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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAlexander Vindman: What I Heard in the White House Basement
Link to tweet
Adrienne LaFrance
@AdrienneLaF
My head snapped up. I looked quickly around the table. Were others tracking this?
What I Heard in the White House Basement
I knew the president had clear and straightforward talking pointsId written them.
theatlantic.com
5:28 PM · Aug 1, 2021
One phone call changed my life.
On Thursday, July 25, 2019, I was seated at the table in one of the two Situation Rooms in the basement of the West Wing. The bigger room is famous from movies and TV shows, but this room is smaller, more typically businesslike: a long wooden table with 10 chairs, maybe a dozen more chairs against wood-paneled walls, and a massive TV screen. This was the room where President Barack Obama and his team watched a feed of the Osama bin Laden raid. This morning, the screen was off. We were all focused intently on the triangular conference-call speaker in the middle of the table. President Donald Trumps communications team was placing a call to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and we were there to listen.
I was a 44-year-old U.S. Army lieutenant colonel assigned to a position equivalent to that of a two-star general, three levels above my rank. Since July 2018, Id been at the National Security Council, serving as the director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia. Recently, deep concerns had been growing throughout the U.S. foreign-policy community regarding two of the countries I was responsible for. Wed long been confused by the presidents policy of accommodation and appeasement toward Russia. But now there were new, rapidly emerging worries. This time the issue was the presidents inexplicable hostility toward a U.S. partner crucial to our Russia strategy: Ukraine.
Ukraine has been a scene of tension and violence since at least the Middle Ages. In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, home to millions and representing nearly 5 percent of Ukraines territory, and attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, cleaving even more territory and millions of Ukrainians away from the capital, Kyiv.
By 2019, little had changed. Russias annexation and incorporation of the Crimea into the Russian Federation persisted, and Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. Ukraines security was precarious, but the countrys importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression in Eastern Europe had only grown. The region could not have been more sensitive, volatile, or crucial to U.S. and NATO interests. Ukrainian leaders had recently assured National Security Adviser John Bolton that they were content to play the role of a buffer against Russian aggression; geography left them little choice. But they did request aid. Actually, they insisted that if Ukrainian blood were to be spilled to defend both the countrys independence and the freedom and prosperity of Europe, the least the West could do was support their efforts.
*snip*
Hugin
(32,784 posts)He risked it all to testify BEFORE TFG was voted the hell out of his squattage in the WH.
onetexan
(12,994 posts)Probatim
(2,459 posts)While all the others would write books after the fact, he put his career on the line to tell the truth.
Every single one of them saw a chance to make a buck or hid out of fear of TFG's wrath.
I hope he's held as an example of how the military should act in the face of an actual threat to the country.
panader0
(25,816 posts)cilla4progress
(24,589 posts)Fiona Hill!
liberalla
(9,166 posts)Probatim
(2,459 posts)Upon further reading, she spent 10 hours behind closed doors giving testimony and, during public testimony, rolled Sondland under the bus.
I believe her testimony came after she was forced out by TFG.
chia
(2,235 posts)Marie Yovanovich, Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman and Sally Yates... heroes all
amywalk
(254 posts)soldierant
(6,648 posts)I don't have a photographic memory, but I do have a set of ceramic shot glasses (merch from Wonkette) which commemoirates the four of them, each on his or her own glass, as iconic saints. And I use them for organizing pens and crafting tools, so they are always at my desk.
(Sorry, I'm pretty sure they are sold out now.)
2naSalit
(86,071 posts)KS Toronado
(16,912 posts)NullTuples
(6,017 posts)ffr
(22,649 posts)Now we knew: This was what Giuliani, Sondland, and Mulvaney had been up to. This was the presidents purpose in placing a hold on the funds to Ukraine. He meant to use lifting the hold as an inducement for Zelensky to dig up dirt on Biden. His real purpose in making this call had nothing to do with repairing Ukraine policy. He was extorting Ukraine to damage a political challenger at home and boost his own political fortunes.
Disgusting. Corrupt on every level. They should all be behind bars, yet they are not. FUCK!
keithbvadu2
(36,371 posts)Putting Trump before country - Salute!
Cha
(295,929 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,371 posts)Trump says Vindman disgrace to the uniform
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ZZenith
(4,110 posts)Thats excellent!
gademocrat7
(10,623 posts)msfiddlestix
(7,266 posts)Nearly every single detail in this August 1, 2021 article, is a near verbatim of Vindman's testimony to Congress in Senate Impeachment trial, with a few minor exceptions as regards relationship with Fiona vs the new guy Morrison I think is his name.
But the shocking remarks from Trump on the conference call effecting head snapping, isn't new information.
Seeing a number of republished outdated articles, tweets, editorials recently. Curious.
The upside, in case some folks couldn't watch the impeachment hearings throughout it's entirety, will now have written accounting of why we impeached that monster. Senate should have convicted, it's beyond a national disgrace they refused.
live love laugh
(13,009 posts) I do remember looking around the conference room when the meeting broke up, knowing that others, including my boss, had heard what Id heard. In that moment, I realized something right away. Nobody else was going to say anything about it. I was the person most knowledgeable about and officially responsible for the portfolio. If I didnt report up the chain of command what I knew, no one might ever find out what the president was up to with Ukraine and the 2020 U.S. election.
SayItLoud
(1,696 posts)the Biden admin would have recognized him, his brother and all those who stepped up and spoke out.
LudwigPastorius
(8,944 posts)Not everyone who listened in on Trump's calls had his integrity or respect for the Constitution. How many Trump calls to other foreign leaders were obvious shakedowns, but were never reported?
Garland's DOJ needs to comb through every recorded second of Trump's interactions on the phone.
ancianita
(35,816 posts)BradBo
(516 posts)as President, this is what you get.
erronis
(14,955 posts)Takes one to follow one.
Beetwasher.
(2,965 posts)Identical twin brothers at NSC, offices across from each-other and this drama, it's unbelievable, what a movie. Buying his book for sure. A couple of true mensch's these Vindman brothers.
llmart
(15,502 posts)I watched it and was infuriated once again by the shit Trump was able to do and get away with and the people who covered for him.
Trump needs to pay for all of this or our country will never be the same to me.