U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said this week that recent revelations about Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman make clear that leftists in the media and the political class should have originally scrutinized him as carefully as she did.
Blackburn was among Vindman’s most outspoken critics after he testified in Congress’s first impeachment hearings concerning then-President Donald Trump in 2019. The Ukrainian-born retired U.S. Army officer was then serving as director for European Affairs at the United States National Security Council (NSC). Trump transferred him out of that position back to an Army command post the following winter.
Just a few months later, the former NSC official retired from the Armed Forces, and he is now gaining renewed public attention in light of a report published last week by Human Events. The article states that Vindman has pitched sizable defense contracts to the Ukrainian government as chief executive officer of a company called Trident Support. The projects about which Vindman reportedly approached Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government include a $12 million effort whereby Trident Support “would be a middle-man between NATO weapons and Ukrainian forces,” distributing military hardware and “teaching the latter how to operate and repair the equipment….”
The proposal covered howitzers, machine guns, grenade launchers, riverine assault boats, night vision devices, and radars, among other munitions. But Blackburn said she believes Vindman is in no ethical position to participate in U.S.-Ukraine relations after interposing himself in them so blatantly in 2019.
Giving testimony as the House Democrats prepared to impeach Trump, Vindman testified that he heard Trump ask Zelensky over the telephone to elucidate how the 2016 firing of top Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin transpired. Trump was concerned that the firing occurred when Shokin was investigating the Burisma energy company, on whose board of directors then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden served. Joe Biden has recalled using the withholding of U.S. aid as leverage to eventuate Shokin’s firing.
Vindman brought the call to the attention of a White House lawyer, asserting his view that Trump was improperly asking a foreign government to investigate a political adversary, setting in motion the controversy that would lead to Trump’s first impeachment.
The Volunteer State’s senior senator drew heavy rhetorical fire from the left for tweeting in November 2019 that “Vindictive Vindman is the ‘whistleblower’s handler.’” Blackburn faulted the colonel for ignoring his chain of command out of malice for Trump. The Human Events reporting, she said, suggests Vindman’s interest in U.S.-Ukraine relations seems mercenary.
“He saw an opening for personal fame and profited by exploiting the media’s outrage against President Trump,” Blackburn said in a statement. “Vindman has spent the last three years on MSNBC and CNN attacking Republicans. Now, new revelations suggest Vindman could be profiting off the war in Ukraine, just as he did by speaking out against the Trump administration.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called his Tennessee colleague’s original denunciation of Vindman “utterly repugnant and reprehensible.” Then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted her sentiment as likely to “go down in infamy.” The Geman-owned Politico characterized her take on the colonel as a “vendetta.”
Blackburn explained that, in her view, the new revelations about Vindman’s interests in Ukraine demonstrate it’s important for conservatives to challenge media narratives whether they pertain to Trump and his enemies, the Biden administration, or the draconian countermeasures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While she has applauded Vindman’s military service, she said she does not believe that should give him cover when he faces criticism.
“When conservatives speak the truth, the mainstream media panics and desperately attempts to provide cover for the left,” Blackburn said. “They did this for Alexander Vindman, just like they did for Hunter Biden, Dr. Fauci and teachers unions. Alexander Vindman has always been a political activist and opportunist masquerading behind his career.”
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Bradley Vasoli is a writer at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Marsha Blackburn.
