Overlooked: Nancy Pelosi has been dealing with overstuffed real estate egomaniacs her entire adult life, through her developer husband. She took the measure of Donald Trump within 5 minutes. https://t.co/vNiFZlGtaM
— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) November 16, 2019
‘Stand up’: Yovanovitch uses moment in the spotlight to call on U.S. leaders to defend diplomatic corps by @karoun @PostRoz https://t.co/bo2ukDEAwA
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) November 15, 2019
Per the Washington Post:
Yovanovitch — who was abruptly yanked from her post in Kyiv after being targeted in a smear campaign that reached President Trump — warned that the State Department was “being hollowed out” and in “crisis.” She called on its leadership “to stand up for the institution and the individuals who make that institution the most effective diplomatic force in the world.”
The testimony of the former ambassador put a compelling human face on a complex international scandal that has involved a cast of unfamiliar Ukrainian characters, descriptions of shadowy back-channels and constitutional debates.
In resolute, clear tones, the veteran diplomat described how she came to learn of the plot against her — and how shaken she was to read the president’s menacing comments about her in a call to his Ukrainian counterpart…
But over and over again, Yovanovitch sought to turn the focus away from her personally and back on the larger implications of her ouster.
“Our Ukraine policy has been thrown into disarray, and shady interests the world over have learned how little it takes to remove an American ambassador who does not give them what they want,” she said. “After these events, what foreign official, corrupt or not, could be blamed for wondering whether the ambassador represents the president’s views? And what U.S. ambassador could be blamed for harboring the fear that they cannot count on our government to support them?”…
When asked by Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) why she didn’t defend herself more openly to the attacks against her, she added: “I think it was for others to stand up for me.”
However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo never made a statement in her defense because he was worried Trump would undermine it in a tweet, Yovanovitch testified that she was told…
But throughout the hearing, Yovanovitch was steely in her defense of the diplomats and institutions that promote U.S. policy abroad without weapons. She invoked the memory of everyone from the hostages in Iran to the felled in Benghazi in her appeal to respect and defend the Foreign Service against those who would undermine it — including the Trump administration…
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