Category Archives: US Politics

White House says it will not comply with impeachment inquiry – as it happened

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Eight-page letter to House Democratic leaders claims investigation is effort to overturn 2016 election

Here’s a recap of today:

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced visa restrictions on Chinese officials suspected of being involved in “a highly repressive campaign against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang).”

Earlier today, the US commerce department issued a list of 28 state security bureaus and tech companies in China that it said are being used to suppress muslims and other ethnic minorities.

Related: US restricts visas for Chinese officials over internment of Muslim minorities

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Donald Trump isolated as Republican allies revolt over US withdrawal from Syria

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Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell lead condemnation of foreign policy move that could prove ‘disaster in the making’

Donald Trump was dangerously isolated on Monday as, in a rare rebuke, some of his most loyal allies revolted against his decision to withdraw US troops from north-eastern Syria.

Related: US withdrawal from Syria leaves fate of Isis fighters and families in detention uncertain

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Mitch McConnell criticizes Trump’s Syria withdrawal in rare show of defiance – live

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The secretary of defense for public affairs, Jonathan Hoffman, said in a statement it does not support a Turkish operation in northern Syria.

Despite the president giving a green light for that to occur, the defense department’s statement claims that their position is in tune with the presidents.

The Department of Defense made clear to Turkey - as did the President - that we do not endorse a Turkish operation in Northern Syria. The US Armed Forces will not support, or be involved in any such operation.

In conversations between the Department and the Turkish military we have consistently stressed that coordination and cooperation were the best path toward security in the area. Secretary Esper and Chairman Milley reiterated to their respective Turkish counterparts that unilateral action creates risks for Turkey. As the President has stated, Turkey would be responsible, along with European nations and others, for thousands of ISIS fighters who had been captured and defeated in the campaign lead by the United States.

The homeland security department released a statement in response to the department’s acting secretary, Kevin McAleenan, deciding not to speak after protestors interrupted his remarks at an immigration conference this morning.

The department said McAleenan’s right to free speech and assembly were “robbed.”

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Erratic Trump struggles to control message as impeachment threat grows

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Republican defenders mostly silent, with two vivid exceptions, as at least one additional whistleblower steps forward

As Donald Trump strived to enforce message discipline among Republicans in the face of a building threat that he will be impeached, new forces beyond the US president’s control appeared likely to accelerate the congressional impeachment inquiry further in the coming week.

At least one additional whistleblower has stepped forward to describe an alleged scheme by Trump to extort Ukraine for dirt on Democratic 2020 presidential rival Joe Biden, the individual’s lawyer announced.

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Trump’s trade tactics imperil the jobs of those who might vote for his second term

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The only tool he has to placate US consumers is successive interest rate cuts – but the whole world is playing at that game

Donald Trump’s cunning plan to make America great again by launching a trade war with China has officially backfired. Last week, a keenly watched measure of US manufacturing showed firms cutting back on production and jobs at a rate not seen since 2009. Recession warning lights are flashing and the outlook seems a world away from the cheery one presented by the president when he entered the White House in 2017.

It is quite something for a president to impose a trade policy that weighs heavily on parts of a crucial sector for the US economy – and it’s a bizarre tactic given that the votes of manufacturing workers delivered him his first term in office.

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‘Peculiar, irrational, self-destructive’: Trump’s week of impeachment rage

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As the walls of an impeachment inquiry closed in, Trump’s incoherent statements renewed fears about his fitness for office

The eye of a storm is deceptively calm. At the White House this week the sun was shining, a bust of Ronald Reagan reposed outside the West Wing office of the press secretary, a US marine saluted the president as he boarded Marine One and scores of African American millennials cheered him in the east room.

But inside Donald Trump’s head, there was no calm. The storm was a firestorm.

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‘It’s totally appropriate’: Pompeo jokes about political pressure at Greek press conference – video

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The US secretary of state was being asked if Balkan countries would be subjected to political pressure if they were unwilling to help Donald Trump. ‘You are going to be under enormous political pressure,’ he said, joking that the Greek foreign minister pressurised him all the time

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It was gutsy of Hillary Clinton to stand by Bill. But it made political sense too | Barbara Ellen

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After helping make the Clintons into a Democratic super-brand she wanted her turn at power

A woman who has been cheated on has a complex social role to play – she must be devastated, dignified and instantly unforgiving (banishing the sexual miscreant), as though she’s been given Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive to act out in some ghastly, very public round of emotional charades. No one knows this more than Hillary Clinton, who, in some eyes, committed a heinous feminist faux pas by forgiving her husband, Bill, for his multiple infidelities.

Instead of the “Go on now, go – walk out the door!” narrative that is practically the cheatee-national anthem, Hillary “stood by her man”, even as she denied becoming a Tammy Wynette caricature. She has been relentlessly questioned, mocked and distrusted on account of this decision, arguably suffering more for her husband’s betrayals than he ever did. Now, interviewed with her daughter, Chelsea, about their new The Book of Gutsy Women, she cited “the decision to stay in my marriage” as the gutsiest personal thing she ever did. Just the gutsiest, Hillary – or also the smartest, the only outcome that made any kind of sense?

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Second official reportedly considering whistleblower complaint against Trump

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Intelligence official was interviewed by watchdog to corroborate initial complaint about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, report says

A second intelligence official is reportedly considering filing a whistleblower complaint about Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine as the Democrats’ impeachment investigation into the president and his administration continues to escalate.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, also failed to meet a subpoena deadline to turn over documents related to the investigation, as House Democrats broadened their subpoena request to the White House, demanding documents after the executive branch ignored requests to provide them voluntarily.

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Mike Pompeo says lawyers ‘harassed’ his team after he missed Ukraine subpoena deadline – video

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At a press conference in Greece the US secretary of state says state department lawyers 'harassed his team' after he missed the the subpoena by three congressional committees to provide the House Democrats with documents relating to Ukraine in accordance with an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump


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Moral leader, standup comic: Trump summons alternative reality at black youth summit

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President revels in mutual flattery during White House event organized by pro-Trump Turning Point USA

Through the looking glass, and a wormhole, in the farthest reaches of a parallel universe, Donald Trump is not facing impeachment. Instead he is truth-teller, a healer of divisions and such a moral champion of African Americans they wonder if that Obama chap was a bit overrated.

To be in the East Room of the White House on Friday afternoon was to step into this alternative reality. More than 200 African American students and young professionals roared with delight and adulation, chanting “USA! USA!” and pointing camera phones, as Trump walked in and gave a typically jarring speech that veered off teleprompter.

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Trump impeachment inquiry: House leaders subpoena White House – live

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It’s been another wild day in the US, as the impeachment inquiry moves forward despite resistance from the Trump administration.

Here’s a rundown of the day’s main developments:

Here’s the White House press secretary’s response to the House impeachment inquiry subpoena.

.@PressSec says the subpoena from House Democrats tonight “changes nothing” pic.twitter.com/LTswanriTx

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Iowa teens delighted as Greta Thunberg leads unexpected climate strike

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More than 3,000 people gathered in the shadow of the University of Iowa on Friday afternoon to hear Thunberg speak

Three days prior to Greta Thunberg’s surprise visit to Iowa City on Friday, the organizer and local climate activist, Massimo Biggers, a 14-year-old Iowa City high school student, was preparing to strike – as he has done every Friday, sometimes on his own, since the Global Climate Strike day Thunberg inspired on 15 March.

Out of the blue, a message arrived from the Swedish teen activist, with whom he had been in touch, asking him if he was planning to strike again this Friday. “Of course!” he replied, and for the last 48 hours, according to his father, Jeff, neither had slept. “This was truly a miracle to have the town pull this together,” he said.

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Trump admits he pushed Ukraine for dirt on Biden and calls on China to investigate – live

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More from Adam Schiff, who has continued to criticize Trump’s earlier exhortation for China to investigate Biden:

“Once again, having the president of the United States suggesting, urging, a foreign country to interfere in our presidential elections is an illustration that if this president has learned anything from the two years of the Mueller investigation is that he feels he can do anything with impunity.”

Trump suggests the “pharmaceutical” industry, and other industries, could be behind what he describes as a “hoax”.

I’m not sure which of the things Trump believes to be a hoax he is discussing, but it’s likely the Mueller investigation or the Ukraine scandal.

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Trump says Ukraine and China should investigate the Bidens – video

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Donald Trump says Ukraine and China should investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. 'Nobody has any doubt that they weren't crooked,' the president says in a press conference in front of the White House

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Donald Trump’s bizarre press day was a full-blown impeachment tantrum

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A joint conference with the Finnish president descended into theatrics as reporters pressed for answers on the unfolding scandal

The Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, spent part of his visit to Washington touring Smithsonian museums of American history. He likely saw Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, memorabilia from Barack Obama’s election campaign and reminders of other leaders who, whatever their flaws, strove for a more perfect union.

Then he ran into Donald Trump.

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‘Are you talking to me?’: furious Trump takes aim at journalist over Ukraine question – video

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'Are you talking to me?' Donald Trump asked during an extraordinary exchange with Reuters’ White House correspondent Jeff Mason. Trump became angry after Mason asked Trump a question about Ukraine, to which Trump replied: ‘We have the president of Finland. Ask him a question'. Mason responded: 'I have one for him. I just wanted to follow up on the one that I asked you.' Trump's outrage did not subside: ‘Did you hear me? … Ask this gentleman a question. Don't be rude’

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Trump says Schiff should be forced to resign and looked at for ‘treason’ – video

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Donald Trump continued his assault on the Democratic lawmakers leading impeachment proceedings on Wednesday, accusing House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff of treason and calling for his resignation, as well as attacking the unidentified whistleblower who reported concerns about his behavior.

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