Trump's defence secretary Mark Esper admits he 'didn't see' evidence of imminent threat from Iran
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Donald Trump has been accused of “engaging in hate speech against an entire religion” after retweeting a meme of senior Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in Muslim dress as press secretary Stephanie Grisham explained he posted it to attack the opposition for “almost taking the side of terrorists” in the Iran crisis.
A US cybersecurity firm has meanwhile alleged that Russian military agents successfully hacked Ukrainian gas company Burisma — at the heart of the impeachment inquiry over its ties to Hunter Biden, son of Mr Trump’s leading 2020 opponent Joe Biden — suggesting it attempted to steal emails with a view to again influencing an American presidential election.
On impeachment, Republicans in the Senate appear to be backing down from the idea of dismissing the two articles against the president outright after admitting they do not have the votes to see through such a controversial move.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell instead has announced that the Senate will plan to begin the president's impeachment trial on 21 January, provided that House Democrats send articles of impeachment and assign case managers to the Senate proceedings on Wednesday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not get assurance from the Republican leader who has previously gloated about his coordination with the White House and pledged support for dismissing the articles outright.
Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal
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Mr McConnell also did not say whether the Senate will bring up witnesses or evidence for the trial, saying instead he'll determine whether to do that "at the appropriate time".
Speaker Pelosi said a Senate dismissal of the charges against the president amounts to a "pure political cover-up".
Meanwhile, Democrats are pressuring the White House to release billions of dollars in aid to Puerto Rico, still suffering from 2017 hurricanes in addition to the ongoing earthquakes that have displaced thousands of people, as reports emerge that the president is considering diverting billions from the Pentagon to pay for his US-Mexico border wall.
Democrats also announced an investigation into the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" anti-immigration measure at the border, which "has morphed into a policy whereby refugees and asylum seekers are being kept in Mexico indefinitely and without due process or access to counsel".
Rudy Giuliani 'lobbying to join Trump's impeachment defence team'
The president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has reportedly been lobbying the White House to include him as part of Trump's impeachment defence team on the Senate floor, according to The Huffington Post.
The former New York mayor, once a federal prosecutor, is himself deeply involved in the Ukraine scandal, having twice travelled to Kiev to dig up dirt for his boss's benefit and played a key role in instigating the removal of US ambassador Marie Yovanovitch last May.
He has consistently proven himself to be a liability in media appearances defending Trump, delivering eccentric performances and erratic leaps of logic, most recently when he appeared with Jeanine Pirro on Fox over the weekend and argued that the Supreme Court could have the power to throw out the articles of impeachment.
“I’d try the case. I’d love to try the case,” Giuliani told reporters at Trump’s black tie New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago. "I don’t know if anybody would have the courage to give me the case. But if you give me the case, I will prosecute it as a racketeering case."
The defence is expected to be handled by White House counsel Pat Cipollone plus Trump lawyers Jay Sekulow, Pat Philbin and Mike Purpura, with other names being banded about, including ex-South Carolina congressman Trey Gowdy.
But not Rudy, it seems.
"The president is never going to have him in the Senate trial, starting with the problem that he's a potential witness," one source close to Trump told CNN.
Potential Trump impeachment lawyer Alan Dershowitz makes unbelievably spurious defence of president on Fox
Another man talking his way out of defending Trump in the Senate is Alan Dershowitz - already a difficult proposition due to his unsavouy ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein - who argued on Fox last night that obstruction of Congress was not a high crime or misdemeanour (?) and that the president had merely been executing the seperation of powers "in an entirely proper way" by, er, refusing to co-operate with a congressional investigation into his attempts to extort a political favour from a foreign power.
Elizabeth Warren claims Bernie Sanders told her female candidate could not beat Trump in 2020 election
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has claimed fellow Democratic 2020 runner Bernie Sanders told her that he did not believe a woman could defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box in a dramatic escalation of the growing split between the two progressive candidates.
In response to a CNN article based on four anonymous sources, Warren stood by the reported account of a private meeting between the two senators but said she and Sanders remained “friends and allies”.
"Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate," she said of the December 2018 meeting. "I thought a woman could win; he disagreed.”
Sanders has since denounced the report as "ludicrous".
'Mitch McConnell, your impeachment "trial" isn't a trial at all'
For Indy Voices, attorney Ashlie Weeks takes apart the Senate majority leader's plot to speedily acquit Trump without allowing for new witnesses to heard or fresh evidence considered.
Democrat warns Iran intelligence 'corrupted' under Trump
Oregon Democratic senator Jeff Merkley is not letting Trump off the hook on Soleimani despite his insistence that there is no contradiction in his rationale for taking out Iran's top general on 3 January.
"I'm very concerned our intelligence community in this case, with [CIA director] Gina Haspel at the top, is bending their presentations rather than giving us a full straight-out accountability of the facts," he says on New Day.
Jerry Nadler: 'New evidence can certainly be admitted' at Senate impeachment trial
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler has been speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill this morning en route to a caucus meeting and told CNN's Manu Raju he he "would expect" to be named by Speaker Pelosi as one of the Democratic Party's impeachment managers in Trump's upcoming Senate trial but has heard nothing concrete so far.
He also believes new evidence should be perfectly admissable, McConnell permitting:
House to vote on sending articles of impeachment to Senate on Wednesday, says Pelosi
That's the word coming out of the aforementioned Democratic caucus meeting this morning, although the speaker is still yet to name her impeachment managers.
US stops listing China as a currency manipulator, raising hopes of end to trade war
Trump’s administration has ceased classifying China as a currency manipulator ahead of the signing of a long-awaited trade deal between the world’s two largest economies this week.
As senior Chinese officials arrived in Washington on Monday to sign the "phase one" agreement, US Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin announced a significant concession to Beijing, reversing a decision made on Trump’s orders in August.
The US president has railed against China for years, claiming it artificially lowers the value of the renminbi in order to make its exports cheaper, harming American industry in the process. Beijing has consistently denied the charge.
“China has made enforceable commitments to refrain from competitive devaluation, while promoting transparency and accountability,” Mnuchin said in a statement.
Here's our business correspondent Ben Chapman's report.
Trump pastor advised suicidal LGBT+ teen to simply 'change sexuality'
The president has recently sought fresh endorsement from controversial Texas pastor Robert Jeffress as he seeks to shore up the Christian vote this election year.
Jeffress delivered the president's inauguration prayer but has said many nasty and inflammatory things over the years, labelling Islam "evil" and a heresy "from the pit of hell" and accusing Barack Obama of "paving the way" for the antichrist. More recently, Trump quoted his prophesy that the US would suffer a "Civil War-like fracture" if he were to be impeached.
A disturbing passage from Jeffress's 2004 book Hell? Yeah has newly come to light in which the evangelist has some appalling advice for an LGBT+ teen struggling with her sexuality.
White House to offer further intel on Iran crisis to senators following 'worst briefing ever'
After Republicans Rand Paul and Mike Lee angrily complained about last week's update on the Tehran tensions, saying they felt "insulted" and had been told nothing other than not to criticise Trump, the White House is going to have another crack at it tomorrow.
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