Trump military whistleblower is considering challenging Ashley Moody, report says

Alexander Vindman, the whistleblower who sparked President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, is mulling running for U.S Senate against Ashley Moody, CBS News Miami is reporting.

Vindman spoke to CBS Jim DeFede from Facing South Florida where he talked about why he is considering running and why Florida could still be hopeful for Democrats.

“I think that the Democrats need to win in some very, very difficult places in order to wrestle control back,” he said, according to the CBS News Miami interview. “I’m not sure if Florida is the place to do that. It might be. My worldview is that Trump is going to hurt a lot of people, and this will be a referendum [on Trump). … Folks will show up that stayed on the sidelines last time, or that got more than they bargained for with Donald Trump. So, I don’t think the state is too far gone by any means.”

Vindman, an Army lieutenant colonel, reported hearing Trump in 2019 ask Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats and Joe Biden.

“I was concerned by the call,” Vindman wrote in his prepared testimony in front of Congress, the Associated Press reported. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”

Vindman, now retired from the Army, said he gained experience helping his twin brother get elected to Congress in Virginia. Vindman said he is working with a veterans group to help get more veterans elected to office which he believes can help draw moderate voters. 

CBS News Miami reported Josh Weil who lost last month to Randy Fine in a Special Election for Congress is also considering running to challenge Moody.

DeSantis appointed Moody to the Senate to fill Marco Rubio’s position after he was tapped to be Trump’s Secretary of State.

Before that, Moody was Florida’s Attorney General and a close DeSantis ally.

Even though she was elected twice to statewide office, DeFede painted her as potentially vulnerable.

He said “she has never had a serious contender in any of her elections and politically she tended to fade into the background, often standing in the shadows during press conferences.”