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Joe Biden’s national security tour of south-east Asia reached Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, where the president called for stability in the US-China relationship against an increasingly complex diplomatic picture in the region for his country.

“I don’t want to contain China,” Biden said.

I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it’s all about.

On the one hand, we’ve got to pass a continuing resolution. We also have the impeachment issue. And we also have members of the House, led by my good friend, Chip Roy, who are concerned about policy issues. They want riders in the appropriations bills, amendments in the appropriations bills that guarantee some type of security on our Southern border.

There is not a strong connection at this point between the evidence on Hunter Biden and any evidence connecting the president.

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Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro found guilty of contempt of Congress – as it happened

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The latest poll, which shows Donald Trump and Joe Biden virtually tied in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, paints a picture of a pessimistic and divided nation ahead of the most unprecedented election in modern times, according to a CNN report.

The survey’s findings pose the question of whether an 80-year-old Biden with a 39% approval rating is really the Democratic party’s strongest bet for next year’s election, the report says. But the president’s grip on his own party remains unshaken.

By definition in a 50-50 nation, a president facing majority disapproval across a slate of issues must be alienating independents. Those voters break for Biden over Trump, but the president gets poor marks from the cohort. Such vulnerability might encourage anyone mulling a third-party bid for the presidency – like strategists with No Labels, who held an event featuring West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin over the summer. The group says it will only field a candidate if there’s a chance of victory. But analysts warn that a third-party candidate could doom a weakened Biden and help Trump win a non-consecutive second term if he is the Republican nominee.

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White House set for Hunter Biden battle as Republicans look to pounce

Republicans energized after special counsel seeks indictment of president’s son by end of September on gun possession charge

The White House is bracing for political trench warfare after prosecutors pursuing Joe Biden’s son on a gun possession charge said they would seek a criminal indictment by the end of September.

The prospect of Hunter Biden standing trial is likely to energise Republicans preparing to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president even as Congress tries to avert a government shutdown.

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Federal prosecutors seek new indictment against Hunter Biden

Exact charges president’s son would face were not immediately clear but indictment to come by 29 September at earliest

Federal prosecutors are seeking to bring a new indictment against Joe Biden’s son Hunter by the end of September, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.

The exact charges the president’s son would face were not immediately clear, but he has been under investigation in Delaware on gun and tax charges.

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Hunter Biden lawyers say collapsed plea deal on gun charge remains valid

Response to federal prosecutors’ move to render plea deal moot comes days after appointment of David Weiss to special counsel

Lawyers for Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden who has been under a years-long federal investigation over failing to pay taxes and, separately, illegally possessing a gun, said that part of the plea deal which unexpectedly fell apart in July remains “valid and binding”, in a Sunday court filing.

Federal prosecutors, led by US attorney David Weiss, had on Friday asked the court to cancel its request that the two sides reach a renewed agreement on the deal “since there is no longer a plea agreement or diversion agreement for the Court to consider”.

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Merrick Garland appointing special counsel in Hunter Biden investigation

US attorney general makes announcement deepening inquiry into Joe Biden’s son ahead of 2024 election

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, sent shockwaves through US politics on Friday when he announced he is appointing a special counsel in the Hunter Biden inquiry, deepening the investigation of the president’s son ahead of the 2024 election.

The move is a momentous development from the usually cautious Garland and comes amid a pair of sweeping justice department investigations into Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s election.

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Joe Biden says ‘I have seven grandkids’ after acknowledging four-year-old Navy

President had previously failed to publicly mention Navy, daughter from Hunter Biden’s relationship with Lunden Roberts

For the first time in an interview, Joe Biden acknowledged he has seven grandchildren, including Hunter Biden’s four-year-old daughter Navy.

“I have seven grandkids,” the president said, “five of ’em old enough to talk on the phone, you know, every day I either text or call them.”

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Donald Trump expects indictment ‘any day now’ in 2020 election subversion case – as it happened

The blog is now closed, but you can read more about Donald Trump’s swirling legal peril here.

A judge in Georgia turned down an attempt by Donald Trump to stop Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis’s investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the state. Over the weekend, Willis said she could announce charges in the case anytime between now and the first day of September. Meanwhile, a former business partner of Hunter Biden reported for an interview with the Republican-led House oversight committee, as the GOP toys with the idea of starting impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden when they return from their August recess.

Here’s what else has happened today:

Trump is in a historically good position to win the Republican presidential primary, CNN concludes.

At a weekend rally in Pennsylvania, Trump called for stopping aid to Ukraine until the government helps prove alleged corruption by the Biden family.

Ron DeSantis’s once-promising presidential campaign is suffering from both Republican defections and his own missteps.

Trump is not only in a historically strong position for a nonincumbent to win the Republican nomination, but he is in a better position to win the general election than at any point during the 2020 cycle and almost at any point during the 2016 cycle.

No one in Trump’s current polling position in the modern era has lost an open presidential primary that didn’t feature an incumbent. He’s pulling in more than 50% of support in the national primary polls, i.e., more than all his competitors combined.

What should arguably be more amazing is that despite most Americans agreeing that Trump’s two indictments thus far were warranted, he remains competitive in a potential rematch with President Joe Biden. A poll out last week from Marquette University Law School had Biden and Trump tied percentage-wise (with a statistically insignificant few more respondents choosing Trump).

The Marquette poll is one of a number of surveys showing Trump either tied or ahead of Biden. The ABC News/Washington Post poll has published three surveys of the matchup between the two, and Trump has come out ahead – albeit within the margin of error – every time. Other pollsters have shown Biden only narrowly ahead.

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Republicans crying wolf over Hunter Biden have hurt their own cause

The GOP is obsessed with the president’s son, but the party’s attacks make it difficult to discern legitimate concern from crazy conspiracies

“Sweetheart deal!” “Two-tiered justice!” “Mere traffic ticket!”

Republicans had their applause lines ready on Tuesday when Joe Biden’s son Hunter struck a plea deal over unpaid taxes, and gun possession while being a drug user, that is likely to keep him out of prison.

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Republicans grill ex-Twitter executives over handling of Hunter Biden story

Company temporarily restricted New York Post article in 2020 about contents of the abandoned computer of Joe Biden’s son

US lawmakers held a combative hearing on Wednesday with former senior staffers at Twitter over the social media platform’s handling of reporting on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

The proceedings set the stage for the agenda of a newly Republican-controlled House, underscoring its intention to hone in on longstanding and unsubstantiated allegations that big tech platforms have an anti-conservative bias.

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Republican targeting Hunter Biden says: ‘I don’t target individuals’

Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson grilled on why Jared Kushner should escape scrutiny for profiting from proximity to presidency

The Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson refused to say Republicans planning investigations of Hunter Biden for profiting from his connection to the presidency should also investigate Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser who secured a $1.2bn loan from Qatar while working in the White House.

“I’m concerned about getting to the truth,” Johnson insisted. “I don’t target individuals.”

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Tucker Carlson tried to use Hunter Biden to get his son into Georgetown

Emails reveal the ‘extent’ which Carlson was willing to turn on Biden’s son since the 2020 election, Washington Post says

As Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for help getting his son into an elite Washington university in 2014, the Fox News host’s wife, Susie, reportedly wrote in an email: “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!”

Since the 2020 election, however, Carlson has fueled rightwing attacks on Joe Biden’s son, particularly over business affairs in which he allegedly benefited from his father’s position.

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‘Mosquito in a nudist colony’: Republican Ron Johnson targets Fauci and Hunter Biden

Wisconsin senator says if GOP retakes control it will use committees to move against Democrats and Biden

Hunter Biden and Anthony Fauci will be prime targets of Senate Republicans should the party win control in November, a senior senator said.

Asked by the Hill what he would want to investigate should he control a committee with subpoena power, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said: “Like everything? It’s like a mosquito in a nudist colony, it’s a target-rich environment.”

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