Liz Cheney calls out Trump allies' 'shameful' attacks on impeachment witness and decorated veteran Lt. Col. Vindman

Liz Cheney.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

President Trump's allies want to hear a wider impeachment story.

Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, is set to testify Tuesday that he found Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's president worthy of reporting to a superior. That prompted smears against Vindman from Trump backers — something House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) quickly shut down.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the House, took issue with that. "It is shameful to question their patriotism, their love of this country," Cheney said of Vindman, Politico's Jake Sherman reported.

Cheney's split is yet another instance of top Republicans fracturing from Trump in the impeachment debate. William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testified last week that he was told aid was being withheld until Ukraine agreed to investigate the Bidens and the 2016 election. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, commented that "the picture coming out of" Taylor's testimony was "not a good one." Kathryn Krawczyk

Editor's note: This article initially misidentified Cheney's state affiliation. It has since been corrected. We regret the error.

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.