Donald Trump decided to tweet what can only be viewed as witness intimidation or witness tampering via social media during the testimony of former Ambassador Yovanovitch. It is shocking, even on the Donald Trump Crazy Meter.
Here is what he tweeted:
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
This led to Rep. Adam Schiff reading the tweets OUT LOUD to the Ambassador and allowing her to respond to them in REAL TIME during the impeachment hearings. On live tv. For the entire world to see.
Yes, Donald Trump tried to intimidate a witness and his intimidation was noted in the impeachment record and the witness responded during the hearing and in her live testimony.
Speechless.
Even Bret Baier was stunned, noting that this is a new Article of Impeachment.
"However, this whole hearing turned on a dime when the President tweeted real time," Baier said. He recapped the tweet before saying, "That enabled Schiff to characterize that tweet as intimidating the witness or tampering with the witness which is a crime, adding an article of impeachment in real time."
"That changed this entire dynamic in the first part of this hearing and Republicans now are going to have to take the rest of this hearing to clean this up."