Trump news: 'Shaken' president insults Pelosi at Syria meeting, as he repeats discredited conspiracy theories about Ukraine
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has raged about the “totally illegal & absurd” impeachment inquiry on Twitter and justified his decision to pull US troops out of Syria, leaving America’s allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces under siege from Turkey, by telling reporters at the White House the Kurdish people are “no angels”.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated on Tuesday that the House of Representatives would not cave in to Republican demands for a vote to approve the Democratic-led inquiry, which vice president Mike Pence and Mr Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are now refusing to co-operate with, declaring: ”This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We’re on a path that is taking us, a path to the truth.”
As the president’s Democratic challengers for the presidency in 2020 squared off on the debate stage in Ohio, White House lawyers opened their own internal review of the handling of the president’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of 25 July, examining the response of aides and raising concerns they are seeking out a potential scapegoat.
A bizarre letter sent from Mr Trump to the Turkish president was laced with an equal mix of weird threats and friendly language. The White House confirmed that the nearly unbelievable dispatch was real.
The president also apparently had a "meltdown" during a meeting about the Syrian crisis with Democratic leaders, during which he told Nancy Pelosi that he "hates ISIS more than you do."
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Spare a thought for Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar in Florida and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
He was not on the debate stage last night, nor has been on any of them so far, having failed to meet the necessary fundraising criteria.
The extent of his failure is such that, according to Federal Election Committee disclosures, he raised just $5 (£3.91) in the last quarter and spent nothing whatsoever. Yep, you read that right. $5.
Here's a little more background on the aforementioned Mike McKinley, giving his deposition on Capitol Hill today.
Not strictly American politics, I know, but Trump's favourite "Little Rocket Man" Kim Jong-un has ridden a white horse up North Korea's highest point, Mount Paektu, the same sacred peak behind which a double rainbow is supposed to have shone when his father was born.
The pictures are sensational.
First Vladimir Putin's shirtless equestrian antics and now this. How long before Don is tempted to follow suit?
Trump is spending his day in a bilateral sit-down with Italy's president Sergio Mattarella before taking lunch with Pompeo and meeting congressional leaders on Syria as discussed.
He'll then hold a reception for Signor Mattarella in the East Room.
Here's McKinley arriving to speak to the House impeachment investigators.
Former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker also unexpectedly made an appearance to give further testimony.
Trump has just offered this extraordinary justification for his highly divisive decision to abandon the Kurdish fighters of the SDF to the mercy of Turkey by pullling American forces out of northern Syria.
He also says their plight is "not our problem". So much for basic humanity.
Here's our breaking story.
Some more Republican showboating at the inquiry. Following Matt Gaetz's theatrics on Monday, Illinois congressman John Ratcliffe has walked out of the McKinley hearing early in disgust.
Republicans are increasingly unnerved by the role of Rudy Giuliani in the Ukraine affair as the constant flow of revelations about his antics shows no sign of ceasing, according to CNN.
Most damning in their remarks is Florida congressman Francis Rooney, who told the network: "I worry a lot about non-professionals pursuing diplomacy in the name of American diplomacy", expressing alarm that "more things keep coming up in the investigation" and the suggesting Adam Schiff's team should focus its energies on "who else was involved."
Rooney also has a pertinent reminder from history:
They called Watergate a witch hunt.
Good grief.
Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro appears to have been citing a fake Harvard expert: "Ron Vara". His apocalyptic musings on the Chinese economy have been appearing in Navarro text books for some time.
The jokes, of course, write themselves but the below deserves a round of applause.
Sirena Bergman has the full - and deeply idiotic - story for Indy100.
House Republicans Kevin McCarthy, Liz Cheney and Steve Scalise have been giving their own press conference on the impeachment inquiry, essentially a belated rebuttal to Pelosi and Schiff.
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