Alexander Vindman feels vindicated. Nearly three years after the former National Security Council aide shocked Washington by telling congressional investigators about then-President Donald Trump’s pressuring of Ukraine to open an investigation into the son of his political rival Joe Biden, the world is now witnessing the importance of U.S. military aid to Kyiv – exactly what Trump threatened to withhold if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to help him.

“Trump was out there bandwagoning for Putin in a way that suggested the Republicans would not punish Putin for his aggression, so that half of the political elites in America would not go in heavy. That was Putin’s assumption,” Vindman said.