What do we know about her? According to Wikipedia, "Marie Yovanovitch is the daughter of Mikhail Yovanovitch and Nadia (Theokritoff) Yovanovitch,[5] who fled the Soviet Union and later the Nazis.[3] She was born in Canada, moved to Connecticut at age three, and became a naturalized American citizen at age eighteen. She grew up speaking Russian....She earned a B.A. in History and Russian Studies from Princeton University in 1980.[7] She studied at the Pushkin Institute (1980) and was awarded an M.S. from the National Defense University's National War College in 2001."
She joined the US Foreign Service in 1986, and has served as a diplomat for over three decades, under six presidents.
From the an article in the Guardian:
"Yovanovitch’s decision to ignore the state department gag and appear before the House committees – without having to be subpoenaed – has already cracked the wall of silence."
From Vox News:
"House impeachment investigators on Nov. 4 released the first two transcripts of their closed-door depositions, and they paint a stunning portrait of U.S. diplomats under siege from their own government. The transcripts — featuring Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, a former top adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — show that a cadre of career, non-political officials were deeply concerned by President Donald Trump’s posture toward Ukraine, and his allies’ ultimately successful efforts to take down Yovanovitch. "...the former ambassador describes the stunning sequence of events that led to her sudden ouster from her post in April — a sequence that started with a smear campaign against her from Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney."
"By the end of it, she says, she was told to leave Ukraine on the next plane out for her own “security.” Officials later clarified to her this wasn’t due to a physical threat but rather because the State Department feared Trump would attack her by tweet unless she was removed immediately."
About the tweets not being a physical threat, the wording could be taken as such. And it seems like an open invitation for some nut to take matters into their own hands. I'd say attack by Twitter was not the only reason she was put on the next plane out. Words have consequences.
During her testimony today, Trump attacked her on Twitter. She responded in real time. Some have argued that this doesn't amount to witness tampering, supposedly for the reason that a sitting president can't be charged with a crime. What have we come to that the President of the United States can't be held accountable for behavior befitting a Mafia boss?
I got sucked into the testimony for about an hour on TV and during the 20-mile round trip to the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteAmbassador treated abominably, possibly defamed and obliquely, but not criminally, threatened by President and associates. President and associates either don't understand or care about how publicly running down State Department officials will affect foreign relations and U.S. standing in world affairs. As a woman, ambassador had no one in the admin who would stick up for her and was treated to extra special scorn apparently just for fun.
No news there.
The larger question is what does she bring to the impeachment inquiry, which is going forward on the grounds of quid pro quo bribery?
Nothing.
Imo, the committee should be calling ONLY witnesses who have first-hand knowledge of the alleged quid pro quo--investigate Biden for aid and access to the president.
All the rest is a counter smear on Trump--as if I need persuading that his actions are evil and dumb. But it is taking time and energy away from a growing list of issues that need to be addressed--infrastructure, drug costs, opioid addiction, fun violence, Dreamers, etc.
Oh, and isn't there a budgetary deadline looming?
This is going to bite the Democrats in the rear.
And speaking biting, who pumped Jim Jordan full of rabies and turned him loose? Ugh. What an obnoxious weasel.
Well, she kind of did have first hand knowledge of quid pro quo. She stood in the way of it and got smeared, fired, and threatened.
Delete"Beyond impeachment, is congress getting anything else done?" is the topic of this article:
Delete"Despite all the vitriol, there’s at least some bipartisan work going on behind the scenes. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mr. Trump’s signature trade deal, is in the “last mile” of negotiations, Ms. Pelosi said at the end of October. Lawmakers are reportedly looking to announce a deal by Thanksgiving and could even hold a vote before year’s end. Across-the-aisle discussions are also underway in both chambers over several measures meant to lower the cost of prescription drugs."
"...Although a shutdown is still possible – with border-wall spending just one of many issues lawmakers are stuck on – neither House Democrats nor Senate Republicans want to be on the hook for such a crisis heading into a big election cycle, notes Steven Smith, political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis, in an email.
Ms. Pelosi has been determined to show that House Democrats can simultaneously conduct an impeachment inquiry and address key legislative issues, while Republicans remain sensitive to having taken much of the blame for past shutdowns. The usual legislative stalemates would have existed whether or not impeachment was a factor, Professor Smith points out."
There seems to be a budget deal that will take us to Dec. 20. After which, Merry Christmas. (Everybody is saying that again, you know.)
DeleteJean, I suspect you are falling for both sidesism. It is by now impossible to slime Trump since he shamelessly wallows in slime all day ever day. Yesterday he shamelessly whined about the hurt the impeachment talk is doing to his family. That is the same family that is making more money off the presidency in a week than Hunter Biden ever made out of Ukrainian oil in all the time he was there. The same family whose #1 son slimed Ambassador Yovanovich in a tweet when he knew nothing about her or about what he was talking about, and just picked up $50,000 of the state's money for showing up at the University of Florida with his new squeeze, from Fox of course, to talk about his book that he didn't write and can't read. And the family whose #1 son-in-law arranged a White House meeting bringing honor to both Trump and the dictator currently directing ethnic cleansing against our Kurdish foreign allies whom the honorable president cast adrift.
And the family one of whose closest friends was convicted by a jury of his betters on seven counts today and deserves all the time Judge Berman metes out, which will be cut short by a pardon from the man you think can be slimed.
In the already immortal words of George Kent, "You can't promote principled anti-corruption action without pissing off corrupt people."
I know, you are thinking of public perception. But anyone who seriously thinks an outfit like that can be counter-smeared shouldn't be allowed out of the house without a minder.
Both-side-ism? Tom, are you seriously equating what I wrote with Trump's defense of white nationalists? As some kind of defense of Trump?
DeleteTo clarify: I am pointing out where Democratic strategy to get rid of the sack of offal running out nation will fail because it focuses too much on the awful-but-not-impeachable.
And berating me for pointing out Democratic strategy failures is rich coming from someone who regularly uses the prefix "brain dead" to describe the Democratic party.
Katherine, poor Rep. Lisa Slotkin has been running ads trying to get people aware of her efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices--according to.Kaiser there are three or four such bills in the works, and they have wide bipartisan support. Movement on a solution for.Dreamers had bipartisan support. But Congress has been unable to pick even the low-hanging fruit.
According to the article linked above, the major sticking point for 12 appropriations bills is the money for Trump's wall, the same thing that caused the longest government shutdown in history. In the interests of actually getting something done, would it just be better to let him have the stupid wall? I don't know.
DeleteSpeaking of DACA, I am reading that SCOTUS may rule in Trump's favor that he can deport them. If that happens, I don't know if it will make any difference what Congress does.
Jean, The impeachment was in Book 1 of the Mueller Report: Failure to protect the country from a known threat from Russia by ignoring the threat. Abetted by the media, the brain dead Democrats focused on Book 2, obstruction, even though obstruction is an add-on, not the main charge. They then let Trump/Barr get away with "no collusion" even through Mueller said that if there were no collusion he would have said so. Attempted collusion would have been only a secondary charge after failure to protect.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, said the Ds then, we don't have the smoking gun. They had 448 pages of smoking gun and didn't know what to do with it.
So now, they have the attempted extortion in the phone call. They let the Rs turn that into "no quid pro quo," which it wasn't because Trump got caught during his attempted extortion. BUT now they have to get it over quickly so everyone can run for re-election, since that is all Congress has done since 2013. (The Rs bemoan what isn't getting done during impeachment, but it wasn't getting done when all Sen. Mitch -- remember him? -- was blocking everything except federalist judges in the Senate.) So the Ds fumble around for a quick-and-dirty charge from the phone call. BUT they also have to sell enough Rs to make all the Sen. Rs wonder if maybe they ought to come out from behind the real Trump wall. So what we are watching is a team that is throwing a Hail Mary in the closing minutes but trying to make the Hail Mary look like an 80-yard drive in 14 plays that eats eight minutes off the clock. Yeah, they are brain dead.
Two P.S's. When Nancy Pelosi brought up bribery,she meant, obviously, that Trump offered one. The Rs yesterday treated it as if she claimed he took one. The Rs will get away with that, too.
And the classic "quid-pro-quo" denial was Reagan's and Poppy Bush's denial that there was a deal with Honduras to give it aid for helping fight rebels in Nicaragua. As Bush made it sound when he said it to Dan Rather, "No quid.pro.quo." Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor, found the quid pro quo spelled out in Bush's diary, which was subpoenaed but not provided until after his writ ran out. When the Rs say something didn't happen, you can be pretty sure it's worse than you think.
But you can't slime a slimeball.
The thing with Pelosi saying Trump offered a bribe, and the Rs turning it around to saying she claimed he took one is their whole defense strategy. Deflect and project, "I'm rubber and you're glue, eveything you say bounces off me and sticks to you." Someone needs to start holding their feet to the fire on that.
DeleteThe way some Republicans are normalizing this kind of behavior makes me feel like some of my friends and relatives have gone off and joined the Moonies or Hare Krishna.
DeleteIt definitely is some sort of scary mass psychopathology. Must watch "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" again.
DeleteKatherine The way some Republicans are normalizing this kind of behavior makes me feel like some of my friends and relatives have gone off and joined the Moonies or Hare Krishna.
DeleteSame with our family and some friends. I would rather they joined the Moonies or Hare Krisna - not as dangerous for the country (and world) as Trump.
About Jim Jordan, yes, definitely a weasel, and a rabid one at that. He hasn't been on my radar, but I see that he has a long and inglorious history. Knew about, but didn't do anything about, an abuse scandal involving the Ohio State University wrestling program during the time he was an assistant coach there.
ReplyDeleteJohn Boehner called him an a-hole. You know things have gotten bad when you miss John Boehner.
Boehner thought Cruz was worse than Trump, and he clearly hated working with Tea Party idealogues when he was Speaker. Boehner is now a lobbyist for the marijuana industry and sits on the board of Reynolds tobacco company.
DeleteMaybe I don't miss Boehner after all, LOL!
DeleteRuth Marcus on Yovanovitch's femininity. I would call it dignity, intelligence, and respect for others. But it's an interesting take that perhaps help explain why the ambassador makes such a striking foil to Trump and his masculine id.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/16/marie-yovanovitchs-femininity-is-her-superpower/
I agree with you about the dignity, intelligence, and respect. I don't know that I would even call it femininity, that is such a fraught word. I'm sure Melania and Ivanka are more the exemplars of femininity in the president's mind. We certainly haven't seen much dignity, intelligence, or respect coming from him. So yes, it is a foil to his id.
DeleteTrump's words, "She's going to go through some things" were ominous and creepy. And a definite threat.
DeleteThe males who have been testifying have only earned half-hearted, half-witted charges of treason. It took a smart person of the female persuasion to make the Great Id break out of the agreed strategy and wildly tweet. It's always the woman who brings out his loopy side. That's why I say don't underestimate a Warren candidacy.
DeleteThinking some more about that overnight brought me to this question: Is "Lock her up" some sort of bondage fantasy?
DeleteI don't know about bondage fantasy, but that, and Trump's treatment of Yovanovitch, are surely misogynistic. It can be said that he also treats men badly. But as Jean mentioned in her first comment, women get extra special bad treatment.
DeleteThe claim was that the decision not to publicly support Yovanovitch was "for her own security". If that sounds fishy and disingenuous, it's because it was.
ReplyDeleteSenior official David Hale had this to say in his closed door deposition: "...he told lawmakers that the State Department believed that publicly defending Yovanovitch when she was being disparaged and eventually recalled as ambassador to Ukraine would have hurt efforts to lift the freeze on nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine. He also said that senior officials were concerned about Giuliani’s potential reaction to the State Department coming to Yovanovitch’s defense amid Trump’s smearing of the career diplomat." ( from HuffPost)
So, big surprise, it was not about concern for Yovanovitch. She was just another government employee encountering the wheels on the bus that go round and round...
David Hale is scheduled to testify in public this week.
So let me see if I have this right: State Department officials were afraid that the Executive would hold up foreign aid to Ukraine in retaliation for defending Yovanavich. And, further, State thought Giuiliani might get mad because they were defending her while Trump was smearing her.
DeleteHuh.
Now Pelosi is challenging Trump to testify. His first reaction was, by God I will, falling right into her trap to get him to get ensnared in his own lies or to melt down on live TV. His lawyers have apparently talked him out of that, and now he's saying he might send written answers.
And now the House is looking into the possibility that Trump may have lied in the written statement that he gave during the Mueller investigation. Seriously, Trmp "may have lied?" Does a bear live in the woods? 13,000 and counting according to those keeping track.
Delete5..4..3..2...waiting for Trump twitter storm to start re: Sondman testimony. Trump may learn what the underside of the bus looks like.
ReplyDeleteI got sucked into it all day yesterday. I watched Sondland's opening statement. Sounds like Giuliani was cordially hated by people actually trying to carry out coherent policy re Ukraine.
DeleteMore evidence that Trump is disengaged from and often hostile to normal channels of operation through State, and would prefer to install his own creatures to mess around in world and national affairs.
And when did character assassination get to be a defense? I was appalled by the Republican treatment of Christopher Vindman yesterday.
Delete