Liberals are freaking out over the demotion of Col. Vindman from the NSC after he testified in Democrats’ investigations this week.
BREAKING: Trump has fired Lt Col Vindman, whose damning testimony confirmed Trump tried to bribe and extort Ukraine. This firing is an abuse of power and another impeachable offense. Trump retaliated against an American patriot, on Veteran’s Day weekend. Disgusting and pathetic.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 11, 2019
Here’s when it was revealed during Face the Nation:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who has testified under oath, is serving on the National Security Council currently. Will he continue to work for you despite testifying against the president?
O’BRIEN: Well- well look, one of the things that I’ve talked about is that we’re streamlining the National Security Council. It got bloated to like two hundred and thirty six people from- up from 100 in the Bush administration under President Obama. We’re streamlining the National Security Council. There are people that are detailed from different departments and agencies. My understanding is he’s- is that Colonel Vindman is- is detailed from the Department of Defense. So everyone who’s detailed at the NSC, people are going to start going back to their own departments and we’ll bring in new folks. But we’re going to get that number down to around 100 people. That’s what it was under Condoleezza Rice. She came and met with me. I met with a number of my successors.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
Unsurprisingly (but that doesn’t make it even 1% right), the White House is firing Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council in retaliation for his truthful testimony to the House #ImpeachmentInquiry.
This is WRONG.#ImpeachmentTaskForce pic.twitter.com/j598rSDFLt
— Grant Stern (@grantstern) November 11, 2019
O’BRIEN: We don’t need to recreate the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security over at the White House. We’ve got great diplomats and soldiers and- and folks that can- that do that work for us in the departments.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Just to button that up, though. You’re saying Colonel- Lieutenant Colonel Vindman is scheduled to rotate out. You are not suggesting in any way that there will be retaliation against him?
O’BRIEN: I- I never retaliated against anyone. So the- the- it’s—
MARGARET BRENNAN: But his time is coming to an end?
O’BRIEN: There- there will be a point for everybody who’s detailed there—
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
O’BRIEN: –that their time, that their detail will come to an end. They’ll go back to their agency. And what we want them to do is take the experience and skills they learned at the White House, take it back to their departments and agencies and- and do an even better job there. And- and so we’re grateful that we can have these detailees come in, and they’ll come spend the year- a year or, you know, maybe a little bit more at the White House and then they’ll go back to their agency. And they’ll do a better job at their agency–
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right.
O’BRIEN: — having been at the White House.
Kinda sounds like she knew exactly what to ask – maybe she had been tipped off.
Anyway, not everyone thinks this is de fact retaliation, including Tom Nichols, who is definitely not a fan of Trump:
Now, if Trump or someone around him orders Vindman assigned to Mars Colony Five, or gives him a lousy fitness report, yes, he can claim retaliation. But removing him from NSC isn’t that. He’s being sent back to DoD, not fired from the Army. What happens *next* is what matters.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 10, 2019
Via TRS
