Nancy Pelosi says Trump's Yovanovitch tweet was about his 'own insecurity as an impostor'

William Cummings | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Ambassador Yovanovitch 'intimidated' by Trump live tweets Ambassador Yovanovitch explains the effect of President Trump's tweets.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Donald Trump was "wrong" to tweet criticisms of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, during her testimony Thursday before the House Intelligence Committee, but she stopped short of saying the tweets constituted witness intimidation.

Yovanovitch was testifying in the second public hearing of the impeachment inquiry into allegations that Trump used military aid as leverage to pressure Ukraine into opening investigations that stood to benefit him politically. As she testified about her removal as ambassador, Trump tweeted: "Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go?"

Yovanovitch told Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., that she found the tweet "intimidating."

In a CBS News "Face the Nation" interview that aired Sunday, Pelosi said Trump "made a mistake" by posting the tweets. She said Trump knew Yovanovitch's "strength" and was "trying to undermine it."

Impeachment hearing: Intimidation among key takeaways from the Trump impeachment hearing with Marie Yovanovitch

"Of course, presidents appoint ambassadors, but people don't insult people, especially when they're giving testimony before the Congress of the United States," Pelosi said. "I think even his most ardent supporters have to honestly admit this is the wrong thing for the president to do."

Pelosi said the "words of a president weigh a ton" and "he should not frivolously throw out insults, but that's what he does."

"I think part of it is his own insecurity as an impostor. I think he knows full well that he's in that office way over his head. And so he has to diminish everyone else," she said.

When asked if she thought Trump was guilty of witness intimidation, Pelosi said: "I haven't had a lot of time to pay attention to the president's tweets and the legal implications of them. I just think that was totally wrong and inappropriate and typical of the president."

What does that mean? The Trump impeachment is all about an allegation of quid pro quo.

Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, who sits on the Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that "along with most people, I find the president's tweets generally unfortunate." But he added that it was "laughable" to claim the tweet amounted to an impeachable offense.

"It's certainly not impeachable, and it's certainly not criminal, and it's certainly not witness intimidation," Turner said, arguing that it could not have been intimidating because it did not stop Yovanovitch's testimony.

"But, nonetheless, I find the president's tweet unfortunate," he said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said he was struck by Pelosi's description of Trump as an "impostor" and said it was reflective of Democrats who "have been out to get this president."

Jordan, who joined the Intelligence Committee for the impeachment inquiry, said Trump was interested in making sure Ukraine's newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky was "the real deal" and was serious about battling corruption. As evidence Trump did nothing wrong, Jordan pointed to Zelensky's denials that he had been under any pressure and the fact that the aid was released without any investigations being opened.

But Pelosi said the aid was only released two days after Schiff was made aware of a whistleblower's complaint about a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky.

"The whistle was blown," she said.

Jordan said it was a coincidence that the whistleblower's complaint was given to the Intelligence Committee on Sept. 9 and the aid was released on Sept. 11.

"Remember, the aid didn't have to be released till September 30th," he said.

Pelosi – who fought some in her party who wished to impeach Trump after special counsel Robert Mueller released his report on Russian election meddling – said Democrats had not decided whether to ultimately impeach Trump in the matter. She said they would wait to see all the evidence in the inquiry before reaching a decision.

When asked about her statement Thursday that Trump appeared to have committed "bribery," Pelosi explained she was translating the Latin phrase "quid pro quo," which has often been used in the case.

"I was translating from the Latin," she said. "That was in the context of E Pluribus Unum. For many, one. And so I said for many, one. Quid pro quo. Bribery."

She said she would not allow Trump to "intimidate the whistleblower" and rejected the argument that Trump had a right to confront that person. But she said Trump was welcome to come before the Intelligence Committee and "speak all the truth that he wants."

The speaker said she was uncertain of the impeachment inquiry's timeline moving forward, saying, "we have open hearings for the next week. I don't know if there are any beyond that."

"Then we're out for Thanksgiving. Doesn't mean depositions couldn't be taken during that time," she said. "And then I have six committees who have been working on all of this, and those six chairmen have been very involved in how we will proceed."

Pelosi said the impeachment inquiry was "really a sad thing." And though she insisted she was waiting on the evidence, she said that "what the president did was so much worse than even what Richard Nixon did."

And "Richard Nixon cared about the country enough to recognize that this could not continue," she said.