Sen. Ted Cruz weighed in on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s claim that President Trump committed witness intimidation by tweeting at former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch while she was testifying in the House’s impeachment proceedings.
“This may be the single most ridiculous claim of the Dem show trial,” the Texas Republican tweeted Friday about Schiff’s claim. “No, the President’s tweeting is not ‘witness intimidation.’ You may not like the tone of some or even many of his tweets, but it’s absurd to suggest that tweeting is an impeachable ‘high Crime [or] Misdemeanor.'”
This may be the single most ridiculous claim of the Dem show trial. No, the President’s tweeting is not “witness intimidation.” You may not like the tone of some or even many of his tweets, but it’s absurd to suggest that tweeting is an impeachable “high Crime [or] Misdemeanor.” https://t.co/afuu4OWUb3
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 15, 2019
Schiff, a California Democrat, said he took Trump’s tweet “very, very seriously.”
“We saw today witness intimidation in real-time by the president of the United States,” the California Democrat said, adding that it was “an effort to chill her and others that come forward.”
Trump tweeted about Yovanovitch Friday during her public hearing, saying that she had failed at every job she has had as a career foreign service officer.
“Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,” the president said. “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.”
….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
Yovanovitch worked in both Somalia and Moscow before she was ambassador to Ukraine after being appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2016. She responded to the president’s tweet in real-time, pushing back on his claim to lawmakers.
