3 days ago
7
While the White House continues to downplay Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's sharing of Yemen attack plans in a Signal group chat that inadvertently included a journalist, Barstool Sports “el presidente” Dave Portnoy demanded that President Donald Trump take action over the “f*** up of epic proportions.”
“There’s nothing’s being made up here,” Portnoy declared. “Somebody’s got to go down for this!”
Calling the Trump administration’s bluff after they repeatedly claimed classified “war plans” weren’t revealed in Signalgate, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg decided to publish the full text exchange on Wednesday morning that included Hegseth detailing an upcoming airstrike on Houthi targets — two hours before the planes began hitting their primary targets.
Portnoy, who says Trump considered him for commerce secretary earlier this month, reacted to Goldberg’s story far differently than other conservative media personalities. With Fox News and other MAGA outlets echoing the administration’s efforts to paint this scandal as “not a big deal” and a “nonstory,” Portnoy — whose “Barstool conservatism” helped swing young men over to Trump in the 2024 election — called for immediate firings within the administration.
Qualifying his criticism by noting how much he “hates” The Atlantic and believes the feeling is mutual, Portnoy specifically took aim at Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz — who added Goldberg to the chat — for their continued denials that nothing “classified” was shared in the text exchange.
“So the editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, comes out after and says, ‘Hey, morons! You guys included me on a Signal group chat with sensitive classified information discussing the Houthis attack before it happened.’ Pete Hegseth’s immediate reaction is like no that never happened, we didn’t leak any classified information,” Portnoy said in a social media video on Wednesday. “So Jeffrey Goldberg released all the texts in the Signal group chat. And guess what? It’s super sensitive! It’s super classified! It’s surreal that these guys added Jeffrey Goldberg to this group chat!”
Stating that “American lives could have been lost” if this information had gotten out ahead of time, Portnoy called this a “huge mistake” before placing much of the blame on Waltz for accidentally adding The Atlantic editor in the chat, which also included Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Acknowledging that “we’ve all texted the wrong person before,” Portnoy reiterated that this still “can’t happen” with national security and “we aren’t the secretary of defense” or the “national security adviser.” His biggest issue, however, was that the initial reaction from Trump and Hegseth was “to kind of pooh-pooh it” and shift their attention to slamming Goldberg and The Atlantic.
“Which they are, and I hate them. But, by the way, Jeffrey Goldberg didn’t hack it. He got added. But if he did hack it, that’s almost more dangerous that somebody like Jeffrey Goldberg – if he can hack sensitive chats, what are our enemies doing?!” Portnoy exclaimed.
Though he related to Trump remaining loyal to Waltz and not wanting to dump him over the security breach, claiming he also “hated firing” employees, Portnoy urged the president to “take accountability” because “somebody needs to go down” for the scandal.
“For me, it’s Michael Waltz,” he continued. “He’s the one who added him to this conversation. But you can’t have the top of the top security people in the United States, with the most sensitive information in the world, adding random editors of a magazine that hates Trump’s guts to a group chat that’s talking about an attack before it happens on a terrorist group! You can’t pooh-pooh it! You can’t downplay it! You have to say, ‘Holy sh*t! This is a f*** up of epic proportions!”
Insisting that he doesn’t like “calling for people’s heads,” he reiterated that Trump needs to get rid of Waltz over the Signal leak. “You have to lose your job!” Portnoy proclaimed. “You should step down… It’s on you for adding him!”
Finally, Portnoy said that this is why he “hated politics” since there was “nothing being made up here” regardless of what ideology or party you support.
“Jeffrey Goldberg is telling the truth. It’s obvious. These texts are real. It’s obvious they’re classified,” he concluded. “It’s obvious we gave away the strike information two hours before it happened. We’re lucky it didn’t cost the death of American military members. Somebody has to go down for this! … This is a mistake that can’t happen twice.”
