Trump celebrates loss of 'treasonous creep' Alexander Vindman in Florida Senate primary, calls for his prosecution

Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council official who was a key witness in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, has lost the Democratic Primary for US Senate in Florida by just over 12 points. 

Vindman was defeated by Angie Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Despite having significantly less funding in the race, Nixon won the primary with 56.1 percent of the vote compared to Vindman’s 43.9 percent. The fundraising disparity between the two candidates was substantial. Vindman raised approximately $16.3 million during the primary, compared to Nixon’s roughly $1 million.

Trump said Vindman’s loss was “gratifying,” writing, “the most gratifying loss last night was that of a real treasonous creep, Alexander Vindman, to a Radical Left Lunatic, who can’t speak or think properly, and who will go down to certain defeat at the hands of Ashley Moody, a truly Fantastic Senator, from the Great State Florida. Vindman, if you remember, was the one who lied about my ‘Perfect Call’ with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, only to find out that the conversation was routinely recorded and proved that I was 100% in the right (Completely innocent!). It was, indeed, a Perfect Call, and the Dumocrats Fake Impeachment effort massively failed. Vindman should be prosecuted for what he did!” 

Vindman served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term and became a central figure in the impeachment proceedings surrounding Trump’s 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman testified before the House in 2019, in which he said he had listened in on a phone call between Trump and Zelensky in which Trump asked about the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor during his predecessor’s term. The prosecutor had been looking into energy giant Burisma, where Hunter Biden as on the board of directors. Vice President Joe Biden had spoken about threatening to withold US funds unless the prosecutor was fired. Vindman claimed that “improper" of Trump to ask about the handling of the firing. 

Vindman was widely expected to win the Democratic primary given his significant fundraising advantage. During the campaign, Nixon criticized Vindman for refusing to debate her.

“Floridians don’t want the establishment in Washington DC deciding who their Democratic nominee and US senator is going to be,” Nixon told the Tampa Bay Times in an interview during the campaign. “I’m someone who’s willing to debate. He’s not. I’m someone who doesn’t have to be briefed on the issues Floridians are facing because I’ve been fighting the attacks alongside them for nearly two decades.”

Following the race being called for Nixon, Vindman congratulated his opponent for running a “strong campaign” and said he would support her in the general election against Republican nominee Ashley Moody.

“Who would’ve ever thought that a Jewish refugee would make it to the US Army, to the White House, and to becoming a candidate for the US Senate. Only in America is that possible,” Vindman wrote in a post on social media.