Fox News host cuts off Don Trump Jr's smearing of Lt Col Vindman by asking why his dad's so popular

Donald Trump Jr. questioned the integrity of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman on Fox News after the active-duty Army officer testified in the House impeachment inquiry.

The president's eldest son joined other Trump allies in smearing Vindman, a decorated combat veteran who told congressional investigators about a July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

"There is no there there," Trump Jr. told "Fox & Friends." "They do their usual thing, they bring in a guy beyond reproach, like (special counsel Robert) Mueller. He is dedicated guy, head of the FBI. Meanwhile, it took about 30 seconds for people to realize when they put him on the stand he never had seen the Mueller report. It was a joke."

"Now they will do it with this guy," the president's son added. "'He's a decorated' -- well, now it turns out, you know, is talking to the Ukraine or he wanted to edit the transcript."

Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked if Democrats extended the same benefit of the doubt to retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who was forced out as national security adviser for lying to investigators about his contacts with Russia.

"Did they give Tulsi Gabbard, who's a veteran," Trump Jr. said. "Did they give her? No, no, you only get to be absolved -- yeah, she's a 'Russian agent' -- you only get total absolution if you are a leftist veteran. Not a veteran, just a leftist. If you're on their side, you can do no wrong."

Kilmeade pointed out that Vindman's politics weren't clear, and Trump Jr. conceded that point, and then co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked how he and his wealthy New York City father were so in touch with "Middle America."

"He spent his life in construction," Trump Jr. said. "He was building buildings, he spent time on construction sites, not just listening to a guy in glass office behind a computer screen, he would get on the ground. He can talk to working-class Americans because he has his whole life."

The president's son then said he and his brother understood those same concerns because they'd gone to boarding school in central Pennsylvania.

"We went through our formative years in the Rust Belt," he said. "While we may be the son of a New York billionaire, we had a good understanding, we grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania -- Firestone Tires."