Nov 24, 2019 4 min read

It is difficult to keep abreast of the new lows that are inflicted on the country by the president on an almost daily basis, but one which stands out is his efforts to intimidate witnesses who are testifying before Congress in the impeachment inquiry in violation of the president’s orders to remain silent.

No one has been assaulted more severely and outrageously than former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, a 33-year State Department employee who served without incident until now, under both Democratic and Republican presidents.

Perhaps the first problem for Ambassador Yovanovitch is that she is a woman. We know that to the president, women are to be judged on their looks, their youth, and their bodies, and if they do not measure up, they are to him, “slobs” and “dogs,” “horse face.”

During an event she was holding to honor a Ukrainian anti-corruption activist who was subsequently murdered pursuant to an acid attack, Yovanovitch received a call from a State Department official telling her that the administration had directed that her assignment was over, and that she was to get on the next plane to the United States. Naturally, she asked why this was happening, and was provided with no legitimate answer because there was no legitimate answer. She later learned, as did the American people, that her demise as a diplomat was orchestrated by the president’s attorney, Rudolph Guiliani, and that her “crime” was to have advocated for the security of the United States rather than to play into the president’s desire to trade military weaponry sales for dirt on the political opponent who obviously scares him the most, former Vice President Joe Biden. There has been compelling testimony that European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, a contributor of $1 million to the president’s election campaign, told Yovanovitch that she might be able to save her job if she tweeted something nice about the president. She honorably declined, and thus sealed her fate.

Trump bad-mouthed Yovanovitch to the Ukrainian president, telling him that she is “bad news” and in an implicit threat, said that she “will be going through some things.” During her courageous testimony to Congress, Trump, who said he does not have the time or interest to watch the proceedings, initiated a Twitter attack on her, following his usual pattern of accusing anyone who would tell the truth about his corruption of being a “Never Trumper,” as if one’s political leanings have anything to do with Trump’s unseemly actions or serve to be exculpatory.

The path to attempt to clear his dirty name for Trump is clear, and it has been suggested by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: for him to come before Congress in open session, face to face, and present his version of events. That is what an honorable person with nothing to hide would do if they felt that an inquiry was a sham or was not treating them fairly. Trump will never do that because he and his advisers know that for him to testify and be forced to answer questions would result in perjury and in him making a fool of himself. He lies constantly, but thus far, he has only been willing to fabricate when not under oath. Trump does not face his accusers. Like the coward that he is, he instead attacks them through intimidating tweets.

The Founding Fathers knew that there could someday be a corrupt president who places his personal interest ahead of that of the country, and that a president may try to allow foreign governments to become deeply enmeshed in American governance. They could not have envisioned that a president could get away with intimidating witnesses, referring to those who cooperate with the government as “rats” while dangling pardons before those who refuse to tell what they know, and that his party would say that all of this is fine so long as he remains popular with his base.

It has been asked of this president, “Have you no decency?” The Marie Yovanovitch affair reveals the answer, a resounding, “No!”

Oren Spiegler is a resident of Peters Township.