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As it happenedended

Trump news: Cohen claims president said black people were ‘too stupid to vote’ for him as polls show RNC convention failed to give him election bump

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Kate Ng,Danielle Zoellner
Sunday 06 September 2020 21:55 BST
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President Donald Trump prepares to sign four executive orders during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster
President Donald Trump prepares to sign four executive orders during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster (AP)

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Michael Cohen’s memoir, due to be published next week, alleges that Donald Trump described Nelson Mandela as a poor leader who “f***ed the whole country up” and said countries run by black leaders are “all complete f***ing toilets”.

Other allegations in the memoir include Cohen saying Mr Trump ogled at his 15-year-old daughter and the pair visited a Las Vegas strip club in 2013 that involved performers urinating on other people. 

Cohen also claimed that the president said black people were “too stupid to vote” for him. 

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement: "“Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress. He has lost all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies.”

In other news, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic has defended his publication’s piece about Mr Trump allegedly calling fallen war heroes “suckers” and “losers”. The editor defended his publication’s use of anonymous sources and said more information would probably come out in the coming days about the president. 

Mr Trump and the White House have denied the report, which claimed that the president refused to visit a cemetery of fallen war heroes because they were “suckers” and “losers”. 

In one tweet shared on Sunday, Mr Trump accused Democrats and the media of launching a “disinformation campaign” against him over the report. 

Besides tweeting, the president has spent his Labour Day holiday weekend golfing, as he visited his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, both on Saturday and Sunday. 

Trump weighs in on Big Ten football in latest tweet

Donald Trump focused one of his Sunday tweets on the Big Ten and specific schools deciding not to play this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

He accused states like Michigan, Illinois, and Maryland of not participating because of their governors. He said those governors were making decisions based on “lack of interest” or “political support”. 

This comes after the Big Ten presidents failed to meet last week about reviving sports. There was no immediate plans for the presidents to meet to start the season, according to a CBS Sports reporter. 

Mr Trump has encouraged for college sports to start this fall despite hesitancy from college president’s and health experts. 

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 18:00

The Atlantic editor-in-chief says story about Trump calling soldiers ‘losers’ is just the beginning

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, defended his magazine’s article about Donald Trump making disparaging comments about fallen soldiers when appearing on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday. 

Mr Goldberg added that he thought the story would be just the beginning for others about the president

"I would fully expect more reporting to come out about this and more confirmation and new pieces of information in the coming days and weeks," the editor told CNN host Brian Stelter. "We have a responsibility and we're going to do it regardless of what he says."

The White House and the president have slammed The Atlantic for using four anonymous stories to report the allegations against the president. 

The Washington Post, Associated Press, The New York Times, Fox News, and CNN have all confirmed aspects of the report with anonymous sources. 

"We all have to use anonymous sources, especially in a climate where the president of the United States tries to actively intimidate," Mr Goldberg said. "These are not people who are anonymous to me."

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 18:22

Four vessels sink at pro-Trump boat parade in Texas as it draws an 'exceptional' number of MAGA supporters

At least four boats sank during a “Trump Boat Parade” in Texas as hundreds of MAGA supporters around the country took to the open waters to show support for the president.

Officials said that during the parade on Lake Travis, outside of Austin, wakes formed due to the number of boats on the water. The rough conditions caused some boats to sink and others to crash into rocks.

“That was truly an exceptional number of boats,” Kristen Dark, public information officer for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies patrol the lake, told Reuters.

Full report here: 

Four vessels sink at pro-Trump boat parade in Texas

Wakes formed on Lake Travis due to the number of boats, causing some to be submerged  and others to crash into rocks

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 18:45

Michael Cohen book: Former ‘bad guy’ lawyer calls Trump a ‘cheat’ who sought help from Russia

Donald Trump's longtime lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, alleges in a new book that Mr Trump made “overt and covert attempts to get Russia to interfere in the 2016 election” and that the future commander in chief was also well aware of Mr Cohen's hush-money payoff to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during that campaign.

In the book, Disloyal: A Memoir, which was obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its Tuesday publication date, Mr Cohen lays out an alarming portrait of the constellation of characters orbiting around Mr Trump, likening the arrangement to the mafia and calling himself “one of Mr Trump's bad guys”. He describes the president, meanwhile, as “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man”.

The memoir also describes episodes of Mr Trump's alleged racism and his “hatred and contempt” of his predecessor, Barack Obama, the nation's only African American president.

Full report here: 

Michael Cohen calls Trump a ‘cheat’ who sought help from Russia

Memoir also describes president’s alleged racism and his ‘hatred and contempt’ of Barack Obama

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 19:01

Treasure secretary says Pelosi and White House reached an agreement to avoid government shutdown 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have agreed to work on a short-term spending bill in an effort to avoid a government shutdown on 1 October. 

“The speaker and I have agreed, we don’t want to see a government shutdown,”  Mr Mnuchin said on Fox News’ Sunday

Mr Mnuchin added that he thought the “continuing resolution” reached between the Trump administration and Democrats would extend government funding until December. 

It was important for the two parties to reach an agreement prior to 30 September, because that was when agency funding was set to expire. If they don’t reach an agreement, then the government will begin to shut down. 

The treasury secretary said that the short-term spending bill would be different from the CARES Act stimulus package, which has stalled amid negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. 

Mr Mnuchin accused the speaker of being unwilling to negotiate for a smaller stimulus package. 

“The speaker has refused to sit down and negotiate unless we agree to something like a $2.5tn deal in advance,” Mr Mnuchin said. “As you know, we put $3tn into the economy when the economy was completely shut down and we’ve now reopened the economy. Let’s do a more targeted bill now and if we need to do more in 30 days we’ll continue to do more.”

Mr Mnuchin did not say when negotiations would start up again, if they were to start again, for the latest coronavirus stimulus package. 

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 19:26

Michael Cohen claims Trump watched ‘with delight’ during sex act performance in Vegas

Donald Trump allegedly watched “with delight” at a Las Vegas strip club during a "golden showers" performance, the president’s former lawyer claims in his new memoir.

In excerpts of Michael Cohen’s Disloyal: A Memoir, obtained by The Washington Post, Cohen calls himself “one of Trump’s bad guys”.

In the memoir Cohen, now a convicted felon, described visiting a Las Vegas Club called The Act in 2013, with Mr Trump, Russian oligarch, Aras Agalarov, and his son Emin.

Cohen claimed that the group watched a strip show that involved one performer simulating urinating on another performer. 

Full report here: 

Michael Cohen claims Trump watched ‘with delight’ during sex act performance in Vegas

Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, is releasing a memoir on Tuesday

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 19:50

Trump visits the golf course for second day in a row

The president returned to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, for the second day in a row on Sunday. 

Mr Trump’s trip to the golf course was the 390th visit to a Trump property and the 296th visit to a Trump golf club during his presidency. 

He arrived at the golf course at 9:53am EST, per pool report. 

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 20:10

Trump describes protesters as ‘sick’ in new tweet

Donald Trump has again brought up the protests happening nightly in Portland, Oregon, following the police shooting of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 

The president has been pushing for the protests to end in the city and long blamed Democratic politicians for them continuing. 

In a tweet posted on Sunday, Mr Trump shared a video from what is said to believe a protest in Portland. In the video, people set fire to something in the street but one person accidentally sets himself on fire. 

Mr Trump called the moment “sick”. 

The Independent has not independently verified where this video footage comes from or who is involved in the footage. 

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 20:33

Michael Cohen claims Trump ogled his 15-year-old daughter in new memoir

Michael Cohen claims that Donald Trump ogled his teenage daughter in his explosive new memoir, according to the Associated Press.

The disgraced attorney, who was one of the president’s closest confidants and “fixer” for years, describes an uncomfortable incident in the book when Mr Trump allegedly leered at Cohen’s 15-year-old daughter.

It took place in 2012 at the president’s New Jersey golf resort, the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

When Mr Cohen told Mr Trump that the girl was his daughter, the president followed with a question: “When did she get so hot?” he asked, according to Cohen’s book, The Associated Press reported.

Griffin Connolly reports: 

Michael Cohen claims Trump ogled his 15-year-old daughter in ne memoir

Cohen writes in new memoir that the president is ‘guilty of the same crimes’ that got him sent to jail

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 20:55

Trump calls racial sensitivity training ‘lunacy’

Donald Trump has used this past weekend to put an end to racial sensitivity programs within the federal government. 

In his latest tweet about ending the programs, he re-shared a past post and called it all “lunacy”. 

Mr Trump has said that using these programs is a “sickness” and urged people to report use of them within their own departments. 

Opponents have accused the president of attempting to start a cultural war as a distraction from other reports about him. 

Danielle Zoellner6 September 2020 21:12

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