Every time we think we have hit rock bottom in the current political situation, someone in President Trump's orbit takes out a more powerful jackhammer. This week we have the President and voices from the right attacking Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a decorated war veteran and Ukraine expert for going to Congress to testify to the call that shows President Trump asked the Ukrainian President to investigate Vice-President Joe Biden and his son. Vindman was listening to the call and reports say that when the so-called transcript was being created Vindman wanted to add words the President deleted. He was ignored. Col Vindman showed real concerns that the President was working against the interests of the United States during this call. So of course the President's allies attack him.
On Fox on the Laura Inghram show, John Yoo, the author of the famed torture memo and a person seen by many as an apologist for war crimes suggested the Vindman was acting as a spy for Russia? Ukraine? Sean Duffy, former reality star and Congress person and current Trump cultist who is inexplicably was hired by CNN as a political commentator, suggested that Vindman might be working for Ukrainian and not US interests. Let me tell you about Vindman.
Vindman's family fled Ukraine, then part the former Soviet Union in the 80s. His Jewish family was leaving persecution and the dictatorship that had little hope for a country of pure hope. He lost his mother at an early age and was raised in Brighton Beach surrounded by other Ukrainian and Russian ex-pats. He grew to love the United States and joined the military, along with his twin brother, after college. He found himself in Iraq where he was wounded by an IED and earned a Purple Heart. Often decorated he moved up the ranks and served on the National Security Council and in embassies in Russian and Ukraine. His expertise on the region cannot be challenged and his patriotism should not. Especially by people like President Trump, who paid for a doctor's note to stay out of Vietnam, joking about his youth paying for sex as his own Vietnam. Nor the likes of John Yoo, a man banned from countries having been tried in-absentia for war crimes. And certainly not Sean Duffy who is only relevant to anyone for being a nonsensical character on a reality program when Vindman was defending the country.
We have seen the Trump administration set a tone that is both destructive and hurtful as people have attacked decorated military veterans, life-long members of state department and of course members of Congress. But questioning Vindman's loyalty and patriotism to cover for a President who admitted out loud and in front of people in the act being investigated and Vindman is confirming it with facts is a such a disgusting strategy that all who continue to promote it must be shunned by polite society. While I don't expect Fox to do anything, CNN should fire Sean Duffy and no show should book a member of Congress who repeats this nonsense. Voters and reporters should ask everyone of Trump's supporters if they feel a decorated war veteran is a spy or traitor and if not they should stand up and call it for what it is, as Rep. Lynn Cheney did yesterday.
We cannot allow true patriots to be denigrated by people who aren't worthy of carrying Vindman's bloody fatigues. We are a better country.
On Fox on the Laura Inghram show, John Yoo, the author of the famed torture memo and a person seen by many as an apologist for war crimes suggested the Vindman was acting as a spy for Russia? Ukraine? Sean Duffy, former reality star and Congress person and current Trump cultist who is inexplicably was hired by CNN as a political commentator, suggested that Vindman might be working for Ukrainian and not US interests. Let me tell you about Vindman.
Vindman's family fled Ukraine, then part the former Soviet Union in the 80s. His Jewish family was leaving persecution and the dictatorship that had little hope for a country of pure hope. He lost his mother at an early age and was raised in Brighton Beach surrounded by other Ukrainian and Russian ex-pats. He grew to love the United States and joined the military, along with his twin brother, after college. He found himself in Iraq where he was wounded by an IED and earned a Purple Heart. Often decorated he moved up the ranks and served on the National Security Council and in embassies in Russian and Ukraine. His expertise on the region cannot be challenged and his patriotism should not. Especially by people like President Trump, who paid for a doctor's note to stay out of Vietnam, joking about his youth paying for sex as his own Vietnam. Nor the likes of John Yoo, a man banned from countries having been tried in-absentia for war crimes. And certainly not Sean Duffy who is only relevant to anyone for being a nonsensical character on a reality program when Vindman was defending the country.
We have seen the Trump administration set a tone that is both destructive and hurtful as people have attacked decorated military veterans, life-long members of state department and of course members of Congress. But questioning Vindman's loyalty and patriotism to cover for a President who admitted out loud and in front of people in the act being investigated and Vindman is confirming it with facts is a such a disgusting strategy that all who continue to promote it must be shunned by polite society. While I don't expect Fox to do anything, CNN should fire Sean Duffy and no show should book a member of Congress who repeats this nonsense. Voters and reporters should ask everyone of Trump's supporters if they feel a decorated war veteran is a spy or traitor and if not they should stand up and call it for what it is, as Rep. Lynn Cheney did yesterday.
We cannot allow true patriots to be denigrated by people who aren't worthy of carrying Vindman's bloody fatigues. We are a better country.
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