CNN Panel: White House Smear of Lt. Col. Vindman’s Loyalty ‘Backfired Terrifically’
CNN’s New Day piled on what was presented as White House-led efforts to smear the patriotism and loyalty of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, saying that the campaign to undermine the authority and reliability of the Ukraine-born but decorated member of the U.S. military “backfired terrifically.”
Vindman is, thus far, the lone individual to testify before House Intel Committee leading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump that was actually on the phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky that lays at the heart of the allegations of quid pro quo. As Vindman prepared to testify, there appeared to be something of a coordinated smear of his loyalty because he was born in Ukraine despite his decorated service in the Iraq War where he earned a purple heart.
Dana Bash first noted how Rep. Liz Cheney strongly condemned the smear campaign.
“Having Liz Cheney, the number three Republican — whose name is Cheney — stand in front of the press corps and rip the White House, rip the supporters of the president who did that, who demeaned and questioned the patriotism of somebody who walked into the Capitol with shrapnel in his body still because when he was serving America in Iraq he was hurt by a roadside bomb?” Bash rhetorically set up, before finishing with “That sent a message louder and clearer than any other sort of backchannel communication.”
Then it was Jeffrey Toobin‘s turn to discuss the smear effort of Lt. Col. Vindman noting that “tt backfired terrifically, at least so far.” He then noted how “it would be absolute political legal malpractice not to call Vindman as a public witness when the intelligence committee holds hearings in the next few weeks.”
“Vindman and Bill Taylor both of whom are nonpolitical people who have served the country dramatically and bravely for many years, the two of them as witnesses strike me as an absolute given when we start to see these people in public,” Toobin finished.
Watch above via CNN.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
