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
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashihda Tlaib appeared on CBS This Morning with Gayle King in the last hour to talk about their experiences of the last few days.
Trump has already been embarrassed by one old video from the Nineties resurfacing today and here's an even worse one.
Morning Joe has uncovered footage of him partying with billionaire paedophile and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 - a man the president described as a "terrific guy" in an interview with New York magazine in October 2002 but has since distanced himself from, saying he is "not a fan" of the ex-hedge fund manager.
"Look at her, back there… She’s hot," Donald Trump is heard saying in the clip as the pair oggle women.
Here's Jon Sharman's report.
Eric Trump has meanwhile been on Fox and Friends this morning spouting nonsense, calling AOC and colleagues "the most hate-filled group he's ever seen" (forgetting his father's supporters at Charlottesville, for one), claiming that 95 per cent of the country is behind his dad's message (try halving that) and suggesting a Democratic win in 2020 would spark a run on the banks.
The president's appalling suggestion The Squad should "go home" has inspired other victims of racism to recount their own experiences of being told they are not welcome in America.
Here's Darren Richman for Indy100.
Donald Trump is now tweeting about the Mumbai Terror attacks. Unclear if the president was watching Fox News as this tweet was posted -
Donald Trump just attacked the “vicious young Socialist Congresswomen” in a new tweet celebrating his latest poll numbers from the right-leaning Rasmussen Poll, which has frequently shown the president with a higher approval rating than national averages:
Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly planning to divert more than $40m in humanitarian aid for Central America to support the US-backed opposition in Venezuela.
Citing sources and an internal memorandum, the Los Angeles Times suggested the $41.9m had been destined for Guatemala and Honduras.
The countries are at the center of a migration crisis in which thousands of people have fled poverty, violence and corruption and attempted to cross the southern US border.
Donald Trump has been accused of “mass distortion of reality” after he shared misleading polling data on the two of the Democratic congresswomen of colour he targeted in a series of racist tweets.
He tweeted that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had an approval rating of 21 per cent, while Ilhan Omar had a rating of just eight per cent.
It came as the US president insisted that he did not have a “racist bone” in his body and called the vote to condemn his racist attacks directed at the four congresswomen as a “Democrat con game”.
A Republican senator has admitted Donald Trump’s tweets telling four US congresswomen of colour to “go back” were racist – but says she backs him anyway.
“I don’t appreciate the tweets,” said Joni Ernst of Iowa. “But I still support the president.”
She added: “If you just look at his policies and what he’s been able to do, our economy is booming, and we’re really doing quite well as Americans.”
A Republican businesswoman and Jamaican immigrant is the latest candidate to announce a bid to unseat freshman Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the 2020 elections.
Scherie Murray, a 38-year-old New Yorker, launched her primary campaign in Queens on Wednesday, becoming the third Republican challenger vying for a shot at competing against the liberal congresswoman in the upcoming general elections.
Ms Murray, a supporter of Donald Trump, told Fox News in a phone interview on Wednesday: “There is a crisis in Queens, and it’s called AOC.”
Story to come...
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