1. Let's give them all the benefit of the doubt and assume they knew nothing about this hack until Vanity Fair reported it. They still knew that Kushner was the son of a convicted felon, had no official job nor security clearance and had $2B given to him by the Saudis for his PE fund.
2. The fact that they sat silently (at best) or advocated (at worst) to put THAT GUY in charge of middle east peace negotiations given all those conflicts speaks to their utter absence of character, spine and patriotism.
3. I will grant that Rubio is quite smart. But that's not why he got his job. He got it because Trump knows that he is a coward who will roll over for him all day long - even at the cost of US secrets and a destabilized global order.
4. I make this about Rubio et al because the issues created by Rubio's character are not limited to Kushner. It's the same culture in the WH that let Hegseth, Walz, et al share classified intel on non-secure channels and never once step in to shut down the signal chat.
5. The instinct that lets you look the other way and/or encourage putting Kushner in charge of Middle East negotiations is the same that puts Betancourt in the middle of the theft of Venezuelan oil. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-venezuela-oil-agreement-terms
6. At the end of the day the Trumps and their spouses are bullies and grifters. The people around them are weak-willed sycophants. Neither succeeds without the other and both are equally responsible for this moment. Our country can't afford let either of them off the hook. /fin
@SeanCasten The thing I find weirdest about MAGAts and their support for Trump (and by extension Jared) is that:
(a) many of them are Evangelicals who believe firmly we are in the End Times and the AntiChrist is among us; and
(b) Jared Kushner owns a building at >> 666 <<< Fifth Avenue, yet no one sees him as an candidate for said AntiChrist.
@SeanCasten
Don't forget it wasn't just a Signal chat. Some participants were using a highly insecure front-end called "TM SGNL" which was made by a company called TeleMessage.
Halberstam's Best and Brighest, redux
@SeanCasten I was listening to a podcast (Bulwark maybe?) where passing mention was made about Rubio being someone who could bring back traditional Republican leadership, and I was floored. He’s right at the center of so much this administration is doing. How could he be viewed as turning the page from this?
And frankly, how could any Republican? They’ve all been voting for it and going along (and many grifting right along). The whole party seems tainted and untrustworthy.
@StephanieMoore the bet on Rubio is always a bet to elevate his brains over his character. Inside DC that sometimes works but I'm hard pressed to think of anyone who successfully made that trade with voters. Dumb dudes with charisma can win. Smart toadies generally no.