How to handle a firestorm: Alexander Vindman offered advice to Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn
Alexander Vindman felt a shiver of recognition when he watched four police officers testify last week before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
For one thing, he saw a straight line between the impeachment trial at which he had been a key witness against President Donald Trump and the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters 11 months later. In his view, Trump’s acquittal by the Senate helped embolden him to later try to overturn the results of a legitimate election he lost.
For another, Vindman, a former National Security Council aide, knew a firestorm was about to engulf those witnesses on social media and elsewhere driven by Trump’s most fervent backers. In fact, he said, an ad hoc network has emerged among those who have found themselves in the crosshairs of Trump and his legions.
exclusive interview with USA TODAY Thursday. During a wide-ranging session at his home in suburban Washington, he also discussed:
- How his father, then a solid Trump supporter, urged him not to testify against the president.
- How even after congressional investigations, the transcript released of Trump’s controversial phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky doesn’t include two important comments that are in his handwritten notes.
- How he struggled for a time after being fired from the National Security Council by the Trump White House and then, in his view, was largely abandoned by the military in which he had served for two decades.
Defying Trump in public, as he did, can bring a torrent of abuse.
“There’s an informal kind of network of folks that look for opportunities to support each other,” he said, although he adds that conspiracy theorists and some conservative talk-show hosts might find the whole idea alarming. “I imagine that the Tucker Carlsons and the Laura Ingrahams would call this the Deep State Club or something like that, but I’ve made it a point to reach out to folks that are attacked like this.”
Vindman has counseled one of the Navy SEALs who has been under fire since testifying against disgraced former SEAL Eddie Gallagher. Trump twice intervened to help Gallagher, who posted the names and photos of his accusers, calling them “cowards.”
Vindman and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn have had several exchanges since Dunn testified about the racial slurs hurled at him by the Jan. 6 mob. On Fox afterwards, Tucker Carlson had denounced Dunn as “an angry, left-wing political activist.”
Vindman gave Dunn the same advice he has tried to follow himself.
“These are not people in your circle,” Vindman said. “Really, you should only be concerned with people that you respect and admire. All of this other stuff is just background noise that has no effect on you. You will have supporters; you’ll have detractors.
“Focus on the good; don’t let the bad get you down, and you’ll be fine.”
What they saw:Police officers describe the Jan. 6 Capitol attack like ‘a medieval battle’