What Went Down During Marie Yovanovitch’s Testimony

I’m not entirely sure the tack will Republicans will take to try and undermine her experience, but I do think one risk Yovanovitch’s testimony poses is that she does, understandably, have very real grievances against the president — she lost a job she clearly loved — and I can only presume that GOP lawmakers will jump on that as motive for her testimony today.

I assume there will be an abuse of power-style article of impeachment (along with something like bribery and obstruction of justice.) And I think Trump working around the State Department, calling Sondland to demand investigations, firing Yovanovitch, having his personal lawyer smear her and conduct a shadow foreign policy will be part of that article.

We asked at the beginning of this hearing if Republicans might be more forceful in rebutting Democratic accusations than they were on Wednesday. On one hand, they could make the argument that Yovanovitch’s experience — while unfortunate for her — has little to do with the Bidens and military aid. On the other hand, we’ve noted that she is coming off as a sympathetic witness and attacking her might just be a bad look.