Bret Stephens: Gail, before we start, is there a journalist from another publication you’d like to invite into this conversation?

Gail Collins: Gee, Bret, could you be referring to Jeff Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, who wound up being unwittingly included in a group chat among top Trump officials discussing classified plans for airstrikes in Yemen?

Bret: Best journalistic scoop of the season, and it couldn’t have been easier to get.

Gail: Seems to me that Goldberg behaved very responsibly in a screwed-up situation that once again defined the utter ineptitude of the administration — from top to bottom. My initial reaction was to wish I could fire them all and buy Goldberg a drink.

vamojogar

Bret: If President Trump were, well, someone else entirely, he’d be the one buying Goldberg a drink for keeping the nation’s military secrets to himself for as long as they needed keeping — and then exposing Trump’s top national security aides as the amateurs they are.

The Republican preparations have taken place at Mr. Vance’s home in Cincinnati and in online sessions with members of his own inner circle and Jason Miller, a Trump campaign strategist. Mr. Vance’s team also pointed to his frequent media interactions on the campaign trail as helpful prep for the debate spotlight. Mr. Vance has offered a potential preview of his debate strategy by repeatedly questioning Mr. Walz over his military service and attacking him as an out-of-touch liberal.

More bleak headlines follow: “Bidenomics FAILED.” “Bidenomics is a RECORD FAILURE.” “Americans’ incomes down THREE STRAIGHT YEARS.” “Unemployment RISING.” “America may soon be in a RECESSION.”

Gail: A new week,66cassino a new dimwit roundup.

Bret: Paging Tulsi Gabbard. And that’s saying nothing about JD Vance, the vice president whose comments on the Signal chat suggest that he doesn’t think the president grasps the implications of his own foreign policy. What a shame Vance didn’t extend his weekend visit to Greenland for, oh, 45 months.

The other thing worth paying attention to, Gail, is the Republican response, especially in the Senate. Outside of the always gutsy Alaskan Lisa Murkowski, I’m not seeing much more than murmurs of G.O.P. dismay. Just imagine if the shoe had been on the other foot and it had been Joe Biden’s secretary of defense and national security adviser sharing battle plans with, say, Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson.

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