Trump news: President attacks congresswomen for 4th consecutive day, hours after video of him ogling young women with paedophile Epstein revealed
House prepares to vote on impeachment proceedings after rebuking president's racist tweets
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Your support makes all the difference.Videos of Donald Trump partying with with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and making a racist remark about Native Americans before Congress in the 1990s have re-emerged, piling pressure on the embattled president.
Mr Trump had claimed he is “not a fan” of Epstein, having previously described him as a “terrific guy” in an interview with New York magazine, but the pair can be seen laughing, joking and ogling women at a party at the president’s Florida retreat Mar-a-Lago in the footage shot in 1992.
The president remains under fire for the racist tweets he posted on Sunday telling four Democratic congresswomen to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”, with the House of Representatives voting in favour of a resolution condemning his actions on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, the House prepared Wednesday to easily derail a maverick Democrat’s drive to the president, an effort that party leaders consider a premature exercise that needlessly forces vulnerable swing-district lawmakers to cast a perilous and divisive vote.
The resolution by Texas Democrat Al Green, which cites Mr Trump’s “racist” comments imploring Democratic congresswomen of colour to go back to their native countries, had no chance of prevailing.
But even facing certain defeat, the vote risked deepening the already raw rift between liberal Democrats itching to oust Mr Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders.
Top Democrats prefer waiting to see if a stronger case for removal can be developed that would win broader public support, and they’re eagerly awaiting next week’s scheduled testimony to two House committees by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Recent polling has shown majorities oppose impeachment. Even if the House voted to impeach Mr Trump, which would amount to filing formal charges, the Republican-run Senate would be unlikely to remove him from office.
Ms Pelosi noted that six House committees are conducting investigations of Mr Trump and said, “That is the serious path we’re on.”
The showdown over Mr Green’s resolution also comes amid tensions between Ms Pelosi and the same four progressive Democratic women who Mr Trump targeted.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Here's a fairly unique Republican stance on those tweets.
Iowa senator Joni Ernst agrees that the president was racist but says she still supports him anyway!
Well, you can't fault her for honesty I suppose.
Here's Colin Drury with more.
Trump's glitzy gold-and-Happy Meals taste in interior decor has been called into question before but his decision to hang a photograph of himself and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in the West Wing - alongside one of our own dear Queen - is surely one of his most wayward choices yet.
Here's more from Andrew Buncombe.
Trump's former adviser, self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" and Nixon back tattoo owner Roger Stone has been banned from social media after violating a gagging order.
"I've twice given you the benefit of the doubt," said US district judge Amy Berman Jackson, her patience exhausted after Stone posted a pictured of her in the crosshairs of a rifle sight online in February.
Here's Chris Riotta's report.
He's at it again you know - this time quoting the aforementioned clip of Senator John Kennedy on Fox.
On Tuesday, the president claimed not to have a racist bone in his body but a vintage clip has since emerged of him speaking before Congress in October 1993 in which he used blatantly discriminatory language in a discussion about planning permission being approved for Native American-owned casinos that would have been in direct competition with his own in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The footage, unearthed by MSNBC's Deadline White House, shows Trump arguing that some of the casino owners in question "don't look like Indians" before being sharply rebuked by Democratic congressman George Miller: “Thank God that’s not the test of whether or not people have rights in this country, whether or nor they pass your look test.”
Greg Evans has more.
If you're wondering about the commitment of Trump's hard-line support base or whether his relentless ricocheting from one outrage to the next is damaging his credibility with the MAGA crowd, just take a look at this clip.
"Grab 'em by the p***y"? Twenty-two different women making sexual misconduct allegations? Death threats against E Jean Carroll? These Women for Trump in Pennsylvania don't mind at all and are unwavering in their support.
A case in point: Trump's approval rating has soared among Republicans since tweetgate began.
Here's Adam Forrest's report.
CNN has been criticised for its coverage of the racist tweets furore after the broadcaster invited neo-Nazi Richard Spencer on air to weigh in with an opinion.
Spencer - whom you might remember being punched in the face on live TV at Trump's inauguration - is an avowed white supremacist who has previously quoted Nazi propaganda and called for "ethnic cleansing", prompting outrage that the network should give him so prominent a platform and risk legitimising his point of view.
Here's Conrad Duncan for Indy100.
If you're late to all of this, here's a handy introduction to The Squad and Trump's supremely ill-advised decision to go after them.
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