Alexander Vindman, an NSC official, told impeachment investigators that the president undermined national security.
President Donald Trump launched a sustained online offensive Tuesday morning after details emerged of damaging congressional testimony by a senior White House official — retweeting numerous messages by Republican lawmakers assailing the latest developments in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
The flurry of activity on the president’s social media feed came just hours before Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council staffer overseeing Ukraine policy, was due to tell investigators on Capitol Hill that Trump undermined U.S. national security when he pressured Ukraine’s president in a July phone call to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
“Why are people that I never even heard of testifying about the call,” Trump tweeted. “Just READ THE CALL TRANSCRIPT AND THE IMPEACHMENT HOAX IS OVER! Ukrain said NO PRESSURE.”
Vindman is the first witness in the impeachment probe who listened in on Trump’s call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, and his testimony appears to corroborate both a whistleblower complaint lodged by an anonymous member of the intelligence community who was alarmed by accounts of the conversation, as well as a summary of the call released by the White House.
“Supposedly, according to the Corrupt Media, the Ukraine call ‘concerned’ today’s Never Trumper witness. Was he on the same call that I was? Can’t be possible! Please ask him to read the Transcript of the call. Witch Hunt!” Trump wrote, without offering any evidence that Vindman is biased against him.
“How many more Never Trumpers will be allowed to testify about a perfectly appropriate phone call when all anyone has to do is READ THE TRANSCRIPT!” the president also posted. “I knew people were listening in on the call (why would I say something inappropriate?), which was fine with me, but why so many?”
Trump last week similarly claimed to not know William Taylor, the top American envoy to Ukraine, deriding the State Department official as a “Never Trumper Diplomat” after Taylor directly tied the president to a quid pro quo with Ukraine during testimony before lawmakers.
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President Trump launched a flurry of activity on Twitter this morning — retweeting numerous messages by Republican lawmakers attacking the latest developments in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry https://t.co/sdVsKnwswo
— POLITICO (@politico) October 29, 2019
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