Ex-US diplomat a reluctant ‘hero’ in Trump impeachment inquiry
Marie Yovanovitch has been insulted by President Trump before, but perhaps even she wasn’t expecting more attacks to feature in real time during her public testimony on Capitol Hill.
As she was testifying, Donald Trump tweeted that everywhere the career ambassador went “turned bad”.
The leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, decided to share it with her and ask her was she thought.
We already knew how devastating she found being called “bad news” in that now infamous July phone call between President Trump and President Volodomyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine – and how threatened she felt by his ominous warning that she would “go through some things”.
So what was her response to this latest attack? Appearing visibly upset she said she did not possess “such powers” to turn things bad and that she believed she had in fact done good in the countries where she’d served.
That is the consensus view within the diplomatic community and beyond. Ms Yovanovitch is a widely respected career diplomat who says she “devoted” the majority of her life to service the country she loves.
She’s been hailed a hero for testifying in the impeachment inquiry.
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The Democrats have called Trump’s tweet “witness intimidation in real time”, which could in itself form an article of impeachment – even some conservative commentators have expressed similar sentiments.
The White House says the president can tweet what he wants when he wants.
They continue to call the whole process a sham. The Republicans have questioned the relevance of her testimony given that she was no longer in her role when the July phone call took place.
The Democrats argue that she was relevant enough for Mr Trump to mention her in that same call.
Ms Yovanovitch clearly never wanted to be in the position she’s in. Her reputation has been dragged through the dirt, culminating in the abrupt end of her tenure as US ambassador to Ukraine.
She came across as someone who is still bewildered by the attempts to damage her when, as both sides have pointed out, a president can simply remove an ambassador if they choose to do so.
