Fiona Hill Goes To The Mat For Vindman: ‘This Is A Country Of Immigrants’
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, arrives at the U.S. Capitol on October 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. Image by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
By Aiden Pink November 21, 2019
Former National Security Council staffer Fiona Hill defended Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman during her appearance before the House of Representatives’ impeachment hearing when she was asked about whether she had expressed concerns to him about Vindman’s “judgment.”
That statement had been seized upon by some defenders of the president, but Hill used the opportunity to clarify what she meant by it: Vindman, as an experienced armed forces official, didn’t have the “political antenna” to navigate a Ukraine policy process that had been politicized by the Trump administration’s desire to seek dirt on former vice president Joe Biden.
She also said the smears against the Ukraine-born Army official were anti-American, and accusations of dual loyalty were “very unfortunate.”
“This is a country of immigrants,” she said.
Hill herself was born in the United Kingdom and became an American citizen in 2002. She served as the top Eastern Europe point person on the NSC before resigning last year.
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 go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
