Trump impeachment witness mocks ex-president’s ‘word vomit’ over Putin and says he’s ‘spiraled down mentally’

A witness from Donald Trump’s impeachment over Ukraine mocked the one-term president’s “word vomit” over Vladimir Putin.

Lt. Col Alexander Vindman told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace that Mr Trump, who bragged about his friendship with the Russian leader to Sean Hannity on Fox News, has “spiraled down mentally.”

“Honestly, it was word vomit, is what we heard, what that clip showed,” said Mr Vindman.

“It’s shocking that he didn’t have the intellect, the intelligence to have the self-preservation to criticize somebody that the vast majority of the American public despises and identifies as a barbarian, as a war criminal.

“So, I mean, he’s always been his own worst enemy and he continues to do so now.”

The retired Army officer served on the National Security Council and was a star witness against Mr Trump during his first impeachment in 2019.

And the Ukrainian-born former director of European Affairs at the NSC, said he questioned the state of Mr Trump’s mental fitness.

“I think he’s incapable of leading, he was incapable of leading while in government, and I think he’s devolved. I guess my question is, ‘Does he have the faculties?’

“As bad as he was in the first Trump administration, he seems to have spiraled down.

“I don’t know if that’s, you know — if age or whatever it is, that it’s getting to him now, that he’s really incapable of piecing together coherent thoughts.”