Alex Vindman understands the mechanics of political retaliation better than most. In 2019, he became a household name as a witness in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. For those needing a refresher, the saga involved Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Biden family. Vindman, serving as director for European affairs on the National Security Council, listened in on a damaging phone call. His subsequent testimony, which detailed that pivotal conversation, was widely praised but came at a steep personal cost: he was removed from the NSC and retired from the Army in 2020.
Six years on, he is targeting another government role. In January, Vindman declared his intention to challenge Republican incumbent Ashley Moody for the Florida Senate seat formerly held by Marco Rubio. Although Vindman claims he relocated to Florida in 2023 so his wife could distance herself from the political fray, he is currently one of the most compelling candidates ahead of the November midterms. His story is particularly relevant to AI Maestro for three reasons: he has navigated and survived the Trump retaliation machine; he has publicly opposed the war in Iran and ICE detention policies; and as a veteran, he offers a unique perspective on artificial intelligence through the lens of national security.
Furthermore, despite running in what appears to be a Republican fortress, Vindman has a genuine chance of victory. While Senator Moody maintains a lead in most polls, Vindman frequently stays within striking distance-a remarkable achievement for a first-time candidate whose campaign launched just five months ago.
From Whistleblower to Senate Challenger
KATIE DRUMMOND: Welcome to the Big Interview, Alex.
ALEX VINDMAN: Thanks. Good to be here with you, Katie.
KATIE DRUMMOND: So glad to have you here. You are perhaps best known nationally as a whistleblower, though you were also an Army veteran with over two decades of service. You received a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq and served on the National Security Council.
ALEX VINDMAN: I’m curious if you feel your role in the first impeachment trial of President Trump overshadows your broader work and career. What would you like to be best known for?
ALEX VINDMAN: I thought you were going to say that I was best known for my appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm. A lot of people seem to recognise me from there.
ALEX VINDMAN: Certainly, the public knows me from the impeachment context. I didn’t necessarily recognise the impact myself. I was sitting, testifying before Congress. I was the focus of the story, but I wasn’t really a part of that story.
ALEX VINDMAN: I was just doing my job. But behind the scenes, many knew me for having an exceptional military career. My family came to the US in 1979. I was four years old. We were Jewish refugees who fled the Soviet Union. My dad landed in the US at the age of 47, hauling furniture to provide for us boys. It was my older brother, my twin brother, and a grandmother he didn’t get along with. He was a primary caregiver because my mother passed away.
ALEX VINDMAN: I worked my way up through that. Combat tours in Iraq, duty, representing this nation in embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Pentagon service-why I wrote the book on Russia-then the White House and the National Security Council. But the public obviously saw just a small sliver, a snapshot of an army officer who was willing to speak up and do the right thing and damn the consequences, because that is what I was trained to do.
ALEX VINDMAN: If that is all they know about me, if they know that I’m a fighter for what’s right, that I will call balls and strikes regardless of where the fault lies, then that’s OK. That’s not a bad place to be.
The Decision to Testify
KATIE DRUMMOND: I want to go back in time a little bit, because this was several years ago; at that impeachment trial you testified before Congress about a pivotal phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
KATIE DRUMMOND: This was back in 2019, and this is the call wherein Trump appears to pressure Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of scandals at the feet of President Trump. Tell me what you found so troubling about that call and why you felt compelled to come forward at that moment?
ALEX VINDMAN: I’d been serving on the National Security Council. Russia and Ukraine were already five years into a war, and what I’d witnessed was a scheme that would have undermined US national security, that looked like it was inspiring Russia to be even more aggressive.
ALEX VINDMAN: That’s the way I perceived it, and that’s the fact that materialised just a few years later with a full-scale war in 2022. I also witnessed what I thought was an effort to steal an election, and it was not something that I could sit idly by for. It was squarely in my area of responsibility.
ALEX VINDMAN: 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 had trained my soldiers to do along the way: Don’t walk by a mistake. If you see something wrong, you’ve gotta say something. You could make those corrections even if it’s up the chain of command, as long as you do it respectfully and that your intent is to make sure that you’re delivering on the mission. For me, it was US national security.
ALEX VINDMAN: I don’t look backwards, and I don’t have any regrets. I think I modelled what I thought was good behaviour for my fellow service members, for my daughter, who at the time was eight years old. That chapter ended almost 22 years of military service.
ALEX VINDMAN: I’m opening 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.
KATIE DRUMMOND: You moved to Florida, a stronghold for the president.
ALEX VINDMAN: That’s true, but it was also a good place for us.
ALEX VINDMAN: 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. We needed a better environment to raise our family, and it turned out to be an ideal setting for us. Just a few months after we got there, I convinced my dad, a New Yorker, to move down, and 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.
ALEX VINDMAN: 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, a ninth grader, she’s got three years left. I want her to stay next to dad. I’m trying to make sure that we build a Florida that’s welcoming to young women, that it is a place that’s affordable for young folks, whether they go into trades or university, so 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.
Opposition to the War in Iran
KATIE DRUMMOND: You spent more than two decades serving in the US military. You testified in this impeachment trial. Anyone who speaks out against President Trump or takes that very public posture-I mean, you’re up against harassment, death threats.
KATIE DRUMMOND: You really went through the wringer. Your wife wanted to get away from politics. You moved to Florida. Why run?
ALEX VINDMAN: 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.
KATIE DRUMMOND: I have to ask about how you’re looking at the conflict in Iran at this moment. I know you’ve spoken out against it.
ALEX VINDMAN: I think it’s a foolish distraction from taking care of the people of Florida. It is poorly executed, and what really troubles me is that my opponent, Ashley Moody, signed on to this war. She gave this administration a pass, eight times voted in support of this administration getting a free pass with no strategy, deeply misprioritised with regards to what this administration should be working on for the American people, for the people of Florida.
KATIE DRUMMOND: What does that mean, a free pass? What exactly did she vote for?
ALEX VINDMAN: She voted to block a power that Congress has to rein in an administration that’s using military force, extra-constitutionally, not in accordance with the laws. And she just gave them a free pass.
ALEX VINDMAN: To me, that’s deeply disturbing. We just had Memorial Day, and I was in Tampa attending a commemoration. We were commemorating the loss of soldiers in this war with regards to Iran, and I spoke about the soldiers and peers and friends that I lost during my combat tour.
ALEX VINDMAN: I think that we need judicious, wise, thoughtful, and independent thinkers. Not somebody that’s there just to be a rubber stamp for power, that they’re told by the administration to vote a particular way. That’s what we have currently with regards to the state of Florida.
Campaign Strategy and Work Ethic
KATIE DRUMMOND: What was it that made you say, “You know what? I’m doing it seven days a week”? As we were talking about before we turned the mics on, you take half a day off every couple weeks. And I said, “A five-day workweek or a seven-day week?” And you looked at me like I was crazy.
ALEX VINDMAN: The work week is any day of the week that ends in Y. Look, I think for me, we came to Florida and I was continuing to serve. In my view, I was continuing to serve this nation by helping get veterans elected as principled actors, working with a group that helped usher in the political careers of veterans that have sworn the same oath I have to defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies, foreign and domestic, and act as principled leaders.
