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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Democrats and others said the US’ financial leverage over the country could be seen in the way the president asked for a favour after reminding Mr Zelensky how much “effort” and “time” his government spent on aiding Ukraine.
Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, also said the memo “reads like a classic mob shakedown”.
“Nice country you got there,” he quips. “It would be a shame if something happened to her.”
While the memorandum has largely been described as a transcript, some Democrats slammed the document as a “highly-edited memo” that failed to include key components of the 30 minute conversation that had somehow been boiled down into a five-page memorandum.
“Trump did indeed bring up US aid to Ukraine and then asked their leader to investigate his political opponent,” Democrat Don Beyer wrote in a statement.
Here's my full report on the memorandum the White House released this morning:
This is pretty incredible. It seems the White House has inadvertently sent out a memo containing talking points for Republicans - to House Democrats!
As it turns out, the White House is now reportedly trying to "recall" that memo it seemingly sent by accident to House Democrats about GOP talking points surrounding the president's Ukrainian scandal -
A national security official has tweeted their opinion about the phone call between Donald Trump and the president of Ukraine making the US out to appear as "small, petty and weak".
"I support impeachment". There you have it from the woman who took on Donald Trump in the 2016 election -
The president will likely veto this vote, but the US Senate has voted to block his national emergency over the nation's southern border. Mr Trump used the emergency in an attempt to divert federal funding to build his long-promised wall throughout the region.
A Trump-ally in Congress has offered a hot take on the impeachment inquiry, saying it's worse for Joe Biden than it is for Donald Trump -
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