I don’t understand how Trump tweeting that he thinks Yovanovitch was bad at her job is supposed to amount to “witness intimidation”. He fired her months ago, right? His mentioning of “at the pleasure of the President” can’t be construed as a threat because he can’t extra-double fire her.
He can fire other diplomats, you know. If you are a diplomat, and your sworn duty requires you to displeasure the president, then you can count on losing your job.
Guys, the Fox News taking points have changed in the past hour. Even Ken fucking Starr claimed “The president was not advised by counsel in deciding to do this tweet. Extraordinarily poor judgment… Obviously this was quite injurious.”
The current headline on Foxnews.com appears to encourage the tweet:
“MIDAS IN REVERSE?
Trump trolls ambassador as she testifies, says all her diplomatic assignments ‘turned bad’”
John Roberts, Fox News:
Aaron Rupar, Vox:
If that asshole has something to say, he should march right over to those hearings and say it in person.
BTW, forbidding his Trumpeteers from testifying, then mouthing off constantly from the safety of his toilet seat is pure hypocrisy.
Ok, so the argument is that he wasn’t intimidating Yovanovitch, but some other State Department bureaucrat?
It’s pretty clearly both.
The Presidency is a pretty important and powerful office, ISTM. Some say the most powerful in the world! If so, then negative personal utterances, in public, against someone testifying with information that might be harmful, might be inherently intimidating due to the power of the office (which appears to be how Yovanavitch feels, based on her testimony). But IANAL.
No, there’s nothing “clear” about that. How is it “witness intimidation” of Yovanovitch? He thinks Yovanovitch was bad at her job. That’s been pretty clear at least since he fired her back in May. Now she’s testifying and he publicly reiterated that he thinks she’s bad at her job. How is that supposed to be “intimidation”?
Looky here - he CAN put 2 and 2 together and get 4!
It’s jury tampering as well, given that the Senate GOP lives on his Tweets.
If Trump met your own definition of intimidating witnesses, would you support impeachment?
Apropos of nothing, Roger Stone was just found guilty… of witness tampering.
Guilty on all 7 counts, with the last being witness tampering.
BREAKING NEWS - the jury is in and Roger Stone has been found guilty!
Curses! Ninja’d by JohnT
Yes.
Guilty on all charges now.
You should turn on Foxnews. The talking point is supposed to concede that this was a bad idea.
Stone is found guilty of obstructing Congress at the same time Trump is actively obstructing Congress.