The president of the United States, Donald Trump, resorted on Friday to the attack as a defense strategy by accusing the former ambassador in Ukraine of ineffectiveness, who recognized himself as "intimidated", in full appearance of the diplomat before Congress in the investigation to open a political trial against the president.
The second day of public hearings, broadcasted entirely on television, had as its protagonist the former ambassador in Kiev Marie Yovanovitch.
Yovanovitch, who led the embassy in Ukraine between 2016 and last May, offered in his testimony a resounding denunciation of the "deterioration" of US diplomacy under the Trump Administration.
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"Our policy in Ukraine has become chaos, and dark interests in the world have learned what little it takes to eliminate an American ambassador who doesn't offer what they want," Yovanovitch said.
He stressed, in particular, "the failure of leaders in the State Department to respond as foreign and corrupt interests apparently kidnapped politics in Ukraine."
He also stated that he felt "stunned and devastated" when he learned about the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President VolodĂmir Zelenski, on July 25, in which the US president referred to it as "bad news."
Although the White House spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, had pointed out at the beginning of the day that Trump would not follow the broadcast of the audience in Congress, the president wrote several messages on his Twitter account during the appearance that prove that he kept the television on.
"Wherever Marie Yovanovitch went, everything went wrong. It started in Somalia, how was it? Then quickly to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian president spoke unfavorably of her," he said.
Trump claimed that it is up to him, as president, to designate the ambassadors of the United States, before the accusation that he demanded that the ambassador leave office.
At an unprecedented moment, the president of the Intelligence Committee, Democrat Adam Schiff, notified the diplomat directly of the president's messages and asked what his opinion was about it. "I think the effect is intimidating," Yovanovitch replied.
Democrats quickly warned that Trump's messages amounted, in Schiff's words, to "intimidation of a witness in real time."
Shortly thereafter, the White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham sent a statement rejecting the accusation of intimidation, and said it was simply the opinion of the president. (EFE)
