Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade proved that Laura Ingraham and John Yoo were no one-offs in suggesting that decorated war hero Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is some kind of Ukrainian agent.
Last night, Ingraham and Yoo responded to the news that Vindman would be providing devastating-to-Trump testimony to the impeachment inquiry today by smearing him as a traitor. Ingraham sneered that Vindman had been “working inside the White House, apparently against the president's interest,” because he spoke up with his concerns about Trump’s attempt to extort Ukraine into digging up dirt on the Bidens while blocking Congressionally-appropriated aid. Yoo followed up by saying, “some people might call that espionage.”
The other guest, Alan Dershowitz, smiled and snickered.
This morning, Kilmeade made it clear that the smear is an official Fox News talking point.
KILMEADE: So, he’s got a Purple Heart and he is from the Soviet Union he emigrated here, and has an affinity toward the Ukrainian people.
In a later segment, Kilmeade reiterated the smear:
KILMEADE: We also know he was born in the Soviet Union, emigrated with his family. Young. He tends to feel simpatico with the Ukraine.
Coincidentally, this same talking point is being echoed throughout right-wing media.
Watch it below, from the October 29, 2019 Fox & Friends.
The morning after Laura Ingraham suggested Alexander Vindman is a hostile double agent, Brian Kilmeade simply notes that Vindman "is from the Soviet Union, he emigrated here, and has an affinity to the Ukrainian people." pic.twitter.com/0TOKeWQP6j
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) October 29, 2019
Brian Kilmeade on Army Lt. Col. Vindman: "We also know he was born in the Soviet Union, emigrated with his family. Young. He tends to feel simpatico with the Ukraine." pic.twitter.com/mfjg9NUXSd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 29, 2019
I don’t know whether that qualifies as a tactic or a strategy in RWNJ world, but it’s right up there with “Don’t believe the evidence of your own lying eyes!”
