Two wrongs do not make a right. There’s really no argument on that point. But morality, morals, right, wrong and politics are easy to grapple with from the sidelines when you are inclined to think both political parties have lost their minds. Thus we arrive at the group chat from hell.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz created a Signal chat to discuss options about the Houthi in Yemen. Action against the Houthi is necessary because the former President took them off the list of designated terrorist organizations and, despite over 170 attacks on American vessels in the Red Sea, launched an anemic response against them. The Biden team, on more than one occasion, announced in advance of the attacks that the attacks would be forthcoming.

Waltz used Signal because in December of 2024 the Biden administration, through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, recommended that senior government officials and public figures use it because China has compromised so much of our telecommunications networks. In February, the Trump administration reined in that recommendation a bit because of Russian phishing attacks in Ukraine with Signal. But those were specific attacks using QR codes to gain access to otherwise secure chats.

Signal, the app used by the Trump team, is a secure app with end-to-end encryption. Had Mike Waltz not accidentally included the Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, none of us would know anything about it. These group chats have existed at senior levels going back to the Obama administration.

In the group chat, Secretary of Defense Hegseth provided information related to the launch times of combat aircraft that would be bombing the Houthi, when explosions could be expected, etc. He did not list ordnance to be used, locations to be bombed or individuals targeted. Nonetheless, and contrary to the Republican spin, the take-off times of combat missions are considered top-secret pieces of information that are not to be shared on personal devices or in applications like Signal.

Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic seems to indicate Hegseth and CIA Chief John Ratcliffe had both shared extremely sensitive information. Ratcliffe says the CIA agent named was actually his Chief of Staff. Hegseth certainly shared information he should not have, but it neither compromised the mission nor put lives at risk.

To Democrats, this was the worst thing ever. Politico pontificator Jonathan Martin assured his social media audience that, “No SecDef would survive this in any other admin.” Except I am old enough to remember former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, disappearing for multiple days from his job without telling anyone. Austin’s own Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, did not know he had stepped out for medical treatment. He disappeared on Jan. 1, 2024. Hicks found out on Jan. 3, but did not know Austin was hospitalized. The President found out on Jan. 4. Austin kept his job.

Austin’s behavior in 2024 came after the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021. The worst that happened with the group chat was that bombs fell out of the sky on the Houthi as intended. The worst that happened in Afghanistan was 13 dead American soldiers and bodies falling from airplanes. No one lost their job.

The aggrieved, when pointing these things out, yell that two wrongs do not make a right. They are correct. But who is going first? If Republicans fire those who behave incompetently while Democrats keep their incompetents, one might argue the GOP will be full of competent people while the Democrats will be filled with incompetence. Another way of looking at it is that the GOP would constantly be turning over leadership while the Democrats build a stable, loyal group.

Undoubtedly, heads should roll. But the Republicans, rightly so, are not going to go first. The press never holds Democrats to the same standard. For every call that Austin needed to go, there were five times as many against Hegseth. Hegseth was actually on the job and advanced a successful mission. Austin disappeared. Two wrongs do not make a right but don’t expect the political right to keep offing its supporting cast when Democrats keep promoting theirs.

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