Ret. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Tells His Story

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: So, you describe in this book that your life is broken into really two chapters now, pre-impeachment and post-impeachment. How is post-impeachment life for you and your family?

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN (RET.), FORMER DIRECTOR FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: It’s a sharp learning curve, all sorts of new experiences from the minute I left uniform, even before I left uniform, just trying to figure out how to navigate this affair in which a serving Army officer was forced into a position of going up against the commander in chief of the United States. That’s an unprecedented challenge. Unfortunately, I was on my own for dealing with that, meaning that I didn’t have the Army or the Department of Defense behind me. But I had my family, a core support of friends and a lot of support from around the country. Sharp learning curve through there, sharp learning curve trying to figure out what I do with my life, leaving service, and then ever since, same thing, just new experiences.

GOLODRYGA: I want to get to that lack of support, especially from the higher-ups in the chain of command, in just a moment. But let’s begin with that infamous phone call, because you reveal in the book that the transcript that was released was not fully accurate, the transcript that was initially released that led ultimately to the impeachment investigation. Why was it not fully accurate? What was missing?

VINDMAN: So, there was no — ever since Watergate, I guess phone calls don’t get recorded and, therefore, there’s not a completely accurate transcript of the phone call. Same thing in this case. There was a transcript of sorts, an imperfect transcript that’s created after each one of these phone calls. And, afterwards, they get sent around to the meeting participants, and they get to fill in if there was a kind of an oversight. That happened in this case. There were some items left off. I tried to make the corrections to it, including some key substantive changes, the reference to Burisma. And those didn’t end up making it into the final version.