The Ambassador just made a very good point--one I hadn't thought of

[The Blue Flower]

In response to "the president can remove an ambassador at any time", the question is: why was it necessary to smear her reputation? He could have replaced her without doing that.

[Satch59]

1. Just texted someone the same thing!

What was the point of the smear?? I really can’t figure it out except to validate her firing?

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Because Trump is a dick.

[lastlib]

11. Nah, he's just foreskin--

He just THINKS he's big enough to be a dick.

[Cha]

22. Exactly.. anyone who isn't in the cult gets smeared..

and even those who are/were.

[madinmaryland]

33. I heard he is more like a mushroom.

[Iliyah]

2. True, but with shithole it is bully tactic . . .

Attack and most people will go quietly into the night. Basically, he dared her to speak up.

[maxsolomon]

3. Because he is a pathological Malignant Narcissist

Who believes Russian disinformation.

he wouldn't enjoy it unless it was cruel.

[shanti]

4. Because it's his MO

Always has been, always will be. He's a one-trick pony.

[DENVERPOPS]

19. It is

It is his "Teenie Weenie Peenie Complex" showing itself

[barbtries]

6. he can't win unless

someone else is losing. the cruelty is the point.
also perhaps to send a message to the her colleagues. play or pay.

[MadLinguist]

7. To discredit the work she had done showing that Lutsenko was dirty

Lutsenko, the former prosecutor general was Manaford's guy. It wasn't enough to pull her out. They needed to rip out any network, any belief that what she did was valid, and it needed to be demonstrated that those beliefs, and any further work in that direction were punishable.

[alwaysinasnit]

9. +1000

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Yup. A saturation barrage to soften up any defenses of attack against Bidens. . . . nt

[Laura PourMeADrink]

18. Thanks. Asked a related question below. I didn't

See the whole hearing. Did they elaborate on that? Her work that is. She struck me as so passive it was hard for me to imagine her as a threat to anyone let alone 5 thugs.

[Delmette2.0]

8. He just can't stop himself.

He has to disparage anyone he doesn't like. He can't say I want someone else, thank you for your service and walk away.

[Javaman]

10. because the orange asshole is a petty glib piece of shit dick swinging psychopath. nt

[lunatica]

12. Because the part he truly likes doing is trashing, smearing,

slandering and mocking of his perceived enemies and critics, or anyone who doesn’t kiss his ass real hard.

[Blue_true]

23. Yep. nt

[mtngirl47]

13. Because he's a freaking child. n/t

[SergeStorms]

14. That's just who that 7 yr. old jackass in the Oval Office is.

The biggest example of arrested development in history. He never psychologically developed past the age of 7.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. tRump felt he needed political cover. It's been a pattern. Attack before sack. Like Sessions, others

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. Because it looked too fishy? What I missed was the nexus.

What did she do or say that made the crooks think she would be an impediment? (to carry out fake investigation). If there was nothing other than they knew she had high moral standards it sounds like no matter who it was they would have been replaced. Yet the WTF is they replaced her with someone even more noble. It's an enigma

[MadLinguist]

25. I think POS POTUS thought whoever came in after Yovanovitch would be so cowed

that they'd either get with the program, or stay out of the way. I have no more idea than you do, I'm just making guesses based on how the POS has behaved for decades -- very gangland. POS and his henchmen have no conception of what makes people with integrity tick, so their calculations and game-plans always fall apart outside of their own greed & fear driven circles.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

30. You probably heard this already but since found out

That there was a window of 30 days between Masha and Taylor! So sounds like they just wanted to be alone to set up scam?

[MadLinguist]

31. Still the need to smear beyond the 30 day gap

is only explicable as a message of intimidation. It seems to me that is the trail Schiff and Goldman were on when they questioned Yovanovitch about the effect of the smear when she raised the why-smear question herself. I really believe this issue is going to end up supporting an article of impeachment.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

32. Agree !! Trying to cover tracks so no one would

Question...hmmm, why'd you get rid of her at the exact time you wanted a Biden investigation. So he's setting the stage that she was a bad apple and reenforcing it. Can you imagine what he's done to contractors for 40 + years. What's weird is that it's a whole year away...our election ..what was the rush?

[MadLinguist]

35. The timing is dictated by Vlad the Lad would my guess.

From Putin's point of view, the Hunter Biden stuff is just the little sidecar riding along with the discrediting of US intelligence on GRU's hand in the last election. Directing his boy in the White House to really lean in, he had to hatch a two-fer. And Vlad would like those sanctions to have been lifted two years ago. These are my guesses, Laura. Pour me another, and I'll be convinced that we've managed to discover the truth by reverse-engineering the whole foul plot.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

36. What's your pleasure??? Totally agree with your

first sentence. So where are we now? Is Putin like super pissed at dingbat? Is dingbat totally pissed at 9-11Rudy? None of them got what they wanted, right? The idea of blaming Ukraine for election meddling is dead. Biden smear dead.

[MadLinguist]

38. Oh, they probably all hate each other by now

Whoever's in the weakest position vis-a-vis their chain of kompromat (or 'insurance' as Rudolph calls it) has to gauge when it's time to throw the grenade. Maybe Mayor 9-11 actually knows what Putin has on POS POTUS, thus keeping himself out from under the bus. But no way is he out there on that haunted humiliating leash unless Putin has pooper scooper bag full of Rudy-poo ready to spill. And POS POTUS hates it that he does not know what the dirt on Mayor 9-11 is, and that 9-11 knows what POS POTUS's dirt is.
Hot sake would be fine.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. Dingbat has previously called Rudy bugged eyed. He never

took him on in his admin. But, because he was desperate, and he couldn't enlist any half way respectable council, he called Rudy back in. The flaw in that is that Rudy's gone batshit crazy. SDNY was saying "WTF..he used to be so brilliant and so admirable."

Back to the point, sorry. My guess is that Rudy knows everything. He knows what Putin has on dingbat. Rudy himself skates around the laws he knows.

[gordianot]

20. The fact is he could have replaced her without a reason.

Instead Trump chose to create drama calling attention to himself and nefarious activities.

[madashelltoo]

21. He's sadistic.

He feeds on the pain of others. EVERYTHING he does hurts someone.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

24. That is the truth under it all.

[tulipsandroses]

26. Plus she's a woman

He's a misogynist. She was standing in the way of what he wanted to do. He's not going to just let a woman stand in his way and let them walk away without trying to belittle them.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

37. Yes..he figured she was disposable.. not like Nikki

Haley. Lol

[Fragment]

27. Because if you aren't for him, you are against him, and he is against you.

And if he is against you, he goes for the jugular.

[rainin]

28. Any enemy of Putin is an enemy of trump.

She upset Putin.

[Hekate]

29. The question was really to all his enablers, esp those present at the hearing.Trump is just cruel...

He's mean and petty when there is no need at all. As has been said before: Trump punches down. Always eager to grind down anyone in his way and rub their nose in it.

I'm glad she said it.

[Garrett78]

34. He assumed replacing her would raise questions, so he did what he and Republicans always do.

He said the exact opposite of the truth. He wanted people to believe replacing her was about fighting corruption when it was, in reality, about enabling corruption. Republicans know that if they repeat a lie enough, it'll take hold in the public consciousness.