Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

As it happenedended1597104130

Trump news: President shrugs off White House shooting mid-briefing as he doubles down on wild Covid claims and attacks Biden's faith

Secret Service reportedly shoots suspect as president repeats false claim about children and coronavirus

Alex Woodward,Danielle Zoellner,Gino Spocchia
Tuesday 11 August 2020 00:32 BST
Comments
Trump's top economic adviser appears extremely confused over new unemployment executive orders

Donald Trump was whisked out of his daily weekday press briefing by a Secret Service officer following a shooting outside the White House on Monday.

The US Secret Service confirmed that law enforcement had shot a person blocks away from the White House, prompting the president to abruptly end a press briefing as he was escorted to the Oval Office.

He returned several minutes later announcing that a person had been shot and sent to a nearby hospital

The president continued to falsely claim that children are nearly immune from coronavirus, despite a new report that found nearly 100,000 young people were infected within the last two weeks of July alone, as schools prepare to open across the US.

Last week, Facebook and Twitter removed videos shared by the president in which he claimed that children are "virtually immune" from Covid-19, though Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports show that children are as vulnerable to being able to transmit the virus as adults.

As lawmakers debate additional emergency relief legislation for millions of Americans during a looming eviction crisis and mass unemployment, the president has faced intense scrutiny from Democrats challenging the constitutionality of a series of executive orders that undermine congressional efforts.

Treasury Secretary told reporters that states can access extended unemployment relief "in the next week or two" despite governors signalling that the federal government, not the states, should be responsible for the additional funds.

Secretary Mnuchin also said he has not met with Democrats to repair the stalled emergency relief funding talks, despite House Democrats authoring and passing legislation to do so and meeting Republican resistance, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's accusation that Democrats are "obstructing" relief efforts.

"If they want to meet and want to negotiate and have a new proposal, we'll be happy to meet," Mr Mnuchin said.

Follow live coverage as it happened

Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

1597099491

Secret Service confirms agent shot person outside White House

Alex Woodward10 August 2020 23:44
1597099778

Trump claims 'China will own us' if Joe Biden wins election

Following US intelligence reports showing China, Russia and Iran attempts to influence US election outcomes in the coming weeks, the president claimed that China will "own us, our markets will crash, 401ks will go down to practically nothing" if Joe Biden wins.

"They want to raise taxes," he asid. "They want to triple taxes ... They're going to destroy your healthcare, destroy so many other things."

He then claimed that Democrats are "meddling" in the election.

Alex Woodward10 August 2020 23:49
1597102195

'Sir, we’re going to have to step outside': Trump scrambled to safety by secret service mid-speech after White House shooting

Here's Andrew Buncombe's report from today's press briefing.

Alex Woodward11 August 2020 00:29
1597103970

We're closing today's live coverage of the Trump administration.

Stay tuned with The Independent.

Alex Woodward11 August 2020 00:59

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in