Trump impeachment news: President claims no president has ever done as much as him 'for religion' as he escalates Christian magazine attacks

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Christianity today editor interviewed over negative on Donald Trump after impeachment hearings

As Donald Trump reels from Wednesday’s House vote making him only the third American president to be impeached, a Washington Post reporter has claimed he overheard a White House staffer wishing colleagues a “Merry Impeachmas”, suggesting the president’s inner circle is not as united as he likes to insist.

Mr Trump has meanwhile taken to Twitter to denounce the influential religious periodical Christianity Today, founded by legendary evangelist Billy Graham, after it called for his ousting and criticised his “profoundly immoral” conduct. “I won’t be reading ET again!” he frothed, offering a memorable typo.

The president has also been attracting criticism from his fellow Republicans after attacking Democratic congresswoman Debbie Dingell and suggesting her late husband is looking on from hell during his midweek rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, with Oklahoma’s Tom Cole branding his remarks “extraordinarily inappropriate”.

As Mr Trump prepared to sign a series of spending bills to avoid a government shutdown and to approve 2020 defence budgets, among other budgetary concerns, reports revealed that the White House had threatened a presidential veto for the measures if they included language that mandated any aid earmarked for Ukraine be "released quickly" to that country.

The president is accused of withholding aid to Ukraine in a bid to pressure Kiev to investigate his political opponents, an abuse of power at the heart of his impeachment on Wednesday.

Democrats intended to prevent that aid freeze from happening again by including the language in the proposal, but administration officials threatened a veto for the $1.4 trillion spending bill.

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Key Points

• Trump lashes out at Christian magazine over editorial calling for his removal
• White House staffer heard wishing colleagues 'Merry Impeachmas'
• Republicans turn on Trump over rally attack on congresswoman's late husband
• Democrat defects to Republicans after voting against impeachment
• Warren and Buttigieg square off at sixth Democratic 2020 debate

[21 December 2019 01:00 · Clark Mindock]

In case anyone wants to know what James Bond thinks about US politics: