Trump news: President praises ‘great people’ shouting ‘white power’ as Pelosi brands his alleged inaction over Russia-Taliban reports ‘as bad as it gets’
Lindsey Graham joins president on golf course as officials take aim at reported Russian plot to kill US troops
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Donald Trump has praised “great people” in footage he shared of furious protesters clashing over his presidency outside a Florida retirement home, in which one apparent supporter repeatedly shouts “white power” from a golf buggy.
The only black Republican senator Tim Scott urged him to remove the “indefensible” footage, which he later did. The White House claimed he did not hear the racist chant.
A White House spokesperson claimed that the president "did not hear the one statement made on the video" and that "what he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters."
While the president was on the golf course for a second consecutive day, this time with Senator Lindsey Graham, the administration faced intense scrutiny over allegations that it was warned about Russian bounties placed on US troops in Afghanistan in an alleged secret deal between Russian intelligence services and Taliban militias. The White House was warned by intelligence officials as early as January about the threat, according to reports.
Joe Biden accused the president of betraying “the most sacred duty we bear as a nation” after reports suggested he had been briefed months ago yet did “worse than nothing” in response. Mr Trump denied having been briefed or "told about" the reports, crying “fake news”, while the Kremlin dismissed the allegations as “nonsense”.
The president's former national security adviser John Bolton said the allegations are among "the most serious matters that has arisen in the Trump administration" and was "puzzled" by the president's apparent inaction and denial, as he pivoted to attacks on his Democratic opponent.
"What would motivate the president to do that?" Mr Bolton told CNN. "Because it looks bad if Russians are paying to kill Americans and we're not doing anything about it. So what is the presidential reaction? It's to say 'it's not my responsibility, nobody told me about it.' And therefore to duck any complaints that he hasn't acted effectively."
While the president Covid-19 infections soared by more than 40,000 for the third consecutive day.
Vice president Mike Pence has been forced to call off upcoming campaign events in Florida and Arizona amid coronavirus spikes in the Republican-governed states, which have pushed to abandon lockdowns in order to restart the economy. But he appeared at a Texas megachurch on Sunday to announced that "each day we are one day closer to putting this pandemic in the past" despite climbing case rates.
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Here's the footage of Joe Biden's criticism of Donald Trump's alleged inaction in the months after he was reportedly briefed about Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan - a charge the White House denies.
"The truly shocking revelation that if the Times report is true, and I emphasise that again, is that President Trump, the commander in chief of American troops serving in a dangerous theatre of war, has known about this for months, according to the Times, and done worse than nothing," Mr Biden said.
He called it a "betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation — to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm's way".
Oliver O'Connell has more on the measures being taken in Florida following a surge in new coronavirus cases.
The Republican-led state had previously pushed to reopen the state and scrap lockdown restrictions in a bid to restart the economy, but has recorded around 9,000 new cases each day for the past few days.
The state is moving to ban alcohol sales in bars, with the Miami-Wade district set to close beaches over the Fourth of July weekend.
Donald Trump has tweeted his thanks to "the great people of The Villages", sharing a video of furious protesters clashing over his presidency, some of whom shout "f*** Trump". One man holds an image of Mr Trump saying "make America sane again".
Washington mayor caught between activists and police amid push for statehood
Amid a renewed push to make the US capital the 51st state and a Twitter beef with Donald Trump, Muriel Bowser's national profile has never been higher - at which point she must now pull off a public juggling act as the city budget becomes a battleground for the debate on reshaping law enforcement.
An activist collective led by Black Lives Matter is trying to capitalise on shifting public opinion, and the demands include major cuts in funding for the Metropolitan Police Department. The District of Columbia Council had indicated it would push for up to $15m, but Ms Bowser is defending her 2021 budget proposal, which includes a 3.3 per cent increase in police money.
With conservatives painting her as a radical riot-supporter, Ms Bowser must thread this needle with both Black Lives Matter and the White House watching her every move - a similar dilemma faced by other urban mayors of protest hot spots who must balance competing pressures without alienating either the activists or the police.
Meanwhile, the bill for Washington's statehood which passed the House on Friday now faces vast opposition in the Republican-held Senate, where Tom Cotton on Thursday singled Ms Bowser out as a reason that Washington cannot be trusted with statehood, citing her support for protesters.
Mr Cotton lumped Ms Bowser in with the late Marion Barry, a former mayor who was caught on video smoking crack cocaine in a 1990 FBI sting. Mr Barry, who died in 2014, remains a beloved figure in many parts of the district and he emerged from federal prison to serve additional terms as both a mayor and a councillor. A statue of him was erected in front of the DC government administration building in 2018.
In the early days of the protests, Ms Bowser publicly sided with the demonstrators as Mr Trump called in a repressive security response, renaming the protest epicenter, within sight of the White House, as Black Lives Matter Plaza. She also commissioned a mural with Black Lives Matter painted on 16th Street across from the White House in yellow letters large enough to be seen from space.
For Mr Trump and his supporters, Ms Bowser may as well have declared herself a member of BLM's local chapter. But that chapter didn't feel the same, immediately dismissing it as "a performative distraction" from true policy changes.
April Goggans, a core organiser with Black Lives Matter DC, rejected Ms Bowser's moves as "taking advantage of national attention", adding: "She would never even say the words 'Black Lives Matter' until recently."
Ms Bowser now faces a showdown over the 2012 budget, and has so far refused to budge from her initial plan of £3.3m additional funding despite a reported call for £15m to be removed. Ms Goggans told AP: "We're going to keep putting up a massive amount of pressure and escalating our tactics and intensity."
Additional reporting by AP
Here's more on Donald Trump's early morning tweet in support of the "great people of the Villages", sharing a video of protesters outside a retirement home furiously arguing over his presidency - appearing to celebrate the division his term in office has exacerbated across the nation.
While some shout "f*** Trump" and openly denigrate him and his supporters, the first main protester heard in support of the president shouts "white power".
With commentators and analysts wondering just how desperate Donald Trump will be in his efforts to discredit Joe Biden, particularly given his polling drop in several key swing states, the president is going full throttle this morning.
It's not yet 10am in Washington DC, and Mr Trump has attacked "sleepy" and "corrupt Joe Biden" as a "low IQ person", warned his policy of allowing illegal migrants to access healthcare would "break our system", claimed "Russia ate his and Obama's lunch" while in power, and targeted his son, Hunter Biden.
It comes after Mr Biden's comments expressing concern about Mr Trump's alleged inaction in response to reports of Russian bounties on US troops - which the Kremlin has called "nonsense".
Our music correspondent Roisin O'Connor has more details on the apparent stunt by Sacha Baron Cohen at a far-right militia's rally in Olympia yesterday.
A man believed to be the satirist posed as a PAC leader, buying his way into giving a performance and bringing his own security to the event, who then prevented organisers from intervening as the crowd sang along and cheered to a lengthy racist song calling for the US to chop up journalists, Dr Anthony Fauci and the WHO "like the Saudis do".
One image posted to social media suggests the comedian then returned to the event posing as a camera operator to film the outraged reaction of organisers and local politicians as they tried to ascertain what had happened.
Republican senator urges Trump to remove 'white power' video
Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, has urged Donald Trump to remove footage he retweeted showing his supporter shouting "white power" in a furious clash outside a Florida retirement home between Trump critics and opponents.
"There's no question that he should not have retweeted it and he should just take it down," Scott told CNN's State of the Union.
"It was so profanity laced, the entire thing was offensive. Certainly, the comment about the white power was offensive," the South Carolina Republican added. "It's indefensible. We should take it down."
'As bad as it gets': Trump attacked by Pelosi for ignoring briefing on Russia placing bounties on US soldiers
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said it was "totally outrageous" for Donald Trump not to respond to reports that the same Russian intelligence cells that attacked the 2016 US election also offered bounties on US soldiers for Taliban fighters, Griffin Connolly reports.
"This is as bad as it gets, and yet the president will not confront the Russians on this score," Ms Pelosi saidin an interview with ABC News, adding: "This is totally outrageous. You would think that the minute he heard of this the president would want to know more instead of denying anything."
"Now he says it's fake news. Why would he say that? Why wouldn't he say, 'Let's look into it'?" the speaker said. The White House has denied reports that the president ignored a warning from US intelligence that the Russian military had offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops and other coalition forces.
Houston's healthcare system struggles to cope with surge of new coronavirus cases as ICUs near capacity
Paramedics in the new Texan epicentre of Houston warn that waiting times for transfers from ambulances to hospital have in some cases tripled amid a huge surge in emergency calls and shortage of first responders, the city's fire chief Sam Pena told KHOU.
“The longer it takes us to service those critical calls, it is going to cost us lives,” he said, adding that services were receiving 20 per cent more calls than usual in the past three weeks. “Our system is getting strained,” he said.
Harris County, which includes Houston, announced its coronavirus threat indicator was at the highest possible level last week, warning that the outbreak was “severe and uncontrolled”.
Hospital intensive care units at Houston’s Texas Medical Centre are close to 100 percent capacity, and health officials reported record hospitalisations across the state.
“The time is now for everybody to dramatically change their behaviours to get this virus under control,” Marc Boom, president of Houston Methodist Hospital, told The Washington Post, “so that our hospitals for the weeks to come are there and able to handle this.”
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