The curtain came up on day two of the House of Representatives’ public impeachment hearings and, once again, the proceedings started off with a bang.
Friday’s big developments included the White House release of a contradictory readout of the Mr Trump’s first phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a presidential tweet that had Republicans in Congress scrambling.
1. The tweeter-in-chief
Mr Trump has boasted that his conduct while in office – blunt language and shoot-from-the-hip tweeting – is “modern-day presidential”. If so, welcome to a modern-day presidential impeachment hearing.
Just over an hour into Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony, Mr Trump launched the kind of Twitter fusillade that has become a regular part of his political repertoire. He questioned the ambassador’s competence, noted that the Ukrainian president spoke unfavourably about her and pointed out that he has the right to fire diplomats at will.
What makes the moment historic is that Committee Chair Adam Schiff gave Yovanovitch a chance to refute the president’s tweet almost in real time.
Democrats are already characterising the president’s behaviour as witness intimidation – and the latest attack by the president against one of his own government employees.
Republicans, whose reported strategy was to avoid directly impugning the reputation of a long-serving, well respected diplomat, will once again find a president who has changed the rules of engagement on the fly.
“I disagree with the tweet,” Republican congresswoman Elise Stefank told a reporter during a break in the hearing. “I think Ambassador Yovanovitch is a public servant, like many of our public servants in the foreign service.”
Mike Conaway, another Republican on the committee, said the president’s tweet was “not something I would do”.
On Wednesday, the White House said the president was not watching the impeachment hearings. On day two, the president is fully engaged. His tweeting became the big headline from the morning’s proceedings, helping to underscore Yovanovitch’s contention that the president himself was the driving force behind her removal.
Mr Trump may not be in the hearing room, but his presence is being felt.
BBC