Trump news: President attacks journalist in rambling press conference as impeachment inquiry escalates
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has been labelled “dangerous” and accused of “unhinged depravity” after he tweeted that the impeachment inquiry into his phone call with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky amounted to a “coup” days after quoting a far-right Texas pastor’s warning that Congress risks creating a “Civil War like fracture” by pursuing him.
As his job approval rating slides to an all-time low, the president has been forced to deny reports emanating from a new book that he suggested shooting migrants in the legs, building a snake and alligator-filled moat at the US-Mexico border (no, really) and electrifying his much-touted wall before being told by aides his ideas were both illegal and impractical.
In a furious press conference with the Finnish president, Mr Trump snapped at reporters multiple times and appeared to be somewhat admonished by the visiting leader.
In other developments, 2020 candidate Bernie Sanders has been hospitalised following a chest complaint, House Democrats have threatened to subpoena the White House and secretary of state Mike Pompeo had admitted for the first time he was in on the Zelensky call. However, his aides are still denying that he took part in the attempts to get Ukraine to interfere with the 2020 election.
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Norwegian 80s pop heroes A-Ha have responded to the Trump campaign's weird rotoscope video attempting to present the president as a loveable character, apparently riffing on their classic 1985 video for "Take on Me".
Roisin O'Connor has more.
A new Politico/Morning Consult poll has shown support for Trump's impeachment to outweigh opposition for the first time.
According to the new survey, 46 per cent of voters are in favour compared to 43 against, with 11 per cent undecided.
Robert Jeffress - the controversial Texan pastor whose inflammatory "Civil War" quote Trump tweeted over the week, causing uproar - has appeared on Fox News Radio to accuse the Democrats of worshipping the Old Testament demon god Moloch, according to Right Wing Watch.
“Apparently the god they worship is the pagan god of the Old Testament, Moloch, who allowed for child sacrifice,” said Jeffress.
“The god of the Bible doesn’t sanction the killing of millions and millions of children in the womb. I think the god they are worshiping is the god of their own imagination.”
The pastor, who leads the First Baptist megachurch in Dallas, reiterated his thoughts view that America is "finished" if the opposition win the 2020 election and went on to attack House speaker Nancy Pelosi calling her, “an arsonist, a pyromaniac with a match in his hand about to set a building on fire, saying, ‘Now pray with me that the destruction I’m about to cause isn’t too severe.’ If Nancy Pelosi is sincere about bringing this nation together, she will drop this impeachment effort.”
Trump is currently calling for House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff to resign after previously saying he should be arrested for high treason. "He is sick!" the president insists.
More raving.
Far from "doing nothing", the Democrats seem extremely busy and productive to me.
The investigating House Democrats are now threatening to subpoena the White House if the administration stonewalls on handing over its records on the Ukraine call by Friday.
So much for #DONOTHINGDEMS.
We're hearing that 2020 candidate Bernie Sanders was hospitalised after suffering a chest complaint at a campaign event last night but is "conversing and in good spirits", according to senior advisor Jeff Weaver.
Clark Mindock has the latest.
Trump is now calling the moat story "Fake News", offering up another classic typo and rather defeating his own argument by calling the line a "fact".
A Moot point, perhaps, but not insignificant.
Chris Riotta has more.
Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko has said today he discussed investments with Rudy Giuliani in 2017 but that he never discussed the affairs of Ukrainian companies with any US official.
Like many of his compatriots, Poroshenko is currently working hard to distance himself from the impeachment inquiry embroiling Trump and Poroshenko's successor, Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We definitely do not want to be involved in the political process inside the United States," Poroshenko, now a member of parliament, told reporters.
(Getty)
Poroshenko said he met Giuliani in 2017 as a "friend of Ukraine" and they discussed "political support and investment" but nothing else. He wouldn't elaborate.
"We never ever spoke about commercial companies" with Trump, former president Barack Obama, current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden or "any US officials," said Poroshenko, who led Ukraine from 2014 to 2019.
Meanwhile, in his first public comments on the phone call, Russian president Vladimir Putin said Trump's critics are using "every excuse to attack" the US president and openly mocked the idea the Kremlin hacked the 2016 election and intends to do so again next year while speaking at a conference in Moscow.
Poroshenko said he was not aware that Giuliani had met with then-Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko.
Most Ukrainians are said to be shrugging off US efforts to impeach Trump as someone else's problem.
But they are worried about one thing: that Ukraine's role in the Trump affair strengthens Russia's hand and hobbles the politically inexperienced Zelenskiy just as he's trying to tackle the problems that matter to them most: corruption and an armed conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the east that has divided their nation.
Zelenskiy announced an agreement on Tuesday with Ukrainian separatists that paves the way for peace talks to end five years of fighting but Ukrainian nationalists denounced it as capitulation to Russia.
The US scandal "is weakening Zelenskiy's standing inside the country," said Tatyana Stanovaya, head of the R.Politik political analysis firm. "He gave a reason to doubt his ability to be an honest president," Stanovaya said of the 25 July phone call. "It's the first big blow for him" since he overwhelmingly beat Poroshenko in Ukraine's April election.
Zelenskiy's comments on the call will fuel the Kremlin's view that Ukrainian leaders are beholden to US interests.
As the impeachment process heats up, the US State Department gave initial approval to a $39m (£32m) sale of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine to help the country battle Russia-backed separatists. The proposed aid is in addition to some $400m (£326m) in US military aid released last month.
AP
Eccentric 2020 Democrat and universal basic income advocate Andrew Yang has raised an impressive $10m (£8m) in the third quarter.
He's happy about it - and anyone who likes "Return of the Mack" as much as he does is OK with me.
Colorado senator Michael Bennet has meanwhile announced he raised $2.1m (£1.7m) for the period, putting him rather at the lower end of the scale.
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