High-Ranking Republican Liz Cheney Rips ‘Shameful’ ‘Fox News’ Attacks On Impeachment Witness Alexander Vindman
On Tuesday, Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman became the latest witness to deliver potentially damaging testimony against Donald Trump in the impeachment inquiry currently underway in the U.S. House of Representatives. But leading up to his testimony, Vindman — an Iraq veteran who received a Purple Heart after he was wounded by a roadside bomb blast — was the target of attacks on Fox News. Those attacks accused him of being a spy who committed espionage against the United States, according to a New York Times report.
Vindman’s testimony is considered crucial to the investigation into whether Trump improperly leveraged U.S. military aid to pressure the president of Ukraine into announcing an investigation of Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Unlike previous witnesses, in his capacity as director for European affairs at the National Security Council, Vindman was actually listening in on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As The Inquisitr has reported, a partial White House transcript of that call shows Trump appearing to condition the badly-needed aid on whether Zelensky agrees to do Trump the “favor” of investigating Biden.
But the attacks by Fox News personalities and guests, insinuating that Vindman is actually a spy working for Ukraine, were too much even for the third-ranking Republican in the House, Liz Cheney — who has been a staunch supporter of Trump and is also the daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
House Republican conference chair Rep. Liz Cheney on questioning the patriotism of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and others: "We're talking about decorated veterans who have served this nation … It is shameful to question their patriotism, their love of this nation." pic.twitter.com/vwbVqUG94w
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 29, 2019
Cheney, as seen in the video above, decried the attacks on Vindman’s “patriotism” as “shameful,” and added that Republicans “should not be involved in that process.”
Vindman’s family emigrated from Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. At the time, Vindman was three-and-a-half years old.
“We also know [Vindman] was born in the Soviet Union, emigrated with his family,” Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said, as quoted by Vox.com. “He tends to feel simpatico with the Ukraine.”
In another Fox News broadcast, former deputy U.S. Attorney General John Yoo noted that Vindman has advised the Ukraine government on how to deal with pressure from Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As The Inquisitr reported, Giuliani has pressured Ukraine officials to launch an investigation of Biden.
“Some people might call that espionage,” Yoo said on Fox News referring to Vindman.
In his Tuesday testimony, a portion of which is posted online by Politico, Vindman said that he “did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen.” He said that he immediately reported his concerns to his NSC superiors after the conclusion of the July 25 call.
