President Donald Trump’s Twitter attack against former United States ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch during her testimony at an impeachment hearing in Congress on Friday has been condemned by Democrats as ‘witness intimidation’.
Trump 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.’
Yovanovitch, who was removed by Trump from the ambassadorship to Ukraine, said the tweet attacking her while she testified before the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry was ‘very intimidating’.
Trump told reporters later he did not think his tweets were intimidating. ‘I have the right to speak. I have freedom of speech just as other people do,’ he said.