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Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

President Donald Trump continued his attacks on ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and other witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry into whether he abused his office to pressure Ukraine to announce an investigation into political rivals.

“The ambassador, the woman” was an “Obama person,” Trump said in a phone interview with the “Fox & Friends” program Friday morning. “I said, why are you being so kind? Well, sir, she’s a woman, we have to be nice. She’s very tough, I heard bad things.”

“This ambassador, that everybody says is so wonderful, she wouldn’t hang my picture in the embassy, OK?’’ Trump said. “She’s in charge of the embassy. She wouldn’t hang it. It took like a year and a half or two years to get the picture up. She said bad things about me, she wouldn’t defend me, and I have the right to change an ambassador.”

Marie Yovanovitch Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Trump also maintained that he didn’t know U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland well. Sondland testified that there was a “quid pro quo” between Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 Democratic opponent, and assistance to Kyiv.

The president also questioned the veracity of David Holmes, a State Department employee in the embassy in Kyiv, who testified he overheard Trump on a phone call to Sondland asking about the investigations.

Trump said he wanted a full trial in the Senate and floated calling witnesses such as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff. But, when asked if he expected to be impeached by the House, he demurred.

“I think it’s very hard for them to impeach when they have absolutely nothing,” he said.

The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday wrapped two weeks of public hearings that featured 12 career diplomats, civil servants and political appointees who described how Trump, through his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, tried to solicit a foreign government to conduct investigations that could potentially help him in the 2020 presidential election.

David Holmes Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Holmes and former National Security Council aide Fiona Hill testified Thursday that Ukrainian officials understood that they would only get a White House meeting and security aid in exchange for investigations into Biden’s family and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.

Democrats Leave Trump in Suspense on Where Impeachment Goes Next

The Intelligence panel hasn’t yet said whether it will hold further public hearings in the impeachment investigation into Trump or work with other committees to develop articles of impeachment.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement Thursday that the Senate, which would try the president if he’s impacted, was“clearly the only chamber where he can expect fairness and receive due process under the Constitution.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he expects the Senate would hold a trial and that Trump would be acquitted. He hasn’t said how long that might take.

( Updates with additional Trump comments starting in second paragraph. An earlier version corrected the spelling of Yovanovitch’s name in headline and first and third paragraphs. )