National Security Advisor Ambassador Robert O’Brien commented Tuesday night on the dismissal of the two Ukrainian brothers, Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his twin brother Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman from the National Security Council. O’Brien told CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan that this country is not a banana republic where a couple of Lt Cols can get together and decide what the policy is or should be.” Both Vindman brothers are L Cols.
The Democrats and the media are trying to make this look like revenge by the president but as O’Brien said, the decision was his and his alone and he stands by that decision because the president should have people on the NSC who are not trying to work against his foreign policy decisions. Alexander Vindman testified that President Trump was trying to subvert US policy in Ukraine.
The president and the president alone decides on what US foreign policy is, not the NSC. The NSC is there to deliver facts and advice but the actual decision belongs to the current president
Partial Transcript of Interview with O’Brien:
O’Brien, “…but with the timing of what just has happened with the conclusion of impeachment, the fact that Vindman and his brother Yevgeny who was an ethics lawyer on the National Security Council were both fired on Friday and walked out, it sounds like the thing you said you wouldn’t do which is to retaliate. Can you answer that specifically, can you say unequivocally it wasn’t that?”
“No, look, ab-absolutely, and uh, so, so number one, uh, they weren’t fired. Uh, so, none of the detailees that leave the NSC are fired. Uh, folks may think it that, you know, it feels that way, and, look, it’s great to work at the White House, everybody likes working at the White House, uh, but there will come a time for all of us who work at the White House, including me, uh, that will leave the White House.
“And as far as being walked out that’s standard procedure and folks who, who’ve worked at the White House know this, your last day you lose your badge, and someone walks you out to the uh, gate and so that happens when you’re at the White House as a visitor, you have an escort who escorts you out. People aren’t kind of free range in the White House. And if you don’t have a badge to open the gate, somebody has to let the Secret Service know and they let you out. So uh, I, I just wouldn’t read anything into that.
“But look at the end of the day the President is entitled to staffers uh, that, that want to execute his policy, that he has confidence in and uh, and I think every, every president’s entitled to that. Uh, but, but there’s no, absolutely no retaliation with respect to the Vindmans as far as impeachment goes. But the president is entitled to a staff that he has confidence in and that he believes will execute his policies.
“I mean look, we’re, we’re not a country where a, a group of lieutenant colonels can get together and dictate what the policy of the United States is. The policy of the United States is uh, formulated and decided by an elected President of the United States. We’re not some banana republic where lieutenant colonels get together and decide what the policy is or should be.”
Brennan: “Is that what you’re suggesting happened?”
O’Brien, “No, I’m just, I’m just that saying we’re not that country, so the President’s entitled to a staff of people that he has confidence in.”
Brennan: “…can you directly say that they were not retaliated against?”
O’Brien: “I, I can absolutely tell you they were not retaliated against.”
Brennan: “Did the President ever tell you, to get rid of them, because he spoke publicly and named them. You don’t normally hear the names of National Security Council members.
O’Brien: “Aaa, aa, absolutely not, but the hiring and uh, the, the decisions with respect on personnel are made by the National Security Council. Uh, with our, ultimately the buck stops with me but we have a chief of staff, we have uh, a deputy and we have lawyers who are involved in every one of those decisions. And so, those, those were my decisions and I stand by ’em and um, we’re very proud of what we’ve done so far.”