Trump fails in his responsibility with petulant firing of Alexander Vindman
by Tom Rogan, February 07, 2020 04:31 PM
A president has the right to a national security team he trusts. A president also has the responsibility to put the best interests of the nation before his own.
Firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman on Friday, Trump acted as is his right but abandoned his responsibility.
To be sure, Vindman has become an inherently partisan figure. The moment the Army officer raised concerns about the propriety of a July White House meeting on Ukraine and later a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he risked entering an inherently political space. That became inevitable once the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives launched impeachment proceedings.
Still, there is little evidence that Vindman acted outside the established reporting procedures in raising his concerns, and Vindman's service record as an Army officer suggests that he is first and foremost a patriot. We pay our military officers to make very tough calls in the nation's best interest. Vindman believed, credibly, that he was doing so.
For that reason, he was due more respect from his commander in chief than that which he received on Friday.
Team Trump sees things differently, of course, but Trump's supporters should remember that the president is not a king. ...