Kellyanne Conway bewilderingly argues the Vindman brothers weren't fired


White House counselor Kellyanne Conway would like to make a distinction.
Conway on Monday disputed the idea that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother, Yevgeney Vindman, were fired from their posts at the National Security Council in retaliation for the former's testimony during the House impeachment inquiry. In fact, Conway said President Trump didn't fire them at all. Instead, she said they were simply being reassigned to their original jobs because National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien has wanted to trim down a "bloated staff" since he took over.
Not everyone is buying this, especially because some people believe it's quite clear Trump wanted Vindman's removal to be seen as revenge.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

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.
But Conway wants to know why Trump would have waited so long to get rid of impeachment witnesses. "Victory is the ultimate statement," she said, referring to Trump's acquittal in the Senate. "If he wanted to clean house of the testifiers he could have done that quite a while ago."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Fed leaves rates unchanged as Powell warns on tariffs
speed read The Federal Reserve says the risks of higher inflation and unemployment are increasing under Trump's tariffs
-
Denmark to grill US envoy on Greenland spying report
speed read The Trump administration ramped up spying on Greenland, says reporting by The Wall Street Journal
-
Supreme Court allows transgender troop ban
speed read The US Supreme Court will let the Trump administration begin executing its ban on transgender military service members
-
Hollywood confounded by Trump's film tariff idea
speed read President Trump proposed a '100% tariff' on movies 'produced in foreign lands'
-
Trump offers migrants $1,000 to 'self-deport'
speed read The Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants can leave the US in a more 'dignified way'
-
Trump is not sure he must follow the Constitution
speed read When asked about due process for migrants in a TV interview, President Trump said he didn't know whether he had to uphold the Fifth Amendment
-
Trump judge bars deportations under 1798 law
speed read A Trump appointee has ruled that the president's use of a wartime act for deportations is illegal
-
Trump ousts Waltz as NSA, taps him for UN role
speed read President Donald Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser and nominated him as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations