The freshman senator from Tennessee has been on a multi-month, multimedia crusade against Vindman, who flagged President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president to the top National Security lawyer and testified to House impeachment investigators that he considered it improper. And she’s stepping up the offensive right in the middle of the Senate impeachment trial.

This week she tweeted Vindman was “vindictive,” questioned his patriotism and attempted to tie him to the still-anonymous whistleblower, who sparked the impeachment effort by reporting Trump’s July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the intelligence community’s inspector general. Vindman testified that he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is…

In an interview, Blackburn defended her remarks about the National Security Council official and said she is only reiterating concerns she’s hearing from other military officials about Vindman for going “outside of his chain of command.” Vindman, a decorated Army veteran and Ukraine specialist, also testified that a top White House lawyer told him to remain silent about his concerns over Trump’s call. And she seemed to take the criticism in stride.