Are we seeing a clash between career diplomats and the Trump administration?
Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee and former State Department official David Tafuri weigh in.
After Marie Yovanovitch called out President Trump for “hollowing out” the State Department during her testimony Friday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee defended the commander-in-chief, saying that the removal of unelected officials is the consequence of winning an election.
“All this hand wringing is just absurd and it is just an indication that this [impeachment inquiry] is about the hatred of Donald Trump. Not because it’s some great big difference in the way things have been done,” Huckabee told “The Story with Martha McCallum” on Friday.
“The people elected him and foreign policy is the domain of the elected official and not the unelected bureaucrats.”
YOVANOVITCH TESTIMONY OVERSHADOWED BY PARTISAN BRAWL OVER TRUMP TWEET
Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, called out Trump during her testimony for cutting the State Department budget while increasing military spending.
“The State Department as a tool of foreign policy often doesn’t get the same type of attention or even respect as the military might of the Pentagon," she said. "But we are, as they say, the pointy end of the spear. If we lose our edge, the U.S. will inevitably have to use other tools, even more than it does today.”
“This is not the time to undercut our diplomats,” Yovanovitch added.
TRUMP ATTACKS MARIE YOVANOVITCH DURING IMPEACHMENT HEARING, SAYS EVERYWHERE SHE WENT 'TURNED BAD’
On Twitter, Trump said the cuts were necessary to save taxpayer money.
Earlier in the hearing, Yovanovitch delivered a dramatic personal account Friday of her recall as ambassador amid a campaign against her by Trump associates. She told lawmakers that she believes that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani played a key role in her recall by telling people she was not sufficiently supportive of the president.
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“Donald Trump came in, intentionally, to be a disruptor and he’s every bit of that," Huckabee said. "But that’s what he said he was going to do and I think people ought to not be so shocked that he has disrupted the normal flow of the way policy has worked.”
Fox News' Adam Shaw and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.