Michael Steele blasts Pam Bondi for her flippant defence of Signal leak: ‘Stop playing us for stupid’

WASHINGTON, DC: Michael Steele, MSNBC host and former head of the Republican National Committee, slammed Attorney General Pam Bondi for suggesting that Signal chat was a secure medium to discuss sensitive government information, the Daily Beast reported on Saturday, March 29.

Bondi defended Signal after Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, published a report earlier this week stating that he had been added to a group chat in which top national security officials and Vice President JD Vance were dicussing war plans, such as air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The officials present in the group chat reportedly included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard. Waltz has since admitted responsibility for mistakenly adding Goldberg to the group.

Why did Michael Steele slam Pam Bondi?

In a recent interview on Fox News, Pam Bondi defended the top officials within President Donald Trump's administration for using the messaging app Signal to exchange sensitive information.

“I don’t think foreign adversaries are able to hack Signal, as far as I know,” she stated, which enraged Steele and forced him to call her out on Saturday's episode of 'The Weekend'.

“Is she being deliberately ignorant for the sake of playing down this whole thing?” asked Steele. "As the attorney general of the United States, I’d think she would understand that in fact our foreign adversaries absolutely know how to dip into it."

He mentioned that former CIA director John Brennan had explained in a recent segment of the show that encrypted messaging apps only protect messages in transit. The messages can be accessed later if the device of the recipient has been compromised.

“Come on people, stop playing us for stupid,” added Steele.

The anchor was backed by his guest, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who stated, "Signal and WhatsApp are more secure than just open texting, but they are far from secure enough to handle classified, national security information.”

He highlighted the importance of not sharing war plans over text groups, saying, "You can’t just throw it around on whatever app you think is going to be secure today."

Internet joins Michael Steele in slamming Pam Bondi

Netizens reacting to Michael Steele's take agreed with him on the social media platform X. The following tweets trolling Pam Bondi demonstrate their takes.

"Doesn’t matter what #Blondi thinks, the US needs to more careful, this is careless," wrote a user.

"She’s not too bright, is she?" said another.

"Dumb people are always blissfully unaware of how dumb they are," shared a third with a GIF.

"Bondi is not qualified for this job," declared one user.

"Did Trump use Stupidity as a qualification for his nominations? A grade school child knows better," chided another.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.