Trump news latest updates: President picks fight with attorney general Jeff Sessions after Michael Cohen's guilty plea

Sarah Sanders: It is a "ridiculous accusation" to say Trump has ever lied

Donald Trump's day of disaster is rapidly becoming one of the worst weeks of his presidency.

The White House is insisting the president has done nothing wrong in connection with the legal woes of his former personal attorney and says the leader is not the subject of criminal charges.

Mr Trump has accused Michael Cohen of lying under pressure of prosecution and says the hush money paid to two women who allege sexual encounters with the him years ago is not a campaign violation because the money did not come from campaign funds.

Instead, Mr Trump claimed he personally had made the payments, in an apparent effort to stem the crisis.

That argument stands in contrast to Mr Cohen's guilty plea to campaign finance violations that he says he carried out in coordination with Mr Trump.

Mr Cohen says he used shell companies to make payments for silencing former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film actress Stormy Daniels for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election.

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Key Points

• Trump engages in war of words with attorney general Jeff Sessions
• President's attorney says he considered pardoning Paul Manafort
• American Media Inc CEO David Pecker granted immunity in Cohen case
• Michael Avenatti seeks to depose Trump and Cohen

[23 August 2018 09:22 · Andrew Griffin]

The crisis might be rumbling on, and some have suggested it could take Donald Trump with it. But politicians aren't really ready to get on with impeaching him, writes the Associated Press:

Democrats aren't ready to embrace the I-word. 

A day after separate legal hammers dropped nearly simultaneously on two former members of Donald Trump's inner circle, Democrats in Washington and across the country faced a delicate balance as they sought to take political advantage of the president's growing troubles without alienating moderates and independents turned off by talk of impeachment. 

Instead of calling for the president's removal, corruption is the new buzzword in Democratic circles. They're not just pointing to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's conviction on tax evasion and other charges and longtime fixer Michael Cohen's plea deal implicating the president in an illegal campaign finance scheme. They've also got the indictment Tuesday of a second Republican member of Congress. 

As the party faithful gathered in Chicago on Wednesday for the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting, Chairman Tom Perez ticked off the growing list of legal troubles for Trump and other Republicans. An "out-of-control" situation, he said, demands that voters "put up guardrails" by returning Democrats to power. 

With less than three months before the midterms, that could be a potent political argument. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who could return to the speaker's chair if Democrats pick up at least 23 new seats in November, was in her home state of California, where she recalled that Democrats won the House in 2006 by hammering Republican corruption in the wake of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. 

"This time, the culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence is so pervasive that it's in the White House," Pelosi told the San Francisco audience Wednesday at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. 

Afterward, she said Democrats "can't be political" in talking about impeachment. Separately, she sent her House colleagues a letter encouraging them to keep emphasizing economic issues, even as she pledged to "hold the president and his administration accountable" by insisting that Congress "seek the truth." 

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sought her own nuanced position. The potential 2020 presidential candidate, who built her brand as an economic populist, unveiled sweeping anti-corruption proposals hours before the legal developments were announced Tuesday. As they consumed the news cycle Wednesday, she released years of her own personal tax returns — something Trump has refused to do. 

The varied approaches reflect Democrats' political and electoral conundrum. Opposition to Trump has flourished across the political left, already giving Democrats key electoral victories since his inauguration. The party is competing on multiple fronts: gaining control of the House, at least maintaining a closely divided Senate and making inroads in governorships and state legislatures. All of those goals could be elusive without at least some support from independents and moderate Republicans, especially those who live in suburban areas and who dislike Trump but aren't eager to watch Congress go through the divisive and messy process of impeachment. 

"We win on bread-and-butter issues. That's what people will vote on," said Minnesota Democratic Chairman Ken Martin, who counts four competitive House races in his state. Martin noted Hillary Clinton's decision in 2016 to focus most of her paid advertising on Trump's negatives. "We see how that worked out?" he said. 

In Ohio, a presidential battleground that Trump won by nearly 10 percentage points, state Democratic Chairman David Pepper argued Democrats have momentum by running on local issues, even if they can be traced back to Washington. 

"Good candidates don't get sucked into the daily vortex of Washington," Pepper said. "We've spent months telling Ohio voters that these Republicans have voted to take away their health care, protections for pre-existing conditions and now they want to take away Medicaid expansion. ... Why deviate from that to talk about something no one in Ohio controls?" 

Of course, in some elections, localizing the argument could mean embracing a discussion about Trump and corruption. 

"I've got a governor who's joined at the hip with Donald Trump, so hell yeah, I want us talking about it," said South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson. He was referring to Henry McMaster, who endorsed Trump in the GOP presidential primary and then accepted the president's help in a tough gubernatorial runoff this year. 

Zac Petkanas, a Democratic operative and frequent Trump critic on cable television, offered another reason for Democrats to be cautious: Voters aren't ready for impeachment. 

"Voters are tuning in for the big things" in the investigation, he said. "And there will be more of those. ... Democrats should advocate protecting the investigation and finding the truth. But you can't be seen as prejudging." 

It's worth noting that, for now, progressive activists aren't looking to punish Democrats who don't push impeachment. Emily Phelps, a spokeswoman for Indivisible, noted that the grassroots group first endorsed the notion of impeachment proceedings when Trump fired James Comey as FBI director. But, Phelps said, "Our ultimate goal is not to take down Trump ... but to win elections and derail Trump's agenda in Congress to diminish his power."

[23 August 2018 09:30 · Andrew Griffin]

If you'd like a catch-up on everything that's gone on so far, you can check out yesterday's live blog – all the rolling updates on the first of what looks to be a series of troublesome days for Trump.

[23 August 2018 09:31 · Andrew Griffin]

And here's a wrap-up of that first day – one in which Michael Cohen looked keen to make Trump suffer, an effort in which he seems to be very much succeeding.

[23 August 2018 09:36 · Andrew Griffin]

Activists have projected the words "criminal" and "guilty" onto the side of the Trump International Hotel.

[23 August 2018 09:37 · Andrew Griffin]

It's worth remembering that while the White House struggles to contain this crisis, the normal work of government is going on. Overnight, the US and China have ratcheted up their ongoing trade war, by putting a whole host of tariffs onto each other.

[23 August 2018 09:43 · Andrew Griffin]

In what appears to be Trump's attempt to move attention away from the crisis, the president has been tweeting about white farmers in South Africa. But the government has rejected his claims.

U.S. President Donald Trump is misinformed about South Africa's planned land reforms, President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokeswoman said on Thursday, after Trump tweeted that land was being seized by government from white farmers.

"The presidency has noted Trump's tweet, which is misinformed in our view," Khusela Diko said. "We will take up the matter through diplomatic channels.

[23 August 2018 10:37 · Andrew Griffin]

South Africa remains shocked by Donald Trump's tweet about land seizures but has said that it won't damage the relationship between the two countries.

"The tweet has not determined our approach to the United States on our current relationship and future relationship," communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane told reporters after a routine cabinet meeting.

[23 August 2018 11:11 · Andrew Griffin]

Trump is about to be interviewed on Fox & Friends. It's not clear what he'll be talking about – but it would be strange not to touch on this.

[23 August 2018 11:13 · Andrew Griffin]

The interview is being heavily trailed: he considers pardoning Manafort and takes on the Cohen situation, according to staff at the TV show.

[23 August 2018 11:14 · Andrew Griffin]

The interview is live, and it's covering all the usual talking points at the moment: Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department, and so on.