A HERO IS BORN AS YOVANOVITCH GIVES VOICE TO WIDESPREAD RAGE AT STATE

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“THIS IS THE WAY GANGSTERS OPERATE”: A HERO IS BORN AS YOVANOVITCH GIVES VOICE TO WIDESPREAD RAGE AT STATE

The diplomatic rank and file believe Mike Pompeo has allowed Trump to pollute the State Department with politics. Marie Yovanovitch made their case. “I think people are feeling huge pride in Masha,” says a former ambassador.


BY ABIGAIL TRACY
NOVEMBER 15, 2019

In contrast to the appearances of State Department officials William Taylor, whose deep baritone launched a thousand tweets about his radio career, and George Kent, with his flashy bow tie and matching pocket square, Marie Yovanovitch cut a subdued figure before the House Intelligence Committee on Friday. Testifying before lawmakers about her politicized ouster from her post as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Yovanovitch was soft-spoken—if firm—throughout. Sedate though she was, however, diplomats mostly saw her as the week’s hero. “Masha’s testimony was a powerful moment in the impeachment drama,” Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told me Friday afternoon. “She was compelling and utterly persuasive in asking how the president permitted corrupt individuals to convince him to fire her. ‘How could our system fail like this?’ she was right to ask.”

More in sadness than in anger, she laid the failure to insulate her against the Trump administration’s politicization of diplomacy in Ukraine at the feet of her bosses at the State Department, starting with Mike Pompeo. “I remain disappointed that the department’s leadership and others have declined to acknowledge that the attacks against me and others are dangerously wrong. This is about far more than me or a couple of individuals. As Foreign Service professionals are being denigrated and undermined, the institution is also being degraded. This will soon cause real harm, if it hasn’t already,” she said in her opening statement. “The attacks are leading to a crisis in the State Department…This is not a time to undercut our diplomats. It is the responsibility of the department’s leaders to stand up for the institution and the individuals who make that institution the most effective diplomatic force in the world.”

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What is undeniable is that Yovanovitch has emerged as something of a hero among diplomats, if a reluctant one. Sources close to her have described this process as having “broken” the former ambassador to Ukraine and have noted her obvious deflation when House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff told her President Trump attacked her on Twitter during the hearing. For Yovanovitch, foreign service is “a religion,” and a former U.S. ambassador explained to me that, to the diplomat, the election of Volodymyr Zelensky as president of Ukraine “was the moment of a career in substantive terms, a chance to actually make progress in a place that is so important and that she knew so well, and our president and his two-bit cronies pulled defeat from the jaws of victory.”

“I think people are feeling huge pride in Masha,” this person added. As the hearing wound down on Friday, the room erupted in a standing ovation for Yovanovitch, drowning out the protests of Republican congressman Mike Conway.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/11/ambassador-masha-yovanovitch-state-department-ukraine-impeachment-inquiry

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Imagine being a patriot and working in State now, with traitors working with our enemy

right out in the open.

Wow.

I am surprised there isnt far more public reaction by them. But so proud of them for hanging in there for us!

[LakeArenal]

2. She may have lost her career.....

for now (as the next Pres. May give her a plum assignment).

Marie Yovanovitch is now a Superhero.
That’s permanent. That’s Forever. She is American History now. On the right side of that history.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Indeed! A hero in my book and I'm sure in many other people's book too. How nice in ...

these times that some people do the right thing?

My hero...

[TreasonousBastard]

3. But what about...

Can't help noticing that Nikki Halley, another potentially capable woman in the aura of State, has just made her deal with a particularly loathsome devil and is can't join the Masha parade.

[crickets]

5. I am so proud of Marie Yovanovitch

I don't cry easily, but a few times I have teared up and once outright bawled watching the standing ovation she received. It was a spontaneous outburst letting Congress and the world know that most of us in the US are still sane. Most of us have had more than enough of this nightmare and are relieved that the people are finally being given a platform to stand up to the criminal bully calling himself president. Our proxies: Taylor, Kent, Yovanovitch, and all of the other witnesses to come, are literally pulling our country back from the brink.

There is no way to thank someone enough for Masha's level of patriotism, but Denny Heck's passionate thank-you speech did a darn good job coming close:

Link to tweet