Trump exacts his revenge United States
Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened US President Donald Trump yesterday ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings.
The president took his retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate.
First came news that Trump had ousted Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the decorated soldier and national security aide who played a central role in the Democrats’ impeachment case.
Vindman’s lawyer said his client was escorted out of the White House complex after being told to leave in retaliation for ‘‘telling the truth’’.
Vindman’s twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Vindman, also was asked to leave his job as a White House lawyer yesterday, the US Army said. Both men were reassigned to the army.
Next came word that Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, also was out. ‘‘I was advised today that the president intends to recall me effective immediately,’’ Sondland said.
The White House had not been coy about whether Trump would retaliate against those he viewed as foes in the impeachment drama. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on Friday that Trump was glad it was over and ‘‘maybe people should pay for that’’.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Alexander Vindman’s ouster was ‘‘a clear and brazen act of retaliation that showcases the president’s fear of the truth. The president’s vindictiveness is precisely what led Republican senators to be accomplices to his cover-up’’.
California Democrat Congresswoman Jackie Speier called it the ‘‘Friday Night Massacre’’, likening the situation to President Richard Nixon’s so-called Saturday night massacre, when top Justice Department officials resigned after refusing to do his bidding by firing a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.
Senate Republicans, who acquitted Trump of charges that he abused his office, were silent yesterday. Many had reacted with indignation during the Senate trial when Democrat Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor, suggested that Trump would be out for revenge against the lawmakers who crossed him during the impeachment saga.
Since his acquittal, Trump has held nothing back in lashing out at his critics, including Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote against him. Yesterday he went after Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia whom Trump had hoped would vote with the Republicans for his acquittal but who ended up voting to convict him.
Trump tweeted that he was ‘‘very surprised & disappointed’’ with Manchin’s votes, claiming that no president had done more for his state. He added that Manchin was ‘‘just a puppet’’ for the Democratic leaders House and Senate.
Sondland was a crucial witness in the House impeachment inquiry, telling investigators that ‘‘Everyone was in the loop’’ on Trump’s desire to press Ukraine for politically charged investigations.
Sondland ‘‘chose to be terminated rather than resign’’, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorised to discuss the matter publicly.
Alexander Vindman’s lawyer accused Trump of taking revenge on his client.
‘‘[Vindman] did what any member of our military is in the charged with doing every day: he followed orders, he obeyed his oath, and he served his country, even when doing so was fraught with danger and personal peril,’’ David Pressman said. ‘‘And for that, the most powerful man in the world – buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit – has decided to exact revenge.’’
The White House did not respond to Pressman’s statement. ‘‘We do not comment on personnel matters,’’ said John Ullyot, spokesman for the National Security Council, the foreign policy arm of the White House where Vindman was an expert on Ukraine.
Vindman’s status had been uncertain since he testified that he didn’t think it was ‘‘proper’’ for Trump to ‘‘demand that a foreign government investigate’’ former US vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings with energy company Burisma in Ukraine.
But his ouster seemed imminent after Trump mocked him during his post-acquittal celebration and said he was not happy with him.
Trump supporters raised questions about the Ukrainian immigrant’s allegiance to the US – his parents fled the Soviet Union when he was a child – and noted that he had received offers to work for the government of Ukraine, offers Vindman said he swiftly dismissed.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper was asked what the Pentagon would do to ensure that Vindman faced no retribution. ‘‘We protect all of our service members from retribution or anything like that,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve already addressed that in policy and other means.’’
‘‘[This] showcases the president’s fear of the truth. The president’s vindictiveness is precisely what led Republican senators to be accomplices to his cover-up’’. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi