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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CNN is reporting that an attorney for the whistleblower said there was no truth to Donald Trump's claims that House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff helped write the anonymous official's complaint.
It looks like some television news anchors are boldly addressing Donald Trump's incendiary and unfounded claims made throughout several bizarre appearances and Twitter posts today -
The Oval Office appearance followed another incendiary message from Donald Trump earlier this week: the president issued his most inflammatory condemnation yet of the impeachment investigation against him, labelling it “a COUP” designed to strip Americans of their freedoms.
The president is being investigated over a phone call to Ukraine‘s Volodymyr Zelensky in which it is said he appeared to attempt to leverage military aid for personal political gain.
On Tuesday night, Mr Trump falsely likened the impeachment process to a coup, typically defined as an illegal and often violent seizure of power from a government.
“As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!”
Here's another moment in today's hectic press conference that people online are enjoying:
In presidential hopeful news, CNN and The New York Times have announced the podium arrangement for October's debate. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden will be in the center.
Before Donald Trump's phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart sparked the whistleblower complaint that might lead to impeachment, another whistleblower had filed a different complaint, this one related to the president's tax returns.
Richard Neal, a Democrat representing Massachusetts in the House of Representatives, said the House ways and means committee is looking to interview a whistleblower who alleges "inappropriate attempts to influence" a tax audit of Mr Trump, according to the radio station WBUR.
Mr Neal sent a letter to treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin on August 8 saying the committee, which he chairs, received an "unsolicited communication" from a federal employee on July 29. Read more here:
Here's the final list of items from Europe that the Trump administration will impose tariffs on beginning October 18, including French wine and cheese, Spanish olive oil, and Irish whiskey.
People are understandably fretting.
In a twist that no one saw coming, the president has incorporated the Canadian rock band Nickelback in a Twitter attack on Joe Biden.
Elsewhere on the website, #TrumpMeltdown is still trending at Number 1 in the US.
A fake ad for Rudy Giuliani has appeared on the New York City subway, promising a lawyer who will "work when drunk," among other things.
The ad and its website - which is real - are the work of a comedy duo called The Good Liars. Jason Selvig, one half of TGL, told Gothamist that he and his partner put up the ads "because we are worried about Rudy."
The Washington Post reports that the president "repeatedly involved Vice President Pence in efforts to exert pressure on the leader of Ukraine," including not attending Volodymyr Zelensky's inauguration in May. Aides to the vice president deny that he was aware of president's attempts to get Ukraine to provide dirt on Joe Biden for his re-election efforts.
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