President Donald Trump’s attacks on former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch during her testimony before Congress showed “extraordinarily poor judgment,” according to Fox News’ Ken Starr.
“I must say the president was not advised by counsel in deciding to do this tweet,” Starr, who investigated former President Bill Clinton during his presidency, said to anchor Bill Hemmer during the network’s coverage of the hearing, which was a part of the ongoing House impeachment inquiry. “Extraordinarily poor judgment.”
He added, “The president frequently says ‘I follow my instincts.’ Sometimes we have to control our instincts, so obviously I think this is quite injurious.”
Trump tweeted at one point during Yovanovitch’s testimony that “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him.”
The former U.S. Solicitor General added, “I don’t think it rises to the level of intimidation of a witness, but I think that’s the way it’s going to be characterized.”
He went on to say that Yovanovitch was “a very powerful, persuasive witness,” before adding, “but she has just one perspective.”
Starr said later, “I would rise above the tweet, ignore it. It’s not going to go away. But there is no way to put lipstick on this porcine situation. So, I think, get that behind us.”