Politico Columnist Says No Other SecDef Would Survive This in Another Administration

Brett T. | 10:00 PM on March 26, 2025

There have been calls from the usual suspects in Congress for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to resign after The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly invited to a "secure" chat on Signal. Goldberg did the patriotic thing and quietly collected screenshots of the chat and published them, even though they included top-secret "war plans."

POLITICO columnist Jonathan Martin theorizes that no Defense Secretary would survive this scandal in any other administration.

It appears that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin survived quite a lot:

No SecDef would survive this in any other admin, and Hegseth may not. But unlike another admin it won’t happen bc lawmakers of said party publicly demand it but bc the prez gets irritated by media coverage portraying his people as clowns https://t.co/hQzFGbmuYo
— Jonathan Martin (@jmart) March 26, 2025

https://t.co/QAOwmJIvwt pic.twitter.com/of4jDzffVv
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) March 26, 2025

Lloyd Austin gave the go ahead to drone strike a car full of kids in Kabul then went missing for three weeks and no one said a word because the president couldn't remember his own name. https://t.co/nUNkDY44DM
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 26, 2025

I mean, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was totally MIA for weeks while U.S. troops were under attack in the Middle East and his deputy was also on vacation. President Biden wasn’t informed. They both kept their jobs.

Not apples to apples, and I think this is bad, but come on. https://t.co/bUf0nxroYK
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) March 26, 2025

Austin disappeared without notice TWICE. January and June.
— Lobbyist4taxpayers (@Nosuchluck55) March 26, 2025

Yeah they can all miss me with the faux outrage.
— DeusVult45/47 (@Therman8R) March 26, 2025

You forgot to mention that @JoeBiden was MIA for 4 years, no one batted an eye.
— Thora 2 debbie davis/ dadavis65 (@debbied2808514) March 26, 2025

How about the horrendous exit from
Afghanistan leaving billions of equipment at a base we never should have abandoned and used as the withdrawal point and 13 service members killed when a sniper had the guy in his sight and was told to stand down and Joe said it was a success.
— Bob Lyons (@Bob_Lyons) March 26, 2025

And “someone” under Biden’s watch released a photo of team members of DELTA FORCE, that included facial identification and visible tattoos.
— Jörmungandr (@WeRAllAsgaard) March 26, 2025