On CNN Monday, Ret. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who gained national attention as a star witness against outgoing President Donald Trump in the impeachment trial, warned that the new administration will need to do a great deal to repair the hollowing out and "corruption" of federal agencies.
"There will be an enormous amount of rebuilding that President Biden and his cabinet will have to undertake in order to just simply undo the damage, let alone move this country forward and advance U.S. interests," said Vindman, who retired after allegedly facing retaliation that denied him a military promotion.
"I'm deeply alarmed," he continued. "I think we should not forget about the fact that there are thousands, tens of thousands of public servants serving in all of our departments and agencies day to day, seeking to protect our interests. But what has happened under the Trump administration is he's effectively scraped off that top layer of leadership, that layer of leadership that is supposed to provide the direction for the institution aligned with laws and advancing U.S. interests, and that is the layer that has been corrupted and corrupting those institutions. We saw even late transitions within the Department of Defense that eroded the confidence in the effectiveness of that leadership of that department. That's occurred in many other departments and agencies over the past four years."
"I think that the Biden administration has some excellent people that they'll be able to place in to start rebuilding," added Vindman. "But that is exactly what they'll have to do. They'll have to rebuild before they start tackling, even before they start tackling some of the most difficult challenges facing our nation."
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