Five Questions with Alexander Vindman

Former National Security Council Director of European Affairs

I know it isn’t Friday, but given events over the weekend, I thought we’d get straight to it. This is the second time we’ve been fortunate enough to have Alexander Vindman as a guest for “Five Questions.” It’s especially timely with Trump’s Friday night appointment of “Razin’ Caine” as the head of the Joint Chiefs and other firings within the military.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, U.S. Army (Retired) served as the Director for European Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council during the first Trump administration.

Vindman became a household name as the whistleblower who exposed Donald Trump’s efforts to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing a criminal investigation into Joe Biden’s supposedly criminal business dealings in that country. Of course, Trump’s claims were false, but he threatened to withhold much-needed security aid from Ukraine until Zelensky did him that “favor.”

Vindman reported up his chain of command, ultimately leading to Trump’s first impeachment in December 2019. Trump retaliated two months later by firing Vindman from his role as the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council. His second book, “The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself about Russia and Betrayed Ukraine,” is newly out this week. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy, and this is one you’ll want to head out to purchase at your local bookstore or order it online here (the link is to Alex’s local bookstore). It’s as compelling as his first book, the New York Times bestselling memoir “Here, Right Matters.”

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