We told you a little earlier this morning about the White House releasing a transcript of the first Trump/Zelensky phone call just as today’s House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearing was beginning. Ranking Republican Devin Nunes read the transcript into the record, and then the hearing proceeded with Adam Schiff at the wheel. During testimony from ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, President Trump tweeted about her. Adam Schiff then read the tweet to Yovanovitch and asked for her reaction:
In real time at impeachment hrng, Schiff reads Trump's tweets criticizing her and asks her to respond. Says "I don't think I have that kind of power."
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) November 15, 2019
Schiff asks Yovanovitch to respond to Trump's tweet, posted during her hearing, claiming that everywhere she worked "turned bad"
Yovanovitch: "I don't think I have such powers" https://t.co/qNx16IztcL pic.twitter.com/xmAEkTJGpD
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 15, 2019
Schiff, of course, is trying to spin that into a charge of witness intimidation:
Schiff brings up the possibility of witness intimidation over Trump's tweet about Yovanovitch, which Yovanovitch wouldn't have known about if Schiff hadn't read it to her in the open hearing.
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 15, 2019
Recommended
Schiff just now, to Yovanovitch about this Trump tweet: "Some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously." https://t.co/fWDZTJOgbw
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) November 15, 2019
Add “mean tweets” to the Democrats’ list of charges against Trump.
How is the tweet from POUTS. Intimating if Shitty Schiff didn’t read it to her? https://t.co/8pZe5bUb0p
— Rumplestillskin (@Rumplestillski) November 15, 2019
?
Telling the truth isn't intimidation.But Chris Wallace at Fox sure was swayed… https://t.co/sTGSwV5qPc
— GalacticRedPill (@GalacticRedPill) November 15, 2019
God bless this brave woman for coming to a congressional hearing to cry about a tweet. Stunning and brave.
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 15, 2019
Is she going to cry?
God I think Trump's tweet is really going to make her cry
Reelect him just for this
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 15, 2019
And the day is young.