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As it happenedended

Trump news: Fox News to air advert blaming mass shooting on president 'stoking fire of racists'

Catch-up on events as they happened

Chris Riotta
New York
,Joe Sommerlad
Tuesday 13 August 2019 20:04 BST
Comments
Conspiracy theories that Trump has pushed

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Donald Trump will face a shock on Wednesday morning when his favourite breakfast show Fox and Friends runs an attack advert paid for by 2020 Democratic presidential challenger Julian Castro in which the candidate accuses him of “stoking the fire of racists” and inspiring the El Paso mass shooting.

As the Jeffrey Epstein case continues to unfold, Donald Trump says he has “no idea” if Bill Clinton was involved in the disgraced financier’s death, accusing former President Bill Clinton of lying about his air travel on Epstein’s planes.

The president has been heavily criticised for promoting the unfounded theory that the Clintons were somehow involved in Epstein’s death.

Attorney General William Barr has expressed concern at the “serious irregularities” surrounding the death of the billionaire paedophile – a former friend of Mr Trump – in his Manhattan jail cell over the weekend.

The FBI conducted a raid on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, according to reports, as two guards assigned to watch the disgraced financier before his apparent suicide in prison were put on administrative leave.

The president meanwhile took a break from his vacation to speak about energy investments at a Shell complex in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. During the speech Mr Trump launched a series of attacks, primarily focusing his sights on 2020 Democratic candidates. He criticised Elizabeth Warren, using his common slur of “Pocahontas”, before moving onto “sleepy” Joe Biden.

The president then went on to attack his home state of New York, in a rambling tirade about power outages and lawsuits. “They’re burdened with power outages,” he said. “New York energy rates are through the roof. All New York likes to do is sue me, they like to sue me, they’re always suing. They sue me for everything so they can try to stop us by any means possible.”

Donald Trump has meanwhile wrongly claimed that the US has “similar, more advanced” missile technology to that currently being experimented with in Russia, apparently alluding to the nuclear-powered cruise rockets developed under Project Pluto in the 1960s during the Cold War, an initiative that was ultimately dismissed as “too crazy” to be viable.

Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

“I love New York, that’s where I’m from," Donald Trump said, before tearing into his hometown. …

"They’re burdened with power outages," he said. "New York energy rates are through the roof. All New York likes to do is sue me, they like to sue me, they’re always suing. They sue me for everything so they can try to stop us by any means possible.”

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 20:05

"Together we're defending the oil and gas workers," Donald Trump said while speaking at the Shell facilities. 

The president is claiming the US no longer needs oil from the Middle East because of America's increased energy production. The country continues to receive oil from foreign countries. 

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 20:06

"Now you finally have a president of the United States who is loyal to you," Donald Trump told workers at the Shell facilities. He described his agenda as "pro energy" and "pro America," adding, "We're taking care of our military, and we're taking care of our vets."

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 20:07

"We will keep winning, winning, winning," Donald Trump said, bringing up his often-told story about associates coming to his office and begging him to "stop winning, stop creating all these jobs, stop creating all this product, please, sir, please."

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 20:09

"I've more than fulfilled my promises," Donald Trump said in concluding his remarks.

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 20:09

Here's Donald Trump's full quote from today's speech in which he attacks Elizabeth Warren:

"I don’t want to do it too early (attack the Democrats). I did it too early with Pocahontas, I should have probably waited. She’s staging a comeback on Sleepy Joe. I don’t know who’s going to win. But we’ll have to hit Pocahontas very hard again if she does win," he said. "But she’s staging a little bit of a comeback. What a group! Pocahontas and Sleepy Joe. I don’t think they give a damn about western Pennsylvania, do you? And other radical plans to wipe out our coal, that’s what they want. And to wipe out our oil. They want to wipe out our natural gas industry while allowing other countries to steal our jobs."

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 20:30

Donald Trump is seemingly warning online that the “Chinese Government is moving troops to the Border with Hong Kong.”

He added, “Everyone should be calm and safe!”

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 20:50

Donald Trump slammed the Green New Deal during his speech on American energy at the Shell facilities in Pennsylvania today. Here's his quote: 

"Democrats in Congress are pushing hard for the Green New Deal, how about that one? It puts everyone in this room out of work, I hate to tell you, and a lot more people - everybody, out of work.

But I don’t want to speak badly about this, you know this, you’ve heard me say this. I want to encourage them."

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 21:10

The FBI has conducted a raid on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, according to reports. 

Federal officials were seen spreading across the island of Little St James by US vessels and on golf carts Monday, just two days after the disgraced financier died of an apparent suicide in a New York prison. 

Epstein was facing new sex trafficking and conspiracy charges over allegations he operated an international child sex ring. The 66-year-old was set to stand trial next year and was facing 45 years in jail. 

Kelly Quinn, who was operating a sailing charter near Epstein’s private island at the time of the raid, told NBC News: “We were just trying to look at pretty fish and swim with turtles and here we are in the middle of an FBI raid.”

"This has been something on our radar for years," she added. "We're all really curious why it's happening now."

Chris Riotta13 August 2019 21:30
Lucy Anna Gray13 August 2019 21:36

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