Last night my Republican member of the House held a telephone “town hall” complete with softball questions and pre-written answers. He is clearly unwilling to hold meaningful discussions with his constituents, but he can’t deny the pressure. I can hear the strain in the voices of the people who answer the phones at his district office. Back in February they sounded pretty relaxed, and now they sound harried and stressed.
If you need a phone script to call your representatives about the Signal scandal, feel free to edit this down (or use the whole thing to send a written message):
Dear ----
Since news of the Signal security breach first surfaced earlier this week, there has been a steady stream of deflection, misdirection, misremembering, defamation, and, potentially, outright lies attributed to key members of President Trump’s security team, all with the apparent aim of portraying this unprecedented episode as nothing more than a high-level learning experience.
The responsibility of administering the affairs of the United States is not the place for seat-of-the-pants trials at any level, let alone at the highest levels of government. The concerted effort to pass it off as a minor incident or even a hoax amounts to a more than ample demonstration that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, and DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard, among others, are unfit to hold the positions to which President nominated them.
As a member of Congress, you have the responsibility to keep our communities safe. Enabling the fate of our nation to remain in the hands of a clearly irresponsible and incompetent national security team is the opposite of safe.
Please let me know your plan for working across the aisle to ensure that every public official responsible for the Signal security breach is held accountable to the fullest extent possible, up to and including judicial proceedings resulting from inconsistencies in their statements under oath to Congress.
I look forward to your reply.”
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That’s it! I hope it’s useful. Clearly the Republicans are hoping that the Signal scandal will fade away...