Letter to the editor: Attack on Yovanovitch was cruel

Even in this era of “alternative facts,” of reason being stood on its head, Elizabeth Gaston Barsoum’s letter “Yovanovitch’s intimidation claim laughable” is stunning for its cruelty and lack of compassion.

One of the lowest lows in an administration which perpetrates atrocities on an almost daily basis was President Trump’s smear campaign against former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, an honorable individual who served 33 years in the federal government under presidents of both major political parties until the advent of the bull-in-the-china-shop presidency.

Under Trump, the ambassador somehow became “bad news,” an individual whom “trouble” followed. She was yanked from her post in the midst of diplomatic duty she was performing and without explanation ordered to come home on the next flight. Trump said Yovanovitch would be “going through some things,” what I view as an implicit threat to her safety from the most powerful man in the world, one who has endorsed violence.

During her testimony before Congress, Trump viciously attacked her — by tweet, of course, the preferred path of a coward. To Barsoum, I guess this was nothing, Yovanovitch’s fears overblown and a sign of weakness, something that Barsoum, who said she is a former Foreign Service employee, would have us believe she would graciously accept since she is tougher than Yovanovitch. Shame on you.

Oren Spiegler

Peters