Bret Baier says Trump tweet added an article of impeachment in real time

Fox News host Bret Baier said Friday that President Trump’s tweet criticizing former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was “adding an article of impeachment real-time.”

“That was a turning point in this hearing so far,” Baier said on Twitter of Trump’s tweet. 

“She was already a sympathetic witness & the President’s tweet ripping her allowed Schiff to point it out real time characterizing it as witness tampering or intimidation -adding an article of impeachment real-time,” he added. 

That was a turning point in this hearing so far. She was already a sympathetic witness & the President’s tweet ripping her allowed Schiff to point it out real time characterizing it as witness tampering or intimidation -adding an article of impeachment real-time. https://t.co/HSCkGMIqmH

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) November 15, 2019

The host made similar comments during his network’s broadcast. 

“This whole hearing turned on a dime when the president tweeted about her,” Baier said. “During the questioning, Adam Schiff stopped the Democratic questioning to read the president’s tweet to her and get her response.”

“That enabled Schiff to then characterize that tweet as intimidating the witness, or tampering with the witness, which is a crime, adding essentially an article of impeachment, real-time, as this hearing is going on,” Baier continued. 

“That changed this entire dynamic of this first part of this hearing,” he added. “And Republicans now are going to have to take the rest of this hearing to probably try to clean that up.”

Trump tweeted during the Friday hearing that “everywhere” 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. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors,” he wrote.

After Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, read the tweet to Yovanovitch during the hearing, she called it “intimidating.”

“It’s very intimidating,” Yovanovitch said. “I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidating.”

Yovanovitch, who was recalled from her post as ambassador this year, was testifying as part of the House’s impeachment probe into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. 

Fellow Fox host Chris Wallace also said Friday that Yovanovitch’s testimony was “very powerful” and that those who aren’t moved by it “don’t have a pulse.”