Sen. Lindsey Graham said President Trump was within his rights to fire Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council last week.
“I think his reassignment was justified. I don’t think he could be effective at the NSC,” Graham said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. “As much as I support our military people telling the truth when asked — it’s important they do — what have I learned in the last two years?”
He continued by listing off a number of recent failures by top Justice Department, FBI, and CIA officials, including the applications of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to monitor former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
“CIA agents, Department of State, Department of Justice lawyers, FBI agents have a political agenda, and they acted on it,” he said. “We found that out through the FISA investigation.”
Vindman was ousted on Friday after testifying during a House impeachment hearing last year about his knowledge of a July 2019 phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine. On the call, Trump pressured the foreign leader to investigate his political rival.
.@LindseyGrahamSC on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s ouster from the White House: “I think his reassignment was justified. I don’t think he could be effective as the NSC.” https://t.co/Bu1zxgliQV pic.twitter.com/p1wsI0Sojd
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 9, 2020
Graham, a Republican ally of Trump, has been one of the president’s defenders who claim a so-called deep state exists in the highest levels of government and seeks to undermine Trump.
“He was not allowed to be asked questions about his connections to the alleged whistleblower,” Graham said of Vindman’s testimony, later continuing. “They did not allow Republicans to go down that road … People in his chain of command have been suspicious of him regarding his political point of view.”
