Lt Col Vindman's testimony caused 'nightmare scenario' for Trump as impeachment ramps up

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday blasted attacks on Fox News against National Security Council Ukraine expert Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman.

"We long abandoned the practice asking where the bottom is for Donald Trump and supporters in Congress, but we may finally have an answer. Today as decorated combat veteran Alexander Vindman -- who works as the top Ukraine expert at the White House -- headed to Capitol Hill to testify in the impeachment investigation into Donald Trump," Wallace reported.

"He did so after being accused of being a spy by right-wing defenders of the president’s. It’s a despicable smear on a man who says he voiced his concerns about Donald Trump’s demand for dirt on political rivals from the Ukrainians out of a sense of duty," she charged.

For analysis, Wallace interviewed New York Times White House correspondent Annie Karni.

"Annie Karni, if the White House had a nightmare scenario for the president’s impeachment investigation, this had to be it," Wallace said.

"A witness who’s an Iraqi war veteran who’s not a partisan, who could never under any scenario be described as part of a deep state, heading to Capitol Hill and describing picking up the phone or walking upstairs to the White House counsel’s office -- not once, but twice -- voicing his concerns internally trying to raise the alarms about what he saw as a rogue foreign policy. What’s the White House have to say for itself today other than smearing this man?" she asked.

"I mean, not much," Karni replied.

"It’s quiet, like a lot of people have been very low key. The people — Jared Kushner who has taken a lead role, is in Riyadh at a conference. Mick Mulvaney has been keeping a low profile since his press briefing. Rudy Giuliani has been M.I.A. So the people we usually hear from driving a message are — are keeping a low profile right now, but he — this is exactly the profile of a man who is hard to argue with and the smear campaigns, to me, seemed lack — they didn’t stick," she explained.

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