House GOP leader says reassignment of Vindman was appropriate

by Juliegrace Brufke - 02/11/20 11:29 AM ET

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman wasn’t fired by President Trump, but reassigned, and it was appropriate.

“Is it appropriate for the news to say he was fired when he was not, he was reassigned?” McCarthy told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday. “I think that is appropriate.”

Vindman was escorted out of the White House on Friday and removed from his temporary position on the National Security Council, just days after the Senate voted to acquit Trump on impeachment charges.

Vindman had offered damaging testimony against Trump in the House impeachment hearings, and his removal from the NSC was seen as payback. He was moved back to the Pentagon through Friday’s decision.

Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, was also removed from his position on Friday. Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was also reassigned from his position as a White House attorney to the Department of the Army.

Sondland also testified in the impeachment hearing about Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to conduct politically-motivated investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden. Yevgeny Vindman was not a witness in the impeachment proceedings.

Democrats have blasted the removal of Vindman and Sondland, while Republicans have offered support for the president.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said the decision was not motivated by an urge to retaliate against administration officials over participating in the impeachment proceedings, but an effort to get Trump’s team on the same page.

“This is not about getting even, this is about having a team around you that’s willing to support your agenda. Listen, this is the only president who can run on his accomplishments in the first three years and still run against his own administration because part of his administration is trying to defeat the Trump agenda,” Meadows said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

Tags Alexander Vindman Donald Trump Gordon Sondland Impeachment Joe Biden Kevin McCarthy Mark Meadows White House staff