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Hey everybody, we've got a great one today, you know, for a change and this time, this time, I mean it.

Alexander Vindman is my guest, Alex famously served in the Trump White House National Security Council, where he was head of Eastern European Affairs, and of course, included Ukraine, where he was born and spent his first four years and today.

We're going to learn a lot about the war there, where it stands, where it's going and some history.

I think you'll remember Alexander Vindman as whistleblower on the Trump call to Zelensky. We'll talk about that of course, as the head of Eastern European Affairs, and this was responsible for setting up a call between the President of the United States and the newly elected President of Ukraine.

It was supposed to be a routine congratulatory call, but instead was a shakedown.

On the call, Trump threatened to withhold $396 million in military aid to Ukraine as it was in an active war with Russia over a territory in Eastern Ukraine.

Trump would withhold this aid if Zelensky's government didn't announce investigations into Hunter and Joe Biden.

Now, you'll remember that Trump characterized this call as a quote, perfect call. It was a perfect call while it wasn't of course.

They do not record these calls, not since Nixon did they record these kind of calls, but Vindman was listening in, and this is clearly what it was, a threat.

This put me in mind of an exchange in the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden, where Biden chided Trump for being saintly stupid remarks he made at a COVID press conference.

Let's play some of that.

And by the way, maybe you could inject some bleach in your arm, and that would take care of it.

That was sarcastic.

That was, you know, that I was said sarcastic.

And so here's a deal.

He was being sarcastic. Well, let's listen to that.

Right, and then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning.

Oh, yeah, he was clearly being sarcastic there. I mean, you could just hear the heavy sarcasm making fun of idiots who think that injecting bleach should be a good idea.

That was perfectly sarcastic.

Vindman of course, testified to the house and was later walked out of the White House with his twin brother.

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