Blackburn Stands by ‘Vindictive Vindman’ Tweet — ‘Someone Who Defied His Chain of Command’

Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) responded to critics questioning the “vindictive” label she assigned to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

The Tennessee Republican referred to him as the so-called whistleblower’s “handler” and told host Shannon Bream she stood by the tweet, given the actions of Vindman.

“I do stand by the tweet. Shannon, what we have is someone who defied his chain of command, and his direct supervisor said he had a problem with judgment. He had a problem with the chain of command. And he had a problem — Vindman had a problem with the president. The president wasn’t taking his advice. He didn’t like that. And he wanted the president to take his advice. And so what did he do? He defied that chain of command. He talked to somebody in the Intel community. He then would not answer that question when he was asked if he had given this information to someone who was the whistleblower. And, of course, this is something that should cause everybody concern. Look, you honor someone for their service to the country, and certainly, we honor the service that he gave to the country.”

“But, Shannon, I got to tell you, when you are defying your chain of command, when your direct supervisor says you have a problem with judgment and a problem with defying that chain of command, and you are going after not just a colleague, you are going after the commander-in-chief. And it is over a policy disagreement. And then look at where we find ourselves. Here with this whistleblower report. And with this impeachment, and this has gone on, and everybody has said there is nothing that rises to the level of impeachment or bribery or extortion. The American people are tired of this. And they want to get the facts. They want to get this over with. They want to hear the Horowitz report.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor