Former White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice did not hold back when reacting to the revelation that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was allegedly added to a Signal group chat discussing military strikes against the Houthis during the Trump administration. Speaking on MSNBC’s Deadline Tuesday, Rice labeled the situation “the biggest national security debacle that any professional can remember.”
A Breach of Security or Just Sloppiness?
Rice explained that decisions on national security matters—especially those involving military operations—are made within a highly classified and controlled environment. The National Security Principals Committee typically includes top government officials such as:
- The Secretary of State
- The Secretary of Defense
- The Director of National Intelligence
- The CIA Director
- Other senior security officials
For a journalist—even one as well-regarded as Goldberg—to be granted access to these highly sensitive discussions is, in Rice’s words, “bizarre.”
“It’s stunning,” Rice emphasized. “This absolutely needs to be thoroughly investigated.”
Rice speculated that this situation was not just a careless mistake, but potentially an intentional move to avoid compliance with the Presidential Records Act. That law requires government officials to preserve their communications, ensuring that records remain for public accountability and historical documentation.
“This is pure laziness, malpractice, recklessness, and probably also a desire to hide from The Presidential Records Act,” Rice said.
If her suspicions are correct, this would suggest that Trump administration officials deliberately used encrypted chats to discuss national security matters without those conversations becoming part of the official White House record.
Calls for an official investigation into the incident are mounting, and Rice’s remarks only add fuel to the fire. If confirmed, this would raise serious legal and ethical concerns about how top officials handled classified information and whether they intentionally circumvented federal record-keeping laws.
As more details emerge, the public will be watching closely to see who knew what—and when. If nothing else, this revelation is sure to further complicate the already controversial legacy of the Trump administration’s approach to national security and transparency.
