On Tuesday a White House national security official and decorated Iraq war veteran is set to tell House impeachment investigators that he heard Donald Trump ask Ukraine’s president to investigate former VP Joe Biden. He was so disturbed that this request ran afoul of American interests that he shared the information with a superior out of a “sense of duty.”
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s leading expert on Ukraine, twice filed complains about how Trump and his team were dealing with Ukraine.
Vindman will be the first White House official to testify who heard the July 25th phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a statement, Vindman said, “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine. I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma [the energy company that had Hunter Biden on its board] it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.” (The New York Times)
Hot Takes:
- This testimony seems extremely damning.
- Expect team Trump to try to discredit Colonel Vindman.
- If they do, it could backfire. Vindman got a Purple Heart after being wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
- Vidman plans to tell investigators, “I am a patriot and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend our country irrespective of party or politics.”