Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

CNN Defends Pundit Who Questioned Vindman’s Loyalty

A top executive at CNN defended a political commentator who claimed on-air on Tuesday that impeachment investigation witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman might be loyal to Ukraine, which he left as a refugee at age three, Politico reported.

Former Republican Rep. Sean Duffy, who joined the network on October 20, said Tuesday morning that Vindman “has an affinity, I think, for the Ukraine” and, when asked, refused to say whether he thought Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, was putting America first.

Later that day, CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called Duffy’s comments “insanity” and anchor Brianna Keilar dubbed them “anti-immigrant bigotry.” But Duffy was defended by CNN vice president Rebecca Kutler.

The network “is out there reporting from all over the country and from all points of view,” she told Politico, adding, “having people who support the president’s policies is part of that.” Kutler said CNN’s airing of Toobin and Kielar’s criticisms “speaks for itself.”

Duffy was added to CNN’s roster of commentators after the departure of several other prominent pro-Trump figures in the past year. “It is hard to find people who will come on and support the president’s point of view,” CNN president Jeff Zucker said last Thursday. “We need these voices.”

Vindman, who is Jewish, said in his congressional testimony on Tuesday that he had “a deep appreciation for American values and ideals and the power of freedom. I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend our country, irrespective of party or politics.”

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.