Vindman Tells David Martin: “I Was the Driving Force Behind This Whole Thing … I’m Getting Some Chills Talking About It Right Now.” 

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a decorated U.S. Army veteran who became the star witness in the impeachment case against former President Donald Trump, speaks out about his time in the White House, the impeachment, his new book and more in an interview with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin for CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcast Sunday, August 1 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. 

Vindman had a long career in the Army before being posted to the White House to work at his dream job on the National Security Council staff. While serving in that capacity Vindman took notes on the call between Mr. Trump and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, that would become the heart of the first impeachment case.  

“I was the driving force behind this whole thing,” Vindman tells Martin. “I’m getting some chills talking about it right now.” 

During that call, Mr. Trump asked Zelensky “to do us a favor” and open an investigation into then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden. 

“He was distant, he was morose, he was reluctantly conducting the phone call and only … when they came around to this discussion of the Bidens did he, did he kind of engage and perk up,” Vindman says of Mr. Trump on the call. 

Vindman tells Martin he went right to the office of his twin brother, Eugene Vindman, an Army lawyer who was the National Security Council’s ethics officer.  

“I go in, close the door … and tell him, ‘Eugene, if what I’m about to tell you becomes public, the President will be impeached,” Vindman says. 

“We may not have known all the consequences in that first five-minute conversation,” adds Eugene Vindman. “But our, our mind was very quickly made up about what actions we would take and what our duty was.” 

In a wide-ranging interview, Vindman, his brother Eugene, and their father, Semyon Vindman, talk with Martin about their family’s flight from Ukraine – then part of the Soviet Union – for a better life in the United States, their military careers and the price the brothers paid for testifying about Trump before Congress, as told in Alexander’s new memoir, Here, Right Matters: An American Story. 

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

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