Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is calling out President Donald Trump and his cabinet after an “epic fuckup” accidentally gave a journalist access to a group chat detailing a planned airstrike in Yemen.
“It is getting clearer by the day that the people in charge of the American government cannot keep the American people safe,” Buttigieg said in a video posted on social media.
And he said the scandal also exposes the “bullshit” behind Trump’s attacks on diversity initiatives.
Trump and his allies claim those programs lead to unqualified people getting jobs they don’t deserve.
“You should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender,” Trump said during his address to Congress earlier this month.
But now Trump and his cabinet are being questioned over their own competence after national security adviser Michael Waltz reportedly added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, by accident to a group chat that also included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Goldberg watched as the group discussed war plans in Yemen and other extremely sensitive matters.
“To see this administration claiming that it cares about competence and merit and then be responsible for an epic fuckup like this demonstrates that these are not serious people,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg, who was an intelligence officer for seven years in the U.S. Navy, said classified information is supposed to be discussed in certain “hardened” facilities and via classified systems.
But that’s not what reportedly happened in this case, and he said the consequences could be devastating.
“I know Americans who lost their lives because of intelligence failures,” said Buttigieg.
“This kind of intelligence failure calls the question on whether there is any place for merit or competence in this administration at all. Because if there are not highly serious consequences for this level of screwup, then it will make clear that all of the bluster about merit that you hear about from this White House is just bullshit. We deserve so much better than this.”
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Buttigieg added on social media: “From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.”
He also discussed the issue on CNN on Monday night:
