Hosts on CNN and MSNBC morning shows slammed Fox News' Laura Ingraham and former Justice Department official John Yoo, a guest on her primetime Fox News show, for their commentary suggesting Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who will testify in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, is acting in a treasonous manner.
"Oh, my God, the idiocy," MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough told Atlantic contributor James Fallows, after viewing a clip of the Ingraham commentary.
In the clip, Ingraham reads a paragraph from a report in The New York Times about Vindman's testimony, expressing shock that the newspaper reported that Vindman was sought as a contact, as he had "emigrated from Ukraine along with his family when he was a child and is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, Ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with [Rudy] Giuliani, though they typically communicated in English."
"I find that astounding and some people might call that espionage," Yoo replied.
Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz was also in the segment on Ingraham's show but did not comment directly on Vindman or his upcoming testimony about listening in on the call between Trump and Ukraine's president and reporting what he'd heard.
"It is breathtaking, it is astounding that an Iraqi war veteran, a hero, a man who got injured, got a Purple Heart and continued to fight for this country and work for this country after his service in Iraq is now being accused of espionage by John Yoo, and Fox News hosts?" Scarborough said Tuesday.
He also pointed out to "gentle viewers from Fox News" that Albert Einstein immigrated from Germany and helped the United States of America win World War II."
Meanwhile, CNN "New Day" co-host John Berman warned before running the clip from the Fox News program that "viewer discretion is advised here. What you are about to see is disgusting."
After the clip, CNN contributor David Gregory commented that whether it was diplomat Bill Taylor or others "being smeared," the transcript of the Trump-Ukraine call shows Trump offering a quid pro quo for information on Joe Biden.