Trump news: White House slams Putin ‘scheme’ as ex-president rejects House speaker plan

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Trump calls for Putin to release dirt on the Biden family

Donald Trump poured cold water on suggestions that he could be elected speaker of the House of Representatives by Republicans after this November’s midterm elections – an idea that has been floated by some of his more hardcore congressional allies. Instead, the president said, “I wanna look at what’s happening and then we’re gonna be doing something else”.

This he did in the same interview where he called on Vladimir Putin to release dirt about the Biden family’s supposed dealings with the wife of the mayor of Moscow. His appeal to the Russian autocrat has drawn outrage given Mr Putin’s current assault on Ukraine, an American ally.

Meanwhile, it emerged that White House phone records from 6 January 2021 obtained by the committee investigating the Capitol riot feature a 7-hour gap in former President Donald Trump’s communications, a span of time that includes the assault on the building by a horde of his supporters.

Later on Tuesday, former national security adviser John Bolton said that contra the ex-president’s denials, Mr Trump was aware of the slang term “burner phone” – and that he used the term on multiple occasions.

Key points today

• Trump speaks out during war in Ukraine to call on Putin to release Hunter Biden dirt
• Bolton claims Trump knew about ‘burner phones’ despite denial over call logs gap
• Judge says Trump tried to ‘subvert this fundamental principle’ of democracy’
• 6 Jan committee report lays down reasons for contempt charges against two former Trump aides
• Former president Trump says he might run for office again

[29 March 2022 21:40 · Oliver O'Connell]

Bolton claims Trump knew about ‘burner phones’ despite denial over call logs gap

Former president Donald Trump was aware that the slang term “burner phone” is used to describe an untraceable mobile phone used to evade surveillance and used the term on multiple occasions, his former national security adviser has said.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post and CBS News reported that White House records turned over to the House January 6th select committee by the National Archives and Records Administration do not include any calls made or recieved by Mr Trump between the hours of 11:17am and 6:54pm on the day a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in hopes of stopping certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.

[29 March 2022 22:10 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump calls on Putin to release Hunter Biden dirt in midst of war

Five years and eight months after he asked Russia to release damaging information on former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump still hopes Russia is listening.

In an interview with right-wing publication Just the News, Mr Trump said Russian president Vladimir Putin should release information about a Russian widow’s investment into a company Republicans claim is connected to Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s younger and sole surviving son.

[29 March 2022 22:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump spokesperson pushes rehashed Hunter Biden story

With the mainstream political news cycle focused closely on the missing 7 hours of White House phone records from 6 January 2021, Donald Trump’s team are redirecting attention to an interview the ex-president has given to right-wing outlet Just the News, in which he restates a claim he’s made many times before: that Hunter Biden benefited from dealings with eastern European oligarchs in ways that somehow compromise his father, the current president.

Mr Trump has been making this claim since at least 2020, referring repeatedly to payments from the wife of the mayor of Moscow, this after he sought to do business with the city’s administration himself in the 1990s. Fact checks of Mr Trump’s claims have found no clear evidence of a direct link between a $3.5m payment he mentions and the Biden family.

[29 March 2022 23:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump’s last WH call before Jan 6 riot

The news of a major gap in Donald Trump’s White House call logs on 6 January has turned attention back to what we already know about the president’s communications before, during and after the Capitol riot – and among them is his last known scheduled phonecall, which appears to have come from outgoing Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler.

She had been defeated in her re-election runoff the night before by Raphael Warnock, who is now fighting to keep the seat.

[30 March 2022 00:15 · Oliver O'Connell]

McCarthy-Trump call missing from Jan 6 logs

One of the key phonecalls known to have taken place during the 6 January riot was a conversation between Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who apparently screamed at the president to do more to call the rioters off. Lawmakers briefed by Mr McCarthy himself were told that the president scorned his colleague with the words “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

It has now emerged that this call, which has been known about since the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, does not appear in the White House call records handed to the 6 January committee. That in turn raises questions about what device Mr Trump was using to communicate with the outside world during the riot, and where any records of his communications might be found.

[30 March 2022 01:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump-backed Tennessee candidate may be barred from running

Morgan Ortagus, a former Trump staffer who’s running for the US House of Representatives in Tennessee, could soon find herself barred from the ballot thanks to new legislation imposing residency requirements on congressional candidates in the state.

The law, which requires eligible candidates to live in the state and district they seek to represent for at least three years before they can be elected, has been passed by both chambers of the Tennessee statehouse in the wake of an interview in which Ms Ortagus displayed a mortifying lack of knowledge about the district she seeks to represent.

[30 March 2022 01:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

Trump marks Clarence Thomas’ release from hospital with... Willy Wonka video?

Donald Trump marked Clarence Thomas’ release from hospital by having his spokesperson tweet out an edited clip from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The former president, who is still banned from Twitter, released a short statement simply saying: “Glad to see Clarence Thomas is healthy and doing well.”

[30 March 2022 02:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

AOC joins those calling for Clarence Thomas to resign

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the small but growing list of Democratic lawmakers calling for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s resignation on Tuesday as the blowback continues over text messages the justice’s wife sent a top Trump official.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

[30 March 2022 03:15 · Oliver O'Connell]

JD Vance: ‘Nothing wrong’ with Marjorie Taylor Greene attending white nationalist conference

Ohio Republican Senate candidate JD Vance vehemently defended Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s speaking engagement at a white nationalist conference last month, noting that the congresswoman “is my friend and did nothing wrong”.

Ms Greene spoke in-person at the fringe-right America First Political Action Conference earlier this year, but after controversy broke about her attendance at an event, where the organiser claimed “young white men” are being forgotten, she began downplaying her involvement.

Johanna Chisholm reports.

[30 March 2022 04:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

GOP says Biden using notes sign of ’cognitive decline’, but Trump did too

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul argued that President Joe Biden’s use of notes during press conferences is a sign of cognitive decline despite former President Donald Trump doing the same during some public appearances.

Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC.