The media under President Donald Trump have continuously embarrassed themselves by reporting major news stories that turn out to be false.
The latest example comes from Talking Points Memo, who reported that the Trump administration was firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman after he testified about his concerns over Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman testified earlier this month that he twice raised concerns about a potential quid pro quo with National Security Counsel attorneys. The first time was after Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, allegedly said in a meeting that the Ukraine needed to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in the country. Hunter Biden had received a lucrative board position on a Ukraine energy company while his father was Vice President. The elder Biden also bragged about getting Ukraine’s top prosecutor fired; that prosecutor was also looking into Hunter’s Ukraine business.
Vindman also said he raised his concerns after Trump’s call with Zelensky. Vindman claimed in his testimony before congressman that his recollection of the call was different than the official transcript that was declassified and released. It could be that the transcript was altered to make Trump’s call not so damning, but it could also be that Vindman’s own bias affected his memory of the call, as well as what has been reported in the media since the call.
On Sunday, podcast host Scott Dworkin tweeted:
BREAKING: Trump has fired Lt Col Vindman, whose damning testimony confirmed Trump tried to bribe and extort Ukraine. This firing is an abuse of power and another impeachable offense. Trump retaliated against an American patriot, on Veteran’s Day weekend. Disgusting and pathetic.
The tweet currently has nearly 35,000 retweets and 95,000 likes and is still climbing. Three hours later, Dworkin posted an article from Talking Points Memo to back up his tweet. Just minutes later, Dworkin tweeted that it was now “being reported Vindman isn’t being removed and is set to serve out his term.” That tweet has, at the time of this writing, only received 748 retweets and nearly 2,000 likes – far less than the tweet with false information.
Josh Marshall, editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, explained what happened in his own tweet thread. Marshall said National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien “clearly and I think intentionally suggested that Lt Col Vindman was being sent back to the Pentagon after his testimony.”
Marshall suggested that O’Brien’s wording made it seem as though they removing O’Brien from the NSC, yet Vindman’s lawyer said that Vindman still had a job.
Here’s what O’Brien actually said on CBS:
Well- well look, one of the things that I’ve talked about is that we’re streamlining the National Security Council. It got bloated to like two hundred and thirty six people from- up from 100 in the Bush administration under President Obama. We’re streamlining the National Security Council. There are people that are detailed from different departments and agencies. My understanding is he’s- is that Colonel Vindman is- is detailed from the Department of Defense. So everyone who’s detailed at the NSC, people are going to start going back to their own departments and we’ll bring in new folks. But we’re going to get that number down to around 100 people. That’s what it was under Condoleezza Rice. She came and met with me. I met with a number of my successors.
It could be construed that Vindman may be rotated out due to his testimony – perhaps he knew this was happening and it colored his testimony. But the media went with “fired” and “removed,” as if it was a punishment, when they had no such evidence to back it up.