Taylor Swift’s name was invoked before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday as Congress members grilled national security officials about the recent use of a commercially available messaging app to discuss sensitive war plans, while belittling European allies.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) brought up last year’s thwarted terror attack on Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Vienna to underscore the importance of working closely with allies. Cooperation between the CIA and European intelligence agencies was key to preventing a tragedy, officials said at the time.
Three concerts were canceled, and three teens who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State were arrested.
“That sharing of information saves lives, and it’s not hypothetical,” Warner said. “We all remember, because it was declassified, last year when Austria worked with our community to make sure to expose a plot against Taylor Swift in Vienna that could have killed literally hundreds of individuals.”
Warner’s remarks came a day after a bombshell report by The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who detailed how he got included in a group chat on the text-messaging app Signal, in which several national security officials had not only discussed bombing Houthi targets in Yemen but also bellyached about what they saw as European “freeloading,” according to screenshots shared by TMZ.
“I just hate bailing Europe out again,” Vice President JD Vance wrote, to which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth replied, “I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Warner overall excoriated the officials on the text list, some of whom were at the hearing, about the overall lapse in security and the dangers of alienating allies.
With News Wire Services
