Latest news with #BombYemen
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jon Stewart Reveals His Favorite Pete Hegseth Quote From Group War Chat
Jon Stewart was baffled and amused by the latest scandal from the Trump administration, including a particular line from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He began his Monday Daily Show monologue with a 'quick update' on what he sarcastically described as 'an administration that is once again carrying out its plans with competence and professionalism.' He showed a series of news clips reporting that the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally included in a group chat with Hegseth and other top members of the Trump administration. The group chat was discussing top-secret information about attacking Houthi targets in Yemen, seemingly unaware that Goldberg could read everything. 'You know, back in my day, if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, you'd work the sources, meet them in a dark garage, earn their trust, pound the pavement," said Stewart. He joked, 'Now, you just wait for the national security adviser to be distracted by White Lotus while he's setting up his 'Bomb Yemen' group chat." He did an impression of an old guy texting while watching Season 3 of The White Lotus. He mimed looking at the TV, asked, 'Are those guys jerking each other off?' and went back to texting. 'By the way, I might be in this group chat,' Stewart added. 'I don't know. I don't check my group chats.' Stewart continued, 'Perhaps my favorite text of the entire group chain was the one from our defense secretary saying, quote, 'We are currently clean on OPSEC.'' 'OPSEC means operational security,' Stewart explained. 'He said that in a group chat. A group chat with a journalist.' 'The journalist said that he didn't think that the story was real until Yemen was bombed,' Stewart added, which got a sad reaction from the crowd. 'Oh, did I bring you down?' Stewart said. 'Let's move on.' The Daily Show host couldn't help but bring the subject up again, however. Later in his monologue, he covered a story about social media misinformation and how a fake Facebook account named Carol Smith was quickly tossed into a right-wing conspiracy rabbit hole. 'Carol Smith is a completely fictional character, and yet her children have stopped talking to her,' Stewart joked before adding, 'Although she was apparently added to a Pentagon group chat.'
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jon Stewart: Waltz was distracted by ‘White Lotus' while setting up war plans chat
Jon Stewart is knocking national security adviser Mike Waltz for reportedly adding a journalist to a text chain of Trump administration officials discussing military attack plans against Houthi rebels in Yemen, quipping that Waltz was likely engrossed in 'The White Lotus' while coordinating the group chat. 'A quick update on an administration that is once again carrying out its plans with competence and professionalism,' Stewart said as he addressed the apparent security breach on Monday's 'Daily Show.' The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg detailed in a Monday story titled 'The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans' that he received an invitation from Waltz to join a Signal group chat, in which top officials discussed targets, weapons to be used, timing and other details of a March 15 attack. 'You know, back in my day, if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, you'd work the sources, meet him in a dark garage, earn the trust, pound the pavement,' Stewart told the audience. 'Now? You just wait for the national security adviser to be distracted by 'White Lotus' while he's setting up his 'Bomb Yemen' group chat,' the Comedy Central host said to laughs. Stewart imitated Waltz typing away on his phone while watching an incestuous plot line on the third season of the HBO series. 'By the way, I might be in this group chat. I don't know. I don't check my group chats,' he added with a grin. 'Perhaps my favorite text of the entire group chain was the one from our Defense Secretary [Pete Hegseth] saying, 'We are currently clean on OPSEC,'' Stewart said. 'For those of you who don't know, 'OPSEC' means 'operational security.'' 'He said that in a group chat — a group chat with a journalist,' Stewart said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
25-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Jon Stewart on GOP's obsession with free speech: ‘It's such blatant hypocrisy'
Late-night hosts talk conservatives' hypocrisy over free speech and Donald Trump's administration accidentally texting an Atlantic editor its war plans. Jon Stewart was back in old-school Daily Show mode on Monday evening, pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans in power. But first, he mocked defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who accidentally included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a group text on Signal about the administration's plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen. 'Back in my day if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, you had to work the sources, meet them in a dark garage, earn the trust, pound the pavement,' Stewart said. 'Now? Just wait for the national security adviser to be distracted by The White Lotus while he's setting up his Bomb Yemen group chat.' Stewart went on: 'There are certain hypocrisies and absurdities that we find in our cultural moment that make for great fodder for humorous dialogue: a facial expression, a nod and a wink. Then there are pronouncements by our elected officials, other actions by our government that are so baldly bullshit, even though you know it will have no effect, and that these powerful creatures have been genetically modified to resist shame or self-reflection of any kind, you just can't help yourself but to go old-school Daily Show gotcha.' He specifically referred to conservatives' obsession with 'free speech' and the liberal 'thought police', while arguing in the same breath for CNN to be banned from the airwaves, among other proposed cancellations and censorship. 'Generally, you've gotta search the archives for contradictions on one's stated principles, dig through policy papers to uncover private actions that are undermined by someone's public stance, but this is so blatant,' said Stewart. 'I can't wrap around it. It's not even the hypocrisy, it's that they so fetishize free speech, this thing that they do not in any way actually practice.' Stewart cited Trump banning the AP from the White House for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico to 'the Gulf of America,' and the detainment of Columbia student protester Mahmoud Khalil. 'These guys don't give a fuck about free speech,' he said. 'They care about their speech. It's such blatant hypocrisy.' 'Our nation is a beautiful pastry spread of freedom and opportunity,' said Stephen Colbert on the Late Show. 'And yesterday, I got a closeup look at one of the donuts that Trump has been licking' at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Colbert and a number of comedians attended in support of Conan O'Brien, who received the Mark Twain prize for American humor. 'It was a great night full of life and love and laughs,' he said, but the mood in DC was 'still grim'. Last week, Trump held his first official meeting with 'all of his hand-picked flunkies' that appointed him to the board of the Kennedy Center, 'so he knows that they're all 100% loyal to him'. During the meeting, which was recorded and leaked to the press, Trump said he wanted to make the Kennedy Center programming 'slightly more conservative' and feature more 'non-woke musicals'. 'Non-woke musicals, also known as any musical you take your dad to,' Colbert joked. Besides rambling on about his love for the musical Cats, Trump also put his name forward as a potential host for the annual Kennedy Center Honors. 'Man alive, you could've given me a thousand guesses, and that would've been all of them,' said Colbert, himself a three-time former host of the ceremony. 'I tell you what, sir, I'm willing to trade – you host the Kennedy Center Honors, I'll be president.' And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel also mocked the administration putting sensitive military information in a group chat with Goldberg. 'In other words, our national security is being guarded by a bunch of doofs you wouldn't trust to throw your cousin a surprise party,' he said. 'No one on the chain thought to ask 'who is JG? What are these initials?' They could've been leaking secrets to Jeff Goldblum, for all they knew.' 'If Joe Biden's top military team accidentally texted these plans to a journalist, Laura Ingraham's erection would be so rock strong, it would break through the wall like the Kool-Aid man,' he added. 'This is a crazy mistake by any definition, but you have to remember: Pete Hegseth, our secretary of defense, three months ago was a weekend host on Fox & Friends.' So his former cohost 'looked at the bright side' of the story on-air. As Will Cain put it: 'What you will see is dialogue between vice-president JD Vance, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and many more, in a very collaborative, open, honest, team-based attempt to come to the right decision after years of secrecy and incompetence. If you read the content of these messages, I think you'll come away proud that these are the leaders making these decisions in America.' 'If you read the content of these messages – the point is we're not supposed to read the content of these messages!' Kimmel exclaimed. 'That is a real beauty of a spin.'
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jon Stewart Wonders If He's Also in the Trump Admin's ‘Bomb Yemen' Group Chat
Jon Stewart fittingly opened Monday's episode of The Daily Show with the dumbest news of the day: That an Atlantic journalist was accidentally added to a group chat where high-ranking members of the Trump administration were discussing ostensibly classified plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen. And Stewart of course had just the right words for such a staggering mistake: 'Oopsie-poopsie!' More from Rolling Stone Trump's Brain Trust Accidentally Sent War Plans to a Journalist Trump Loses It Over 'Distorted' Portrait of Himself Donald Trump Did Not Like Watching George Clooney on '60 Minutes' The host then went on to reminisce about the old days when journalists had to work sources and pound the pavement to get secret war documents. 'Now, you just wait for the National Security Adviser to be distracted by White Lotus while he's setting up his 'Bomb Yemen' group chat,' Stewart said, before miming an absentminded text while cracking, ''Are those guys jerking each other off?!'' Stewart then put forward an even funnier possibility: 'I might be in this group chat — I don't know. I don't check my group chats.' And he also shared his favorite message from the exchange, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proclaimed, 'We are currently clean on OPSEC.' 'For those of you who don't know,' Stewart explained, 'OPSEC means 'operational security.' He said that in a group chat. A group chat with a journalist.' The 'Houthi PC small group' — as the chat was known — featured a shocking array of top-ranking Trump admin and intelligence officials. Along with Hegseth, there was Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliff, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz — who appears to have been the one to add Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg admitted he wasn't sure if the chat was real at the time. He said on March 15, he received a lengthy text from Hegseth that, as Goldberg wrote, 'contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.' Goldberg was able to confirm the veracity of the chat when bombs started falling soon after. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jon Stewart Jokes Trump's Defense Secretary Was ‘Distracted by ‘White Lotus' When Accidentally Leaking War Plans to The Atlantic: ‘Oopsie Poopsie'
On this week's episode of 'The Daily Show,' Jon Stewart went after President Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, for leaking top secret U.S. war plans to The Atlantic by accidentally including the publication's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in a group chat. Before diving into the brief segment, Stewart sarcastically prefaced the audience by saying he wanted to provide a 'quick update on an administration that is, once again, carrying out its planswith competence and professionalism.' More from Variety Trump's Defense Secretary Accidentally Texted War Plans to The Atlantic: 'I Didn't Think It Could Be Real,' Editor Says Donald Trump Calls George Clooney a 'Second Rate Movie Star' After Clooney Calls Out the Government for Trying to 'Make Journalists Smaller': 'They Don't Like the Press' 'Tesla Files' Documentary Aims to Expose Inner-Workings of Tesla and Question Elon Musk's Political Ambition (EXCLUSIVE) Stewart then played a series of news clips illustrating the situation. They explained that Hegseth had mistakenly included Goldberg in a group chat on Signal meant to discuss attack plans on Huthi rebels in Yemen. Other individuals in the chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, according to Goldberg's story detailing the incident, which he published Monday. 'Oopsie poopsie!' Stewart exclaimed. 'You know, back in my day, if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, you had to work the sources, meet them in dark garages, you earned trust, pound the pavement. Now you wait for the national security advisor to be distracted by 'White Lotus' while he's setting up his 'Bomb Yemen' group chat. 'Are those guys jerking each other off?'' Stewart continued, 'By the way, I might also be in this. I don't know. I don't check my group chats. Perhaps my favorite text of the entire group chain was the one from our defense secretary saying, 'We are currently clean on op-sec.' For those of you who don't know, 'op-sec' means operational said that in a group chat, a group chat with a journalist!' Stewart added that Goldberg 'didn't think it could be real' until Yemen was bombed. That detail invoked a mixed reaction from the crowd. Stewart then joked, 'Oh, did I bring you down?' Watch the entire monologue below. Best of Variety The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More
