After speaking at the National Press Club, I will be testifying today before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on free speech and censorship. My testimony is below.
The hearing, titled “The Censorship Industrial Complex” will be held in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 2 p.m.
We now know a great deal about the censorship system developed under the Biden Administration in coordination with academic and corporate units. Indeed, the release of new information since January has proven a windfall for those of us who have been seeking greater transparency for years. There is still much to be done. It is essential for Congress to complete this work and allow for total transparency on the past funding and coordination by the government.
The past efforts to block investigations and withhold information on the censorship system have failed. However, the motivation is telling. While publicly declaring the need to combat misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, the Biden Administration and its allies in the censorship system struggled to withhold information on their actual targets or actions. The reason again is obvious. The public understands the threat to free speech and strongly supports an investigation into the FBI’s role in censoring social media.
Almost 250 years ago, Tom Paine famously wrote that “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” That was the first line of a work published by Thomas Paine in the Pennsylvania Journal on December 19, 1776, a work which would become known as “The American Crisis.”
We are living through a new crisis in the fight for free speech. The anti-free speech movement that has swept over Europe has now reached our shores. The United States remains a final line of defense for free speech, a nation founded on free speech as our indispensable right as a free people. This is a crisis of faith as the “summer soldier and sunshine patriot” finds every excuse for remaining silent as others are censored or canceled for their views. Congress must step forward to demand both greater transparency and protection for free speech. This new “American crisis” can be our greatest American moment in speaking in one voice – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – in support of the right that defines us as a people.
Here is the testimony: Turley.Senate Testimony.Censorship.Final
GodSpeed.
A lil reading material
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/the-affordable-care-act-obamacare
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-department-invoke-state-secrets-act-high-profile-deportation-case#&_intcmp=fnhpbt6
I guess the tattoos they use to determine who gets deported and who doesn’t is a carefully guarded state secret.
Or perhaps the have no evidence to support the deportations and didn’t want to explain that to a judge
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-department-invoke-state-secrets-act-high-profile-deportation-case#&_intcmp=fnhpbt6
I guess the tattoos they use to determine who gets deported and who doesn’t is a carefully guarded state secret.
Or perhaps the have no evidence to support the deportations and didn’t want to explain that to a judge
You got voted out for this kind of whinging.
Yeah, voted out 50.1% to 49.9%. But, gotta love your smug attitude that somehow America overwhelmingly supports our abrupt stance to join with Russia, North Korea and Iran to vote against Ukraine. Traitor.
Trump won all seven swing states.
Your party put an empty pants-suit at the top of the ticket – probably the worst quality presidential candidate in American history. At the bottom of the ticket your party put the lowest-IQ candidate in American history, even lower-IQ than Kamala, which I didn’t think was possible until they made that choice. Your VP candidate actually put tampons in boys’ bathrooms and cheered at the burning down of the biggest city in his state.* They could have had Josh Shapiro, but they didn’t want to alienate their Hamas base . . . and you guys lost Michigan anyway.
*Since that time he has cheered the idea of Tesla stock crashing, while his state holds that stock in its portfolio. You can’t get stupider or more venal than that.
As for your spurious allegation about voting against Ukraine, you have to be more specific. Whereas Biden willingly fed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian young men into the meat grinder, Trump is trying to stop the killing of of that entire generation. He is far more pro-Ukraine than “Joe Biden” – who was just a tool of the money-laundering racket getting wealthy off the violent deaths of millions of people. The fierce opposition to Trump comes from the fact he is trying to end that corruption and save lives.
So JT does this will the present administration is banning words from government web sites.
Who is calling reporters all sorts of infantile names? That would be DJT
Who is calling for the banning of words on Government web sites? That would be the DJT administration
Which group is involved in banning books from libraries? That would be right wing Repo fascist trump supporters.
Yea, it’s all the Dems fault. Why? Because they are holding a mirror to your face and you don’t like what you have become.
Whining about mean tweets again, are ya? We got your alternative for the last for years, and you got voted out. Try to develop a sense of proportion. It will change your life.
Sure, so you approve of the Sec Dev, VP, National Security advisor to flout laws and use a commercial App to discuss war plans? What they did was criminal, and none other than DJT himself has previously called for people that do what these people did to go to jail, for a very long time.
Do you even look in the mirror any more? I do hope that somewhere deep down there is still a sense of humanity if the sack of flesh that trump supporters have become. When faced with the crap they do their immediate response it to hurl infantile names at those pointing out the crap.
I do hope some day you will wake up.
You claim, “Sure, so you approve of the Sec Dev, VP, National Security advisor to flout laws and use a commercial App to discuss war plans?”
First, you or somebody might be lying, and second, if you’re not lying, it was a mistake that has been corrected.
Hillary corrected her mistakes by destroying evidence with a ball-peen hammer. Her server administrators fled to Pakistan to avoid investigation. Security risk? None of that, BTW, was an accident. General Milley wrecked military recruitment with his war on conservatives. Now that is a security risk.
Oh, and Bill Clinton lost the launch codes for months:
https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-clinton-lost-president-nuclear-codes-and-nobody-found-out-2018-1
Maybe they were in Monica’s closet?
Again, you guys desperately need a sense of proportion.
I think you need to read the news
I read the news. The news is yet inconclusive, but there is likely no damage to national security.
How utterly lametarded. Cuz you think there’s no damage to national security it was perfectly okay to run national security like a clown show. Iguess you’re too incompetent to recognize critically dangerous incompetence.
It was indeed careless, but there was no criminal intent, unlike with Hillary. No harm was done and best practices will be updated. You’re grasping at straws, but you’re not fooling anyone.
Along with reading one requires critical thinking skills. That is what you are missing.
App procurment was authorized via SISA to find a free E2E app for high-target individuals.
Be interesting to see how Turley fields questions from the democratic members of the committee.
Or have they all been deported?
When the “Joe Biden” administration utilized the coercive force of the federal government to ban people from speaking on social media, did you complain? But now you whine about what is not censorship: the government (a) deciding what words it wants to speak, (b) refusing to give your preferred speakers a taxpayer-funded megaphone, or (c) making a judgment about whether porn belongs in elementary school libraries. Trump’s and Musk’s actions are aimed at greater freedom of speech for people. You’re not fooling anyone.
I didn’t know marijuana was legal in Kansas. Or are you smoking something else?
Today’s forecast is fair to partly snarky.
OMG, Trump badmouthed a judge. OMG, the sky is falling, constitutional crisis. Impeachment. People will die.
And dems continue to butcher adolescents.
Check the mirror yourself. Horrible eh?
You like living in a world where criminals attempt to get their cases tried in the court of public opinion cuz it never works, huh OJ?
The average college graduate has become the “summer soldier and sunshine patriot.” She raises her high hand and talks with great sanctimony about defending democracy while submitting blindly to received wisdom. I call her “overeducated” because she couldn’t enter Big Education’s realm of theory and make-believe without becoming brainwashed by it. That is a waste of education. Not challenging educators is a crime against education. Not having educators who invite challenge is a crime against enlightenment.
If we want to date the Second American Civil War, we can say it is NOW. The Left, in defiance of a slim but determined majority, is resorting to targeted violence. To some extent, this campaign appears organized and to a large extent, it is getting encouragement from Democrats. Denied access to the DOJ, IRS, Pentagon, and CIA, the Left has now turned to low-intensity violence, so this Second Civil War won’t start with a clearly defined event like the siege of Fort Sumter. Instead, it will be America’s Time of Troubles.
The Left will claim it all started on J6. They put a lot of innocent people in jail to fluff up that claim, but J6 was over in a day. Their Second Civil War will go on for months if not years and have plenty of help from politically-corrupt black robes.
President Trump needs to hammer these people. They won’t get it, and complaining about the violence will not age well. After a certain point, many voters will stop blaming the Left and start blaming President Trump. He needs to be much tougher about this than he was during 2020’s so called “Summer of Love.” They need a beat down NOW.
Finally, we are overdue for a recession. They’ll blame it on Trump, but if the recession comes, it will have its roots in decades of government waste, fraud, and excess. Mindless globalization is another factor.
But there are things the President can do to mitigate such risks. The President needs to take a chainsaw to the graft, overregulation and taxes; he needs to end the Ukraine War, stop the violence in the Middle East, and reset trade to be fair to America. That’s asking a lot of the President, given the violent, unscrupulous, and clinically-insane resistance he faces, but he was reelected mainly because his voters know he is tough and courageous. Hard times require hard men.
God speed, President Trump. America may not get another chance.
Diogenes,
I have stated before a second civil war is a war that needs to be avoided. People will get hurt not a ear shot from a shot taken in anger. I do agree with your assessment of “targeted” violence. And there will be those who will also use the pretense of a second civil war to engage in “target” violence against Jews.
Agree with you about the recession. We have known it was coming. As Musk and DOGE find more and more fraud, waste and abuse, we are finding out how Biden’s reckless spending was propping up the economy by hiring a lot of useless government employees. Revised jobs reports finds what job gains there were in the private sector went to non-native workers. With Trump ending the spending spree, reining in fraud, waste and abuse, there is going to be a transition from the public/government market to the private market. Several economists have noted likely it will be a sever but short recession. Once we are on the other side of that, the markets and over all economy should be in a much stronger position. There has been massive amounts of investment from the private sector to re-shore or on-shore factories back here in America. These companies see the writing on the wall and know there is a massive shift in not just the American economy but the global one and are adjusting accordingly. I think they also know and see that the Democrat party is a total mess and is going to take some time, years, maybe a decade to sort themselves out if they can.
Getting the wars to end is good for everyone, everywhere.
Hard times are a coming. Get prepared now.
Upstate, agree, America has a chance to weather the storm pretty well. A lot of capital flight to the USA from dodgy parts of the globe is helping. That will continue. The truth is, it wasn’t government spending that got us out of the Great Depression. It was the Democrat Party’s rejection of FDR’s policies, coupled with capital flight to the USA from imminent war that pulled us out of the Great Depression. Keynesianism has always been overrated.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/signs-of-the-shameless-times-pop-up-in-seattle/
Shameless. Or is it Blameless. Not sure how to interpret this one
I like your sentiment, Diogenes. There are two goals. One goal is to build, create. The other goal is to destroy only. To destroy a culture or government or systems of civilization, a genocide, mocking your Constitution and laws leaving only rubble is a goal. You’re dealing with the second goal leading to donkeys and wagons. It’s origin is envy.
Ultimately the rulers of the western hemisphere will most likely be Chinese and they won’t fire a shot to do it. They’ll stand by until the internal misfits have done the work.
Europe stood by as they were invaded too well mannered to take action, too PC to correct it. They’ll be slaves, too. Slaves to the plow or Allah Allah in free.
Diogenes,
I really hope these nutjobs are just one offs,
Open calls for vioIence against Trump at the AOC + Bernie rally in Denver pic.twitter.com/ppo6ZbbDgY
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 24, 2025
Seems Democrats are trying to normalize violence.
Yep.
” the Left has now turned to low-intensity violence.”
Is that a sign the left is burning out? I think so. They are now eating their own. Of approximately 5 million Teslas on the road, well over one-half were bought by Democrats, so Democrats are destroying the property loved by boastful Democrats. Is that the Democrat way of turning the guillotine on their own? Democrats go after Jews who predominantly vote Democrat. Will they continue to do so? Democrats also push anti-Jewish riots at universities. Will wealthy Jewish alumni continue giving to these schools? Many women voted against Trump and are a key part of the Democrat Party. Will they continue to vote Democrat when their lives are threatened by terrorists that the Democrats are fighting to keep in this country?
I can’t think of a single Democratic stronghold that isn’t losing Democrats to the Republicans. Maybe those known as The Stupid are remaining Democrats, but they are stupid and can’t maintain the Party. This may well be the beginning of the end for the Party as it is known today. I hope and think so, but black swans appear out of nowhere.
S. Meyer,
Great comment. Yes, as the far left wing leftists continue to dominate and hijack the Democrat party, they also continue to alienate their own base. I also think that is why so many companies are on board with Trump’s MAGA plan as they see the Democrat party as lost and they will continue to lose elections as long as the far left wing leftists dominate the party. They are planning and spending for a long term Republican party WH with possible long term controls of the House and Senate. You dont spend billions of dollars on a hunch. When their current Democrat leaders are AOC and Sanders with rallies that bring out people actively calling for violence, not a good look for your party.
Upstate, let me summarize our mutual feelings of the left? Radical, Divisive, Out of Touch.
– It’s the right time and the right place –
Release The Free Speech Kraken Jonathan
Professor Turley is in a very good position to influence Congress now that Democrats are essentially irrelevant, per Axios report.
Wishing Professor Turley all the best
“Behind the Curtain: Dems’ dark, deep hole”
The party has its lowest favorability ever.
No popular national leader to help improve it.
Insufficient numbers to stop most legislation in Congress.
A durable minority on the Supreme Court.
Dwindling influence over the media ecosystem, with right-leaning podcasters and social media accounts ascendant.
Young voters are growing dramatically more conservative.
A bad 2026 map for Senate races.
Democratic Senate retirements could make it harder for the party to flip the House, with members tempted by statewide races.
There are only three House Republicans in districts former Vice President Harris won in 2024, a dim sign for a Democratic surge. There were 23 eight years ago in seats Hillary Clinton won.
And, thanks to the number of people fleeing blue states, the math for a Dem to win the presidency will just get harder in 2030.
The big picture: Democrats’ dismal reality is not Republican spin. In fact, there’s broad consensus among Democratic leaders that most current political, cultural, media and generational trends are cutting against them.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/24/democrats-popularity-crisis-trump-elections
Why do trump and all his sycophants, including pretty much every trump supporter on this site, always yell at other people when they’re caught with their pants down?
Hegseth also slammed Goldberg when talking to reporters, calling him “a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
So Hegseth fu-ks up big time and the first thing he does is call the person that caught him a “a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist”. You all do realize this is a classic by bullies and those that are trying to deceive you. Obfuscate. JT has become a master of obfuscation.
Wake up, your king has no clothes.
And for those that are either ignoring this post, or those that are about to yell about how infantile it is…You do know that trump himself has called for long prison sentences for those that have done the exact same thing his Sec Def did. Remember Hillary’s emails? Or how about Reality Winner? Yea, trump has called for long prison sentences for those that have done the exact same thing as his top advisors.
The Double Standard must be applied before any moral judgments are to be reached. Both political parties have become tribalistic cults, deeply paranoid, and bound by a strict Double Standard. Morality (right vs. wrong) no longer is seen as something universal or objectively definable by these polemecists.
Aww Turls, D.C. is a little too caught up today on some information that went wildly public yesterday to be concerned with your hypocrisy on free speech. Drag ayy?
Turns out your mission of criticizing those speaking out against the racism of the right will have to take a backseat to reports of Pete Heg getting his drank on and trash talking the Europeans on a public text chain in an illegal way. Trump’s cabinet should, minimally get iguana f#$ked in the dirt with it’s tongue hanging out before being impeached or forced to resign on this one.
Party on!!
Tom Paine also famously wrote in Common Sense: “For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”
What would he think of Trump, who has repeatedly likened himself to a king (i.e., the White House computer-generated image of Trump grinning on a fake Time magazine cover while donning a golden crown) and has recently proclaimed: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law”?
Trump’s America, where travelers from allied nations like France are denied entry for business conferences because they express negative opinions of our “king” on social media?
You’re trying so hard. But all of your attempts fail. See my response to your previous silly comment below.
Trump has said negative news coverage of him should be considered illegal. How’s that any different than in other countries where free speech reigns like in Russia? Even JD Vance said Russia was a free speech haven.
You poor people. You’ve lost control over all branches of government, your candidates were laughed at and rejected by the American people in the last election, and you don’t even have Roe v. Wade anymore – the loss of which was supposed to guarantee electoral victories for decades. Maybe that’s why you people make such silly, non-substantive comments.
Any publicity, is good publicity!
Good luck, Professor!
The challenge for Turley and Congress in deterring government officers from engaging in manipulative control over the infospace are two-fold:
— We need to create FAST lawsuit processes that can work at the pace of such manipulations — snail-paced court challenges must become highly accelerated and responsive
— If government officials choose pushing out a false narrative as an alternative to censorship (e.g. Hunter’s laptop), that too must be legally challegeable with fast discovery/due diligence
The greatest stumbling block to permanent improvement is, we’re essentially asking those currently in power to give up unfair advantages in shaping public opinion. It doesn’t matter whether Repubs or Democrats, neither are willing to cede power to manipulate public opinion to their advantage. Only independents in governing power would be able to pull off these reforms.
Everyone here and Turley included outdoing themselves with refences to the American Revolution personalities.
I see no sense in quoting dead people to show off one’s patriotism.
Professor,
Well said! Thank you for all your efforts in fighting for the 1stA!!
“ There’s still no proof, from either side, that it was actually the Dept Heads in that chat, or that Jeff didn’t just wholesale make it up.”
Trump’s defense council spox confirmed it. Moreover, the conversation was confirmed by the fact that the bombings they were talking about happened when they said they were going to happen.
“ If you read the actual matter, no classified information was pushed in the article, and there was that whole bit about “principals” acting as representatives to the heads.”
Goldberg didn’t publish details because he knew it would pose a danger military personel and operations in the region. Hegseth , JD Vance, and the other principals were the ones talking. Hegseth sent Goldberg a trove of detailed information about the operation. If he had published it it would have been 1000 times worse for Trump and especially Hegseth.
“ So, if this wasn’t just pulled out of Jeff’s dark areas, it still doesnt make sense for a high-ranking intel official to add a smarmy reporter to not one, but two private chat groups, especially one that has been actively hostile towards the head honcho.”
it doesn’t make sense if they were competent. It makes sense because we know they ARE incompetent. The whole group never bothered to even question the wisdom of discussing such a sensitive issue on a commercial app instead of official government secured channels. They exist for this very reason. So they don’t end up with stupid blunders like this.
There are already questions about how often they have been using Signal. If they have been using it regularly, it raises the possibliy that they can commit crimes and even recieve bribes without anyone ever knowing. Here’s what is particularly concening. One of Trump’s “trusted advisors” was meeting with Putin at the time they were discussing this. IN RUSSIA. You don’t think the Russians were monitoring his phone? This guy is the same moron who assumed he was duped by Hamas when he was negotiating the cease fire with Israel. This guy’s only experience in negotiation comes from making real estate deals. He’s not a seasoned diplomat. That is the kind of incompetence we are seeing.
Great Speech professor. Also a nice reference for the rest of us.
Did the senate and CONgress get the memo? We the people have no faith in them, to do the right thing. If talking a problem to death, actually worked, there would be no problems. boasberg is a huge problem. Talk him to de@th, please.
Judge Natalia Larina made some rulings Putin didn’t like. Look what happened to her. Problem solved.
Well written testimony Professor Turley and all spot on. I must admit, however, it was glaring in its omission of the Trump Administration’s efforts to punish universities who have allowed speech that the Trump administration feels is critical of them. It also omits their most recent attempts to chill the speech of certain law firms who have either been critical of them or engaged in litigation against them. Both would seem to be egregious in the effort to chill such protected speech. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on such. Thank you.
Chill the speech …? I guess in your opinion its okay when Biden – and entire nation – did it, but Trump – its criminal.
Please, before commenting think. If you can.
I ask myself, why are liberals so stupid? Can you help?
Why would Jeff start his comment “Well written testimony..” if your “guess” is correct about Jeff defining censorship is acceptable along strictly partisan lines?
How about those of us who criticize BOTH Biden and Trump’s use of Presidential power to intimidate and silence dissenting viewpoints? Are we who reject the double standard “stupid”?
Jeff, I doubt you will hear Turley discuss the Trump administration’s own free speech issues. He’s had plenty of opportunities and he remains silent. I suspect, he is self censoring for fear of incurring the wrath of MAGA and Trump too.
If Trump can squelch speech with impunity like he’s done with University students and green card holders he certainly can with Turley.
If Turley somenow manages to discuss the glaring double standard openly it won’t be as substantive as you would expect.
Well written comment, Jeff.
Too bad everything after “I must admit. . .” is Leftist delusion.
Jeff, w/ all due respect, you have missed the mark in yr MSM view that Pres. Trump is ‘punishing’ anyone or anything.. There is a fine line between ‘free speech’ and promoting that ‘free speech’ through organized actions which are damaging and destructive. Re: Columbia U., when Jewish students are subjected to such hate & violence because ‘free speaking’ Palestinian students have assumed roles as Politicians, and being funded, to carry out harmful actions towards them, it’s time to come back to center from this disrespectful extremism. The disruption calls for level-setting, which is what the Trump Admin., which represents the Govt. giving these school $Millions in Funding, is doing.
What exactly was damaging about their protesting to the U.S. government?
The security breach currently at issue poses so much more damage that a few students protesting at a college.
eighteenthhole,
if you get a chance, read this one, Lawsuit Targets Anti-Israel Campus Leaders for ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Hamas
“This case is not about individuals and organizations independently exercising their free speech rights to support whatever cause they wish—no matter how abhorrent,” the complaint argues. “Rather, it is about organizations and their leaders knowingly providing substantial assistance—in the form of propaganda and recruiting services—to, and in coordination with, a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.”
https://www.thefp.com/p/lawsuit-targets-anti-israel-campus-groups
More Congratulations, Prof. Turley.. You will be a ‘Tour de Force’ on all levels! ..will look for you on C-Span.. We are All Blessed to have You in this role!
The jealousy must be hard to deal with. Turley gets a front row, seat George on the outside looking in. Screaming from the back of room, look at me, look at me, I’m George.
What an insignificant little thing George is.
The sheer irony of that testimony will be felt in that room. Turley will undoubtedly face questions about Trump’s attacks on free speech. Will Turley address this? I doubt it. He won’t touch on it as long as MAGA gives him the stink eye from afar.
Plus, the current scandal blowing up in D.C. about Hegseth’s incompetence in using Signal to send detailed military operation war plans to a journalist and being oblivious to it will be a bigger deal than Turley’s quaint deposition on government censorship. Perhaps Turley should start discussing the glaring double standard staring him in the face.
There’s still no proof, from either side, that it was actually the Dept Heads in that chat, or that Jeff didn’t just wholesale make it up. If you read the actual matter, no classified information was pushed in the article, and there was that whole bit about “principals” acting as representatives to the heads. So, if this wasn’t just pulled out of Jeff’s dark areas, it still doesnt make sense for a high-ranking intel official to add a smarmy reporter to not one, but two private chat groups, especially one that has been actively hostile towards the head honcho.
Jeff Goldberg is the Jonathan Karl.2 of journalism: under-educated, sneaky, and dishonest. I have seen him on Washington Week and I think he (while calculating and machiavellian in his coverage of issues), is not smart enough to understand how his bias comes through, -which is actually a good thing for credibility assessment.
From the getgo, I had this gnawing feeling that Goldberg was somehow involved in this security breach….
He told NPR that he received a “connection request” from Waltz and said yes.
Instead of immediately contacting Waltz, “Principals,” or even administration- with a “Hey guys, am I supposed to be on this list of recipients?” he laid low, continuing to receive information over multiple days…..
He then made sure that he was theeeeeeee Spotlight of national news, granting several TV interviews and basking in the moment.
(I certainly do not deny that a serious breach occurred…)
“ (I certainly do not deny that a serious breach occurred…)”
And you’re trying to lay blame on the reporter intead of those who had the boneheaded idea to use Signal to discuss highly classified military planning and policy outside of official government channels. They are already in trouble for violating the Espionage act and federal records laws.
Lin,
Well said and I agree. The fact Goldberg talked to NPR says all I need to know about him.
Upstate: Hey you and yours; been thinking of you with all this crazy weather. Good to see you up and at ’em.
Blaming Goldberg because of Waltz’s mess-up is just silly. He thought it wasn’t legit. Instead of going the route you suggested, he did what any good journalist would do—he checked in with lawyers and other folks. He waited to see if things were for real, and it all clicked when the bombings got reported a couple of hours after he found out about the attack. That made it clear to him that it was the real deal.
Even more troubling is that none of the people involved thought to ask who this JG person was in their conversation. There wasn’t even a hint of curiosity about this mysterious figure. This was ensured to be 100% OPSEC by the Secretary of Defense. The moron was using an unsecured app run by a private company to send highly classified information while there was this strange “JG” icon just sitting there right in front of them.
After observing his astonishing luck, Golberg aimed to confirm the authenticity of what he had just witnessed. The NSC validated it, the White House acknowledged it, and even the CIA corroborated it. Goldberg is not the problem. The significant lapse in security by the Secretary of Defense and even the Vice President is the real issue.
If this occurred during the Biden administration, Republicans would have been howling in rage and would have been demanding loudly for prosecuting everyone on that chain and firing everyone.
One of them, Litnick, I believe, was in the process of meeting with Putin. He was IN RUSSIA on his phone having this conversation OUTSIDE of a SCIF. This is bad, really bad, and looking to smear Goldberg just looks desperate and incompetent. Everyone knows who is at fault here, and it’s definitely not Golberg.
You are doing what you often try to blame others of: conflating two separate conducts from two separate persons.
Waltz and his team are certainly on the hook for this one–you falsely premise your entire argument on pretending that this is being denied.
Completely separate from that is the conduct of Goldberg, who made comments like, ‘I thought it was a joke,’ ‘I thought I was being set up,’ while laying low and continuing to receive information over several days.
YOU, dear George, have NO idea why he ostensibly contacted his lawyer(s)–for all we know, it might have been merely to assess his liability in not disclosing to officials that he should not be receiving this information.
I personally am curious to know how his name was on the contact list and not others from media???
LIn, Goldberg explained everything to everyone yesterday. That Goldbert should have left the chat because he should have known that he wasn’t supposed to be on it is the stupidest argument you can make. He is a professional journalist. If any other journalist ended up in his position you can bet they would have stayed on it longer. Absolutley nothing required Goldberg to have said anything while he was on that chat. It was Watz’s fault and the fault of everyone on that chain for not even questioning who the hell was this JG individual.
You’re trying to lay blame on Goldberg because it detracts from the fact that his presence is not the issue. It’s the fact that they were discussing highly sensitive government planning and policy on an app not approved for by the government. Trump has loudly called out for anyone committing just such blunders to go to prison.
You want to make excuses for this but you clearly have a hard time even trying to justify it. So instead of laying blame and directly questioning the wisdom of those who setup the chat and continuing to engage in discussions that should never have been outside of a SCIF or a secure communication network belonging to the government you focus on the person who had zero obligation to say anything while he was there witnessing this. Goldberg had no legal obligation to alert anyone of his presence in the chat. He did what any journalist would do. Report it to the public. It was THEIR fvck-up. Not Golberg’s.
“That Goldbert should have left the chat because he should have known that he wasn’t supposed to be on it is the stupidest argument you can make.”
see georgie, that’s the game you try to play when backed into a corner.
I don’t see where “Lin” said any such thing or implied it.
Given your reading comprehension issue I’m not suprised you don’t see where Lin implied it.
Lin, is trying to make a case by smeaing Goldberg as the issue. Goldberg is not the one who messed up. He’s just the lucky witness that had zero obligation to notify those in the chat that he was there by mistake. The fact that none of them even noticed, even after he left the chat that there was someone they didn’t know was never questioned. That speaks volumes on the level of hubris and confidence that their discussion was 100% secure.
That alone says that they have been doing this kind of “off the record” discussions and planning for a long time. It presents a case of a serious violation of federal laws including the Espionage act. People have gone to prison for far less than this.
What happened was the equivalent of all meeting in a backroom behind closed doors and sitting around having highly classified discussions and never questioning who the guy sitting in the corner is or why he’s there. Real professionals, career officals would have immediately pointed to this stranger and asked “who the fvck are you?” It shows the level of incompetence that clearly resides in Trump’s administration. This won’t play well for them in the mid-terms if it keeps happening which I suspect will keep happening. It’s been less than 100 days into the term.
George, take your porn and pedophilia to a blue hub. Your mockery would be better appreciated.
Professor Turley is a voice crying in the wilderness. I know you’ve read his books.
Maybe Goldberg was set up. Gbye Goldberg, just like Vindman.
LIn says,
“ Jeff Goldberg is the Jonathan Karl.2 of journalism: under-educated, sneaky, and dishonest.”
He wasn’t the one setting up an off the record chat with the principals on a commercial app that allows you to delete conversations for official government functions. That they even considered it a good idea pretty much shows they are…under-educated. And then outright lying about it aftet it has been confirmed by their own agencies is also….dishonest.
Lin, clearly you tried to attack Goldberg for just being lucky to be the ‘victim’ of someone else’s incompetence. His ‘bias’ comes from the fact that he was witness to something that clearly was not supposed to be happening. He displayed his professsionalism by not publishing details that he was clearly privy to that he could have chose to publish and made things worse for Trump and Hegseth and U.S policy. So where is your denounciation of the clown posse who decided to engage in this misadventure using a commercial app outside of classified government channels created specifically for these kinds of discussions?
You know just how stupid this was for them to do. But you seem reluctant to lay it on them, knowing they fully deserve the criticsim and ridicule they are getting.
WoW, Lin must have hit a nerve, is taking georgie 15 paragraphs to snap back and still misses the point.
No, Lin tried to make a poor excuse and it was an obvious mistake on his part.
Morning angry George!