President Donald Trump attack on former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch is “exactly” what Republicans hoped wouldn’t happen during the impeachment hearings, according to Fox News’ senior Capitol Hill producer.

As Yovanovitch testified during the second public House impeachment hearing on Friday, Trump said on Twitter that everywhere she “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,” he tweeted.

Fox’s Chad Pergram said the move “played into Dems hands as they wanted to portray Yovanovitch as a sympathetic figure.”

“We didn’t need that,” a senior GOP source told him.

Trump’s tweet attacking Yovanovitch is exactly what GOPers didn’t want to have happen. Played into Dems hands as they wanted to portray Yovanovitch as a sympathetic figure. “We didn’t need that.” That’s what a Senior GOP source tells Fox about the President’s tweet.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) November 15, 2019

At least one Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee has spoken out against Trump’s attack.

“I disagree with the tweet. I think Ambassador Yovanovitch is a public servant, like many of our public servants in the foreign service,” said GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, however, defended it.

Jim Jordan defends Trump tweet: “Look, the President has been frustrated with this relentless attack on him by the Democrats that started even before he was president. I think the American people can relate to the frustration,” per @byrdinator

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2019

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