'Cleanup on aisle five': Expert debunks GOP lawmaker's latest leak excuse
Republican talking points on the leaked Signal chat revealing air strike plans against Houthi rebels in Yemen have veered from "the information wasn't classified" to the whole thing "was a hoax" perpetrated by The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
Goldberg was inadvertently added to the chat by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who took responsibility for the mistake.
But on Wednesday, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) floated a new theory on CNN.
Sara Sidner asked retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton about Davidson's comments.
"He said something that I think sparked all of our interest, which was, well, perhaps they actually wanted to put a reporter on this particular text message, saying, and I'm quoting here, 'There could be a case that it was intentionally released anyway.' Does that jive with anything about how things should work when it comes to plans where they're about to strike a target?"
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Leighton replied, "It is possible that they might want to do something like that, but usually if you do something like that, you would tell somebody like Jeffrey Goldberg and say, 'Hey, we want you to be a part of this. Don't publish this until X. Oh, and by the way, let us review this and then go from there.' But none of that happens."
Leighton continued, "So it leads me to believe that this is a the congressman that came up with an excuse that they were trying out to see if it would work. But, in this particular case...it was an accident that Jeffrey Goldberg was on this particular Signal group, and they are now trying to 'clean up on aisle five' for this."
Leighton called it a "very interesting attempt at a justification."
Sidner added, "It is being spoken about by a Republican to try to help clean up the situation."
On Wednesday, in response to the Trump administration maintaining the information wasn't classified, The Atlantic published the entire Signal chat.
CNN's Brian Stelter said the article contained "shockingly detailed descriptions of the bombs that are about to fall in Yemen, and Jeffrey Goldberg is getting these details many minutes before the bombs fall. If this is not classified information, I would like the president to tell us what would count as classified information."