Trump news: President says 'Afghanistan is safe in comparison' to Chicago as key impeachment witness defies subpoena
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Your support makes all the difference.During a speech in Chicago to police brass from across the US, Donald Trump attacked the city's police chief who is boycotting the visit from the president, who used his address to law enforcement to blame so-called "sanctuary" cities for violent crime rates.
Mr Trump accused Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson of "not doing his job" in a city that the president has often ridiculed as a "war zone" for its high murder rate. There have been 425 homicides in Chicago so far this year.
He also said Chief Johnson is putting "criminals and illegal aliens before the city of Chicago" and that "sanctuary" cities are knowingly releasing jailed immigrants accused of violent crime.
His appeal to law enforcement arrived that morning after he was roundly booed during Game 5 of baseball’s World Series in DC on Sunday, with fans of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros chanting “Lock him up!” as “Veterans for Impeachment” signs were held aloft by spectators, prompting the president to leave the stadium early.
His unwelcome appearance at the game followed what should have been a triumphant moment for his administration in the announcement of the death of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a US-led raid that saw the terror group leader cornered in a dead-end tunnel in Syria. The president assured the world the terrorist had died “crying and screaming”.
In a Monday press conference, the president's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mick Milley said he doesn't know where Mr Trump got that account of the operation.
The president shared a photo on Twitter of an Army Delta force dog that was critical in the operation, according to Mr Trump. The dog's name is still classified. General Milley said it returned to its military unit.
When leading Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer demanded to know why Congress had not been briefed on the operation in advance at a time when the White House’s approach to foreign policy is already under intense scrutiny, vice president Mike Pence squirmed and struggled to answer the question on Fox News.
Mr Trump later explained that the administration was going to notify Congress but "we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before. There’s no country in the world that leaks like we do, and Washington is a leaking machine."
Follow along as it happened below.
Also making an appearance on the Sunday talk show circuit was the aforementioned Schiff - Public Enemy #1 in Trump's eyes - who went on ABC's This Week to accuse attorney general William Barr of "weaponising" the Justice Department to pursue enemies of the president.
Barr and Connecticut state attorney general John Durham announced last week their administrative review of the roots of FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election hacking in 2016 is now a criminal inquiry, empowering them to assemble a grand jury, issue subpoenas and file criminal charges as they probe their own department in search of liberal bias.
Here's Chris Riotta with some background.
One person who seemed to be particularly enjoying seeing the president booed at Nationals Park was his own dear wife, the first lady positively beaming at the cries of "Lock him up!"
Marianne Eloise has more on Melania Trump for Indy100.
What else did Trump get up to over the weekend?
He attended Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's 10th anniversary party at Camp David in Maryland on Friday night, insisting on Twitter that he was paying for it himself to avoid another Doral furore.
By his standards, he had a quiet one on Twitter - other than by causing alarm when he tweeted "Something very big has just happened!" without explaining himself - stopping only to attack Pelosi, California senator and 2020 candidate Kamala Harris and The Washington Post.
This was Harris's angry response, incidentally.
He did also attempt to influence two upcoming gubernatorial elections in Louisiana and Mississippi though.
His response to the extensive press coverage of the booing at the World Series promises fireworks later today.
In other DC news, California congresswoman Katie Hill has resigned after becoming mired in scandal when a conservative blog published nude photos of her and alleged she had had an affair with a female staffer.
With a House Ethics Committee investigation underway, Hill stepped down saying: "This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my community, and our country."
Here's Peter Stubley's report.
The resurgence of Bernie Sanders in the wake of his recent heart attack continues apace: he was in Detroit for a rally on Sunday where he received the formal endorsement of "Squad" member Rashida Tlaib and had local boy Jack White on stage to hammer out "Seven Nation Army".
Here's Louis Staples for Indy100 on Bernie's gloriously deadpan recent exchange with pop star Ariana Grande on Twitter.
On Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough has condemned the boos against Trump: "We are Americans and we do not do that."
Very gallant given he said this about "Psycho" Scarborough and co-host"low IQ crazy" Mika Brzezinski in June 2017:
Senator Chris Coons has also raised objections on CNN.
Alec Baldwin was back on Saturday Night Live this weekend to send up the president, rabid rallies and his recent Colorado border wall blunder.
Kate McKinnon's Lindsey Graham, described as "a scoop of ice cream melting into a suit", was a definite highlight.
Jacob Stolworthy has more.
Dick Morris, a former adviser to Bill Clinton turned Fox pundit, believes the "ghost of Hillary Clinton" is haunting the 2020 campaign and that the former first lady and secretary of state is about to throw her hat into the crowded Democratic field because "God put her on the earth to do it".
“My feeling is that she wants to,” Morris told radio host John Catsimatidis on The Cats Roundtable podcast. “She feels entitled to do it. She feels compelled to do it. She feels that God put her on the earth to do it. But she’s hesitant because she realises the timing is bad.”
“She’s got to wait until [Joe] Biden drops out because he’s obviously next in line for it, and if he goes away, there’s an opening for her,” Morris said.
(Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
For Indy Voices, Bel Trew says the death of al-Baghdadi will not undo the damage Trump's recent Middle Eastern adventures have done to American credibility in the region.
Donald Trump said he was considering releasing footage of the US-led raid over the weekend responsible for the reported death of Bakr al-Baghdadi, a major leader of the Islamic State.
“We're thinking about it,” the president told reporters on Monday morning. “We may. The question was, am I considering releasing video footage of the raid. And we may take certain parts of it and release it, yes.”
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