Trump news: President gives rambling speech at UN after Ukraine call memo released, as Senate receives whistleblower complaint
Document shows president asked Ukrainian leader to talk to Giuliani about investigation
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump’s tumultuous day began with the release of a memo describing a phone call which could end his presidency, and ended with a weary rambling speech characterised by boasts, false claims and self pity.
If the president thought releasing the partial transcript would silence his critics, as he seemed to hope, he could not have been more wrong.
While his supporters claimed the memo exonerated him, his opponents insisted that it was even more damning than they had feared.
The call showed him asking his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Joe Biden, who could face Mr Trump in next year’s presidential election, immediately after discussing the military aid Kiev needs to protect itself against a Russian-backed insurgency.
They also talked disparagingly about the former US ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled after apparently falling foul of the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Mr Trump apparently told the Ukrainian president: “Well, she’s going to go through some things.”
After appearing at an awkward media conference with the Ukrainian president himself on the edges of the UN general assembly, Mr Trump addressed the press himself.
In a low-energy performance, he insisted that the accusations against him were a Democrat “hoax” timed to embarrass him in front of the world’s leaders, boasted about his accomplishments, accused Mr Biden and his son of being corrupt and assured a Venezuelan journalist that he was watching developments in her country closely.
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This is an awkward tweet from Volodymyr Zelensky given the circumstances - The Ukrainian president has just shared a photo of himself with Donald and Melania Trump.
He wrote:
“Yesterday I communicated with @RealDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS at the Official Reception from the US President and First Lady. Today we will continue in working mode!”
Donald Trump has sent another pair of tweets. One is fairly unimportant fluff, but in the other he makes a gnomic (and entirely unevidenced) reference to his call with the Ukrainian president.
The possibility a meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and US President Donald Trump is "zero" and the United States should lift sanctions and return to the 2015 nuclear deal if it wants to talk, an Iranian official said on Wednesday.
Speaking ahead of a ministerial meeting of the remaining parties to the nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Reuters: "Diplomacy is the only way to resolve issues ... this meeting gives us an opportunity to review where we are."
The man at the center of America's latest political storm was kicking off the second day of speeches Wednesday at this year's gathering of world leaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's first-ever address before the world body comes a mere few hours after a formal U.S. House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump was launched — a development that was sparked partly by a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
At issue is whether Trump abused his presidential powers and sought help from Ukraine to undermine Democratic foe Joe Biden and help his own re-election.
In the days before the call, Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400 million in military aid for Ukraine, prompting speculation that he was holding up the money as leverage for information on the Bidens.
Trump has denied that charge but acknowledged he blocked the funds has acknowledged pressing Zelensky to investigate Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. The call happened days after Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400 million in military aid for Ukraine.
Trump proxies on Twitter are turning focus to the transcript, suggesting that it will vindicate the president. There is no indication of course that they have actually seen the transcript, but that appears to be the line.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made no mention of the American scandal swirling around him in his first-ever address before the UN General Assembly, choosing instead to focus on the horrors of war and his country's ongoing conflict with Russia.
His speech Wednesday came less than day after a formal U.S. House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump was launched, a development that was sparked partly by a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
At issue is whether Trump abused his presidential powers and sought help from Ukraine to undermine Democratic foe Joe Biden and help his own re-election.
Just a reminder that the transcript – which may not actually be a transcript, but rather an edited summary – of the call between Trump and Zelensky will be dropping at some point today.
We don't know when exactly it will arrive, or how much information it will actually include.
BREAKING: The Trump-Zelensky "transcript" has been released.
It shows Mr Trump apparently told his Ukrainian counterpart to work with attorney general William Barr to investigate Mr Biden's conduct.
As mentioned earlier today, the document is not a verbatim transcript of the conversation - instead, it comes with this cautionary note:
"The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty Officers and NSC policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form as the conversation takes place."
You can read the full document here.
This is the key section from the document.
Donald Trump: I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair.
A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved…
There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.
Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me.
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