'Sit Down and Shut Up': Alexander Vindman Fires Back at Ohio Republican Over Afghan Refugees

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Retired Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman traded jabs with Ohio Republican Josh Mandel on Saturday over President Joe Biden's plans to resettle tens of thousands of Afghanistan refugees in the U.S. following the troop withdrawal.

Republicans have remained unified in its criticisms of the Biden administration's chaotic Afghanistan evacuation effort, but the resettlement of refugees at home has begun to divide members of the party. Some have slammed Biden for abandoning U.S. allies, while members of the GOP's anti-immigrant wing have condemned the president for allowing what they call an influx of threatening foreigners into the U.S.

Mandel, a former Ohio state Treasurer and Marine veteran running for the U.S. Senate in 2022, called Vindman a "liar and traitor" on social media after Vindman's wife, Rachel Vindman, criticized his opposition to the resettlement of Afghan refugees.

Link to tweet

The exchange came after Rachel Vindman condemned Mandel for vowing to fight the Afghan resettlements. "These planes are now being emptied into Cleveland, Toledo and other places in the heart of America. To protect our kids, our communities and our Judeo-Christian way of life, we must FIGHT this with all our might," Mandel tweeted Friday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/sit-down-and-shut-up-alexander-vindman-fires-back-at-ohio-republican-over-afghan-refugees/ar-AAO6H3l

Republican xenophobes.

[2naSalit]

1. Xtian zealots.

[EYESORE 9001]

4. Josh Mandel is Jewish

Not Xian.

[2naSalit]

5. Still a zealot.

[EYESORE 9001]

10. True that

[11 Bravo]

15. And your claim is still incorrect.

[paleotn]

18. Not a zealot? OK. How would you characterize Stephen Miller then?

He's Jewish too and sports the same "nativist" spiel. Relative newcomers getting all nativist and shit while those of us who's people have been here since we were just a few colonies hugging the east coast are far more welcoming. Go figure.

[11 Bravo]

22. Mandel ... you know ... the individual being discussed, is not a Christian.

Therefore, the statement was false.
But you knew that.

[paleotn]

23. The first part is false.

But even Jewish people can be irrational zealots.

[11 Bravo]

25. Which makes the statement false.

As for your second sentence, of course they can. Where did I claim otherwise?

[paleotn]

26. Part of the statement false.

The first part. Second part is true. Simply insert the appropriate substitute for xstian and wa la!

[11 Bravo]

27. That's not how it works, but I have neither the time nor the inclination ...

to debate it any further.

Because Donald Trump is a devoutly religious and highly decent former President.
Also, today is Sunday, September 5, 2022.

And neither of those statements is simply false, correct?

I'm out. Feel free to have the last word.

[paleotn]

30. Ugh. A mallard duck....

No, that's not a mallard duck, it's a Bufflehead. But they're both ducks. Same as with zealots of any stripe, xian or otherwise.

[soldierant]

16. The word "Zealot" comes from a group of Jewish revolutionaries.

[Red Pest]

28. Col. Vindman is correct - Josh Mandel does not represent or practice Jewish values

As we are about to enter the Days of Awe (from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur) I am reminded of the Yom Kippur confessional prayers done publicly, as a congregation, known as the Vidui and specifically as the Ashamnu.

The Ashamnu is an alphabetical list of sins/offenses the we (collectively) have committed (here is a good link: [link:https://jpeoplehood.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Peoplehood-Education-Toolkit-Resources-Mutual-Responsibility-Text-Yom-Kippur-Liturgy.pdf|). Some English versions (in the Conservative Judaism High Holiday prayer books) of the Ashamnu (also aphabetical) state for X - We have been xenophobic. For Z - We have been zealots for bad causes. I have read this every year since I was 13 yrs old.

Further, the Torah commands us (36 times) to treat the stranger (immigrants) justly, with compassion and justice. For example: Leviticus commands, “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do them wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love them as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” [19:33-34].

Josh Mandel, Stephen Miller, and anyone who says or does hateful things against people simply because they are immigrants, are certainly NOT practicing Jewish values.

[essaynnc]

2. link to the video??

this i have to see!

[stopdiggin]

3. wondered how long it was going to take

before the xenophobia, bigotry and racism came back into focus? Turns out - almost immediately. Do we really have a GOP without it?

[COL Mustard]

6. FIGHT This With All Our Might, He Says

We should be welcoming Afghan refugees, many or most of whom helped us over the past 20 years. We're working to get one family resettled and it's a lot of work. Just think of things from their perspective. In most cases they've lost friends or family to Taliban violence, maybe others to covid, they'll never see their homeland again, they've lost whatever status they had back home and are literally at the mercy of kind people here (and there are lots and lots of kind people here).

We welcome anyone who wants to come here and make a better life for themselves and their families, and oh by the way, a better United States. At least we should welcome them.

Remember also, the people who come to the US have been screened multiple times for any possible terror ties and if there are any, they don't come here. And again, many of them put their lives on the line to help our troops. We owe them.

Rant off.

[LakeArenal]

12. When "they" said fight them there to keep us safe here

They meant keep them there. Kill them if you have to.

[Iggo]

7. I've lived a long time.

[MyOwnPeace]

8. I LOVE how Lt. Col. Vindman is coming out swinging......

how can ANYBODY question his integrity and patriotism........

[AllaN01Bear]

9. the rs did this when we brought in the kurds , first rescue them, now " we dont want you".

i agree what he said.

[BobTheSubgenius]

11. If less than 100,000 refugees can upend and unravel your way of life and your entire country...

... of over 330,000,000, it wasn't much of a country. Can anyone make a case that the internecine struggle across the US political divide - that is still ramping up - is a much lesser existential threat? I don't think so.

[LakeArenal]

13. Well 5O Senators are doing their best to unravel this country.

And it isn’t much of a country now.

[BobTheSubgenius]

24. A good point.

Those 50 have more political power than at least 150,000,000 of the 300,000,000, though.

[LaMouffette]

14. The Islamophobes in our country are missing an important point. We should welcome Afghan refugees

and treat them well when they get here first and foremost because it's the right thing to do.

But also, if we treat refugees with basic human decency, they will likely grow to love America and be more patriotic than most born-and-raised Americans who, although they claim to value their freedom, really don't appreciate it, having never lived in a totalitarian society, such as the Soviet Union from which the Vindman family fled, or in a country where groups like the Taliban and al Queda exist.

But rather than think it through, it is so much easier for the racists to just keep on hating and so much more politically effective for the Repub politicians to keep fanning the fires of that hatred.

[Moebym]

17. Republicans are all about saving refugees and unborn fetuses

When they arrive on our soil, however, Republicans no longer want them here or give a damn about them.

Republicans only like the idea, not the reality.

[wryter2000]

19. Are these the same Republicans

Who moaned and gnashed their teeth that Biden was abandoning Afghan women and girls?

[paleotn]

20. Bust him in the chops, Col. Vindman

[JohnnyRingo]

21. Mandel is a snide little puke.

He runs for everything so he doesn't have to get a real job.
Loses every time.

[PlanetBev]

29. I just don't get guys like Mandel and Miller

If we could go back in time eighty years to Europe, they’d be on the same cattle car to Auschwitz with me. They don’t seem to know their history.

I’d rather have a nice Afghani family living next door to me than those brain-dead, gun-toting nimrods that overran the Capitol on January 6th.