House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) tore into Republicans and Fox News on Tuesday for having the nerve to smear a Purple Heart recipient in order to defend Donald Trump, a man who hasn’t spent a single moment of his life selflessly serving the country.
“I want to say also how deeply appalled I was at the pernicious attacks on [Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman] last night on Fox,” Schiff said after Vindman’s explosive, 10-hour testimony on Tuesday. “This purple heart recipient deserved better than that scandalous attack.”
Schiff after the Vindman deposition: “I want to say also how deeply appalled I was at the pernicious attacks on [Vindman] last night on Fox … This purple heart recipient deserved better than that scandalous attack.”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 30, 2019
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Vindman’s testimony only confirmed what we already knew: Trump sought to extort a foreign power in exchange for political assistance, and even those in his administration knew the conduct posed a serious national security risk.
Vindman isn’t just a decorated military veteran. He was also listening in on Trump’s call with Ukraine, making his testimony doubly difficult for the White House to dismiss.
Republicans are defending a draft-dodging criminal
The GOP is always the party that wraps itself in the military and claims that only they can defend and protect the rule of law in the United States. In fact, these two arguments were pillars of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Yet, time and again, the Republican Party jumps at the opportunity to smear a war hero in order to boost its political fortunes.
We saw George W. Bush do it to John Kerry in 2004, and in 2016 we saw Donald Trump do it to John McCain and Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father of Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in the Iraq War.
Now, as Trump’s crimes catch up with him and a purple heart recipient speaks out, Republicans and the Fox News propaganda machine are siding with the draft-dodging criminal and smearing the war hero.
The GOP’s impeachment strategy has been a dumpster fire since House Democrats announced the inquiry last month. But they have brought it to a new low over the past 24 hours.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
