Trump news: Impeachment poll reveals soaring public support for president’s removal during TV hearings, as damning Ukraine scandal details emerge
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Your support makes all the difference.The House Intelligence Committee’s televised hearings this month inspired a steady increase in public support for the impeachment of Donald Trump over the Ukraine scandal, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests.
That new poll came just before fresh accusations that have rocked the Trump administration on an entirely new set of circumstances beyond impeachment — this time the accusation from three women that EU ambassador Gordon Sondland had retaliated against them after they turned down his unwanted sexual advances, which included alleged forced kissing and exposing himself.
The accusations were detailed by a joint report from ProPublica and Portland Monthly, and were denied by the Seattle hotelier. Even so, they make him the latest high profile Trump ally to be accused of sexual misconduct after the likes of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the president himself.
Meanwhile, as the House Judiciary Committee announced its plans for the next stage of the inquiry and invited the president to attend, The New York Times reported Mr Trump knew about the CIA whistleblower’s initial complaint when he finally released the withheld $391m (£302m) military assistance to Kiev, a tactic that prompted two White House budget officials to resign in protest, according to the latest published witness transcript.
Before that, president Trump gave his latest 2020 campaign rally in Florida on Tuesday night, denouncing the investigation into his quid pro quo call with Volodymyr Zelensky as “bull****” and encouraging his supporters to chant the word in defiance.
On Wednesday, he spent some of his day tweeting about the day’s events, including a photoshopped image with his face on top of the much younger, much fitter Rocky Balboa’s body.
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Mexico's Obrador expressions suspicion of US 'interventionism' to battle drug cartels
Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has responded to Trump's suggestion during his interview with Bill O'Reilly yesterday that he may designate the country's cartels as a terrorist organisation.
"Co-operation, yes, intervention, no," President Obrador said simply during a morning news conference.
He did add that Mexico would take up the issue after the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and said that he had asked his foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard to lead talks.
Once a particular group is designated as a terrorist organisation, it is illegal under US law for people in the United States to knowingly offer support and its members cannot enter the country and may be deported. Ebrard said at the weekend that such a designation could, under US law, enable the United States to act directly against the threat if it so chose.
(Mario Guzman/EPA)
Michael Flynn sentencing delayed until further notice
A US judge has delayed the planned 18 December sentencing hearing of Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, but has not set a new date.
Judge Emmett Sullivan had been expected to put off sentencing after both Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents, and the United States filed a joint motion to request the delay, citing the expected December release of the Justice Department inspector general's report on the origins of investigations into alleged Russian election interference. The inspector general said last week he expects to release the report on 9 December.
(Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
"The parties expect that the report of this investigation will examine topics related to several matters raised by the defendant," they wrote in the joint filing.
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to agents about his 2016 conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then-Russian ambassador to the United States. The retired Army lieutenant general is one of several Trump aides to plead guilty or be convicted at trial in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
Does Pete Buttigieg have what it takes to challenge for the presidency?
Our man in Iowa, Andrew Buncombe, has this on the rise and rise of Peter Buttigieg, the Iraq War veteran and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to the top of the polls in the Midwestern state.
Trump tweets utterly ridiculous Rocky meme
The president has been pretty quiet so far today, outside of a few cursory retweets. And then this happened.
"Take off your shirt, sir, and show us that gorgeous chest. We've never seen a chest quite like it," he said in Florida last night, allegedly quoting his doctor.
Jesus wept.
He's otherwise spending the day playing a few rounds at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
A Warning author pledges to reveal identity soon
The anonymous White House insider who wrote the new behind-the-scenes book A Warning has promised to reveal his or her identity soon.
The mystery author told a Reddit AMA that “Donald Trump has not heard the last of me” but declined to give an exact timeframe on when they might unmask themselves.
"As far as anonymity is concerned, I will not keep my identity shrouded in secrecy forever," the writer said. "I am not afraid to use my own name to express concern about the current occupant of the Oval Office."
The moderators of the AMA wrote admitted they could not “verify by our usual standards” that the poster is the anonymous author but said: "The publishers of his book assure us it’s the same guy and we have no reason not to believe them."
(Scott Olson/Getty)
The White House is reporting that "Congress Isn’t Working this Week, but President Trump Is" — while the president is at his golf course in Florida.
How hard is he working while Congress is on break for Thanksgiving?
The White House's examples of his hard work: signing a law and an executive order and participating in a few minutes-long turkey pardoning.
Per White House pool on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving: "POTUS arrived at Trump International Golf Club, West Palm Beach, at 9:55 a.m."
Report: Giulani sought business in Ukraine with government officials while pushing Trump agenda
The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani pursued "hundreds of thousands of dollars in business from Ukrainian government officials" while performing a "public campaign" scouring for damaging information in the country on the president's rivals.
Documents obtained by the New York Times contradict the president's personal attorney, as well as the president, who both have told reporters as recently as this week that Mr Giuliani had nothing to do with Ukraine.
The documents show that while Mr Giuliani was trying to arrange financial deals with members of the Ukraine government while pushing the president's agenda.
The New York Times reports that Mr Giuliani "prepared at least one retainer agreement, on his company letterhead, that he signed."
More on the bombshell on Rudy Giuliani, from the Washington Post:
Mr Giuliani negotiated a $200,000 deal to represent the Ukraine's top prosecutor while he was also trying to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son.
For prosecutor Yuri For Lutsenko, according to the Post, "the agreement would have provided a pipeline to Trump’s lawyer and, through him, potentially to other top US officials. For Giuliani, the agreements would have been a way to accrue financial benefit from a person who was also providing him politically damaging information that could help another client, the president of the United States."
In the local race to keep Texas red (or turn it blue) Republicans this year have already committed a big fat error. Take a look:
The anonymous White House official who wrote the "tell-all" book A Warning did a Reddit AMA.
The author (still anonymous!) says they'll reveal their identity soon, perhaps before the 2020 election, when they say other people currently within or recently departed from the administration will come forward.
Read more here:
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