On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s special coverage of the House Intelligence Committees public so-called impeachment inquiry hearings, John Dean, the ex-White House counsel for Richard Nixon, said President Donald Trump’s tweet about former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was “criminal.”

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. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2019

Dean said, “It’s almost breathtaking, that he’s — that the president is live-tweeting this and he’s tweeting intimidation. This is criminal. This is — there’s a statute that prohibits that very kind of activity, and he’s just not letting up.”

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