President Trump was justified in removing former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch from her post, Sen. Tom Cotton said.

"He was told ... that she was 'running around Kyiv, badmouthing you, and saying that you're going to be impeached,'" Cotton said Sunday on Face the Nation. "The president has the right to remove any ambassador for any reason or no reason whatsoever. An ambassador badmouthing the president is a pretty sound reason to remove an ambassador."

Newly released audio and footage of a private April 2018 dinner between Trump and two associates of Rudy Giuliani show the president instructing them to "take her out" and "get rid of her." The dinner took place more than a year before Yovanovitch was fired in May 2019.

Yovanovitch provided testimony before a House committee late last year detailing concerns that she was removed from her post for standing in the way of a shadow diplomacy campaign waged by Giuliani and Lev Parnas in Ukraine. Giuliani and Parnas sought to convince the leaders of Ukraine to announce investigations into corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter.



“Badmouthing is a pretty good reason to fire an ambassador," @SenTomCotton tells @margbrennan in response to new CBS-obtained video of Trump calling to "get rid of" former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch pic.twitter.com/vTg2gHLqJw — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 26, 2020



Democrats argue that Yovanovitch is an example of a career destroyed by Trump's push to achieve domestic political outcomes while using the power of the presidency to do so. The House impeached Trump on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Cotton and other defenders of Trump, however, said Yovanovitch had to go.

"He was not hasty, he was not precipitous," Cotton said of Trump's decision to fire her.

The Arkansas senator twice compared the release of the recordings and video to the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"This reminds me a lot of what happened in [that] case, when the Democrats kept releasing supposed bombshells," Cotton said. "I think all we're missing here is Michael Avenatti to come out and defend someone as well."