November 5, 2019 --

The lead story in The New York Times, October 29 reported that "Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council" planned "to tell House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that he heard President Trump appeal to Ukraine's president to investigate one of his leading political rivals, a request the aide considered so damaging that he reported it to a superior."   

But the American people already have a transcript of the July 25 phone conversation between President Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.  Does testimony from a member of the National Security Council replete with his personal conclusions about the correctness of a presidential conversation supersede the direct account of that conversation? 

The Tiimes quoted Lt. Col. Vindman as expressing his concern that a Ukrainian probe of the Bidens and Burisma "'would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.'"   Vindman is then quoted as saying: "'This would all undermine U.S. national security".  LPR considers the Vindman statement as an assertion that congressional Democrats have a veto on Ukraine policy, based on the Democrat self-interest.