Laughter breaks out inside hearing room as Dem mocks GOP’s attempts to downplay smear campaign against Yovanovitch

During the second public House impeachment hearing this Friday, Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) took a dig at President Trump in light of testimony from former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who recounted how she became the target of a smear campaign orchestrated by Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, along with the help of the right-wing news media. After her ouster from her position, Yovanovitch returned to Washington and took up a role as a senior State Department fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

"It's like a Hallmark movie -- you ended up at Georgetown. This is all okay," Quigley said sarcastically, prompting laughter from the room.

"But it wasn't your preference seven or eight months ago, correct?" he asked Yovanovitch.

"No, it was not," she replied.

"It wasn't your preference to be the victim of a smear campaign, was it?" he asked.

"No."

"It wasn't your preference to be defamed by the President of the United States, including today, was it?" Quigley asked, referring to Trump's alleged attempt to intimidate Yovanovitch in the midst of her testimony.

"No."

Quigley then homed in on the fact that Yovanovitch would have preferred to finish her ambassadorship rather than be thrust into being one of the key players in Trump's latest scandal.

"It's not the end of a Hallmark movie," Quigley continued. "It's the end of a really bad reality TV show, brought to you by someone who knows a lot about that."

Watch the exchange below: