In their eagerness to play up the recent Signal chat affair for all they possibly could, CNN News Central made what just might have been the worst available choice on Capitol Hill to pontificate on national security. On Friday, they invited Rep. Eric Swalwell (D- CA), to do so, ignoring the fact that he himself had been the subject of a humiliating national security scandal, and also revealed a hypocritical double standard regarding the use of Signal specifically for sensitive communications. After the two indulged in some stock accusations of Trump treating the world like a “Risk board,” John Berman then raised the subject of the Signal group chat affair, which for the previous few days had been almost all the liberal media had wanted to talk about. He asked Swalwell, “As you look to the future- and you serve on all kinds of committees that deal with the military, and in the past, in intelligence- what do you think the impact will be from this going forward?” Swalwell had indeed served on the House Intelligence Committee, but the elephant in the room that Berman completely ignored was that while on that committee Swalwell himself had been responsible for a high-profile national security breach, when it turned out that he was dating a woman named Fang Fang who was exposed as a spy for Communist China. Nevertheless, as though Swalwell was well-qualified to get high and mighty about national security, Berman let him vent about the current matter: [E]very member of Congress- at least on our side- should ask every intelligence official and every military official when they appear under oath before Congress, ‘are you using signal chat?’... This was a military strike with no security awareness as to who was in the chat. And by the way, John, the American people are not going to be gaslit about this. They know that anyone else… if they had done this, they'd be gone. They'd lose access to any classified information. They'd never be able to work in the government again. And that's why Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz should no longer be in the government, and it's just a complete lack of accountability that Donald Trump is showing by keeping them.     True to form for CNN, Berman seemed completely oblivious to the irony of someone like Swalwell feeling entitled to run his mouth about “lack of accountability,” but, in fact, the reference to gaslighting in this very context was rich for CNN as well. In the defamation case of Zachary Young v. CNN, which CNN had lost earlier that year, CNN’s own reporter Katie Bo Lillis had testified that she herself used the Signal app, with a one-week deletion timer installed, as a security precaution. This illustrated the point that, at very least, the use of apps such as Signal was not itself an extreme or unusual thing for persons responsible for sensitive information. The network’s chief national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt also used Signal to communicate. It was a point which also came up during the trial. CNN had suffered a spectacular defeat in that case as the world looked on, but that had seemingly done nothing to boost their self-awareness.  To view full transcript, click "expand" to read: CNN News Central 03/28/2025 9:10: AM [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: VP VANCE, SECOND LADY USHA VANCE ON CONTROVERSIAL TRIP TO GREENLAND] JOHN BERMAN: With us now is Congressman Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California. Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.  REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D- CA.): Yeah. BERMAN: And just one quick question on Greenland. One other thing that happened since when this trip was originally announced, when it was just the second lady, and now- SWALWELL: Yeah- BERMAN: -Is the whole Signal scandal.  SWALWELL: Yep. BERMAN: And I wonder if the vice president's decision to go, if you think that was somehow affected by that? [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: VP VANCE LEADS TRIP TO GREENLAND AMID SIGNAL CHAT FALLOUT] SWALWELL: Why is J.D. Vance in Greenland?  Greenlanders don't want J.D. Vance in Greenland, and Americans don't want him there.  I mean, he should go to Greensboro, or Green Bay, and go to a supermarket and see what is really- you know- crunching and hurting everyday Americans right now.  This is just so insulting to the rest of the world. And we're losing alliances the way we treat other countries like some Risk- you know- game board.  And I've met in the last couple of weeks with Canadians, with members of the European Parliament, and they're telling me, it may take generations and- in our lifetime, we may not see the damage undone that this kind of nonsense is doing to us in the world. BERMAN: I do want to talk about Signal and the group chat and the continued fallout from that. As you look to the future- and you serve on all kinds of committees that deal with the military, and in the past, in intelligence- what do you think the impact will be from this going forward? SWALWELL: Well, I want to know, are they going to continue to use this type of chat environment for future operations? No one has answered that.  And every member of Congress- at least on our side- should ask every intelligence official and every military official when they appear under oath before Congress, ‘are you using signal chat?’  And by the way, DOGE- these guys are obsessed with deleting jobs. Maybe there's one job they should create- someone to monitor who's in the group chat. BERMAN: You know, it's interesting, when the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, was on TV last night, and [sic.] she actually said that she thinks Signal is secure and that maybe there will be chats- she didn't specify chats dealing with military attacks- but there would be government-related chats that take place on it going forward. SWALWELL: That's fine. There's a lot of- you know- different apps that you can use to make us efficient. This was a military strike with no security awareness as to who was in the chat.  [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: AG PAM BONDI DOWNPLAYS SIGNAL CHAT ON YEMEN STRIKES] And by the way, John, the American people are not going to be gaslit about this. They know that anyone else in the military, anyone else in the intelligence community- if they had done this, they'd be gone. They'd lose access to any classified information. They'd never be able to work in the government again.  And that's why Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz should no longer be in the government, and it's just a complete lack of accountability that Donald Trump is showing by keeping them. BERMAN: Roger Wicker, the Senate chair of the Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, the minority ranking member there, have written a letter, asking for an inspector general report at the Pentagon into this- SWALWELL: Going nowhere- BERMAN: -Is that enough? SWALWELL: It will go absolutely nowhere. And Republicans will do nothing. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: AG SUGGESTS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WILL WIN CASES BEFORE SUPREME COURT] They're just going to shrink, hide under the bed, just like they always do.  And by the way, inspectors general were completely fired by Donald Trump. So these are his people, who will investigate him.  So it's going to really be on Democrats in Congress to hold them accountable as much as possible, people like Democracy Forward and Mark Elias in the courts, who are pressing- you know- to get as much information about this- hold on tight, keep democracy alive until the midterms, win in the midterms, and cut our hell in half. That's the plan for the next year-and-a-half.