Trump news: President asserts executive privilege over subpoenaed documents as he rages over humiliating polls
Another day of chaotic news stemming from the White House
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.California senator Kamala Harris, one of the leading Democratic candidates to challenge the president in 2020, has said the Justice Department would have little choice but to pursue criminal obstruction charges against Donald Trump if she were elected to the Oval Office.
President Trump has meanwhile lashed out on Twitter suggesting reports about internal polling indicating he might lose next year’s race are “Fake numbers” and the work of the “Fake (Corrupt) News Media”.
In Washington, the House Intelligence Committee is staging a hearing on lessons learned from the Mueller report while the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, is due to appear before the equivalent Senate committee behind closed doors.
The president was meanwhile joined on Wednesday by Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, when he announced he will send 1,000 more US service members to Poland as part of his broadening security and economic alliance.
Mr Trump said the Polish government will pay for the infrastructure to support the additional troops, and he praised Poland for increased defense spending to meeting its NATO commitments.
Earlier in the Oval Office, the president said the United States has based tens of thousands of troops in Germany for a “long, long time” and that he probably would move a “certain number” of those personnel to Poland, “if we agree to do it.”
Mr Trump also said Poland is buying more than 30 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets from the US. In recognition of that purchase, a single F-35 flew over the White House on a sunny afternoon. Mr Duda looked up and waved as the jet passed.
“They’re going to put on a very small show for us and we’re doing that because Poland has ordered 32 or 35 brand new F-35s at the highest level,” Mr Trump said.
US officials also said earlier this week that Mr Trump, in addition to the additional troops, would send a squadron of Reaper drones to Poland to aid its self-defense amid concerns about Russian military activity.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Trump's favourite broadcaster and enabler Fox News has been criticised for repeatedly questioning Joe Biden's health.
CNN's Chris Cillizza has accused the right-wing network of "crossing the line" after anchors Sean Hannity and Lisa Kennedy speculated that the 76-year-old Democratic frontrunner might be too frail for office.
Here's Stephanie Fillion's report.
In addition to taking Donald Trump to task in Iowa, Biden made the astonishing promise he would find a cure for cancer as president.
"It's a lofty goal but a dumb thing to promise," says scientist Rob Arthur.
Here's more from Chris Baynes.
Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has been explaining the purpose of his panel's public hearing hearing on counterintelligence implications of Russian election meddling on Wednesday.
“If the president was trying to make money in Russia during the campaign and concealing it, that’s a counterintelligence nightmare. If the campaign chairman was trying to make money from Russians and concealing it, that’s a counterintelligence nightmare. If others in the administration have financial entanglements driving US policy, those are counterintelligence problems of the first order,” Schiff told The Hill.
“None of that is really discussed in that fashion in the [Mueller] report, which is basically a report about prosecutorial decision-making. So, we want to flesh out the counterintelligence issues.”
Yesterday saw one of the most rousing speeches given on Capitol Hill for some time courtesy of former Daily Show host Jon Stewart.
The satirist spoke passionately and angrily on behalf of 9/11 first responders at a House Judiciary Committee, calling on Congress to refund their healthcare and winning a standing ovation.
"Talk about living in the past. The Democrats want to talk about Watergate? I mean this happened before I was born! This is a total waste of time."
While this remark in response to Richard Nixon's ex-counsel John Dean's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee on Monday may sound like it came from Don Jr, it was actually made by Missouri senator Josh Hawley, the youngest man in the Senate at 39.
Hawley voiced the anger of many Republicans frustrated by the opposition's flirtation with impeachment proceedings and attempts to discredit the president by likening the Mueller investigation to the scandal that brought down "Tricky Dick" in 1974.
Dean obliged in his testimony, saying the FBI special counsel had gifted Trump's enemies with their own "Watergate road map".
Here's Chris Riotta's report.
Donald Trump is up and about and is tweeting about an event in Orlando on 18 June.
He claims that there have been 74,000 requests for tickets to a 20,000-capacity arena.
It is there that the president is expected to formally launch his re-election campaign - which might account for some of the apparent demand
The president is now tweeting about the "fake news" of polling data. He is repeating his false claim that polls that represent him poorly are a form of "suppression" of his support.
It follows a story from the New York Times that Mr Trump had asked aides "to deny that his internal polling showed him trailing [Joe] Biden" in a number of states.
As you can, Mr Trump denies that:
The latest tweets also appear after a number of stories this morning reporting a new national Quinnipiac University poll which looks at potential head-to-head match-ups in a general election.
Mr Trump gets beaten by six of the leading Democrats he could face. Mr Biden is obviously the front-runner at the moment so he has the biggest lead.
Joe Biden 53%, Trump 40%
Bernie Sanders 51%, Trump 42%
Kamala Harris 49%, Trump 41%
Elizabeth Warren 49%, Trump 42%
Peter Buttigieg 47%, Trump 42%
Cory Booker 47%, Trump 42%
One of those Democrat candidates, Kamala Harris has told NPR this morning that if she was elected president, the Department of Justice would have little choice but to pursue criminal obstruction of justice charges against the former President Trump.
"I believe that they would have no choice and that they should, yes," the California senator told the NPR Politics Podcast, pointing to the 10 instances of possible obstruction in Robert Mueller's Russia report
"There has to be accountability," Ms Harris added. "I mean look, people might, you know, question why I became a prosecutor. Well, I'll tell you one of the reasons — I believe there should be accountability. Everyone should be held accountable, and the president is not above the law."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments