John Cornyn defends Trump’s firing of Sondland, Vindman: ‘That’s within his prerogative’

 Revised to include comment from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz after earlier updates included comment from Democratic contenders vying to take on Sen. John Cornyn in the general election.

WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump’s decision to dismiss two key impeachment witnesses from posts within his administration in the days after the president was acquitted by the GOP-run Senate.

The Republican senator said Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was ousted Friday from the National Security Council, and Gordon Sondland, who was removed Friday as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, both worked “at the pleasure of the president.”

“He lost confidence in them,” Cornyn said. “So that’s within his prerogative.”

Asked if he would’ve counseled the president against those moves, the senator demurred.

“Given the nature of the adversarial relationship, I don’t think it was possible to repair,” Cornyn said. “So I understand why he did what he did.”

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Trump has done little to dispel the notion that the recent firings came in response to the impeachment saga, particularly since Sondland and Vindman were reportedly already eyeing the exits. Both men had given some of the more damaging testimony against the president.

GOP senators, in response, have generally acceded to the president’s right to pick his personnel. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, said on Tuesday that “any president is entitled to have staffers who support the policy agenda of the president.”

But Cornyn’s take carries added significance, given that Trump’s impeachment — and subsequent vindication — has already served as a flashpoint in his tougher-than-usual reelection campaign.

The incumbent has pitched Trump’s acquittal as a just stand against a politically motivated “crusade” designed to take down a duly elected president. But several of his Democratic foes have accused Cornyn of kowtowing to an unrepentant president who recklessly abused his office.

State Sen. Royce West of Dallas said on Tuesday that “Cornyn’s blind servility to the president” is a “stain on Texas.”

“If he wasn’t tone-deaf to everything except Republican talking points, he would speak out about Vindman’s firing, not simply accept it as par for the course with this president,” he said in a written statement

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, an Austin-based labor activist, said it’s “shameful that Cornyn won’t speak up in defense of public servants like Lt. Col. Vindman.” She said that “Cornyn has proved that he will stand behind Trump no matter what.”

Former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards said she was “disappointed” by Cornyn’s take. But she said she wasn’t “at all surprised at Sen. Cornyn’s response, seeing as though he’s been almost 100% aligned and in lockstep with President Trump.”

MJ Hegar, an Air Force veteran, said Cornyn “could learn a lot from someone like Lt. Col. Vindman, who understands integrity and servant leadership.” But, she said, “of course Sen. Cornyn, who flagrantly violated his own oath, sees no problem with putting politics over country.”

Cornyn has dismissed those sort of attacks, saying that he’d “love to engage” with his Democratic rivals over impeachment.

“I think the Texas voters would be with me and not with this idea to remove a president from the ballot just months before the next presidential election,” he said last week.

While the impeachment trial officially ended last week, the president’s Ukraine dealings continue to produce ripple effects like the firings of Sondland and Vindman.

The ambassador was one of the “three amigos,” the nickname he gave to himself, former Energy Secretary Rick Perry and another diplomat as the triumvirate overseeing U.S.-Ukraine relations. He said under oath that Trump pursued a quid pro quo and that “everyone was in the loop.”

Vindman, meanwhile, testified that it was “improper” for Trump to pressure a foreign government to investigate an American political rival.

Trump has been particularly public in his disdain for Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient and Iraq war veteran who will continue to serve in the military. He also removed Vindman’s twin brother, Yevgeny, also an Army lieutenant colonel, from a National Security Council posting.

The president took to Twitter on Saturday to mock those who might say he “should think only how wonderful” Alexander Vindman was.

“Actually, I don’t know him, never spoke to him, or met him (I don’t believe!) but, he was very insubordinate, reported contents of my ‘perfect’ calls incorrectly, & was given a horrendous report by his superior,” Trump wrote. “In other words, ‘OUT’.”

Vindman’s attorney, David Pressman, said Trump made “obviously false statements” about the national security expert.

“They conflict with the clear personnel record and the entirety of the impeachment record of which the president is well aware,” he said, accusing Trump of continuing a “campaign of intimidation,” according to the New York Times.

The ongoing drama has put Congress on the spot yet again.

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Cornyn, in an earlier interview with Politico, expressed his hope that the spate of firings was a “last-week phenomenon” that’s “not going to carry on in the future.” But he also said, in reference to Trump, that he was “not going to tell him how to do his job.”

Cruz, meanwhile, said that “career staffers don’t have an entitlement to actively work to frustrate the policy objectives of the administration which they serve.”

“Col. Vindman was not shy about expressing his impassioned disagreement with the president’s policy objectives,” he said. “It was well within the president’s authority to have him reassigned to the Department of the Army instead of remaining part of the White House staff.”

A group of Republican senators did reportedly try to discourage Trump from firing Sondland, an Oregon hotelier who served as Trump’s hand-picked envoy to the European Union after he donated $1 million to the president’s lavish inauguration celebration.

But Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Martha McSally of Arizona and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin could not sway the president, according to the Times.

Sondland, for his part, released a statement on Friday that said he was “grateful” to Trump for “having given me the opportunity to serve.” He added that he was “proud of our accomplishments,” explaining that his time as ambassador was the “highlight of my career.”