Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch compared herself to the diplomats and contractors killed in Benghazi in her opening statement in the second public impeachment inquiry on Friday.

“We make a difference everyday,” she said in a defense of herself and diplomats serving around the world. She continued:

We are people who repeatedly uproot our lives, who risk and sometimes give our lives for this country. We are the 52 Americans, who, 40 years ago this month, began 444 days of deprivation, torture, and captivity in Tehran. We are the dozens of Americans stationed at our embassies in Cuba, and consulates in China whom mysteriously and dangerously, and perhaps in some cases, perhaps even permanently, were injured and attacked from unknown sources several years ago. And we are Ambassador Chris Stevens, Shawn Patrick Smith, Ty Woods, and Glen Doherty, people rightly called heroes for their ultimate sacrifice to this nation’s foreign policy interests in Libya eight years ago.

Her comparison of herself to those who were killed in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack prompted derision and disgust by some observers.

“Amb Yovanovitch’s invoking of those killed in Benghazi — in a bid to protect herself — during this impeachment inquiry is utterly sickening,” Benjamin Weingarten, a senior contributor to The Federalist tweeted:

Amb Yovanovitch's invoking of those killed in Benghazi — in a bid to protect herself — during this impeachment inquiry is utterly sickening — Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) November 15, 2019

“It is a disgrace that Yovanovitch invoked the names of true American heroes during her self righteous tirade. She muddied the names of Ambassador Stephens and Tyrone Woods with her personal failure and short comings,” a former senior national security official told Breitbart News.

“Yovanovitch had a reputation amongst foreign service officers of being particularly partisan. She repeatedly denigrated the President and many of her embassy staff passed complaints regarding this behavior to Foggy Bottom,” the former official said.

MNSBC News analyst Elise Jordan on Friday compared Trump’s comment in the July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, where he said Yovanovitch “would go through some things” to the threat that those in Benghazi faced.

She said:

Remember a time when everyone was really concerned about Benghazi and did the State Department, did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, did the Obama administration do enough to protect Ambassador Stevens and the other diplomats serving at that hardship post? And we literally have the President of the United States targeting an ambassador. You have the threat coming in from the desk at the State Department, diplomatic security, what are they just being left out there, you know, protecting an ambassador and left out high and dry. This is just — it is, it’s criminal!

Follow Breitbart News’s @Kristina_Wong.