Jesse Watters Suggests Lt. Col. Vindman of Engaged in ‘Sabotage from Within’ White House
Fox News’ Jesse Watters joined in the right-wing chorus dismissing the alarms raised by National Security Council official Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, claiming that the Army officer should’ve quit or advised President Donald Trump differently instead of engaging in “sabotage from within.”
Speaking on The Five, Watters echoed some of the same talking points heard elsewhere on Fox News that questioned Vindman’s patriotism and loyalty to the country, which have ignited fierce, bipartisan backlash. Watters reacted to panelist Juan Williams noting that Vindman’s testimony Congress directly contradicted Trump’s claim that “no one else” complained about what he continually refers to as the “perfect” July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Previously, Republicans were saying ‘This is hearsay, no one was actually there [on the call].’ Well, Vindman was actually listening to the call,” Williams pointed out. “And to question his loyalty?”
The Five panelist Greg Gutfeld responded by not attacking Vindman’s character, while still shrugging off the officer raising alarm bells.
“It’s about the fact that he was concerned. Being concerned doesn’t mean something happens, right? Since Trump has been president, everybody’s been concerned about this, that,” Gutfeld said. “Just being concerned about something is not enough. That’s not to denigrate this man. What I’m saying is it’s okay to be concerned. But concerned doesn’t mean something happened.”
Gutfeld then went to accuse the media of “running this operation” and hinting that the timing of Vindman’s testimony was orchestrated to distract from the news of the successful al-Baghdadi raid. “You can see that happened today because we had such good news with him being killed that all of the sudden this happens,” he claimed. “This is their new drug. Russia was their old drug. This is their new drug.”
“I’m with Greg,” Watters said, before broadly dismissing the analysis of someone that the Trump White House specifically hired to advise the president on Ukraine. “I don’t really care to hear how someone feels about Donald Trump’s phone call.”
“We have a transcript. We know what happened,” Watters continued. “If the guy who is working for the president doesn’t like the policy, quit or advise the president differently. Don’t sabotage him from within.” Watters then went to note that many people, from both parties, question the conduct of active duty military officers.
Watters’ analysis, however, never acknowledged that by twice raising alarms to the NSC’s top lawyer, Vindman was, in fact, trying to “advise the president” to change his policy interactions, just as Watters had suggested before accusing the wounded-in-combat officer of “sabotage.”
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
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