Republicans' hypocritical Hillary Clinton comments resurface amid Trump administration group chat scandal

Back when US president Donald Trump ran for the presidency the first time around, the Republican’s campaign to enter the White House involved – among other things – attacks on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and the scandal surrounding her emails. Such remarks have now resurfaced after a journalist for The Atlantic was added to a Signal group chat discussing war plans in Yemen.

Yes, you read that right.

In an article published on Monday, the site’s editor-in-chief writes: “At 11:44 a.m. [on 15 March], the account labeled ‘Pete Hegseth’ posted in Signal a ‘TEAM UPDATE’.

“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 U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”

Goldberg repeatedly writes about his uncertainty as to the authenticity of the messages, before learning about detonations in Yemen which would take place that afternoon.

He continues: “So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.”

Further legitimacy came when National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Brian Hughes told Goldberg that the conversation “appears to be an authentic message chain”.

Good lord.

Clinton was shocked too, taking to Twitter/X to share a brutal seven-word response:

CNN even went as far as to compile a montage of Trump officials in the Signal group chat criticising Clinton all those years ago:

One social media user declared Clinton was “the most vindicated person in the world”:

And the hypocritical comments just kept resurfacing, as Fox News host Sean Hannity – who previously called for Clinton to be jailed over the emails scandal – dismissed The Atlantic’s report as a “smear”:

Another account shared an interview with Hegseth, now US defence secretary, in which he said “any security professional” who did what Clinton did “would be fired on the spot”:

No, Hegseth hasn’t been fired yet, and he hasn’t resigned yet, either.

Instead, he told reporters: “You are talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”

Just to remind everyone: the NSC has said the group chat conversation “appears to be an authentic message chain”.

Yikes.

Why not read…

• Hillary Clinton issues damning 7-word response to Trump administration's airstrikes group chat scandal
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