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Chapter 1: What motivated Alex Vindman to run for Senate in Florida?
From Wired, this is The Big Interview, where we get to know the people behind the headlines in conversations that explore the intersection of technology, power and culture. I'm Katie Drummond, Wired's Global Editorial Director. Over the next few months ahead of the midterm elections, we've been talking to candidates in key races across the country.
And there's a pretty interesting one happening in Florida. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman, a key witness in the first impeachment trial of President Trump, is running for one of the Sunshine State's Senate seats. That seat is the one formerly held by now Secretary of State Marco Rubio and currently occupied by Republican Ashley Moody.
To unseat her, Vindman will have to first win the Democratic primary in August. And if he does, he'll go up against a Republican in a state that President Trump won by more than 13 percentage points in 2024. Vindman was considered a long shot when he launched his Senate campaign in January. But a recent poll by Change Research shows him leading Moody.
Chapter 2: How did Vindman's military background shape his political views?
He's here now to explain why he believes he's the right person for the job. Welcome to The Big Interview, Alex.
Thanks. Good to be here with you, Katie.
So glad to have you here. So you are maybe best known on a national level as a whistleblower. But you were also — and I'm going to list several things here, and I want to make sure I get them right — you are a more than 20-year Army veteran. You were honored with a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq. And you were on the National Security Council.
So I'm curious if you feel like your role in the first impeachment trial, first, I mean, embarrassing to even have to say that, of President Trump overshadows your work and your career.
Chapter 3: What concerns did Vindman have about the Trump-Zelensky phone call?
What would you like to be best known for, if you could pick?
I thought you were going to say that I was best known for my appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm. A lot of folks seem to recognize me from there. Certainly, you know, the public knows me from that context. I didn't necessarily recognize the impact. I was sitting, testifying in front of Congress. You know, I was the focus of the story, but I wasn't really—
You know, a part of that story, at least not in my sense. I was just doing my job. But behind the scenes, a lot of folks knew me for having a pretty exceptional military career.
Chapter 4: What are Vindman's views on national security and foreign policy?
I finally came to the U.S. in 1979. I was four years old. We were Jewish refugees that fled from the Soviet Union. Dad landed in the U.S. at the age of 47, hauled furniture to be able to provide for us boys. It was my older brother, my twin brother. a grandmother he didn't get along with.
He was a primary caregiver because my mother passed away and worked my way up through there, combat tours in Iraq, representing this nation in embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Pentagon service, where I wrote the book on Russia, and then White House on the National Security Council. That's what I was known for with regards to the professional channels.
Chapter 5: How does Vindman plan to address economic issues in Florida?
but the public obviously saw just a small sliver a small snapshot of an army officer that was willing to speak up and do the right thing and damn the consequences because that's what i was trying to do so if that's all they know about me if they know that i'm a fighter for for what's right that i will call balls and strikes regardless of where the fault lies then that's okay that's not a bad place to be known to be known for something
And I want to take our listeners and our viewers back in time a little bit, because this was several years ago. And not to dwell on that one moment, but that impeachment trial, that first one, you testified before Congress about a pivotal phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky. This was back in 2019.
And this is the call wherein Trump appears to pressure Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. Now, it has been several years and it has been arguably dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of scandals at the feet of President Trump. What you found so troubling about that call and why you felt compelled to come forward in that moment?
So for me, as a professional, I'd been serving on the National Security Council of Russia and Ukraine were already five years into a war. And what I had witnessed was a scheme that would have undermined U.S. national security would have driven that looked like it was inspiring Russia to to be even more aggressive.
Chapter 6: What is Vindman's stance on immigration and ICE policies?
That's the way I perceived it. And that's the fact that materialized just a few years later with a full scale war in 2022. And I also witnessed what I thought was an effort to steal an election. And it was not something that I could sit idly by. It was squarely in my area of responsibility. I had this large portfolio in a position of enormous responsibility.
And I just did what I thought was right. It's the same thing that I trained my soldiers to do along the way. Don't walk by mistake. If you see something wrong, you've got to say something.
Chapter 7: How does Vindman view the role of artificial intelligence in politics?
You can make those corrections, even if it's up to the chain of command, as long as you do it respectfully and that your intent is to to make sure that you're delivering on the mission. For me, it was U.S. national security. So I don't look backwards and have any regrets.
I think I modeled what I thought was good behavior for my fellow service members, for my daughter, who at the time was eight years old. And that chapter ended almost 22 years of military service. And I'm opening up a new chapter of service after being forced out of the military. My wife was looking for a place to move to, to get away from politics. So we moved to Florida.
Chapter 8: What strategies does Vindman suggest for restoring trust in political leaders?
You moved to Florida, a stronghold for the president.
That's true. But it was also a good place for us. My best friend from my very first assignment in the military married a local in South Florida outside of Fort Lauderdale. We'd been going there for years. We had a natural network there.
We needed a better environment to raise our family, and it turned out to be an ideal setting for us, so much so that just a few months after we got there, I convinced my dad, a New Yorker that said he would never leave to move down. He's 10 minutes away from me, and we're trying to live that wonderful Florida lifestyle, but watching things slip away because it's getting too expensive.
Corruption is driving up costs. It is becoming increasingly unaffordable for folks on fixed income to survive in Florida. My daughter, who is 15 years old, ninth grader, she's got three years left. I want her to stay next to dad.
So I'm trying to make sure that we build a Florida that's welcoming to women, young women, that is a place that is affordable for young folks that are finishing up, whether they go into trades or university, that they could settle there and afford to have a good quality of life. A place where there are jobs.
Unemployment in Florida is surging because of the decisions being made by this administration and Ashley Moody, my opponent, who was appointed to that role.
But let me ask you, you spent more than two decades serving in the U.S. military. You testified in this impeachment trial. You know, anyone who speaks out against President Trump or sort of takes that sort of very public posture. I mean, you're up against harassment, death threats. You really went through the ringer. Your wife wanted to get away from politics. You moved to Florida. Why run?
It wasn't necessarily the easiest decision. My heart's been in public service my entire professional life. Served this country in postings around the world in combat. Was wounded by a roadside bomb and earned a Purple Heart and witnessed the costs of poor decisions and what that means with regards to loss of our true treasure, our troops.
Squandering of billions of dollars in resources sounds very similar to what's going on today.
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