Hegseth Used His Personal Phone For Signalgate

Another day, another breach of national security by the unqualified and unfit Secretary of Defense Pete "WhiskeyLeaks" Hegseth. It's a pattern that has become all too familiar in recent months. While I usually refer to him as incompetent, it's starting to seem like he may be intentionally putting our country's secrets at risk. This appears to be Signalgate Episode Five.

For those who may not be following this saga, Hegseth was first implicated in the breach after sharing classified war plans to strike Yemen on the unsecure Signal app in a chat that also included a reporter from The Atlantic. At the time, it seemed like a serious mistake, but Hegseth managed to avoid any major consequences. However, he soon followed up this episode with another egregious breach of security, which became known as Signalgate Episode Two.

Episode Three and Episode Four followed, each one revealing more alarming details about Hegseth's recklessness with national security. And now, we've learned that those Signal war plans were shared on his phone, according to a report by The New York Times. This is a game-changer.

The Times reveals that low-level government workers are explicitly told not to use their personal phones or laptops for work-related matters. It's hard to fathom how someone in Hegseth's position could be so cavalier with security protocols. Cybersecurity analysts told The Times that a defense secretary's personal phone "would usually be among the most protected national security assets." But Hegseth apparently used his phone to discuss sensitive information, including the exact times that American fighter pilots would take off for strikes in Yemen.

This is a huge risk, not just for Hegseth himself but potentially for the pilots who were involved. Foreign adversaries have demonstrated their ability to hack into accounts of American officials, both encrypted and non-encrypted. As James A. Lewis, a cybersecurity expert, put it: "Phone numbers are like the street address that tell you what house to break into." Once you get the phone number, you're essentially at the door, looking for locks and wondering how to bypass them.

China and Russia are two countries that have demonstrated their ability to hack into accounts. Iran is another country that may be in on the espionage game. Several cybersecurity experts told CNN that they guarantee Russia and China are all over Hegseth's cellphone.

"I guarantee you, Russia and China are all over the secretary of defense's cellphone," Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, who has suggested that Hegseth should be fired, told CNN this week. The question is: how many more episodes do we have to go through before this threat to our national security resigns or gets fired? Or worse, gets someone killed?