Fox News and conservative lawmakers this week are grappling with the a group chat leak that discussed war plans in Yemen, mostly defending the Trump administration.
"This is what the leftist media is reduced to," Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said on Fox News. "Now we're griping about who's on a text message and who's not. I mean, come on."
"It's not only a smear, but it's waged by the left," Sean Hannity said on his program. "That's all they've got."
In an article published Monday, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote he was added to a group chat called "Houthi PC small group," where Trump administration officials discussed impending plans for military air strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. A National Security Council spokesman said the administration was “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” and attempted to spin the conversation as proof of “deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials.”
Several noteworthy conservatives gave similar defenses, contending that the administration was trying to avoid leaks and actually gave good insight into the war debate.
"It was clearly a screw-up. ... But I will say there's a big difference in that immediately the Trump White House took responsibility," Sen. Ted Cruz told ABC News, comparing this incident to Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information. "It's very different from how Hillary Clinton and the Democrats did."
"Maybe President Trump's national security staff, they're leery about being on government networks because ... the swamp did in Trump the first time," Newsmax's Greg Kelly suggested. "Maybe they're just trying to avoid leaks."
"Well, they did promise to be the most transparent White House ever, right?" Fox News' Peter Doocy joked.
But at least one Republican congressman directly criticized the leak:"This is a gross error," Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said. "They intentionally put highly classified information on a highly classified device."
"I would have lost my security clearance in the Air Force for this," he added.
