Aaron Zelinsky says prosecutors were under pressure to go easy on Stone because of his relationship with the president
A federal prosecutor who was part of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation told Congress on Wednesday Roger Stone, a close ally of Donald Trump, was given special treatment before sentencing because of his relationship with the US president.
Related: US appeals court orders judge to dismiss case against Michael Flynn
Continue reading...The numerous challenges of 2020 have hit Trump hard – but the conditions are ripe for a repeat surprise victory, some experts say
If Donald Trump wins the 2020 election and returns to the White House it won’t be by a landslide. And if he’s going to win at all he will need the US economy to rebound, to see suburban voters swing back in his direction, and overwhelm voters with a sense of optimism about another term under Trump.
That’s the verdict of about a dozen Republican veteran political strategists and operatives spoken to by the Guardian. Those priorities underscore the precarious situation the US president finds himself in. Most national and statewide polls show the former vice-president Joe Biden leading Trump, often by comfortable margins.
Continue reading...The US president has said he would issue an executive order regarding historical monuments, as the movement to remove Confederate-era statues and other memorials considered racist gains momentum across the country. Calls to take the monuments down follow a wave of protests after the 25 May death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by police in Minneapolis. Ongoing demonstrations have accompanied calls to address racism in policing and other reforms.
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Arwa Mahdawi’s latest column for us has arrived - she’s looking at why Trump believes playing the victim will help him win in November.
Donald Trump will not go gentle into that good night: he will rage, rage, rage-tweet against the dying of his might. Indeed, he is already doing so. After a humiliating turnout at Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma – which capped one of the worst weeks of his presidency – Trump’s re-election chances look shakier by the day. Rattled and belligerent, he seems to be gearing up to contest a defeat in November.
Related: Presidential harassment! Why Trump believes playing the victim will help him win
Donald Trump will be in Arizona today, and his visit is not entirely welcomed by the state’s official. Arizona will be a key battleground in November, but it is also a coronavirus hotspot - it has reported over 11,000 new Covid-19 cases in the last four days alone.
The Democratic mayor of Phoenix, Kate Gallego, has said that she does not believe that Trump’s planned speech can be safely held in the city. She urged him to wear a face mask - as she does on her own official Twitter avatar - saying “Everyone attending tomorrow’s event, particularly any elected official, should set an example to residents by wearing a mask. This includes the President.”
Continue reading...President heads to Arizona for border-wall event in what amounts to a relaunch of a relaunch
Donald Trump flies to Arizona on Tuesday under pressure to change course in his re-election bid after a dismal week culminated in the debacle of thousands of empty seats at a campaign rally.
The US president was reportedly angry on Saturday when his first rally in three months, a defiant gamble amid the coronavirus pandemic intended as a daunting show of force, backfired with poor attendance in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a Republican heartland.
Continue reading...Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, defended Trump’s use of the phrase during his Saturday rally. Speaking during a press briefing on Monday, McEnany said Trump was linking coronavirus 'to its place of origin'
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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEanny said Trump was “very pleased” with his Saturday rally, even though there were thousands of unfilled seats in the Tulsa arena.
McEnany’s claim is at odds with multiple reports that Trump has privately lashed out against campaign officials for reports highlighting the event’s attendance.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump’s use of the racist phrase “kung flu” to describe coronavirus during his Saturday rally.
“He is linking it to its place of origin,” McEnany said of the president’s use of the phrase.
Related: Donald Trump calls Covid-19 'kung flu' at Tulsa rally
Continue reading...Exclusive: Christopher Steele claims May government turned blind eye to Trump allegations
Boris Johnson and Theresa May ignored claims the Kremlin had a “likely hold” over Donald Trump and may have covertly funded Brexit, the former spy Christopher Steele alleges in secret evidence given to MPs who drew up the Russia report.
In testimony to MPs, the MI6 veteran accused the government led by May and in which Johnson was foreign secretary for two years of turning a blind eye to allegations about Trump because they were afraid of offending the US president.
Continue reading...The White House fired back at John Bolton on Sunday, seeking to rubbish a key claim in the former national security adviser’s bombshell new book, that Donald Trump asked Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, for help in winning re-election.
Related: Trump's Berman-SDNY disaster suggests William Barr is not so smart after all | Lloyd Green
Continue reading...Trade adviser also claims without foundation that the virus ‘was a product of the Chinese Communist party’
White House adviser Peter Navarro claimed Donald Trump was being “tongue-in-cheek” when he claimed to have asked public health officials to slow down coronavirus testing.
Related: Donald Trump sows division and promises 'greatness' at Tulsa rally flop
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, was under pressure on Sunday after claiming hundreds of thousands of people had applied for tickets to the president’s return to the campaign trail in Tulsa, only for the rally to attract a sparse crowd.
Related: Trump 'played' by K-pop fans and TikTok users who disrupted Tulsa rally
Continue reading...The ex-national security adviser is no hero or martyr and certainly no prose stylist either. What counts is how damaging his memoir will be
John Bolton’s near-600-page tome is the most damning written account by a Trump administration alumnus, the one that stands to haunt the president come November. In the author’s judgment, “I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job.” Joe Biden couldn’t say it better himself.
Related: John Bolton: judge declines to block tell-all Trump book
Continue reading...Testing a ‘double-edged sword’, says Trump; Chile death toll nearly doubles; Australian state ‘absolutely at risk’ of second peak
Donald Trump told thousands of supporters on Saturday that he had asked US officials to slow down testing for Covid-19 because case numbers in the country were rising so rapidly.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the US president used racist language, referring to Covid-19 as “kung flu”, and described testing for the virus as a “double-edged sword” because it led to the identification of more cases.
Continue reading...Donald Trump calls the coronavirus 'kung flu' and 'the Chinese virus' during a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday night. The US president also tells the crowd that he had asked his people to slow down Covid-19 testing across the country because it would find more cases
Continue reading...US president’s much hyped return turned to humiliation when he failed to fill arena in Republican stronghold of Oklahoma
Donald Trump declared “the silent majority is stronger than ever before” at his comeback rally on Saturday, but thousands of empty seats appeared to tell a different story.
The US president’s much hyped return to the campaign trail turned to humiliation when he failed to fill a 19,000-capacity arena in the Republican stronghold of Oklahoma, raising fresh doubts about his chances of winning re-election.
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It has been seven weeks since Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis took a coronavirus “victory lap”, pressing ahead with a swift reopening program while berating the media for a “doom and gloom” approach he said bore little relation to reality.
“We haven’t seen an explosion of new cases,” DeSantis insisted during a 29 April news conference, a day on which the state’s Covid-19 tally increased by 347.
Robert Mueller and his investigators thought it possible Donald Trump lied to them about conversations with Roger Stone, according to previously redacted sections of the special counsel’s report which were were released on Friday night.
The release, part of litigation over portions of Mueller’s findings which remain secret, was largely overshadowed by US attorney general William Barr’s announcement of the resignation of the attorney for the southern district of New York, Geoffrey Berman, who then denied he was stepping down.
Continue reading...William Barr said Geoffrey Berman had stepped down, a fact denied by the influential attorney involved in investigations of Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen
US attorney general William Barr announced the resignation on Friday of an influential attorney who oversaw key prosecutions of allies of Donald Trump and an investigation into Rudy Giuliani – but it appeared the attorney in question had other ideas.
Related: White House defends Bolton hiring as Trump administration tries to block book
Continue reading...Donald Trump threatens protesters and ‘lowlifes’ as mass rally draws outrage from black communities with counter rallies expected
The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma is braced for Donald Trump’s first campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States, claiming more than 118,000 lives so far, plunging the economy into recession, and leading to widespread criticism of the president’s botched response to a crisis that has seen his approval ratings tank in recent polls.
The indoor rally, at Tulsa’s 19,000-person capacity BOK Center, comes as the city and the state of Oklahoma experience a surge in Covid-19 cases and local public health officials urge the campaign to reschedule the event over fears that the close contact between attendees – who will not be forced to wear face masks – could lead to more deaths.
Continue reading...The Rev Al Sharpton condemns President Donald Trump while speaking at the Juneteenth celebration in Tulsa, Oklahoma
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In Oakland, thousands rallied with members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), whose workers arranged a strike at 29 ports up and down the West Coast.
I was there, earlier today. The union workers were joined by a motorcycle brigade, a car caravan, a fleet of cyclists, and thousands on foot. Activist and scholar Angela Davis and filmmaker Boots Riley addressed the crowd.
In Wisconsin, governor Tony Evers called on the state legislature to ban police chokeholds, among reforms that he unveiled today.
The Democratic governor did not ask for a special legislative session to take up the policy as soon as possible, as the Brack Legislative Caucus had requested.
Our country promises the opportunity of justice and equity and in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the calls for justice across our state and nation, and as we celebrate Juneteenth today, we are called to deliver on that promise.
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