Impeachment witness says it’s ‘embarrassing’ that Trump only just found out about WWII and Napoleon

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/alexander-vindman-trump-russia-ukraine-b2619700.html

34 Comments

  1. RaymondBeaumont on

    “As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That’s what they do. They fight. And it’s not pleasant.”

    jesus christ

  2. Silent-Resort-3076 on

    >Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Trump [impeachment](https://www.the-independent.com/topic/impeachment) witness [Alexander Vindman](https://www.the-independent.com/topic/alexander-vindman) mocked the former president on Thursday for what he saw as the Republican’s limited historical knowledge, after Trump seemed to describe just learning about WWII history during a recent campaign stop.

    >At a rally in Savannah, Georgia, on Tuesday, the former president took aim at Joe Biden’s vow the U.S. will continue supporting [Ukraine](https://www.the-independent.com/topic/ukraine) until it finishes fighting off the invasion from [Russia](https://www.the-independent.com/topic/russia).

    >“Biden says, ‘We will not leave until we win,’” Trump [said](https://apnews.com/article/trump-zelenskyy-ukraine-russia-6e02fc7575a14d9abb64a326ffd0a4a3). “What happens if they win? That’s what they do, is they fight wars. ***As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon***. That’s what they do. They fight. And it’s not pleasant.”

  3. Eatthehamsters69 on

    That the man is exceptionally ignorant of essentially any subject, and has no intellectual curiosity what so ever, and the only thing he cares about is his himself.

    Not suprising at all

  4. Well he has always been unintelligent (albeit with a certain slimy, conniving cunning), and now his dementia is dragging his intellect, such as it is, down even further. It *is* embarrassing that a person running for President of the United States is so stupid and clueless, *on top* of his racism, sexism, xenophobia, and all of his other bigotry. The man can barely string two sentences together, cannot maintain a train of thought for more than a minute or two, and the level of his speech has now sunk *below* the fourth grade level at which it was originally assessed. And he’s only going to get *worse*.

    Donald Trump is a massive embarrassment to the United States, and he *cannot* be allowed to assume the office of the presidency — if he did so, he would destroy democracy in the United States, would likely destroy the country altogether, and would damage and/or destroy other countries (such as Ukraine) as well, due to his actions. And Vance is no better than he is.

    **HARRIS/WALZ 2024!!**

  5. The Russians were totally incapable of beating hitler without us, regardless of what they claim now in retrospect. Their method before we intervened was to throw millions of men at the Nazis to die as a human shield.

    We showed them how to manufacture war materials, which they were woefully bad at, and the Koch brothers’ Father showed them how to refine oil, which they were completely incapable of managing on their own.

    They turned it around after that of course, but they’ve learned absolutely nothing since. That’s the most surprising thing. Russia is so corrupt they certainly can’t win a war today.

  6. I think Hitler and Napoleon are a wonderful example for the current situation, just not in the way that Trump thinks. Both leaders attempted to invade another country, expecting a quick, efficient offensive, but found themselves bogged down in a long term conflict that they did not prepare for, and ended up depleting so many resources in the offensive that it left them open to counterattack. So yeah, applicable to the current situation, if you just reverse the situation and put Putin on the same side as Napoleon and Hitler.

  7. FFS he’s still an uneducated moron on the subject who has no idea how much Ukraine was involved both in defeating the Nazis *and* the Napoleon invasion.

  8. Historians come up to me with tears in their eyes, big strong historians, the best at history they say, and tell me “sir, Russia will always win wars it’s historical fact”. Wharton school of business taught me business, my uncle had great DNA some of the greatest and always told me the nucleus is the most powerful weapon, and now Russia has the nucleus. Putin is big on Russia, did you see how he gave Tucker a bigly lesson, I think it was great, not as great as my uncles genius but still very stable. “Historical facts” as I like to call it, Russia always wins, the demoncrats will probably disagree, bunch of racists, but I’ll tell you Russia will win, they’d never have invaded if I was president because I know history, it’s in my DNA. Nucleus power, business school, history, some say I’m the greatest of all of those. MAGA!

  9. I acknowledge that certainly in the West the USSR’s contribution to ending WWII is often relatively minimized. True.

    But to have a former US president and current US presidential candidate say “they beat Hitler”.

    and for that to be in the context of why we should stop supporting a democratic nation that was invaded by a dictator

    I’m a pretty engaged consumer of political information, I am not new to this man at all…. I am shocked and appalled by that comment. Wow. GOP candidate saying to roll over for a dictator because ‘they beat Hilter’

    There must be a joke in here somewhere about Putin trying to conquer Ukraine with literally the same equipment Stalin used to push back Germany, but I’m too annoyed to find it.

  10. ThingCalledLight on

    C’mon. Trump is a fucking idiot, *yes*. But to interpret this quote as Trump *just* finding out about WWII is nuts. No way Vindman believes that.

    Isn’t it purportedly true that Trump kept a book of Hitler quotes? Plus the story about John Kelly reminding him of the assassination attempts of Hitler’s generals when Trump wanted the U.S. generals to be more like them?

    The quote, to me, is him requoting someone describing the historic tenacity of Russian forces is all.

    There’s so much shit that shows Trump is a fucking idiot; we don’t have to make up extra shit.

  11. Vindman is running for Congress out of Virginia my home. So that’s cool. He also got his combat patch with the 25th ID, same as me. Also cool

  12. Silly_Elevator_3111 on

    He’s an old dude and went to an Ivy League school he should know this

    Just shows he’s been faking it since a very young adult

  13. fascinatedobserver on

    Sorry, I dislike 45 as much as any other rational person but this is nonsensical. He’s simply repeating a statement made in conversation by someone he recently spoke with. That person was making their point by stating that Russia beat Hitler and Napoleon so Ukraine doesn’t have a shot at winning.

    Vindman is really digging for an angle for to say that it means 45 only just learned about it.

  14. NotRoryWilliams on

    Remember “What is Aleppo”?

    This sort of thing used to be disqualifying.

    The key phrase here of course is “someone just told me.” Not “Commonly known historic fact that needs no introduction because we all learned it in seventh grade” or “I learned when I studied history in my youth” or “I’ve always said,” but “someone just told me,” as in this is a fact that I went 78 years without knowing previously.

    He’s going to try and spin it as he knew the fact but meant that someone told him this new funny way to phrase it. But even that.

    Did he not watch *The Princess Bride* once in the past forty years? He’s been on twitter for how long and does not remember about never fighting a land war in Asia? Inconceivable.

  15. When a guy gets a 1.2 gpa for a semester in college, he’s probably not picking up much about any subject matter. Btw: it’s hard to learn much when you’re only capable reading like a 4th grader. My apologies in advance to fourth graders that take offense.