Congresswoman to ousted ambassador: ‘As a woman, I can’t be prouder of you’

By: - November 16, 2019 1:13 pm

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee during impeachment proceedings against President Trump.| Drew Angerer/Getty Images

U.S. Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) defended ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich Friday against slanders launched by President Trump and his allies.

“As a woman, I can’t be prouder of you, and I consider you an inspiration for women around the world,” Demings, a former police chief, said to Yovanovich during the second day of public testimony in the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill on February 14, 2018 in Washington, DC. | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Trump had attacked the career foreign service officer that very morning via his Twitter account, saying in part: “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go?” He also asserted that Ukraine’s head of state had criticized her.

Additionally, Yovanovich described a campaign to undermine her effectiveness as a corruption-fighting ambassador fomented by Trump attorney Rudy Guiliani and his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were seeking energy deals in Ukraine.

Parnas and Fruman had steered $50,000 in to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election campaign last year. The governor, a close Trump ally, gave the money to the U.S. Treasury after the pair were arrested on federal charges of sinking overseas money into U.S. political campaigns. DeSantis has been refusing to discuss his relationship with Parnas and Fruman, who’d also attended his campaign events.

Here’s what Michigan lawmakers had to say about the 1st public impeachment hearing

Yovanovich acknowledged she found the president’s tweet intimidating.

Demings described as “disgraceful” committee Republicans’ suggestion that Yovanovich landed well because the State Department posted her to Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service – “to basically suggest that the woman should be thankful for whatever she was left with, smear campaign and all, after you were recalled.”

U.S. Capitol | Susan J. Demas

Demings referred to White House Chief of State Mick Mulvaney’s statement on Oct. 17 dismissing concerns about the politicization of foreign policy: “I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.”

Mulvaney had responded to testimony offered to the inquiry by Michael McKinley, a senior aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who resigned to protest the department’s failure to speak up for its diplomats and use of ambassadors to pursue a partisan objective.

Did Yovanovich share McKinley’s qualms? Demings asked.

“As I said before, I think it’s important to keep political influence out of foreign policy. Because we all – whether we are Republican or Democrats or something else – have common security interests, and that needs to be safeguarded and advanced,” Yovanovich said.

“What message do you think it sends to other foreign service officers in public service – which we so desperately need good ones – when an administration refuses to support its own officials in the face of a smear campaign?”

Tlaib feels a ‘sense of urgency’ on impeachment

“It’s deeply troubling. It’s deeply troubling and there are morale issues at the State Department” Yovanovich replied.

“Morale issues at the State Department. I can understand why,” Demings said.

The Floridian delved into details of the smear campaign, including a March 20 tweet by Trump that included a letter from former U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) alleging that Yovanovich was privately expressing disdain for the administration and might merit recall.

Yovanovich denied doing any such thing.

All Michigan U.S. House Democrats now back impeachment process

“Why do you think the president would want to push such a lie?”

“I don’t know,” Yovanovich answered. “I don’t know.”

“Policies change, but U.S. interests don’t. Not for those who are seeking to do the work of protecting our nation – the work you have done for decades,” Demings said. “The president, his chief of staff, and his allies seem to want nothing more than to smear the good people trying to protect this country, and to hijack our institutions for their personal and political gain.”

This story first ran in the Advance‘s sister outlet, the Florida Phoenix. Read the original story here.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.

Michael Moline
Michael Moline

Michael Moline has covered politics and the legal system for more than 30 years. He is a former managing editor of the San Francisco Daily Journal and former assistant managing editor of The National Law Journal. He began his career covering the Florida Capitol for United Press International. More recently, he wrote for Florida Politics.

MORE FROM AUTHOR