Category Archives: Donald Trump

Roger Stone: prosecutors quit after DoJ signals plan to reduce sentence

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  • Department appears to lean on prosecutors for shorter term
  • Trump tweeted: ‘Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!’

Four lawyers who prosecuted political operative Roger Stone have resigned in protest after their sentencing recommendation was overruled and slashed by Donald Trump’s justice department.

Aaron Zelinsky, Jonathan Kravis, Adam Jed and Michael Marando quit the case while Democrats demanded an independent investigation into what they described as a dangerously politicised and corrupt justice department.

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Trump puts Cuban doctors in firing line as heat turned up on island economy

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After US allies expel foreign health missions, Havana warns that patients will pay the highest price for campaign against its scheme

A Cuban medical programme that has helped some of the world’s poorest communities has become the latest target of the Trump administration’s escalating attempts to pressure Havana’s faltering economy.

Dubbed “Cuban doctors”, the celebrated – if controversial – humanitarian medical mission was founded more than half a century ago in the aftermath of Fidel Castro’s revolution, in part to enhance the country’s international influence.

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Sanders and Buttigieg campaigns request partial recanvass of Iowa caucuses – as it happened

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The rallies still rage in New Hampshire tonight, but that’s it from us. Stay tuned for more news from our stellar politics team, who will have updates.

At the Trump rally in Manchester, a familiar chant has appeared to have turned on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

New Hampshire crowd chants "Lock her up!" after President Trump alluded to Nancy Pelosi "mumbling terribly behind me" during the State of the Union.

"There was a little anger back there," he said. "We're the ones who should be angry, not them." https://t.co/2OrQPtHreq pic.twitter.com/TkKtm2MxgM

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Facebook and Twitter reject Pelosi’s request to remove edited Trump video

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President posted video of House speaker tearing State of the Union address interspersed with clips of Trump lauding honorees

Facebook and Twitter have refused House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s request to remove a video posted by Donald Trump that was misleadingly edited to show her repeatedly tearing a paper copy of his State of the Union address while he was honoring a Tuskegee Airman and other attendees.

“The American people know that the President has no qualms about lying to them – but it is a shame to see Twitter and Facebook, sources of news for millions, do the same,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s chief of staff, said on Twitter. “The latest fake video of Speaker Pelosi is deliberately designed to mislead and lie to the American people, and every day that these platforms refuse to take it down is another reminder that they care more about their shareholders’ interests than the public’s interests.”

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Donald Trump cries fake news as image of dramatic orange tan line goes viral

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  • Photo from White House south lawn draws amusement
  • Indignant Trump says image ‘photoshopped, obviously’

An image of a windswept Donald Trump, which appears to show a dramatic forehead tan line through his blown-back blond hair, has gone viral – prompting the hashtag #orangeface to trend on Twitter.

Related: Klobuchar campaign says it has raised $2m in less than 24 hours since debate

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Alexander Vindman lawyer attacks Trump over ‘obviously false statements’

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  • Impeachment witness Vindman fired from White House job
  • David Pressman backs client and decries Trump ‘intimidation’

The lawyer for Lt Col Alexander Vindman condemned Donald Trump on Saturday for making “obviously false statements” about the decorated military veteran, after the president defended sacking him through several critical tweets.

Related: 'Real power is fear': what Machiavelli tells us about Trump in 2020

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His master’s voice? Jair Bolsonaro posts video of himself watching Trump rant

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Brazil’s president was accused of kowtowing with his 73-minute Facebook live stream but some see method in his obsequiousness

He has long styled himself as a tropical Trump – a socialist-skewering hard man fighting Brazilian carnage.

But in recent weeks Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has taken his fixation with the US leader to new heights, livestreaming himself on Facebook as he watched his political idol in action.

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Donald Trump’s ‘incredible’ week in three minutes – video report

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The president of the United States was greeted by applause for his State of the Union address where he painted a picture of his vision of the future of the US on Tuesday. The following day, Trump was acquitted of impeachment in the Senate with all but one Republican voting in his favour.

On Thursday, Trump held a speech he called a 'celebration'. A Gallup poll has put Trump’s approval rating at 49%, the highest level for that survey since 2017. And on top of that, the Democratic primary race got off to a slow and embarrassing start in Iowa after technical difficulties delayed results by almost 24 hours

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Power is everything – and progressives forget that at their peril | Jonathan Freedland

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As Boris Johnson and Donald Trump know, being in office means setting your own agenda

You take comfort where you can. Especially at a time like this, when the side of progress is beleaguered, when left or liberal values are taking a hammering on every front, apparently losing every battle, it’s natural to cling to whatever blanket of consolation we can find. When a single week can see Britain leave the European Union and Donald Trump bragging and swaggering in vengeful celebration as he escapes punishment for a high crime he clearly committed, the need for soothing can become intense. One such solace is that, despite the concrete defeats visible all around us, the left is somehow “winning the argument”.

Related: Without the BBC we could be facing a post-truth dystopia | Jonathan Freedland

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Fox News guests spread ‘disinformation’ – says leaked internal memo

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Among those named in document are frequent guests Rudy Giuliani, John Solomon, Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova

Fox News has a credibility problem. Most critics of the cable news network will be well aware of that, but in this case the admission is coming from Fox News itself.

An internal research briefing obtained by the Daily Beast names four regular contributors to the network for peddling “disinformation”, particularly when it comes to the Ukraine scandal that led to Donald Trump’s impeachment.

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Qassim al-Rimi: US forces killed al-Qaida leader in Yemen, Trump confirms

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Al-Rimi had claimed responsibility for a shooting at a Florida naval base, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors

Donald Trump confirmed on Thursday that a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.

Unconfirmed reports of his death, including indicative tweets from the president, have been circulating since 31 January, but the neither the Department of Defense nor the CIA had issued official confirmation.

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Trump responds to impeachment acquittal with rambling, vitriolic speech – as it happened

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  • Trump speaks at White House for first time since acquittal
  • Report shows Iowa caucus results ‘riddled with inconsistencies’
  • Buttigieg lead over Sanders narrowing in Iowa results
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Related: Trump unleashed: what's next for a president who feels invincible?

Both Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have claimed victory in Iowa, even as technical delays and reporting issues have prolonged the delay in tallying the Democratic caucus votes. Sanders has touted his raw vote tally; Buttigieg holds a narrow lead in the number of state delegate equivalents he’s amassed.

Both candidates will be speaking tonight in a CNN town hall ahead of the New Hampshire primary contest next week. Deval Patrick and Amy Klobuchar will be participating as well, answering questions from supporters and network hosts.

Related: Sanders and Buttigieg nearly tied in Iowa amid new claims of counting errors

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No 10 says Johnson’s row with Trump over Huawei was ‘overblown’

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US president was reportedly furious about PM’s decision to use Chinese 5G expertise

Downing Street has sought to play down the significance of a difficult phone call between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson over the UK’s decision to allow Chinese company Huawei to help build its 5G network.

Trump was reported by the FT to have been “apoplectic” about the decision taken by Johnson, and the phone call last week was said by one official to have been “very difficult” and tense.

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‘Dirty cops, leakers and liars’: Trump on impeachment acquittal – video

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Donald Trump spoke in the White House to supporters and Republicans in what he called 'a celebration' on Thursday, after being acquitted of impeachment in the Senate. 

The senators found Trump not guilty of the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, by a 52-48 tally, and not guilty of the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress, by a 53-47 tally.

Trump said the Democrats that impeached him were 'vicious and mean' saying Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi were 'horrible' people

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‘He’s impeached forever’: Nancy Pelosi on Trump’s acquittal – video

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Donald Trump would never get rid of the 'scar' of impeachment, in her first weekly press conference since Trump was acquitted by the Senate.

Pelosi also responded to Trump’s comments at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he implicitly insulted Pelosi and Republican senator Mitt Romney

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Donald Trump alludes to Mitt Romney and Nancy Pelosi in speech after acquittal – video

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The US president referenced support for his impeachment from both Mitt Romney and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, at the national prayer breakfast. He added: 'When they impeach you for nothing, then you are supposed to like them. It is not easy'

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Nancy Pelosi appears to prepare in advance to rip up Trump’s speech – video

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The US House speaker seemed to make a small tear in some pages of the text of Donald Trump's State of the Nation address almost an hour before she dramatically ripped it up at the end of the president's speech on Tuesday night.

The Senate has acquitted Trump of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress

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After Trump’s acquittal: new revelations will continue to trickle in

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The hollowness of the president’s acquittal after impeachment may be exposed as leaks and investigations soldier on

The Senate trial of Donald Trump has arrived at its preordained conclusion. The president has begun a victory lap to celebrate impunity and settle scores with a long list of enemies headed by Mitt Romney, while the Democrats return to their ill-starred primaries. But there are good reasons to believe that Ukraine, the reluctant focus of the impeachment battle, will continue to haunt US politics for some time to come.

Related: Trump tilts at Romney and Pelosi in first speech after impeachment acquittal – live

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‘Don’t do this again’: Schumer and McConnell clash over Trump acquittal – video

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The US senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer both held press conferences after the Senate acquitted Donald Trump on two impeachment charges. Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, said Americans knew that ‘this was one of the largest cover-ups in the history of our nation’, while McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, warned the House of Representatives: ‘Don’t do this again’

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The great escape: how Donald Trump survived impeachment

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How did Trump and his team pull off his successful defense? Here’s a look at key factors

Will historians find Donald Trump’s impeachment remarkable because Republican politicians turned a blind eye to such egregious wrongdoing and acquitted him? Or will they find it remarkable because it was the last time a cadre of Republican officials publicly turned against Trump?

While most of the career civil servants who defied the president by testifying in the impeachment inquiry do not publicly identify as Republican, many were Trump appointees with strong Republican ties, while other key figures such as former national security adviser John Bolton are wizened party warriors.

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