Trump trashes former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch during impeachment hearing

President Donald Trump trashed his former ambassador to Ukraine on Twitter Friday as she testified on Capitol Hill as part of an impeachment inquiry into the president’s behavior.

“Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,” Trump tweeted about the ambassador, who was removed from her post in Ukraine earlier this year.

A career foreign service officer, Yovanovitch previously served as ambassador to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, and she has worked in U.S. diplomatic missions across the world, including Mogadishu, Somalia.

“She started off in Somalia, how did that go?” Trump said. “Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him.”

Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2019

The president tweeted as the ambassador testified before the House Intelligence Committee, and soon after, the committee’s chair, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., read the tweets aloud.

A visibly shaken Yovanovitch said Trump’s tweets were “very intimidating.”

Speaking to reporters during a break in the hearing, Schiff said Trump is “once again going after this dedicated and respected career public servant in an effort to not only chill her but to show others who may come forward.”

“We take this kind of witness intimidation and obstruction inquiry very serious,” Schiff added.

In his tweet, Trump also defended Yovanovitch’s dismissal by noting he had the “absolute right to appoint ambassadors.”

“They call it ‘serving at the pleasure of the President,’” he wrote.

Earlier, the White House said Trump would watch the opening statement by the top Republican on the committee, Devin Nunes, but suggested he would tune out during the rest of the hearing, which would have included Yovanovitch’s actual testimony.

“The President will be watching Congressman Nunes’ opening statement, but the rest of the day he will be working hard for the American people,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said Friday morning.

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