Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is sharing his thoughts about President Donald Trump.
Vindman, a key impeachment witness and formerly the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, was asked during an NBC News interview with Lester Holt that aired Monday if he is a “never-Trumper.”
In response, Vindman said he served the administration “with the hopes of being able to advance U.S. national security interests,” but things have changed.
“I can say now that I am a Never-Trumper,” he said.
He continued to say that he “was not a never-Trumper before, I was nonpartisan.”
Vindman also claimed that Trump is “catering to our adversaries”:
“Regardless of what administration, I would just try to do the best I could to advance national security interests, but I think as the president’s attacked and politicized me directly, in taking a very sober view of where this president has taken this country, the divisions, the catering to our adversaries, the undermining of our national security interests, that I am absolutely a Never-Trumper.”
Vindman served as the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert until February.
When Vindman announced his retirement from the military in July, his lawyer said he “was bullied by the President and his proxies” and was faced with a “campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation” for testifying during the House of Representative’s impeachment probe of Trump.
See Vindman’s comments below:
WATCH: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman addresses President Trump's suggestion that he is a "never Trumper."
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) September 14, 2020
Vindman tells @LesterHoltNBC that he was nonpartisan, but says now he is "absolutely a 'never Trumper.'"
More from the exclusive interview tonight on @NBCNightlyNews. pic.twitter.com/aT5pf35qhS
Vindman also spoke about the president during an interview with The Atlantic recently, where he questioned if he thinks Trump is an “asset of Russian intelligence.”
“President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,” Vindman answered.
He also said of Trump, “He has aspirations to be the kind of leader that Putin is, and so he admires him. He likes authoritarian strongmen who act with impunity, without checks and balances. So he’ll try to please Putin.”
