“ ‘At no point in my career or life have I felt our nation’s values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment.’ ”
That’s Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, former director for European Affairs for the U.S. National Security Council, unloading on the Trump administration in an op-ed in the Washington Post.
“Our national government during the past few years has been more reminiscent of the authoritarian regime my family fled more than 40 years ago than the country I have devoted my life to serving,” wrote Vindman, who was born in Ukraine before coming to the U.S.
Vindman last year testified in the House’s impeachment hearings that he had raised concerns over Trump’s July 2019 “perfect” phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. After Trump’s acquittal in February, Vindman was fired from the NSC, along with his brother.
Upon his retirement from the Army, Vindman said he left the military after two decades of service due to a “campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation” by Team Trump “forever limited the progression” of his career in the wake of his impeachment testimony.
“Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents,” he said. “Those who choose loyalty to American values and allegiance to the Constitution over devotion to a mendacious president and his enablers are punished.”
Vindman did not elaborate on his future plans in the fiery op-ed over the weekend, explaining that was looking “forward to contributing” to the effort to “issue a mandate to reject hate and bigotry and a return to the ideals that set the United States apart from the rest of the world.”
Vindman drew plenty of support, along with a smattering of criticism:
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