Washington is failing to ask the most important question about the Signal scandal

This is an adapted excerpt from the March 30 episode of "Ayman."

Washington has been in a frenzy over the Trump administration’s Signal scandal, in which some of the president’s top officials were caught discussing a bombing campaign in Yemen in an unsecured group chat that somehow included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.

People were outraged. Many wondered how this could have happened. Some pressed for national security adviser Mike Waltz, who added Goldberg to the chat, to resign. Questions have also swirled about another chat participant, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California asked if Hegseth could have possibly been drinking before he sent the military plans. There’s also a question about why no one has been fired yet. (President Donald Trump said Saturday that no one will be.)Despite all these questions, somehow the most important part of this story isn’t getting any attention in elite Washington circles. And it’s this: Why is America bombing Yemen in the first place? How many people are being killed in these bombings? Who are they? If Congress hasn’t voted on it, are the bombings unconstitutional? Are they a violation of the United Nations Charter?

To be clear, American attacks on Yemen didn’t just start with Trump. For years, Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a major trade route. The attacks started shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and the Houthis say they won’t stop until Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has ended.

In response to these attacks, Joe Biden ordered airstrikes on the Houthis. Shortly after, Biden admitted those strikes weren’t successful. However, he also pledged to continue them. And now it’s Trump’s turn to pick up where Biden left off. The president is doing so without any debate or congressional approval. In March, he declared the group a foreign terrorist organization.

Some may remember that as a candidate, Trump pledged to end America’s era of endless wars. It was a smart campaign strategy. The American people are sick and tired of these wars. But as soon as Trump retook the White House, he did just the opposite. He’s ramped up bombings on Yemen. He has also effectively given a green light to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to end the ceasefire in Gaza. On Iran, Trump told my colleague Kristen Welker: “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” On Greenland, Trump told Welker, “I never take military force off the table.”

So far, this president isn’t a peacemaker, and he’s not ending America's forever wars — he’s threatening to start new ones.

But that doesn’t seem to be of concern to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They’re concerned about keeping American secrets safe, and the bombing campaign itself is just background noise. 

It’s not just the politicians who are missing the real story here. In an interview with NPR, Goldberg was asked about how, in the aftermath of his story, there has been little focus on the over 50 people, including women and children, who were killed in these strikes and whether he believed people were “burying the lead.”“I don’t know if we’re burying the lead, because, obviously, huge breaches in national security and safety of information — that’s a very, very important story, obviously,” Goldberg responded.

This is the perfect example of a Washington controversy: Democrats and Republicans are screaming at each other while the most powerful voices on both sides support the same underlying policy — a seemingly illegal war on a sovereign Middle Eastern country without congressional approval.