Former Trump official name-checks conservatives with 'blood on their hands' for Ukraine invasion

Beginning with his testimony at Donald Trump's first impeachment trial, former national security aide Alexander Vindman hasn't held back on his assessments of how certain Republicans basically have become Russian assets working within the United States. In a new interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Vindman accused US Sen. Ron Johnson, former president Trump, Mike Pompeo and Fox's Tucker Carlson of having "blood on their hands" for Vladimir Putin's unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

Vindman says all three of them undermined U.S. national security and helped create the environment in which Putin was emboldened to assault Ukraine. "Civilians are dying, Ukrainians are providing a formidable defense, defending democracy for Americans as well as for themselves and their homes. And Ron Johnson is trying to distract and obfuscate," Vindman said.

Vindman's comments are a response to the Wisconsin senator's assertion to Fox's Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures" Feb. 27. "I don't think Vladimir Putin would have moved on Ukraine were it not for the weakness displayed ― certainly by the Biden administration, but by the West in general," Johnson said in the interview. "I'm certainly hoping that Col. Vindman, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi ― who used Ukraine as a pawn in their impeachment travesty ― are also recognizing and reflecting about how they weakened Ukraine, weakened the West, weakened America by the divisive politics that they play."

Vindman was a star witness in the first U.S. House impeachment of Trump when he testified about the 2019 call when Trump asked Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate Joe Biden while withholding U.S. military aid to the country. He currently is a senior advisor for the liberal group Vote Vets. He says Johnson is a "huge disappointment" on the Ukraine issue.

"He's responsible more so than many of his colleagues for creating a situation in which the U.S. actually might find itself in a hot war," Vindman said.