Marsha Blackburn’s Vindman vendetta

Source: Politico | January 25, 2020 | Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett

Democrats have railed against the Tennessee senator for attacking a key impeachment witness.

Marsha Blackburn has it out for Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman.

The freshman senator from Tennessee has been on a multi-month, multimedia crusade against Vindman, who flagged President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president to the top National Security lawyer and testified to House impeachment investigators that he considered it improper. And she’s stepping up the offensive right in the middle of the Senate impeachment trial.

This week she tweeted Vindman was “vindictive,” questioned his patriotism and attempted to tie him to the still-anonymous whistleblower, who sparked the impeachment effort by reporting Trump’s July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the intelligence community’s inspector general. Vindman testified that he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is.

Her TV appearances and social media campaign is drawing scathing criticism from Vindman’s lawyer as a “testament to cowardice,” is receiving little back-up from fellow Republicans and is being savaged by Democratic senators.

In an interview, Blackburn defended her remarks about the National Security Council official and said she is only reiterating concerns she’s hearing from other military officials about Vindman for going “outside of his chain of command.” Vindman, a decorated Army veteran and Ukraine specialist, also testified that a top White House lawyer told him to remain silent about his concerns over Trump’s call. And she seemed to take the criticism in stride.

“I work with a lot of military folks and they all had questions about him as someone in uniform,” Blackburn said. “They were offended. That what he would do is go against, try to undermine the commander-in-chief. And so we have weighed in on that.”

The blowback against Blackburn has been immediate though mostly from Democrats so far. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said that Blackburn’s comments are “not deserving of a response,” while Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) described them as “utterly repugnant and reprehensible.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on MSNBC that the Tennessee Republican’s comments speak for themselves and “to quote Franklin D. Roosevelt, it will go down in infamy.”

“Somebody who has put his life on the line for our country and he needs to be treated with respect even if you don’t agree with what he’s done,” added Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).

……..

Tagged: , , , , ,

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.