Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman suggested Friday that President Trump has “every intention” to undo American democracy if reelected, as concerns rise over whether the former president would launch a revenge campaign in a second term.
“We might have only one more vote left that really matters,” Vindman said in an interview on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” with anchor Ali Velshi. “If Trump comes to office, he’s already declared that he intends to be a dictator. The President and the chief executive is invested with broad powers.”
“And it’s not easy to undo American democracy that’s been around for nearly 250 years, but a lot of damage has been done,” he added. “And, President Trump has every intention to do that.”
Vindman, who was a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, suggested Trump would try to run the White House the same way Russian President Vladimir Putin runs the Kremlin. He urged voters to make sure they vote in order to avoid the “challenges and oppression that the Russians are facing.”
His comments come after he criticized Trump for his rhetoric around NATO in the wake of the recent death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death.
“Donald Trump invited Vladimir Putin to attack NATO,” Vindman told MSNBC’s Michael Steele a little over a week ago. “I would say that that probably was a contributing factor in the calculus around the assassination of Navalny.”
At a rally in South Carolina last month, the former president spoke about his time in office and how he worked with NATO. He called the organization “busted” before he entered the presidency and seemingly made reference to a lack of contributions to the defense fund made by NATO allies.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up, said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Trump said at the rally. “I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent.’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you.”
“In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want,” he added.
In his interview on “The Last Word,” Vindman also warned against what Trump and Republicans would do if there was an attack on NATO.
“This is not a ‘what if’ scenario, ‘What happens if Donald Trump is back in office in 2025?’” Vindman said. “The threat is real, because what Donald Trump has done, is he’s offered a signal that the Republican party, not just Trump in the future, but the Republican party today would not show up, in the event of an attack on NATO.”