An ambassador who made the sacrifice to serve America for more than three decades was smeared, attacked, and intimidated by a president of the United States as part of an effort to further his political ambitions and spread conspiracy theories raised by, and beneficial to, Vladimir Putin. When that ambassador had the courage to publicly speak out about these events, the president smeared, attacked, and intimidated her in real time for the entire world to see. No one with a scintilla of patriotism, a modicum of loyalty, or a shred of human decency could possibly defend this despicable, thuggish behavior by the president, or the grievous damage it has done, and is doing, to America. It’s really that simple.

+ Marie Yovanovitch’s opening statement: “At the closed deposition, I expressed grave concerns about the degradation of the Foreign Service over the past few years and the failure of State Department leadership to push back as foreign and corrupt interests apparently hijacked our Ukraine policy. I remain disappointed that the Department’s leadership and others have declined to acknowledge that the attacks against me and others are dangerously wrong.”

+ The White House (for some reason) released an earlier call between Trump and Zelenskiy. It was nearly as perfect as the next call. “When I owned Miss Universe, they always had great people. Ukraine was always very well represented.”

+ Here’s the latest from the impeach pit from WaPo and NYT.

+ NPR: Trump asks Supreme Court to block New York subpoenas for his tax records. (Hiding the truth. It’s a full time job.)