Anchors on CNN and MSNBC expressed outrage at Fox News’s Laura Ingraham after she and a guest on her show alleged that a White House official who will testify in House impeachment proceedings may have committed “espionage.”
On Monday night, Ingraham pointed to a specific line in the New York Times report about the upcoming testimony of National Security Council Ukraine expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman that revealed he was born in Ukraine, “is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian,” and that “Ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with Mr. Giuliani.”
Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, plans to testify that he twice registered internal complaints about President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which prompted the impeachment proceedings.
John Yoo, who appeared on The Ingraham Angle, commented in response to the revelations, “I find that astounding. Some people might call that espionage.”
Other networks have since highlighted and criticized the accusation from Yoo, a Berkeley law professor and former Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration, in the hours since it aired.
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough commented, “Oh, my God, the idiocy,” after airing the clip. He added that it’s “breathtaking” and “astounding that an Iraqi War veteran, a hero, a man who got injured, got a Purple Heart, and continued to fight for this country and work for this country after his service in Iraq is now being accused of espionage by Jon Yoo and Fox News hosts.”
Similarly, CNN’s New Day aired the clip after anchor John Berman warned that “viewer discretion is advised” because “what you are about to see is disgusting.” His co-host Alisyn Camerota added, “There you have it. There’s the talking point.”
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin later argued that the claim was anti-immigrant.
