Donald Trump twists ex-ambassador’s record in Somalia's chaos

President Donald Trump suggested Friday that a U.S. diplomat was responsible for Somalia’s descent into chaos deces ago, distorting her record.Democrats branded his tweet witness intimidation. Trump’s attack on Marie Yovavitch came as she testified to House Intelligence Committee about her service as U.S. ambassor to Ukraine and her dismissal by Trump.

Yovavitch served as a low-level diplomat in Somalia in her first foreign tour after joining foreign service in her 20s. She h thing to do with 1984 famine that preceded her arrival in Somalia and contributed to that country’s unraveling, r anything to do with government’s collapse and onset of anarchy after she left. And while she served in Somalia, she h decidedly limited influence in a junior post.

TRUMP: “Everywhere Marie Yovavitch went turned b. She started off in Somalia, how did that go?”

FACTS: re’s credence to tion that countries “turned b” when Yovavitch went to m.

“I don’t think I have such powers, t in Mogishu and Somalia and t in or places,” she said when asked about Trump’s tweet. Of seven countries where Yovavitch served U.S. interests, five were designated hardship posts. In that sense, y were “b” to begin with. Mogishu, Somalia, was her first tour after she joined foreign service in 1986. She was a general-services officer with little clout, before she moved to or countries in increasingly senior positions.

Somali civil war began in earnest in 1988, leing to a collapse in law and order by 1990, overthrow of government in 1991 and eventually to ill-starred, U.S.-led United Nations peacekeeping intervention in 1992. By n, she h moved on. After several years in Somalia, she went to Uzbekistan to help open post-Soviet-era U.S. Embassy in Tashkent.

After a series of promotions from both Republican and Democratic ministrations, Yovavitch worked from 2001 to 2004 as U.S. deputy chief of mission in Ukraine before being named ambassor to Kyrgyzstan, n to Armenia. She took over in Kyrgyzstan during a turbulent time in Central Asian country. In what became kwn as Tulip Revolution, protesters drove out a president y accused of corruption and he fled to Russia.

new president, under pressure from Russia, threatened to expel U.S. from a military air base that was being used to support war in Afghanistan. But U.S. reached an agreement with Kyrgyzstan during her ambassorship that allowed U.S. troops to stay.

Yovavitch arrived in Armenia in fall of 2008, several months after government h violently cracked down on protests that followed a contentious presidential election. Her efforts to push for fair treatment of jailed protesters led her colleagues to choose her for a State Department award given to an ambassor who shows extraordinary commitment to defending human rights. She returned to Ukraine after President Barack Obama minated her to be U.S. ambassor in 2016.

___

TRUMP: “n fast forward to Ukraine, where new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassors.”

FACTS: His description of appointment powers is problematic — ambassors must be confirmed by Senate. But he’s correct that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticized former U.S. ambassor in his July 25 phone call with Trump.

He did so after Trump called Yovavitch “b news.” “It was great that you were first one who told me that she was a b ambassor because I agree with you 100%,” Zelenskiy said, according to rough White House transcript. “Her attitude towards me was far from best as she mired previous president and she was on his side. She would t accept me as a new president well eugh.”

Trump followed up by saying, “Well, she’ s going to go through some things.” Yovavitch testified that she took those remarks, me two months after she h left post, as a threat against her by president. Presidents do t have “absolute right” to appoint ambassors. Senate must approve m. But presidents can fire m at will.