
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan's attempt to discredit Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman at the impeachment hearing failed.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the Donald Trump loyalist Republicans specifically put on the House Intelligence Committee to protect Trump from impeachment, failed in that effort on Tuesday, when he tried to smear Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — a Ukraine expert and staffer on the National Security Council — and question his motives.

Jordan accused Vindman of not following the chain of command when Vindman reported Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president, which Vindman believed was inappropriate.

Jordan then accused Vindman of speaking to the whistleblower, whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry that hangs over Trump's White House.


"The instruction from the lawyer was you shouldn't talk to anybody, and you interpret that as don't talk to my boss but I'm going to go talk to someone that we can't even ask you who that individual is," Jordan said, accusing Vindman of talking to the whistleblower that Republicans have been trying to out the identity of.

Vindman shot down Jordan's accusation.

"That is incorrect," Vindman said. "That sequence is not the way it played out."

Jordan and other Republicans spent the day trying to smear Vindman and his service, baselessly accusing him of having dual loyalties to Ukraine, of not following protocol when he reported Trump's call to a lawyer on the National Security Council, and even attacking Vindman — a Purple Heart recipient — for wearing his military dress uniform.

Democrats on the committee, however, stood up for Vindman, commending his service and his actions to report the call.

And in a stunning moment, Vindman defended his own actions, saying he testified before the committee even though his father — a refugee from the Soviet Union — feared for Vindman's safety if he spoke up.

When Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) asked Vindman why he wasn't afraid to testify, Vindman made a comment that left the audience in the hearing room clapping.

"This is America. This is the country I've served and defended, that all of my brothers have served, and here, right matters," Vindman said to applause.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.