Five voters are squeezing signal leaks

The White House spent a week trying to downplay the revelation that national security authorities discussed plans for our strike in Yemen over Signal, a commercial messaging app.

In a spectacular violation of national security, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses revealed details of certain operations prior to the attack on group chat. National security adviser Michael Waltz, who added Goldberg to the chat, said he took “full responsibility” for the leak.

Several Democrats urged Hegses to step down. However, the Trump administration has tried to bypass or avoid the issue. (Trump said the scandal was a “witch hunt.”

As part of a regular check-in during Trump's first 100-day inauguration, the New York Times asked five voters what they thought of the administration's response.

Dave Abdallah wasn't happy with the way Trump and those around him continued to play signal chat breaches downplay.

They are “completely wrong,” Adbola said.

He added, the violation could have cost us their lives. “This is a serious and serious mistake,” he said of the whole.

Abdallah, a real estate broker who moved to the US from Lebanon as a child, voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 election. It was a protest against the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza, and concerns that Trump would not help the situation. Still, Abdallah hoped that Trump's foreign policy could bring peace and stability to the region.

So far, he's disappointed.

The fighting recently resumed between Israel and Hamas. Now Abdallah believes Trump, his administration and supporters are proving hypocritical in the face of a backlash on signal issues.

He recalls watching a recent video of Tiktok showing old clips of Republicans criticizing Hillary Clinton for using private computer servers while he was Secretary of State during the Obama administration. The video then showed images of the same critic. He is now a Trump supporter and makes excuses for signal chat, not a big deal.

Such excuses struck Abdallah as dishonest. “I can't understand that,” he said of the signal chat. “So you definitely should be on the table to get rid of someone.”

– Kurt Streeter

“I don't think anyone should be fired for this because it's not as serious as many people think.”

Perry Hunter, 55, Sellersburg, Indiana.

When Perry Hunter first heard that Trump officials accidentally included journalists in Signal Chat, he thought it was a serious administration mistake and that there were consequences.

But, as he has done in response to many Trump-related news events since the inauguration, Hunter said it took him a while to learn more before deciding what he would think about the situation. This time, he reflected the White House explanation, saying that the scandal was not very scandalous and that the chat did not include any specific war plans. It made the message benign in his eyes. (Defense experts were shocked by the level of detail in the chat.)

“It's true that someone made a mistake,” he said.

Hunter, a high school teacher, would have thought differently if Americans were killed because of information shared in the chat. In that case, he said, “Yes, someone should lose their job and someone should go to jail.” He added, “It's one of the things they've been fortunate and I think they'll learn better from it.”

Hearing Democrats criticising the administration over violations, he said it was hypocritical that they were so upset. He compared mistakes by officials involved in the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, or Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server for official communication.

“The people we know weren't accountable in such circumstances,” Hunter said. “And in all these circumstances there have been failures, big mistakes.”

– Juliet McClure

“I have to tell you, I'm shocked,” educator Tali Jaconte said. “There were times when it didn't happen, and that happened.”

Jaconte compared it to how closely military secrets are kept in her home country, Israel. When the Israeli intelligence reporting agency Mossad did the business, she said, he would not assert responsibility even if it was obvious. “No one's going to tell you until they tell you,” she said.

She was not hoping that any of the people involved would be fired at this point. “But we need better attention,” she said.

Has the administration learned that lesson? “I know the time,” Jaconte said. For now, they mostly seemed to brush this under the rug, she said, but meditated on what kind of conversation was happening behind closed doors.

“Even in a year, two or three years, if that happened again, no one learned anything,” she said. “And that's a huge shame, although I don't want to use the word disaster.”

– Campbell Robertson

“Imagine someone from another country with malicious intent. They take that information and hurt us and our army.”

Jaime Escobar Jr., 46, of Rome, Texas

Jaime Escobar Jr., mayor of a small border town, knew how important it is to protect sensitive government information. So when he read the news about signal chat, he was worried that the staff in question were trying to hone the problem too quickly.

“It's a very difficult medicine to swallow,” he said of the issue. “We need a strong message. We cannot tolerate this. Imagine someone from another country with malicious intent. They take that information and hurt us and our troops.”

Escobar, who voted for Trump years later as a Democrat, remained troubled by the fact that officials didn't check things as easy as receiving information like journalists.

“That's a big mistake and they need to be particularly careful about it,” he said. “It needs to be learned very quickly and cannot be repeated.”

At the same time, he felt satisfied that Waltz accepted responsibility for allowing the creation of the group chat.

“He took it on. Whether it was his fault or not, he said, 'Well, I'm the guy in charge of national security.” What about further results? “Well, that's going to have to be left to the president.”

– Edgar Sandoval

'The left didn't fight or protect himself much. This seems to have the potential to give them a foothold. ”

Isaiah Thompson, 22, of Washington, DC

When Isaiah Thompson learned that Trump officials were sharing details of the delicate war on the signal, he quickly wondered whether members of the federal government could make such a mistake. He then wondered how Democrats, not Republicans, would react.

“The left didn't really fight or protect themselves. “I don't know how the federal government got something like this.”

Thompson, a college student who voted for Kamala Harris but supports Green Party, said Signal Chat is just another example of accountability or lack of checks and balance in the Trump administration. Still, he is hesitant to help fire Mr. Hegses or Mr. Waltz about their role in the signal scandal. At least not so yet.

“We need to do some deep research before anyone is asked to fire or resign,” Thompson said. “But the president doesn't take this seriously enough. It was a national security violation.”

– Audra DS Burch