QUICK NOTE: Hello from the future! It has taken me a while to actually get around to writing these posts (for reasons we’ll talk about in a mental health post soon). When I finally sat down to start writing about these hearings, trying to write about them in the past tense just felt weird. So, I’m going to write what I would have written had I been able to write up each hearing on the day it happened and then backdate them here on the blog. I realize that I probably could have just done that anyway without telling you but that felt like a shady thing to do. Just thought you should know! Onward!
Today the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (House Intel Committee) listened to testimony from Former Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Why is Fmr Ambassador Yovanovitch important?
The short version? Trump fired her because he wanted to do some illegal sh*t and she pushed back. Then Trump and his henchman Rudy Giuliani did everything they could to trash the Ambassador’s reputation and ruin the rest of her life. (Spoiler Alert: it didn’t work)
Marie Yovanovitch spent 33 years as a member of the US Foreign Service. That’s more than half her life. She has served all over the world and for two years was the Deputy Director of the Russian Desk at the State Department. She was given her first Ambassadorship by George W Bush when he appointed her the US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan in 2005. In 2008 she was appointed the US Ambassador to Armenia. In 2016 President Obama appointed her the US Ambassador to Ukraine. She has a degree in Russian Studies from Princeton, studied at Moscow’s Pushkin Institute and has a Master of Science from the National Defense University’s National War College.
That means? She knows what the frak she’s talking about. And, like Taylor and Kent before her, she’s neither a Trump sycophant nor a Never-Trumper (all affirmed this under oath).
Why does Fmr Ambassador Yovanovitch’s testimony matter? Because Trump is massively afraid of her.
As she stated multiple times during her testimony, Trump was allowed to fire her at any time and for any reason he wanted. And while she certainly didn’t deserve to be fired (she was doing an amazing job), his recalling her was totally legal.
What’s not cool is the way that Trump, Giuliani, and their marauding band of buffoons went to town on her reputation and livelihood. These jerks did everything they could to trash her reputation, to vilify her and, essentially to ruin her life. They sicced their frothing base on her and, this is not hyperbole, she is lucky to be alive.
Why? Why not just fire her and move on? Why do everything possible to make sure her life was borked? Because she is a strong woman who had the audacity to stand up to a man in power. And we all know how much Trump hates it when the ladies try to think for themselves. And because he’s intimidated by smart, funny, accomplished women who are, by leaps and bounds, better people than he could ever dream of being.
One of the things that struck me during this hearing was how often the GOP members of the committee tried to brush off Trump’s threats and disparagements—even as he tweeted them during the damn hearing—because after all, she landed a fellowship at a prestigious University, right? She’s not going to be hurting financially or anything. It’s not like she’s homeless now, after all.
This? Is like saying: Sure, I burned down your house but look at the check the insurance company gave you! That’ll pay for a sweet-ass minivan, for sure! We’re good, right?
No, bros. You most definitely are not good.
Here’s the tweet thread: