Official White House Twitter account attacks its own employee in the middle of impeachment testimony

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 19 November 2019

Last week, President Trump stirred up controversy when he criticized former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch over Twitter while she was testifying in the impeachment inquiry. Trump's opponents argued it could be construed as witness intimidation, but the White House apparently didn't think so.

During Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's impeachment testimony Tuesday, the White House followed Trump's playbook and tweeted a graphic highlighting a quote that questioned Vindman's credibility as a witness.

Vindman's old boss, former National Security Council official Tim Morrison (who will testify publicly Tuesday afternoon), reportedly once said he was concerned about Vindman's judgment, which was brought up during Tuesday's public hearing by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Vindman addressed Morrison's comments and said that while he couldn't be sure exactly what caused Morrison to feel that way, he believes it likely had to do with the fact that the two hadn't worked together long at that point and were still developing their working relationship.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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