Trump news – live: Outrage over president's George Floyd comments as he says coronavirus 'gift from China'
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Outrage quickly followed Donald Trump's comments on George Floyd during a press conference to announce 2.5m new jobs to the US economy in May, saying that he would be "looking down right now" on a great thing happening for our country.
After Trump's on-going feud with former employees, ex-chief-of-staff John Kelly fired back to support Jim Mattis and say the president would either fire or push people so hard they would resign. Hundreds of former diplomatic and military officials, meanwhile, signed a letter denouncing the show of force by soldiers on civilian protesters.
At the end of a chaotic week, Trump travelled to Maine to undo Obama-era conservation orders and allow fishing again off the coast of New England.
Coronavirus, meanwhile, is still happening, with the World Health Organisation revising its guidance on face-masks and the CDC projecting more than 127,000 deaths by 27 June.
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'Keep name out of your mouth'
Well that was a doozy of a press conference earlier, with an invocation of George Floyd on employment numbers, a talk-to-the-hand brush off to a reporter, a road trip to Maine, baby talk, spinning heads and some fat-shaming (faming?) to boot.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reaction has been swift.
CNN and MSNBC viewers missed it
That press conference will go down as one for the ages.
But for CNN viewers they missed the good (2.5 million jobs) the bad ("Ugh, you are something else") and the ugly (George Floyd "looking down... great day for him").
The Hill happened to notice that while Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC, carried the Rose Garden briefing in full, MSNBC cut away after the first 11 minutes and CNN didn't air any of it.
Admittedly, it's a bit of industry naval-gazing to notice the differences in coverage. But for their viewers, they missed one of the all-time head-scratching performances.
Most read story today: Trump on George Floyd 'looking down' and 'a great day for him'
Showing that it's not just an industry thing to be so interested in today's Trump press conference, this story from The independent's Alex Woodward on the president's George Floyd comments has become one of this publication's most popular stories.
Alex writes: Donald Trump has said he hopes George Floyd is "looking down right now" and saying the decline in US unemployment announced on Friday is a "great thing that's happening for our country". His remarks follow Thursday's memorial for Mr Floyd, who was killed by police on Memorial Day after an officer forced his knee on the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes while facing the ground in handcuffs.
Read the full story.
A closer look: 'Their heads will spin' - Trump urges governors to 'dominate the streets
The Independent's John T Bennett takes a closer look at Trump's hawkish language today, calling on governors to "dominate the streets" and put down protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody.
He writes: "Mr Trump used a hastily arranged press conference on a surprisingly positive jobs report to jump from topic to topic, essentially declaring the economy healed after it cratered during the pandemic with a high unemployment rate and predictions of a 20 per cent rate on Friday. But the Labor Department announced the rate dropped to 13.3 per cent from 14.7 last month. But he spoke very little about Mr Floyd or black American's frustrations with how they feel they are treated by police departments."
Read the full story.
Google: State-backed hackers targeted Trump, Biden campaigns
Google said state-backed hackers have targeted the campaigns of both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, although it saw no evidence that the phishing attempts were successful.
The company confirmed the findings after the director of its Threat Analysis Group, Shane Huntley, disclosed the attempts Thursday on Twitter.
Huntley said a Chinese group known as Hurricane Panda targeted Trump campaign staffers while an Iranian outfit known as Charming Kitten had attempted to breach accounts of Biden campaign workers. Such phishing attempts typically involve forged emails with links designed to harvest passwords or infect devices with malware.
The effort targeted personal email accounts of staffers in both campaigns, according to the company statement. A Google spokesman added that "the timeline is recent and that a couple of people were targeted on both campaigns." He would not say how many.
Google said it sent targeted users "our standard government-backed attack warning" and referred the incidents to federal law enforcement.
Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, called the announcement "a major disclosure of potential cyber-enabled influence operations, just as we saw in 2016."
Associated Press
Following Mattis: More in the GOP frown on Trump's tone
President Donald Trump's inability to unify the nation at a time of grave unrest is testing his uneasy alliance with mainstream Republicans, some emboldened by Gen. James Mattis' plea for a leader who lives up to the U.S. ideals of a more perfect union.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Thursday called the rebuke by Trump's first Pentagon chief "necessary and overdue."
Murkowski's remarks reflected the choice Republicans are forced to make about whether, and for how long, to support Trump when his words and actions so often conflict with their values and goals. Trump has responded to violence accompanying some protests following George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis by calling for more "law and order" to "dominate" even peaceful demonstrations. He has been slower and less forceful in addressing racial injustice and questions of police brutality that lie at the heart of the unrest.
Asked whether she can still support Trump, Murkowski replied: "I am struggling with it. I have struggled with it for a long time."
The nation is on edge, and Election Day looms, with the presidency and control of the House and Senate at stake. Trump has made clear that consequences for what he considers disloyalty can be steep.
Indeed, he promised Thursday to campaign against Murkowski when she is up for reelection in 2022. "Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don't care, I'm endorsing," Trump tweeted.
Most in the GOP aren't breaking with him. Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said Mattis' missive was not discussed Thursday at the GOP's lunch.
Asked for his thoughts on Mattis and Murkowski, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered no response.
Associated Press
Trump's Maine message -- lift coronavirus lockdowns
Trump round table in Maine to support commercial fishermen being held currently quickly turned to to reopening the US from coronavirus lockdowns.
"You have a governor who doesn't know what she's doing... she's like a dictator, why isn't she opening up?" he said of Maine Governor Janet Mills.
"She's gonna destroy your state. I'm not a fan."
He also threatened to raise tariffs on European Union cars if tariffs aren't lowered on US seafood.
Hundreds of former officials condemn Trump's response to riots
More than 280 former US diplomats and military leaders have denounced Trump's use of military units to control violence in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing in a letter shared with Foreign Policy on Friday.
Drafted by the president's former ambassador to Iraq, Douglas Silliman, Obama's former ambassador to
Lithuania, Deborah McCarthy, and a veteran State Department diplomat, Thomas Countryman, Foreign Policy is reporting the signatories condemned use of helicopters in a low-flying "rotor wash" on protestors in front of the White House.
"Many of us served across the globe, including in war zones, diplomats and military officers working side by side to advance American interests and values," the letter said.
"We called out violations of human rights and the authoritarian regimes that deployed their military against their own citizens.
"We condemn all criminal acts against persons and property, but cannot agree that responding to these acts is beyond the capabilities of local and state authorities."
Trump repeals and replaces.... an Obamservation area
Continuing his deconstruction of some of Obama's signature accomplishments, Trump on Friday moved to undo the ex-president's executive order establishing a conversation area off the coast of Maine.
Under the previous administration, fishing was banned in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts off the New England coast as part of five marine monuments across the US.
Trump told a roundtable with the fishing industry today he was undoing Obama's executive order.
"We are reopening the Northeast Canyons to commercial fishing. We're opening it today -- we're undoing his executive order," he said.
"They took away your livelihoods. It's ridiculous. They took away your life. We're giving Main back a big part of its history. A big part of its industry. And we're giving back its fishing rights to 5,000 square miles. That's a lot. Boy, that's a big chunk of water."
'Slowly losing respect for the Democratic Party'
For The Independent's Polarized series, Chris Riotta speaks to Gavin Kidder, a 24-year-old South Carolina voter who stopped being a Democrat after the 2016 election.
"As it is, the Democratic Party hasn't learned anything in four years," Mr Kidder says. "They tried with Hillary, and now they're trying with Biden. But he's a weak candidate, and I don't think he has what it takes to win."
Read the full story in our weekly series featuring Americans from all 50 states as they share their views on the 2020 elections.
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