Fox News personalities’ new argument in support of their former colleagues who discussed pending military strikes on an unsecured text chain is that those former colleagues — now America’s top military, national security, and intelligence officials — are easy to deceive.

On Monday, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that former Fox host turned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had divulged “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen” in a Signal group that included top officials like former Fox contributor and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Goldberg himself, who was apparently accidentally invited to the chat by former Fox contributor and national security adviser Mike Waltz. 

As experts and observers noted that such unsecured communications channels can be compromised by U.S. adversaries and endanger the lives of American service members, Fox scrambled to the Trump administration’s defense. The network’s stars initially focused on disparaging Goldberg, attacking other media outlets for covering his report on the chat, and suggesting that the text messages Goldberg produced actually showed President Donald Trump’s advisers acting responsibly.