US President Donald Trump has slammed a former ambassdor who testified in the impeachment inquiry, saying she refused to hang his photo in the US embassy in Ukraine.
On Friday, Trump told Fox News’ morning show former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch “didn’t want to hang my picture in the embassy” in Ukraine.
He did not go into any further details.
Yovanovitch testified last week that she was fired over “false claims” by people with “questionable motives”.
She was one of 12 witnesses to testify over the last two weeks in the impeachment inquiry which is looking into alleged abuse of power by the president.
In a phone call to Fox and Friends on Friday morning, Trump referred to Yovanovitch as “the woman” and said he had heard “bad things about her,” the BBC is reporting.
Trump said, “This ambassador, who everybody says was so wonderful she wouldn’t hang my picture in the embassy.
“She’s in charge of the embassy, it took, like, a year-and-a-half, two years.”
He said his personal lawyer, Rudy Giulaini, “didn’t say good things” about her.
Mr Giuliani has come up repeatedly in the impeachment hearings as witnesses say he was in charge of an irregular channel of US-Ukraine relations.
Trump said, “She said bad things about me, she wouldn’t defend me, and I have the right to change the ambassador.”
He said, “The standard is you put the president of the United States’ picture in the embassy. This was not an angel, this woman, OK?”
It was not the first time the president has attacked Ms Yovanovitch.
The Republican president caused a stir by lambasting her in a tweet while she was testifying last Friday – a move that Democrats argued amounted to witness intimidation.
