President Trump attacked former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on Twitter as she was testifying in front of the House Intelligence Committee Friday morning.
Yovanovitch, a career foreign service officer, was removed from her post last spring and has pointed the finger at Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for starting a smear campaign against her. Trump also referenced her in the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked for the foreign leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and Burisma, a Ukrainian company the younger Biden worked for.
“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,” the president tweet shortly after the start of her testimony.
He added, “They call it ‘serving at the pleasure of the President.’ The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR more for Ukraine than O.”
Yovanovitch served posts in Somalia and Moscow before President Barack Obama nominated her to serve as ambassador to Ukraine in 2016.
[New: Schiff accuses Trump of ‘witness intimidation’]
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
….They call it “serving at the pleasure of the President.” The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR more for Ukraine than O.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2019
