What Went Down During Marie Yovanovitch’s Testimony

This has been a courageous performance, basically a career state employee defending a vision of U.S. policy not necessarily shared by the president. She is I’m sure aware that these kinds of pointed criticisms of Trump and Pompeo are going to draw sharp attacks from the GOP members and on Fox News.

Just like we did on Wednesday, we’ll now have 45 minutes of questioning each from Schiff/his designated staffer and Nunes/his designated staffer.

It’s understandable why Yovanovitch is so upset with the State Department. She and others tried to get Pompeo and the State Department to push back against the allegations, and they essentially refused. According to this testimony, they were afraid they’d be contradicted by Trump. Career diplomats are apparently very, very upset with how Pompeo has treated career diplomats during the impeachment process. And while Taylor and Kent are still working in the administration, Yovanovitch now has an academic posting and has said she’s thinking about retirement — which means she has much less to lose by speaking out.