Donald Trump has started showing the cracks the impeachment inquiry has made in his psyche. Historians say that during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, he managed to pigeon-hole that and continued to run the country. This POTUS seems unable to follow that example, plus Clinton was a much younger man. This is what Trump decided to do.
One of the most patriotic individuals in America, Lieutenant Colonial Alexander Vindman, courageously came forward to testify in the House impeachment inquiry. The colonel spoke about why he was testifying:
‘[Out of a] sense of duty. I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend our country irrespective of party or politics.’
His father escaped from Ukraine after his three sons’ mother died. At that time, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. They came to the U.S. when Vindman and his twin brother were just three years old, according to The Washington Post.
The twins went to Cornell and Harvard University and obtained their law degrees. After going through Ranger training, Vindman was on active duty when a roadside bomb exploded beneath his vehicle. As a result, he was given a Purple Heart. The twins currently work as high officials in the White House National Security Council (NSC). Their offices are across from one another.
As the NSC’s top Ukrainian expert, Lt. Col. Vindman was one of the people who listened to Donald Trump’s phone July 25th call to Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelensky in an attempt to extort information. Part of his responsibilities included editing the transcript for errors made by the voice recognition program and make those corrections. However, someone overran him and altered the transcript leaving out crucial words and phrases.
Vindman said that he tried to put the words back in but to no avail. This was very unusual, and as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “all roads lead to Russia.”
Vindman went to the next-in-line superior to report the president’s troubling actions. Trump was coercing Zelensky to dig up dirt, real or imagined, on the U.S. president’s top Democratic presidential contender for 2020, Joe Biden and his son. POTUS wanted that in return for releasing the $391 million in military funds, already appropriated by Congress. Ukraine has been at war with the Russians as they occupied Croatia and attacked their shared eastern border.
According to Vindman’s publicly-released opening statement, he was told that his superiors:
‘[W]ill look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue.’
Vindman testified about the altered telephone call transcript, what happened in the White House after the call, and the “shadow foreign policy.” Trump’s TV attorney Rudy Giuliani was running with two Ukrainian-born men, people who have been linked to a Russian oligarch and the Russian mob.
During his 10-plus hours of testimony:
‘Colonel Vindman recounted his alarm at the July 25 call, saying he “did not think it was proper” for Mr. Trump to have asked Mr. Zelensky to investigate a political rival, and how White House officials struggled to deal with the fallout from a conversation he and others considered problematic.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
