I have followed this strategy for the past 30 years to help clients—people, famous and not, companies, private and public, through major media and business crises. I know my approach is counterintuitive. It sometimes requires volunteering bad facts to the media, to get them all out publicly all at once, rather than waiting for them to dribble out, drip by drip, as they almost always do. You will achieve the ultimate goal of crisis management—get the story over with as quickly as possible and communicate to the public that you accept responsibility for your mistake.
Secretary Hegseth, Mike Waltz, Tulsi Gabbard, et al., had you asked my advice when you first got the sinking feeling that journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was invited into the group chat without anyone noticing, I would have offered you five recommendations:
First, I would have told you to immediately inform President Trump what happened, and tell him, as you already have, that the national security team had made a big mistake, even to the point of offering your resignation to show that you believe in accountability.
As it turns out, Trump, to his credit, has been gracious to you, attributing your mistake as understandable human error, and he almost certainly would not have accepted your resignation. But making the gesture would have enhanced your credibility before your inevitable appearances before Congress and in the media.
Second, you should have immediately issued a public statement admitting your mistake of judgment and taking responsibility. I would have urged you not to attack Jeff Goldberg, as several administration officials have done. Most discerning people view that as weak and disingenuous.
Third, I recommend that you stop playing semantic games while trying to spin the idea that information about bombing another country wasn’t classified or highly sensitive. How does splitting hairs about “war plans” vs. “attack plans” absolve you? Answer: It doesn’t. It is also inconsistent with your core crisis management strategy and sincere message: your acceptance of responsibility and accountability.
Fourth, I would have urged Pete Hegseth or Mike Waltz specifically (talk about counterintuitive!) to call Goldberg and offer him an exclusive interview to explain what happened and own up to the mistakes committed by national security team.
The reason for doing so would not have been to hope for kid-glove treatment by The Atlantic or the rest of the media—and that would not have been the result. Granting Goldberg an exclusive interview would have allowed your message to dominate much of the follow-up media coverage.
Fifth, and finally—the most difficult advice of all (and the one I think you all would most quickly reject): You could use this episode to acknowledge the unfair treatment of Hillary Clinton by some of you and those on your side regarding her use of a BlackBerry device to send personal emails and official business emails, all of them stored on a secure server supervised by the U.S. Secret Service. You can now empathize with how she felt when she heard so many calling for her to be “locked up” without so much as a prosecution or trial.
Belief in redemption and forgiveness is one great big common ground among most Americans—left, right, liberal, conservative, pro-Trump or pro-Biden. It’s one of our nation’s most appealing traits.
It’s not too late. It’s never too late to tell all the truth, tell it early, and tell it yourself. That is not only effective crisis management advice—it is good advice for you to turn the corner on this crisis and move on.
