The Yovanovitch farce powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/… via @powerlineUS
@powerlineUS Yovanovitch was not the ambassador to Ukraine during the period when the Trump administration withheld military aid. She has no knowledge as to why the aid was held up.
@powerlineUS That’s the only issue of relevance to the impeachment proceedings. The proceedings aren’t about whether Yovanovitch should have been removed as ambassador. Schiff’s committee isn’t a human resources body or a personnel review board.
@powerlineUS President Trump had the absolute right to remove Yovanovitch. To the extent Democrats believe her sacking somehow is part of a pattern of mistreating diplomats, that’s a matter for the Foreign Relations Committee.
@powerlineUS Democrats may say that Yovanovitch’s removal is relevant because it was the first step in making U.S. policy towards Ukraine subservient to Trump’s political interests. It set the stage, so to speak.
@powerlineUS But this argument collapses the moment one remembers that Yovanovitch was replaced by Bill Taylor. If there’s one thing on which Democrats and Republicans on Schiff’s committee agree, it’s that Taylor is an exemplary diplomat.
@powerlineUS Because Yovanovitch had nothing relevant to add to the impeachment inquiry, we must ask why Schiff trotted her out as a witness. The answer, I think, is that she is a woman with a grievance against Trump.
@powerlineUS In the build-up to Yovanovitch’s appearance, media outlets like the Washington Post weren’t even trying to conceal their glee that a woman would testify against Trump. That’s because the alleged “war on women” is the unifying theme of Democratic attacks against Republicans
@powerlineUS What could play better into this theme than a woman moaning on national television that Trump mistreated her?
Everyone involved knew that this was the Democrats’ game. The Republicans knew. That’s why they wanted Elise Stefanik to lead off the questioning of Yovanovitch.
Everyone involved knew that this was the Democrats’ game. The Republicans knew. That’s why they wanted Elise Stefanik to lead off the questioning of Yovanovitch.
@powerlineUS Stefanik is an excellent questioner, as we have noted, but ordinarily the lead-off questions would have come from the GOP counsel or from the ranking member
@powerlineUS Schiff knew, of course. That’s why he gaveled Stefanik down when she tried to lead off the questioning. If Schiff were conducting a serious inquiry, he would not have called Yovanovitch as a witness.
@powerlineUS Yovanovitch’s appearance should be Exhibit A in support of the proposition that Schiff is conducting a show trial.
@powerlineUS For me the clock struck 13 when she associated herself with the hostages taken by Iran in 1979 — by acolytes of the regime that Obama’s State Department appeased, humored, empowered, and paid off — gratuitous.
@powerlineUS I found her association of herself with the heroes of Benghazi — the victims of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s negligence and incompetence — sickening.
@powerlineUS Democrats thought it highly relevant that President Trump hurt her feelings when he removed her from her post as they continue to seek new frontiers in impeachable presidential conduct.
