{"id":6727,"date":"2020-02-08T13:04:14","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T17:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=6727"},"modified":"2020-02-08T14:25:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T18:25:47","slug":"trumps-friday-night-massacre-vindmans-and-sondland-frogmarched-out-of-the-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=6727","title":{"rendered":"TRUMP&#8217;S FRIDAY NIGHT MASSACRE: Vindman Brothers and Sondland Frogmarched Out of White House"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>\u2018Friday night massacre\u2019: Sondland follows Vindmans as Trump cleans house of \u2018traitors\/heroes\u2019 following failed impeachment<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6728\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6728\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6728\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/5e3e01b82030272c675f8d78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/5e3e01b82030272c675f8d78.jpg 768w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/5e3e01b82030272c675f8d78-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6728\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE PHOTO \u00a9 Reuters \/ Yuri Gripas<\/p><\/div>\n<p>RT.com<\/p>\n<p>The recall of US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland seems to indicate that President Donald Trump is dismissing from service the officials who testified against him in the abortive impeachment proceedings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<p><em>\u201cI was advised that the president intends to recall me effective immediately,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Sondland said in a statement on Friday evening, adding he was grateful to Trump for the opportunity to head the US mission in Brussels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wow \u2014 EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland recalled. His attorney sends me this statement on his behalf <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UrCfHaENjE\">pic.twitter.com\/UrCfHaENjE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KFaulders\/status\/1225929694140338181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 7, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The announcement came just hours after Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his twin brother Yevgeny were escorted from the White House, having apparently been removed from their posts on the National Security Council.<\/p>\n<p>Sondland and Colonel Vindman\u00a0were witnesses in the House-led impeachment proceedings against Trump last fall. After testifying that Trump\u2019s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had not been inappropriate and that no\u00a0<em>\u201cquid pro quo\u201d<\/em>\u00a0had taken place, Sondland famously changed his written testimony to better match the narrative pushed by House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff\u00a0 (D-CA) \u2013 only to qualify it during the public hearing by saying he had\u00a0<em>\u201cpresumed\u201d<\/em>\u00a0things\u00a0<em>\u201cin the absence of any credible explanation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Col. Vindman, who was one of the individuals listening on the call with Zelensky, complained to Congress that Trump had deviated from the talking points he had drafted for him. He also admitted he reported the call as problematic to an individual he refused to name \u2013 presumed to be the\u00a0<em>\u201cwhistleblower\u201d<\/em>\u00a0whose complaint kicked off the whole affair.<\/p>\n<p>Trump critics declared the departure of both witnesses from their government duties to be the beginning of a\u00a0<em>\u201cFriday night massacre\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 a reference to the 1973\u00a0<em>\u201cSaturday night massacre\u201d<\/em>\u00a0in which President Richard Nixon fired his attorney general and his deputy amid the Watergate scandal.<\/p>\n<p>One major difference, obviously, is that Trump has been acquitted by the Senate of both impeachment charges the House Democrats had leveled against him, and considers himself fully exonerated. While it is possible that the Vindmans may file a grievance over their dismissal, it is unclear whether such a claim would go anywhere. Ambassadors and most White House staff\u00a0<em>\u201cserve at the pleasure of the president.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/480378-trump-vindman-sondland-impeachment\/\">https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/480378-trump-vindman-sondland-impeachment\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Friday night massacre\u2019: Sondland follows Vindmans as Trump cleans house of \u2018traitors\/heroes\u2019 following failed impeachment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}