Trump news: President attacks impeachment inquiry witnesses as ‘Never Trumpers’ in baseless smear and stalls new Ukraine transcript release
President attacks apparent enemies on the day before impeachment hearings are set to go public
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has attacked House impeachment inquiry witnesses as “Never Trumpers” without basis and delayed the release of a transcript of his first call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, a gesture his supporters had hoped would prove the president’s intentions towards the country were entirely innocent.
Kiev was reportedly alarmed by the hold-up of $400m (£312m) in American military aid this summer and reached out to Washington for answers, according to the latest records of witness testimony released by the inquiry from senior officials Laura Cooper, Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson.
A federal judge has meanwhile ruled that the president cannot sue to stop his home state of New York from acquiring his tax returns while Mr Trump has unexpectedly come under fire from Fox host Andrew Napolitano, who took him to task for his “often tasteless banter” and disrespect for the US Constitution.
One man who also won’t be suing: Mick Mulvaney. The president’s acting chief of staff said Tuesday that he no longer plans to sue over the House impeachment proceedings and will instead follow Mr Trump’s directions and decline to cooperate.
In a court filing Tuesday, one day before the impeachment inquiry enters a critical phase of public hearings, Mr Mulvaney said he no longer planned to ask a judge for guidance on whether he must cooperate with the House.
He said he would rely on Mr Trump’s instructions “as supported by an opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice, in not appearing for the relevant deposition.”
Mr Mulvaney had been subpoenaed to appear last week for a closed-door deposition before House impeachment investigators but did not show up.
House Democrats had seen him as a potentially important witness, in part because he has publicly confirmed the contours of a quid pro quo arrangement in which the Trump administration would release military aid to Ukraine in exchange for the country announcing an investigation into Democratic rival Joe Biden.
His name has also repeatedly surfaced in the testimony of other witnesses who have cooperated.
The Justice Department legal opinion that Mr Mulvaney references says close advisers to the president are immune from having to testify to Congress because “preparing for such examinations would force them to divert time and attention from their duties to the President at the whim of congressional committees.”
Additional reporting by the Associated Press. Please allow a moment for our live blog to load
Nikki Haley says Trump always 'truthful' and defends president over Ukraine scandal
Ex-US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has been on NBC's Today this morning to promote her new book, defending President Trump over Ukraine and telling interviewer Savannah Guthrie he was always "truthful" in his dealings with her.
She also discusses telling Trump that ex-secretary of state Rex Tillerson and former chief of staff John Kelly were attempting to undermine him.
Trump's DACA tweet false as well as deplorable
President tweeted earlier today that many beneficiaries of Barack Obama's DACA programme were "hardened criminals" as the Supreme Court begins hearing arguments on its merits.
Here's Chris Riotta to explain why the president's line of attack was false as well as deplorable.
Trump tweets House GOP video deriding 'Schiff's Sham Impeachment'
This one is fairly self-explanatory.
Administration sets new record for migrant children detentions
The Trump administration detained an unprecedented 69,9550 migrant children in 2019, an increase of some 42 per cent year-on-year according to official data. In line with Trump’s family separation policy - masterminded by senior aide Stephen Miller - more children were detained away from their parents in the US this year than in any other country on earth, according to UN researchers.
Under the administration’s strict "zero-tolerance" immigration policies, children also spent more time in detention and away from their parents than in previous years, despite the government’s own acknowledgement that it can cause them serious harm.
What an appalling disgrace.
Here's Andy Gregory's report.
How Trump turned Veterans Day into an angry sporting event
Cries of "Lock him up" rang out in Midtown Manhattan on Monday as Trump arrived to give a brief speech and lay a wreath in Madison Square Park in honour of Veterans Day, his latest hostile encounter with the general public after boos were heard at the World Series in DC and at a UFC bout in the Big Apple.
Clark Mindock was there and has this firsthand account of how a day for quiet reflection became a hostile free-for-all.
Mick Mulvaney drops plans for subpoena lawsuit
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has now reversed his plans to file a lawsuit asking a court to rule on his compliance with the House impeachment inquiry after a subpoena was issued summoning him to give testimony last week.
Mulvaney's attorneys have notified a federal court that their client “does not intend to pursue litigation regarding the deposition subpoena issued to him by the US House of Representatives” and will instead obey directions from Trump to ignore the subpoena altogether.
Memo lays out process for first public impeachment hearing
Members of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees have received the following memo detailing the schedule for the first public hearing of the impeachment inquiry tomorrow - with Bill Taylor and George Kent slated to appear.
'You gotta take a stand': Alabama man defends stabbing Baby Trump blimp
Hoyt Hutchinson, the Tuscaloosa MAGA advocate who brought down the Baby Trump protest blimp on Saturday, has called in to regional radio comedy programme The Rick & Bubba Show to explain himself.
“It comes a point when you gotta take a stand,” Hutchinson said. “We don’t have two parties anymore. We have good vs evil. When you got one party that says it’s OK to kill babies, and by the way, this is the first time I’m ever seen a liberal get mad about chopping up a baby.”
Hoyt yelled "Trump 2020" when he was led away by local police, who later charged him with a first degree criminal mischief felony. He has since launched a GoFundMe page asking for donations to pay his legal fees and has already raised $43,000 (£33,450).
Donald Trump is giving a speech at Economic Club of New York and touting his economic numbers. We'll bring live updates and quotes here as they come in.
Donald Trump says “it isn’t good” that women are paid less than men while touting the latest hiring numbers.
He’s celebrating how Americans have gone off food stamps and risen out of poverty, while talking about Wall Street gains.
The president then said: “If we had a Federal Reserve that worked with us, you could add 25% to all of those numbers … but we all make mistakes, don’t we?”
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