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\"I did not leave the door open at all. But it is pretty funny for a lieutenant colonel in the United States army, which really is not that senior, to be offered that illustrious a position,\" he said.

The incident, according to the testimony on Tuesday, took place when Vindman was in Ukraine for Volodymyr Zelenskiy's inauguration.

\"PHOTO:
Jacquelyn Martin/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Rep. Jim Himes questions Jennifer Williams and Alexander Vindman as they testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington,D.C. on Nov. 19, 2019.
>

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., circled back to the moment at the end of his own round of questions, condemning the counsel’s questions.

\"The three minutes that were spent asking you about the offer made to make you the minister of defense, that may have been cloaked in a Brooks Brothers suit and in parliamentary language, that was designed exclusively to give the right-wing media an opening to question your loyalties,\" Himes said.

\"I want people to understand what that was all about. It's the kind of attack -- it's the kind of thing you say when you're defending the indefensible,\" he said.

Vindman appeared beside Jennifer Williams, a national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence, at Tuesday morning’s hearing. They are the first current White House officials to publicly testify in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry.

Both individuals were privy to the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Zelenskiy.

ABC News' Benjamin Siegel and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

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