What Went Down During Marie Yovanovitch’s Testimony

I think another challenge, Julia, is that many Americans probably don’t know a ton about how diplomacy works, and why it’s so important for someone like Yovanovitch to appear nonpartisan and committed to the interests of the U.S. government, no matter which party is in control of Congress or the White House. That’s background Democrats are presumably trying to deliver — but as you mentioned, in this partisan moment, presenting these witnesses as credibly nonpartisan would be no small feat.

“The U.S. is the most powerful country in the world ” because of our “values.” “We see potential in Ukraine,” the ambassador says. Kent, Taylor and the ambassador do have rather traditional bipartisan foreign policy views that Trump really doesn’t share. But the official policy of the U.S., as adopted by Congress and signed by Trump, mostly reflects this more traditional foreign policy approach.

Yovanovitch is echoing Taylor’s testimony, trying to ensure that the impeachment drama doesn’t swamp what they believe is also at stake: Ukraine’s future, and how involved Russia is in controlling it.