Fox & Friends smears Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's military record
A veteran claims Vindman was known in US Army Ranger School for being a selfish attention-seeker, and that his fellow students tried to kick him out
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From the February 9 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends Sunday
LEROY PETRY (MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT): I respect Donald Trump's actions on escorting [Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman] out of the White House, because he, as a team player, he should have brought it up through the chain of command, and then blown the whistle if it didn't get approved. And so exactly my insight is, I would've fired him too and said, I can't trust you on my team if you can't bring me things that you don't agree with. And for Nancy Pelosi also calling him a hero, I think is a word that gets thrown around way too much. I respect his service and I understand he's a Purple Heart recipient, but being a Purple Heart recipient doesn't make somebody a hero.
PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): No, Leroy, I appreciate your candor, because wearing the uniform doesn't make you immune from criticism, especially if you're on the National Security Council and you've -- it's now been identified that you're probably a part of leaking, you certainly were part of a concerted effort to hurt the president, you testified against him, and then the Democrats are outraged that the president takes his prerogative to say, you serve at my pleasure, you're moving on. He's still in the military, he's just moving out of the White House. So why the outrage from people that want to hold up Vindman and say he's such a big hero?
PETRY: I think a lot of the folks that I know, when this all started, those that knew him, when he was going through Ranger School, said that he was a chow thief in Ranger School and couldn't be trusted, and they tried peering him out. And they said well I guess it hasn't changed much. And usually, folks that tried to make a big statue of something are what we call spotlighters in the military. Trying to highlight themselves as a hero, or doing something great, and you could do something great just doing your job.
HEGSETH: Leroy, let me translate that a little bit. "Chow thief" meaning when there's limited food, you're taking some so that you can have some and your buddies don't. "Spotlight ranger" is someone who, when the spotlight's on, you do a great job; when it's not, you're not necessarily helping your buddies. And to be "peered out" means your fellow peers are voting against you to graduate from that particular school. I've also heard his political allegiance, he always wore it openly. Like, we all are allowed to have political views, but he's been a left-winger his entire career, and now the president has a prerogative to get rid of him.
PETRY: Hey -- and then he'll have to accept the title of Mr. Vindman.