Trump impeachment news: Ambassador gets standing ovation for her testimony after 'intimidation' attempt by president
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Your support makes all the difference.As ex-Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch has testified before the House impeachment inquiry, just after the White House has released its transcript of the first call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, seemingly an attempt to distract from the veteran diplomat's potentially explosive deposition.
Speaking in Louisiana last night, the president complained the inquiry has been “very hard” on his family as he took to the stage to muster support for Republican gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone, the plea for sympathy a marked change of tactic.
As security experts warn Mr Trump’s 26 July phone call with Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the EU, could have been picked up by Russian spies, the president is planning to take the battle to withhold his tax returns from investigators to the Supreme Court.
The Friday testimony proved to be an exciting one, with Mr Trump live tweeting the exchange until being called out directly by Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
In doing so, Mr Schiff was able to check in with Ms Yovanovitch in real time, and hear from her that she believed his comments to be aimed at intimidation.
Many have now said that Mr Trump's attack may amount to witness tampering — which could add to the articles of impeachment facing the president.
Ms Yovanovitch also described publicly a conspiracy led by Rudy Giuliani to get her removed from her post as ambassador — which she said she did not understand the purpose of, since the president could have simply fired her if he wanted.
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Elise Stefanik now getting her option to question Ms Yovanovitch.
She starts off thanking her for her service to the country.
Ms Stefanik is asking about Ms Yovanovitch's knowledge of Burisma, and notes that her preparation for her Senate confirmation during the Obama administration included explicit preparation about Hunter Biden's role with the Ukrainian energy company.
"We will continue asking it," Ms Stefanik says of the question about Hunter Biden's role with Burisma.
Democrat Jim Himes says he's "angry" and "I've been angry since I've learned about your summary and unexplained dismissal."
"And I'm not just angry for you, I'm angry for every single foreign service officer, every single military officer, every single intelligence officer," Mr Himes says, noting concern that future service might be undercut from fear president will attack them like a "mob boss".
Some more analysis of Ms Stefanik's questioning, by Andrew Feinberg, who is in the room for The Independent today:
Devin Nunes has now yielded to representative Elise Stefanik, a 35-year-old Republican representing New York’s 21st district and the only woman on the panel. It appears the game plan is to let her handle questions to avoid some of the optics problems that might arise if some of Mr Nunes’ colleagues question Yovanovitch aggressively.
The Independent's chief US correspondent, Andrew Buncombe, adds this from Seattle:
Which was something Republican senators appeared to understand during the Kavanaugh hearing (when they hired a woman, outside counsel to question Trump's nominee and the woman who accused him of assaulting her, Christine Blasey Ford)
Namely, that you get nowhere by being a bullying presence
Ms Yovanovitch is now being asked about her fellowship at Georgetown University, and how many students she has.
Asked for other responsibilities: "I will tell you that all of this has kept me very busy."
She says that her compensation has not been impacted by her being pulled from her ambassadorship.
Ms Yovanovitch say she has "received an outpouring of support" from her colleagues after her removal from her ambassadorship.
Worth noting that, while Republicans in the hearing right now are singing Ms Yovanovitch's praises, Donald Trump just hours ago attacked her.
We're at a point in the hearing where individual members are getting the chance to ask Ms Yovanovitch questions directly, which means the questioning is a little less cohesive than it was during the first two rounds.
At the moment, Democrats are asking about the impact all of this has had on Ms Yovanovitch personally.
"It's been a difficult time. I'm a private person, I don't want to put all that out there. But it's been a very difficult time because the president does have the right to have his own, or her own, ambassador anywhere in the world," she says.
Then she added: "There's a question as to why the kind of campaign to get me out of Ukraine happened, because all the president has to do is say he wants a different ambassador. In my line of work, perhaps in your line of work too, all we have is our reputation."
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