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President floundered in conversation with Axios, claiming Covid-19 was ‘under control’ and attacking mail-in voting
Donald Trump stumbled through his second damaging interview in as many weeks, floundering in a conversation with the news website Axios over key issues he is tasked with responding to as president.
It’s been just over two weeks since the president made a series of shocking statements in a one-on-one interview with Fox News, but he packed another host of extraordinary claims into a 37-minute interview released on Monday night by Axios.
Donald Trump visibly floundered in an interview when pressed on a range of issues, including the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US, his claims that mail-in voting is fraudulent, and his inaction over the “Russian bounty” scandal.
The US president also repeatedly cast doubt on the cause of death of Jeffrey Epstein, and said of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who has pleaded not guilty to participating in the sex-trafficking of girls by Epstein, that he wished her well.
New York prosecutors argue they are justified in seeking Trump’s tax returns because of public reports of “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.”
Expanding on our earlier post, lawyers from the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that in court on Monday.
Manhattan District Attorney District Attorney Cyrus Vance is seeking eight years of the Republican president’s personal and corporate tax records, but has disclosed little about what prompted him to request the records, other than part of the investigation is related to payoffs made to women to keep them quiet about alleged affairs with Trump.
In their court filing Monday, though, attorneys for Vance said Trump’s arguments that the subpoena was too broad stemmed from “the false premise” that the probe was limited to so-called “hush-money” payments.
Trump just answered questions from reporters at the White House, expanding on his threat to ban Tik Tok, disagreeing with Fauci, and again promoting hydroxychloroquine, even as top administration officials acknowledge that there is no evidence the drug is an effective treatment for the virus.
Responding to a handful of questions on Monday afternoon, Trump said the social media platform Tik Tok must be sold to Microsoft or another company by 15 September or it will be shut down in US. He also said the Treasury should receive payment as a portion of any deal between the social media platform and a US company.
In a modern first, the press will not be present when the GOP votes to renominate Donald Trump for president
The media will be barred from the Republican national convention where Donald Trump is set to be renominated as presidential candidate later this month, a spokeswoman said on Saturday, citing coronavirus restrictions.
While Trump called off the public components of the convention in Florida last month, citing spiking cases of the virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, on 24 August to formally vote to make Trump the GOP standard-bearer once more.
Analysis: as the former president eulogized a civil rights hero, his beleaguered successor seemed intent on undermining faith in democracy
Join us for a live digital event with the former US attorney general Eric Holder to discuss voter suppression in the 2020 election, Thursday at 5pm ET. Register now
They were six hours that defined two Americas as well as exposing the magnitude of the decision facing voters in November.
At 8.30am on Thursday, the US government announced that gross domestic product had suffered the biggest decline on record because of a coronavirus-induced shutdown. Minutes later, Donald Trump warned on Twitter that “2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history” – and suggested that it should be postponed.
Federal agents accused of behaving like an 'occupying army' are said to be pulling out of Portland, Oregon, in an embarrassing climbdown by the White House, but many protesters are sceptical over whether the agents will actually withdraw from the city.
The force, which have been dubbed by some as 'Donald Trump’s troops', were sent in by the president a month ago to end what he called 'anarchy' during Black Lives Matter protests sparked after the police killing of George Floyd.
The Guardian's Chris McGreal looks at what Trump was hoping to gain by sending paramilitaries into the city, if and how they will leave, and how their presence has fuelled anger among most residents
The presumptive Democrat presidential nominee is picking a path through the perilous politics of the economy and the climate crisis
Faced with a disgruntled climate voter during the primary season who wanted him to be tougher on the oil and gas industry, Joe Biden shot him one of his infamous “why don’t you go vote for someone else” responses.
Intelligence services reportedly targeting American and western audiences to exploit crisis ahead of US presidential election
US officials say Russian intelligence services are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November.
Two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscow’s military intelligence service known as the GRU have been identified as responsible for a disinformation effort reaching American and western audiences, US government officials said on Tuesday. They spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
On Friday, the US supreme court ruled against a Nevada church which said coronavirus-inspired limits on attendance were unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s four liberals on the case, causing further angst on the right.
Now, the Associated Press reports that “more than 40 people were infected with the coronavirus after attending a multi-day revival event at a north Alabama Baptist church, according to the congregation’s pastor.
“The whole church has got it, just about,” Al.com quoted pastor Daryl Ross of Warrior Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Marshall county as saying.
The pastor says the churchgoers, including himself, tested positive after the congregation held a series of religious services featuring a guest pastor over several days last week.
There has been another night of trouble in Portland, where protesters for policing reform and against structural racism have been out every night since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis at the end of May.
Once again, confrontations centered on the federal courthouse in downtown Portland, where agents sent in by Trump are based.
Fears that voter suppression would keep significant numbers of voters from the ballot box have been exacerbated by Covid-19
The 2020 election is shaping up to be a presidential contest unlike any other in American history.
Even before the pandemic, there were deep concerns over how voter suppression would shut significant numbers of Americans out of the ballot box. Covid-19 has exacerbated those fears as states rapidly ramp up their vote by mail apparatus to curb long lines and crowds at the polls.
Donald Trump signed four executive orders related to prescription drug pricing at a White House event with HHS secretary Alex Azar and Florida governor Rod DeSantis, among others. Most attendees at the event wore masks, but Trump did not.
The executive orders come as Trump appears to have all but given up on controlling the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 145,000 people in the US – by far the most of any country.
Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong in Oakland, California, picking up the live blog for the rest of your Friday afternoon.
Yesterday, a judge in King County, Washington ordered five Seattle news outlets to comply with a subpoena and turn over unpublished video and photos from a 30 May protest.
Michele Matassa Flores, the Seattle Times’ executive editor, said the paper strongly opposed the subpoena and “believes it puts our independence, and even our staff’s physical safety, at risk.
“The media exist in large part to hold governments, including law enforcement agencies, accountable to the public,” Matassa Flores said. “We don’t work in concert with government, and it’s important to our credibility and effectiveness to retain our independence from those we cover.”
This ruling enforcing the subpoena is beyond disappointing. The right to protect sources and material exists so the press isn't used as an arm of law enforcement.
Journalists' work is protected, which is why we supported the challenge to this subpoena.https://t.co/OQEVLENdXz
This turns journalists into an arm of the government. We are not here to do surveillance for police. https://t.co/wlu4XAEgo3
As the federal government pledges to send federal law enforcement to cities, and Donald Trump and William Barr connect Black Lives Matter protest against police brutality to alleged spikes in violence, here’s some more context to keep in mind: this isn’t the first time people have pointed to an increase in crime following protests against unjust policing.
It happened in 2014, after the police killing of Michael Brown sparked national protests. Police called it “the Ferguson effect” and argued that protesters had made police afraid to do their jobs.
“Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words sometimes do not align with his intentions,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories.
“I said it’s going away – and it is going away,”a defiant Donald Trump claimed about Covid-19 on 3 April, when about 300,000 cases of the virus had been reported across the country.
At the time, Trump was enjoying a brief surge in approval ratings. But the virus obviously did not go away – more than 3.8m cases have now been reported, and latest polls show that Trump may pay the price for his handling of the crisis in the November elections.
The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19 that could help track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
The report, Tracking Covid-19 in the United States, paints a bleak picture of the country’s response to the disease. Five months into the pandemic, the essential intelligence that would allow public health authorities to get to grips with the virus is still not being compiled in usable form.
Trump, who has been boasting about the country’s coronavirus testing for months, was right in saying that the US has dramatically ramped up testing and is now testing a higher proportion of citizens than many other countries.
Opponents warn of grave threat to civil liberties as observers say president seeks to build ‘law and order’ credentials
Donald Trump has vowed to send federal officers to several American cities led by Democrats in what critics say is an attempt to play the “law and order” card to boost his bid for re-election.
The president’s threat came after a federal crackdown on anti-racism protests in Portland, Oregon, that involved unmarked cars and unidentified forces in camouflage.
Trump unexpectedly called reporters in to the Oval Office for an update on the discussions about Senate Republicans’ coronavirus relief bill.
The president said the discussions were going well, and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin added that he and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows would brief Republicans on the talks tomorrow.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has released a statement criticizing the Republican coronavirus relief bill as inadequate.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter to the Senate Democratic caucus, Schumer specifically questioned majority leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to craft the bill “behind the closed doors of his office.”
Senator McConnell is writing a COVID bill that will prioritize corporate special interests over workers and main street businesses, and will fail to adequately address the worsening spread of COVID.
Workers and families and people—not special interests—must be our main focus. pic.twitter.com/VzdFE93hTA