WASHINGTON, D.C.—During the testimony Friday morning of former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in the impeachment hearings, she outlined her impression that her firing — after what she characterized as a false smear campaign instigated by corrupt interests in Ukraine and spread by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani — sent a message.“Shady interests the world over have learned how little it takes to remove an American ambassador who does not give them what they want,” Yovanovitch said. Responding to a question later, she said U.S. diplomats have likely learned the same lesson.But perhaps the most riveting and potentially consequential moments of her testimony addressed the message sent by the social media pronouncements of the president, and the effect they have on the U.S. apparatus of government, and were having on her, even in real time as the hearing went on.Democrat lawyer Daniel Goldman showed and read her tweets from mid-March, before her firing. One, from Trump, shared a story smearing her that she said was false and was later recanted by its source. Another, from the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., said the U.S. needs “less of these joker ambassadors” in reference to her.“Were you aware of these tweets at the time?” Goldman asked.“Yes,” Yovanovitch responded.“What was your reaction to seeing this?” he said.“Well, I was worried,” she responded. “These attacks were being repeated by the president himself. And his son.” After repeating that all the allegations being repeated were false, she elaborated on her worry. “It seemed to me that if the president’s son is saying things like this, that it would be very hard to continue in my position and have authority in Ukraine, unless the State Department came out pretty strongly behind me.”However, she testified, a defence from the State Department did not c ...
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