Ana Radelat took a much-deserved vacation this week, so I’ll do my best to fill in for our loyal D.C. Memo readers. That shouldn’t be too difficult, considering all of the coverage produced by the Signal chat bombshell that exploded a few days ago. So here goes:
That bombshell, of course, was The Atlantic magazine’s revelation that its editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, somehow got added to a text chain in Signal — a commercial app — with high-ranking Trump officials about a pending attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
That created all sorts of havoc for the Trump administration, with some lawmakers calling for the resignation of our own Pete Hegseth (Forest Lake Area High School, class of 1999) to resign as Secretary of Defense.
You can read about the snafu in this Associated Press story, along with some follow up reporting on what the text messages contained.
The pushback from the White House, which denies that any classified information was shared in the chat, can be found here.
For her part, Minnesota’s senior senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, appearing at an Axios event, said of the fiasco that Republicans need to “get their act together.”
Speaking of the AP, its executive director, Julie Pace, penned a Wall Street Journal column about the news cooperative’s court fight with the Trump administration over access to the White House. The Trump administration cut that access off after the AP refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, a term that Trump favors. (The AP published an abbreviated version of her column).
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues its culling of the federal workforce, announcing that it plans to trim federal health agencies by 20,000 workers. The Department of Health and Human Services had around 92,000 employees in September.
Also, according to CBS News, a federal appeals court has upheld a court order blocking further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration had invoked the 18th century law in sending alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador, where they were imprisoned.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the notorious prison this week.
ICYMI:
- We shared an Eden Prairie Local News report on freshman U.S. Rep Kelly Morrison, D-3rd District, who during a townhall meeting called for a “kindness revolution” in this tumultuous political era.
- Late last week, Ana Radelat reported on a Trump administration order that could boost copper, nickel and cobalt mining on the Iron Range.
- At the state level, KAXE/KBXE reported on the nine candidates who have emerged to replace former state Sen. Justin Eichorn, the Republican who resigned after his arrest in an underage prostitution sting. Primaries are slated for April 15 with a special election set for April 29.
Thanks! Ana will be back next week.
Gregg Aamot is the associate editor at MinnPost. He can be reached at gaamot@minnpost.com or followed on Twitter @greggaamot.
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