Man Who Carried Clinton’s Nuclear Football Says the Trump Air Force One Leak Was An Inside Job

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth acted immediately. Biden’s Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall had his security clearance yanked Friday after Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell revealed he had made “an unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One’s capabilities to a media outlet.”

What doesn’t happen routinely is those details leaking to the press. The media’s response to all of this is the part that deserves its own reckoning. Journalists spent the week generating outrage about being deceived — arguing they should have been informed of classified security arrangements designed to protect the president from an active assassination threat. Patterson had a direct message for CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times: if they want the truth about what actually happened and why it was necessary, he’s available. Comments on. DMs open.

They probably won’t call, because understanding the operation would require acknowledging that the people managing presidential security made exactly the right call — and that the story is not about a press corps that wasn’t notified, but about a leaker who should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.