Trump news: President asked about Ukraine 'investigations', impeachment hearings told as Democrats reject effort to force whistleblower testimony
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Your support makes all the difference.The House impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump is beginning its first public hearings with Bill Taylor, acting US ambassador to Ukraine, and State Department official George Kent. Both witnesses delivered joint-testimony to Congress as the president derides the process as a “partisan sham”.
Mr Trump has meanwhile reportedly been threatening to fire his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney over his recent blunders. He also previously considered axing Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the US intelligence community, over his handling of the whistle-blower complaint about his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, as senior Republicans insist they will not be watching the hearings and Mr Trump hosts his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Wednesday, progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for the resignation of senior Trump aide Stephen Miller over racist emails he sent to the right-wing news site Breitbart, in which he advocated white nationalist ideologies.
Following a meeting between the two leaders, Mr Trump repeated to reporters at a press conference that the day's public impeachment hearings are a "witch hunt" and a "joke".
"I haven't watched, I haven't watched for one minute because I've been with the president which is much more important as far as I'm concerned," Mr Trump said.
But the leaders were at odds following their controversial summit, to which five Senators were invited, discussing Turkey's cease-fire against Kurdish forces in Syria, as well as a two-day $100b trade deal and Turkey's acquisition of Russian anti-aircraft weapons.
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"I think it's a hoax and it is being played as a hoax," Mr Trump says.
"I said, 'no quid pro quo under any circumstances,'" Mr Trump says of what he says was his only experience speaking to ambassador Sondland.
Let's take a look at Republican strategy from the day, line by line:
In some non-impeachment news, Arizona congressman Paul Gosar has tweeted out a cryptic message claiming that Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself.
The message was hidden in a series of 23 tweets coming from the congressman's verified Twitter account, with the first letter of each coming together as an acrostic.
Erdogan told reporters that he returned the "tough guy" letter than Trump gave him as he was launching his offensive in Syria.
The presidents were at odds throughout their post-meeting press conference, especially over the fates of the Kurds. Lots to unpack. But they both insist they have a strong relationship.
Trump touted his "great relationship with the Kurds" when asked whether Turkey will negotiate with Kurds.
Erdogan said, "We have to make a distinction between two things: we have no problems with the Kurds. We have problems with terrorist organizations."
Earlier, he compared Kurdish forces allied with the US in Syria to “terrorists” and blamed Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the US, for a 2016 coup. The US has refused to extradite Mr Gulen, and Mr Trump said in 2018 that it’s “not under consideration”.
Erdogan said that during his visit to the US he plans to send documents to US authorities about Gulen as a terrorist "ringleader".
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