We have another snooze-fest of an impeachment hearing today. This is what happens when one side has nothing concerning their lust to impeach a president because he won the 2016 election. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was dismissed by Trump and was the reported victim of a smear campaign by associates of Rudy Giuliani. Yeah, ambassadors being fired for no reason isn’t unusual. They serve at the pleasure of the president. They can be fired at any time. The vast majority of this hearing is just a nothingburger. It’s a therapy session, asking Marie how she feels about this, that, and the other regarding her time serving under the Trump administration.
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
President Trump took to Twitter earlier today, where he criticized Marie, sparking Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, to interrupt Yovanovitch to ask her how she felt about these tweets. Specifically, he wanted to know if she felt intimidated so he could logroll that into this shame impeachment quest. How could it be intimidation if Marie didn’t even know about the tweets? Also, even if she knew, this isn’t intimidation, are we all on crack? Former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer called this allegation laughable, as did Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce. If anything, it was Schiff who intimidated the witness.
Amb. Yovanovitch testifies about POTUS and his team smearing her.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 15, 2019
During her testimony, Pres. Trump goes on twitter and attacks her.
Asked for her reaction in real time, the witness says she finds the attack intimidating.
A potential article of impeachment, right there.
The president tweeting his opinion about someone & defending himself isn’t ‘witness intimidation.’ This entire proceeding is a farce & to assign any seriousness to it is absurd. All participating should be ashamed of themselves. This will not serve Democrats well in 2020. https://t.co/dFaqLN2FrS
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) November 15, 2019
As for Trump’s tweet, to call it witness intimidation is laughable. People can say whatever they want about Trump and he can’t say what he thinks? The witness has every right to speak her mind and he can speak his. If witnesses are so intimidated, why do they keep showing up?
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) November 15, 2019
The closest thing I’ve seen to witness intimidation comes from Adam Schiff. He practices witness denial. He won’t let GOP witnesses show up. He unilaterally turns down GOP requests for witnesses. That’s worse than intimidation. It’s outright witness denial.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) November 15, 2019
These Trump-Ukraine impeachment proceedings are even weaker than the ones held concerning the Russian collusion myth. Oh, and if you're getting sleepy watching this stuff, you're not alone.
The room is falling asleep a little right now. (At least a couple of ppl in the audience, struggling to stay awake.)
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) November 15, 2019