going to. Is that where people go in their bachelor parties?
- [71:26]
Emma Vigeland
I mean, my, my guess is that the guy that says slash his future wife's tires probably has a little bit more raunch in mind.
- [71:33]
Sam Seder
Well, you start a penny, honey, you gotta eat, you gotta eat.
- [71:37]
Jeffrey Goldberg
The whole real name of this person who is going to be his liaison in. In the course of my reporting and, and trying to understand, I came to understand that this is an active CIA officer name has never been in public before. Who is operating.
- [71:55]
Josh Hawley
Everyone on the chain may not have had need to know. To know who this person is.
- [71:58]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Well, yeah, because remember, the chain is pretty big. The chain is not just five intelligence officials or four defense officials. It's Defense Intelligence, treasury is the chief of staff of the White. It's people who don't necessarily. Certainly don't need to know the names. I mean, as you know from the classified world, from the secret world, the less you know, the better. Right? The less you have to go to sleep with at night, the better off you are in many ways. You can't get into trouble from not knowing something that you shouldn't know. And so I was, I have to say, somewhat astonished that he would put this official's name into what is essentially an open channel. Forget the fact that he, like everyone else, had no idea that they were sharing that information with the editor in chief of the Atlantic magazine in the same chain. Because nobody had asked during the course of this, who is this jg? You know, my initial showed up as.
- [72:49]
Josh Hawley
Jg and you don't know who that. Do you know who that is at this point?
- [72:51]
Jeffrey Goldberg
I have no, I have no idea. I have no idea who. In other words, who Waltz was looking for. I don't know. He didn't answer that question for me.
- [72:59]
Josh Hawley
The thing about signal chats is you have to Invite people. You have to list the names to create a group. So there was a consciousness adding of you to this group?
- [73:06]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Yes.
- [73:08]
Josh Hawley
There's been a lot of effort to respond. I mean, I noted as I just kind of gave the summary of the piece. You got a response from the National Security Council spokesperson.
- [73:17]
Emma Vigeland
No.
- [73:18]
Josh Hawley
No.
- [73:18]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Oh, yeah. And every agency has been saying, just ask the National Security Council.
- [73:22]
Josh Hawley
Just ask them. Punting it to them.
- [73:23]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Well, what's going on? You know, you could read the tea leaves here. It's Mike Waltz put this group together, not me. Don't ask me, ask him. That's what's going on.
- [73:32]
Josh Hawley
But every one of those individuals should have known that they shouldn't be having these conversations.
- [73:37]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Look, we all like to think that we're really good at digital hygiene, but most of us are not good at digital hygiene. And if there's a lesson here, I mean, a lesson for a normal person living in the world, it's know who you're texting with.
- [73:50]
Sam Seder
Um, I don't think actually that's the lesson. I think if you're. I think that's actually like the Day 12 interview that you do about this scandal before that becomes a lesson. I don't think it's a lesson for everybody who's texting to know who's on the text chain, because everybody does that. I think the lesson here is they're using private apps in contravance of U.S. federal law. They are destroying government information in contrast to federal law. They are completely incompetent at what they're doing. This is the top intelligence people in the country. They are not using any protocols. There is no cohesive policy in the administrator. There's a lot of lessons here, but I would put somewhere around, like, you know, well into the 40s of the lessons you could learn to like, hey, for you folks out there who are on, you know, chat threads, make sure that, you know, if you get a surprise party for somebody, you're not including the person whose surprise party it is.
- [75:03]
Emma Vigeland
The. The let. I mean, what else are they hiding? That is the question. What other agencies are using signal. What else are they trying to hide from government oversight?
- [75:13]
Matt Binder
And how exposed are they to, like, any sort of intelligence service from another country?
- [75:18]
Sam Seder
Maybe a wee bit like, if this.
- [75:20]
Matt Binder
Is how they're doing it, you know, I imagine it's a little bit easier.
- [75:25]
Sam Seder
All right. We didn't get to 80% of who we were open to today, but that was a lot to talk about.
- [75:32]
Emma Vigeland
We did a lengthy breakdown, though. It was a big story.
- [75:35]
Sam Seder
Folks on the other side, we're going to talk about Social Security because it's, they're coming after it. It's, and it's a big deal. And it's, our people are already, there are already reports all around the country from long lines, phone lines that are down. Their project has been to drive a wedge between people and Social Security. And they are doing it. And the important thing, to the extent that we can push back on this, the important thing is to get the word out that this is a purposeful effort by the Trump administration to destroy the Social Security administration so that the relationship between people and Social Security in this country worsens or sours because it is the most beloved program that we have. And, and it is incredibly effective. But they want to make its delivery problematic so that people start getting frustrated with it. And so far they're having a lot of success for being in administration for less than two and a half months. Also, just a reminder, it's your support that makes the show possible. You can become member. Join the majority report.com when you do. You know, I get the free show, free of commercials. You get the fun half. And it's so much fun these days. You can im the show VR app. Check out our app@majorityapp.com it is free. It is great for you to have. If there's ever a problem with the show, more often than not we will communicate through that app. If you know, who knows. It's just a great way to stay in touch with the, with the show. It's a great, you can use the app. It's free.
- [77:32]
Matt Binder
Just doesn't spy on you.
- [77:34]
Sam Seder
Allow us to justify the effort that we make in it. Also, yes, we don't sell. We could be the only app in existence that doesn't have like an SDK I think it's called. That's where they sell all the data from it. Our app will not ask you if we can track you because we have no interest in tracking you.
- [77:56]
Matt Binder
Too busy.
- [77:58]
Sam Seder
We're too busy, you know, leaking our, our chat threads. We should actually do that more often. We should, we should like put out like a, just accidentally. I don't know how to do that technically how we would do that. But also just coffee.co op, fair trade coffee, tea. No, just coffee. Hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. You can also get the Majority Report blend. Left reckoning.
- [78:28]
Matt Binder
Yeah. Tonight, 7:00 Eastern. Cheat here makes his Left Reckoning debut talking about good old Chuck Schumer. His piece in the Nation on Chuck and the Baileys a little bit. And. Yeah, check that out. Patreon.com left Reckoning tonight, 7:00.
- [78:43]
Sam Seder
Quick break. Fun half. We will take calls probably three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program. Matt. What is up? Everyone find the path.
- [79:28]
Emma Vigeland
No.
- [79:28]
Sam Seder
Me. You did it. Fun Half.
- [79:31]
Emma Vigeland
Let's go, Brandon.
- [79:32]
Sam Seder
Let's go, Brandon. Fun hat. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone.
- [79:40]
Matt Binder
I'm just a random guy.
- [79:41]
Sam Seder
It's all the boys today.
- [79:42]
Emma Vigeland
Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.
- [79:44]
Sam Seder
Women. Stop talking for a second and let me finish.
- [79:48]
Emma Vigeland
Where is this coming from?
- [79:48]
Sam Seder
Dude? But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A. Yes. All right. Is this me? Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you? Is this me? Oh, it's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind?
- [80:18]
Emma Vigeland
Sports.
- [80:19]
Sam Seder
We can discuss sports, free markets, and we can discuss capitalism. I'm gonna go libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says, of course.
- [80:27]
Emma Vigeland
Gobbledygook.
- [80:28]
Sam Seder
We nailed him.
- [80:30]
Emma Vigeland
So what's 79 plus 21?
- [80:32]
Sam Seder
Challenge. Man, I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say. 8 5, 7, 2, 10355, 011 half.
- [80:40]
Matt Binder
3, 8, 9, 11.
- [80:41]
Sam Seder
For instance.
- [80:42]
Emma Vigeland
$3,400. $1900. 5, 4, 3.
- [80:46]
Sam Seder
$3 trillion.
- [80:47]
Emma Vigeland
Sold.
- [80:48]
Sam Seder
It's a zero sum game, actually.
- [80:50]
Emma Vigeland
You're making me think less.
- [80:51]
Sam Seder
But let me say this.
- [80:54]
Josh Hawley
You can call it satire.
- [80:55]
Emma Vigeland
Sam goes satire on top of it all.
- [80:58]
Sam Seder
My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.
- [81:13]
Emma Vigeland
It's just the week being weeded out, obviously.
- [81:16]
Sam Seder
Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know, but you should.
- [81:23]
Matt Binder
Know, people just don't like to entertain ideas anymore.
- [81:28]
Sam Seder
I have a question. Who cares?
- [81:32]
Matt Binder
Our chat is enabled.
- [81:33]
Sam Seder
Folks. I love it.
- [81:35]
Emma Vigeland
I do love.
- [81:38]
Sam Seder
Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. 2:00, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.
- [81:51]
Emma Vigeland
Outrageous.
- [81:51]
Sam Seder
Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye.