Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham condemned Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for defending the 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who allegedly leaked classified Pentagon documents.
The leaker, Jack Teixeira, allegedly posted the classified documents on a Discord chat with a group of males in their late teens, 20’s and 30’s, leading to his arrest by the FBI Thursday. The court charged him with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.
Greene wrote in a Thursday tweet that Teixeira is “white, male, Christian, and anti-war” and thus an “enemy to the Biden regime.” She suggested that President Joe Biden’s administration, not Teixeira, is the “real enemy” for “waging war in Ukraine.”
“Ask yourself who is the real enemy?” Greene wrote. “A young low level national guardsmen [guardsman]? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?”
Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar.
That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.
And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more.
Ask yourself who is the real enemy?
A young low level national guardsmen?
Or the…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 13, 2023
Graham condemned Greene’s “irresponsible” statement on ABC’s “This Week” and accused her of “putting America in serious danger.”
“What they’re suggesting will destroy America’s ability to defend itself,” Graham said. “That it’s okay to release classified information based on your political views, that your ends justify the means. It is not okay. If you are part of the military intelligence community, and you disagree with American foreign policy and you think you’re gonna be okay when it comes to leaking classified information, you’re gonna go to jail.” (RELATED: Jake Tapper Presses Dem Senator If Pentagon Leak Is A ‘Failure Of The Biden Administration’)
“That is one of the most irresponsible statements you could make,” the senator continued. “The ability for America to gather intelligence from human resources on the ground has been compromised, we can’t have a chaotic intelligence gathering system. If you give us information and it’s disclosed, you can lose your life…For any member of Congress to suggest it’s okay to leak classified information because you agree with the cause is terribly irresponsible and puts America in serious danger.”
Members of Congress have expressed concern over Teixeira’s ability to access and publicly leak classified material online and plan to hold hearings in the upcoming week on the matter. The trove of documents detailed information regarding the U.S.’ surveillance tactics relating to the war in Ukraine, including the weaknesses in Ukraine air defense networks and NATO’s plans to rebuild Ukraine’s military and the position of its troops, CNN reported.