President Donald Trump listens as Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone speaks during a campaign rally at the CenturyLink Center, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, in Bossier City, La. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 10:09 AM PT — Friday, November 15, 2019
President Trump recently called into question the foreign service record of impeachment witness Marie Yovanovitch. In a tweet Friday, the president said “everywhere Yovanovitch went turned bad.” He pointed at first to Somalia and then at Ukraine. He then pointed out he has the right to appoint ambassadors as commander-in-chief.
….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
Democrat House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff read the tweet in the hearing and claimed the president was trying to intimidate witnesses. He then gave Yovanovitch a chance to respond to the tweet.
“I actually think that where I have served over the years, I and others, have demonstrably made things better,” she stated. “In Ukraine for example where there are huge challenges, including, you know, on the issue that we’re discussing today of of corruption, huge challenges, but they’ve made a lot of progress since 2014, including in the years that I was there.”
President Trump went on to say the country now has strong and powerful foreign policy unlike past administrations.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, during the second public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Meanwhile, ambassador Yovanovitch denied she spoke ill of President Trump amid allegations she bad-mouthed the commander-in-chief to U.S. Embassy staff in Ukraine. During her opening statement Friday, she refuted claims that she said the diplomats don’t have to follow the president’s orders because he was being impeached.
Yovanovitch also shot down allegations she drafted a so-called “Do Not Prosecute” list for top Ukrainian judicial officials to follow. The diplomat said she advocated for the rule of law to prevail in Ukraine and for top prosecutors, judges and law enforcement to stop wielding their power selectively to target political opponents.
“I want to reiterate first that the allegation that I disseminated a “Do Not Prosecute” list was a fabrication — Mr. Lutsenko, the former Ukrainian Prosecutor General who made that allegation, has acknowledged that the list never existed,” she stated. “Also untrue are unsourced allegations that I told unidentified embassy employees or Ukrainian officials that President Trump’s orders should be ignored because ‘he was going to be impeached’ or for any other reason — I did not and would not say such a thing.”
Yovanovitch also expressed concerns over the degradation of the State Department. She said department leadership failed to push-back against foreign and corrupt interests, which apparently hijacked U.S.-Ukraine policy.
