When Jack Teixeira was arrested for publishing top secret information onto a Discord channel devoted to gaming, it seemed like an open-and-shut case of a vainglorious loudmouth receiving his comeuppance.
According to the Washington Post’s account of the leaker prior to his arrest, “there was no indication that he was acting in what he thought was the public interest by exposing official secrets. The classified documents were intended only to benefit his online family.” When the Discord group’s attention wandered from his postings, “he got angry.” One group member told the Post explicitly, “I would definitely not call him a whistleblower.”
Some on the right had a different reaction. On Fox News, then-host Tucker Carlson blasted the arrest of Teixeira, stating, “He revealed the crimes, therefore he’s the criminal. That’s how Washington works. Telling the truth is the only real sin.” Carlson also asserted, baselessly, that U.S. soldiers were currently fighting Russian soldiers, so perhaps his claims should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, he was not the only defender of Teixeira’s actions. Far-right British activist Raheem Kassan asked why he was being prosecuted when whistleblower Alex Vindman was walking around free. And hard-line GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene really went there, positing that the Massachusetts Air Guardsman was arrested because “Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and anti-war. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.”
That anyone tried to...
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