White House Adviser on Vindman Firing: ‘We Are Not a Banana Republic’

White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has denied that the firing of Lt.Col Alexander Vindman and his brother was retaliation, saying that the US is not a country where that kind of thing happens. Vindman was a key witness in the House impeachment hearings.

O’Brien said that the Vindman brothers were ‘not retaliated against’ during remarks to the Atlantic Council on Tuesday. The National Security Adviser said that ‘their services were no longer needed.’

“The President is entitled to staffers that want to execute his policy, that he has confidence in,” O’Brien said.

“We’re not a country where a bunch of lieutenant colonels can get together and decide what the policy is of the United States. We are not a banana republic.”

O’Brien was asked if Vindman’s case was an example of the ‘banana republic’ situation he’d described.

“No, I’m just saying we’re not that country — the President is entitled to a staff he has confidence in.”

Vindman’s removal from the National Security Council is widely seen as an act of retaliation by an empowered by his acquittal in the Senate.