Trump news: President ‘told Rush Limbaugh not to apologise to Pete Buttigieg over homophobic remarks’ and says California cities overrun with needles
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Donald Trump reportedly advised conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh not to apologise to Democratic 2020 contender Pete Buttigieg after saying America is not ready for a gay president kissing his husband on the world stage, prompting the candidate to mock Trump over his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
The president is touring the western swing states of Nevada, California and Arizona this week with one eye on November but caused offence to the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco overnight by suggesting both are suffering from widespread drug addiction and homelessness.
Trump is meanwhile also facing criticism for pardoning 11 white collar criminals – including ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, whom he once fired from The Celebrity Apprentice over a Harry Potter controversy – a decision that provoked fresh concern about the president exceeding the powers of his office and moved former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal to reassure the public: “The law will find a way to catch up with him.”
Meanwhile, sparring between Mike Bloomberg and the leading Democratic candidates erupted hours before Wednesday night's debate, previewing what's expected to be a tense night as the billionaire businessman meets his rivals onstage for the first time.
Both Bernie Sanders' and Joe Biden's campaigns took aim at Mr Bloomberg, the former raising questions about the 78-year-old's health and the latter pointing out reversals in Mr Bloomberg's stances on key issues.
Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures
Show all 18The attacks underscore how seriously Democrats are taking the former New York mayor's campaign, now that he's rocketed to double-digit support in national polls and qualified for the next two debates.
Mr Bloomberg, who formally registered as a Democrat in 2018, has faced relatively little national scrutiny in his surprisingly swift rise from nonpartisan megadonor to top-tier presidential contender.
On CNN Wednesday morning, Mr Sanders' national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray tried to rebut questions surrounding the Vermont senator's health by pointing to Mr Bloomberg, who she said had also "suffered heart attacks in the past".
Mr Sanders suffered a heart attack last fall and released letters from doctors attesting to his health. But Mr Bloomberg has never suffered a heart attack; he released a doctors' letter last year that said he did undergo coronary stent surgery in 2000.
Ms Gray later walked back her statement, saying on Twitter that she "misspoke" about Mr Bloomberg's health.
Separately, the Biden campaign took on Mr Bloomberg over ads the former mayor is running that feature shots of him working closely with former President Barack Obama.
The Biden campaign posted a video to Twitter highlighting past comments Mr Bloomberg made criticising Mr Obama on health care and climate change and accusing him of failing to address racism during his term. The video also includes a clip of Mr Bloomberg declaring "I'm a friend of Donald Trump's, he's a New York icon."
Additional reporting by Associated Press. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Trump condemned by more than 1,000 veterans over Vindman firing
Andrew Naughtie has this on a backlash against a backlash.
Trump once fired Rod Blagojevich from The Celebrity Apprentice for not knowing enough about Harry Potter
Here's a reminder of a gleefully idiotic footnote to this presidency.
"Your Harry Potter facts were not accurate! Who did the research?" the future commander-in-chief demanded to know in 2010.
Buttigieg says Bloomberg 'has to answer for his treatment of others'
Like Elizabeth Warren - and in addition to bashing Trump - Pete Buttigieg has also been getting in an early dig at Bloomberg.
“I think he has to answer for his treatment of others, for his language and above all for an attitude that seems to have dismissed the humanity of a lot of people,” the candidate told Kristen Welker of NBC Nightly News.
Any number of questionable past comments have resurfaced from the former NYC mayor since he announced his tilt at the White House.
James Besanvalle has news of another for Indy100.
Kenan Thompson to host White House Correspondents' Dinner
The Saturday Night Live veteran will take the mic alongside Hasan Minhaj at this year's annual presidential roast, ending the comedy ban brought in after Trump took umbrage at Michelle Wolf's brutal set in 2018 and handed the gig to historian Ron Chernow last year.
Trump: 'There must be JUSTICE'
The president appears to have woken up in a rage and is currently slamming out retweets from loyalist GOP congressmen Lee Zeldin and Mark Meadows and Judicial Watch weirdo Tim Fitton, including the following, apparently promising vengeance...
The Fitton retweets are up to 10 at the time of writing, most of which are pushing rabid "deep state" conspiracy theories about liberal bias in the Justice Department and urging AG Barr to "clean house".
Aaaaaand now we're back to Bloomberg:
Bernie Sanders courts controversy by refusing to release medical records but surges ahead in polls
The Vermont senator is soaring ahead in the polls right now, leading the Democratic field by a cool 15 points nationally according to a new survey by ABC News/Washington Post and thriving in South Carolina and California too.
However, the 78-year-old is under increasing pressure to make his health records public after suffering a heart attack on the campaign trail in the autumn.
“We have released, I think… quite as much as any other candidate has," he told Anderson Cooper at the CNN town hall last night. "We released two rather detailed letters from cardiologists and we released a letter that came from the head of the US Congress medical group, the physicians there. So I think we have released a detailed report, and I’m comfortable with what we have done.
“If you think I’m not in good health come on out with me on the campaign trail and I’ll let you introduce me to the three or four rallies a day that we do,” he added.
His team have since complained that asking for them amounts to a "smear campaign" while some commentators have suggested that, like Trump and his tax returns, he wouldn't withold them if he didn't have something to hide.
Lindsey Graham tells Mark Esper: 'I could make your life hell'
The South Carolina senator reportedly fell out with Trump's defence secretary during a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last week over plans to withdraw American troops from the Sahel region of Africa, according to NBC News, citing four people who were in the room.
Graham is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and angrily told Esper Congress would not support any such potentially destabilising manoeuvre and was backed up by Delaware senator Chris Coons, who is understood to have made his point equally "forcefully".
But Pentagon press secretary Alyssa Farah has denied the fracas took place: "The secretary had a productive conversation with bipartisan, bicameral members of Congress on the future of US force presence in West Africa."
Disputed or not, Graham has form in standing up to Trump on troop movements - and any dissent in the Magaverse is worth heeding.
(Johannes Simon/Getty)
'Mike Bloomberg is the Donald Trump of Democrats'
As the ex-NYC mayor prepares to take to the debate stage for the first time in Nevada, Max Burns writes for Indy Voices that a vote for him would mean the opposition sacrificing everything it stands for.
Trump's press secretary compared to 'Wicked Witch of the West' on Fox News
Stephanie Grisham quite literally turned green live on Fox yesterday due to a technical glitch and the jokes wrote themselves...
Top Pentagon official leaving Trump administration
The president has just confirmed the ousting of top Pentagon policy official John Rood after the undersecretary of defence lost the support of senior national security personnel and was asked for his resignation as CNN reported this morning.
Part of Rood's role in overseas policy involved certifying that Ukrainian anti-corruption reforms were underway to Congress in order to justify its receipt of aid from the US and his making that guarantee fatally undermined the administration's rationale for witholding the smoking $391m (£302m) last summer, a move that would prove central to the impeachment inquiry.
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