Posted on 02/13/2020 7:26:01 AM PST by jerod
WASHINGTON — National security adviser Robert O’Brien said Tuesday evening there had been “absolutely” no retaliation involved in Friday’s departure of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council, even as President Trump seemed to indicate that the military would “look into” whether to take disciplinary action against the Army officer.
Vindman, who had been the NSC’s director of European affairs, testified in November during the impeachment proceedings against the president, saying he considered Trump’s efforts to have Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter “inappropriate.” With his twin brother, Yevgeny, also an Army lieutenant colonel on the NSC staff, Vindman was escorted from the White House grounds Friday.
Trump said Tuesday that it would be “up to the military” whether Vindman is disciplined for his role in the impeachment proceedings. “But if you look at what happened, they’re going to certainly — I would imagine — take a look at that,” he said.
However, later in the day, O’Brien denied that there had been any retribution involved in the ouster of the Vindman brothers. “There’s absolutely no retaliation with respect to the Vindmans as far as impeachment goes,” O’Brien told CBS journalist Margaret Brennan during a question-and-answer session at the Atlantic Council in Washington. “But the president is entitled to a staff that he has confidence in and that he believes will execute his policies.”
Nonetheless, O’Brien then seemed to suggest that the Vindman brothers were engaged in an effort to “dictate” policy to Trump. “We’re not some banana republic where lieutenant colonels get together and decide what the policy is or should be,” O’Brien added...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“...They both should be reassigned to some far-away turd-world $hit hole, ...”
I’d think they’d be GREAT as “Special Envoys” to Mogadishu...
Too bad Burt Lancaster passed away.
He could have played Vindman in the Movie.
The only time the Libs and the media go against a bureaucrat and in favor of the chief executive is when the chief executive is one of their own and the bureaucrat is a Conservative. When the bureaucrat is a Conservative all the Libs and the media do is to challenge “how dare the bureaucrat try to dictate policy to the President, or dare object to the President’s policy”.
That would work, let those bastards have to deal with the skinnies.
I think that this is what all the anti-Trump crap is. A big CYA all around. Both sides worried about their source of under the table income.
Like the man said, “Nobody gets rich in politics unless less they are crooks.”
“Mr.” Vindman can demand that the skinnies call him “Lieutenant Colonel” and see how it works out for him.
He would be hanging upside down from a bridge within a week.
I’d like to see them thrown in a pool with leg irons on....
That could be problematic, yes...
LTC Lakin was not questioning the legitimacy of an order to deploy. He was questioning the legitimacy of Obama as POTUS, who admitted to being a citizen of three different countries AT HIS BIRTH, to give ANY orders to members of the Armed forces as an Article II qualified Natural Born Citizen. The birth certificate was merely a means to an end toward that determination. The distinction is significant.
There is no doubt in many people’s opinion (including mine) that Obama was never qualified as an NBC under Article II of the US constitution. It can be argued that Lakin was misguided and inappropriate as to his use of tools to effect the method of inquiry into this Article III matter. But I salute him for his courage and perseverance in upholding the oath of office that he took as an officer, no matter how Quixotic the quest.
I hope that president Trump issues him a full pardon at some point during his administration.
Trump gets a kind of do over in less than a year.
I hope he does it..over and over.
Works for me.
Maybe the dims should nominate this Vindman to run on their Tyranny ticket.
BS. All out of bounds for commissioned officers. If he wanted to play politics, he need to resign his commission.
It is not a matter of politics. it is a matter of whether or not the orders are being issued by a legitimate authority. There was more than ample evidence that that might not be the case. Ultimately, his stand eventuated in the release of his counterfeit birth certificate, shown to be so by two separate forensic document examiners on two different continents. Yet no competent convening authority would allow the matter to be adjudicated in court.
Lakin bore the consequences of his decision, like Billy Mitchell did. I still salute him.
He violated the oath that he took when he was commissioned. That makes like a low life dirtbag, worthy of nothing but contempt. You choose your heroes poorly.
“I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.”
The above is the oath of commissioning given to US Army officers upon appointment. Note the phrase “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,”
The officers oath does NOT contain the phrase “I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me,” which is part of the oath given to enlisted personnel.
I believe that the reason for this is precisely that reason that pricked at LTC Lakin’s conscience. That is the recognition of a unique obligation to defend the constitution that is incumbent upon officers.
He certainly did not do this.
Wasn’t the label “hero” applied to him because he “served” in Afghanistan? We love and appreciate all our military but we don’t attach that label to someone just because they served, do we? No matter where!
If that’s the case my husband is a hero because he kept this country safe during the cold war by watching for the Russian Badgers and Bisons from that sought after deployment in Iceland - which makes him pretty old!! Truth be told, he told the Air Force to get him out of Los Angeles (and away from his mother) as fast as they could and they did!!
I sure don’t remember this. It couldn’t have gotten much traction. It shouldn’t have died if that’s what happened. I don’t get it.
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