Lt Colonel Alexander Vindman serves in the US Army and is detailed, as a Ukrainian expert, to the White House and the National Security Council. He gave testimony to the House Impeachment Inquiry on Tuesday. Prior to his testimony, Fox News set out, with extraordinary glee, to assassinate the character of Alexander Vindman, who is a also a veteran of the Iraq war and a recipient of the Purple Heart.
For the purpose of discrediting Vindman’s testimony, Fox fielded a Gang of Three. Laura Ingraham led the pack, flanked on her left by Alan Dershowitz and on her right by John Yoo. After a long chain of disparaging remarks, Ingraham passed the “stick” to Yoo, setting him up for the ultimate kill. Yoo was happy to oblige, and he went so far as to suggest Vindman could be guilty of espionage. You can see the clip on CNN here. www.cnn.com/…
Now, Yoo says it was all a misunderstanding. Perhaps Yoo, who is infamously the author of the Bush White House “Torture Memos,” is more concerned about legacy than AG William “Everybody Dies” Barr. Yoo is now a Professor of Law at UC Berkeley, and you can be sure many student, graduates, and faculty members associated with this prestigious school already condemn Yoo’s presence there. Whatever informs Yoo’s change of tone, Huffington Post is reporting that Yoo has already set out to clear the record.
A Fox News guest who seemed to accuse Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman of espionage ahead of his testimony in the House impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump now says he didn’t mean it that way.
Um hmm. Of course he didn’t “mean it that way.” Yoo had immediately been condemned by almost everyone outside the Fox News echo chamber. Again, Huff Post covers Yoo’s walk back and deflecting actions.
.... on Wednesday, Yoo told Chris Cuomo he was referring to the Ukrainian officials, not Vindman.
“I wasn’t questioning Lt. Col. Vindman’s patriotism,” said Yoo, a former George W. Bush administration lawyer who authored the so-called torture memos justifying mistreatment of detainees. “I have a lot of respect for people who wear the uniform.”
Sure, that’s what Yoo meant, ‘cause we all knew he was suggesting that unnamed Ukrainian officials, working in Ukraine and for Ukraine, were guilty of espionage when they contacted NSC member Vindman, in the White House, to ask him how they should deal with Rudy Giuliani’s strange and difficult demands. Now that’s some real spying! Those unknown Ukrainians should be hanged!
….I guess. But how could they have been spying if they were consulting a White House Ukraine expert, and they were not talking to a counter-agent? Which is what Ingraham and Yoo suggested Vindman might be. Until Yoo didn't. I guess the unnamed Ukrainians could have been spying for the US against Ukraine….. oh, forget it.
Sorry, Yoo, but this explanation of your remarks is not credible.
Read the story here: www.huffpost.com/…
There is no shame, just perfidy.