Donald Trump reenacts conversation with Gordon Sondland after bombshell impeachment testimony
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The fifth day of public impeachment hearings has come and gone, with another pair of key witnesses delivering damning evidence against Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the president spent his time lashing out against the proceedings on Twitter, writing: “Never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!”
Mr Trump has had a more controversial week than usual, as his EU ambassador, Gordon Sondland, implicated the president in a quid pro quo with Ukraine during his own impeachment hearings - along with vice president Mike Pence, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. “Was there a ‘quid pro quo’?" Mr Sondland said in his opening statement. "As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes."
The president's critics have said the proceedings are exposing impeachable offences, including ex-White House ethics lawyer Richard W Painter, who said it was effectively “game over” for his administration. Mr Trump has attempted to undermine the inquiry, insisting that he barely knew his ambassador and wanted “NOTHING” from Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev. As all that happened, the Democratic 2020 contenders took to the debate stage in Georgia to attack Mr Trump as "one of the most corrupt presidents" in US history.
During the Thursday testimony, Fiona Hill, a former White House adviser on Ukraine, and David Holmes, a top staffer at the US embassy in Ukraine, testified about the irregular channel of communication in which Mr Trump pushed for a domestic-ally oriented political investigation.
Ms Hill told investigators that she believed Republican arguments claiming that it was OK for Mr Trump to ask for an investigation into Ukraine's 2016 role played into Russian talking points, and that furtherance of that played into their hands.
Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal
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Mr Homes, meanwhile, told investigators that he was on the phone call that allegedly occurred 26 July, just a day after Mr Trump's call with Mr Zelensky. He said that he could hear the president speaking, even though he was not on spearker phone.
Lt Col Alexander Vindman demands Fox News retract spying allegation
Lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman is hitting back at the smear campaign against him.
A lawyer for Lt Col Vindman, the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert, sent a warning letter to Fox News on Wednesday seeking a retraction or correction of an October segment hosted by one of the network’s biggest personalities, Laura Ingraham, which baselessly suggested that the colonel, a decorated Iraq War veteran, might be guilty of espionage.
The letter sent by David Pressman, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, the law firm run by David Boies, also highlighted inflammatory statements made on the network by others, including Donald Trump Jr, who has repeatedly attacked Lt Col Vindman, and Tucker Carlson.
“Colonel Vindman and his family have been forced to examine options, including potentially moving onto a military base, in order to ensure their physical security in the face of threats rooted in the falsehood that Fox News originated,” Pressman wrote in the letter.
Trump blasts Fox for 'wasting airtime' on Eric Swalwell
Trump's first tweet of the day is an attack on Fox, accusing his favourite broadcaster of "wasting airtime" on California Democrat Eric Swalwell, who, you will no doubt recall, got swept up in "Fartgate" earlier this week.
Ingraham, Carlson, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs aside, Fox has been flexing its muscles on impeachment in recent days, its presenters showing more and more willing to question Trump - just look at this from Chris Wallace yesterday.
President says he asked Apple to take part in US 5G rollout
He also has this to say about his trip to Apple's plant in Austin, Texas, yesterday, where he suggested he was "looking at" tarrif exemption for the California consumer electronics giant.
He uses the company CEO's name twice there, emphatically avoiding calling him "Tim Apple" again. Well done sir.
Fiona Hill to use opening statement to call out Russian election interference
One of today's impeachment witnesses is due to attack Kremlin political meddling in her opening statement this morning.
"Our nation is being torn apart," Dr Fiona Hill will tell Congress, according to her pre-released statement. "Truth is questioned. Our highly professional and expert career foreign service is being undermined. US support for Ukraine - which continues to face armed Russian aggression - has been politicised”.
"Russia’s security services and their proxies have geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election. We are running out of time to stop them,“ she will warn.
Trump teases release of financial statement 'sometime prior to Election'
After grossly inflating the cost of the Mueller investigation, the president has just suggested he will release a (presumably heavily edited) financial statement "sometime prior to Election".
"It will only show one thing - that I am much richer than people even thought - And that is a good thing," he brags.
He's now moved on to taking credit for the release of hostages.
Eric Trump uses father's impeachment hearings to promote his wine
At least one member of the Trump family is getting something out of the devastating public impeachment hearings shredding the already thin credibility of its patriach.
Eric Trump has seen an opportunity in this living nightmare to shill his brand of gut rot vino. Remember it was only last week that the president was whining about how hard this ordeal had been on his children.
Donald Trump has lashed out at the military on Twitter after officials said they were considering removing a US Navy Seal whose rank was restored by the president after he was accused of committing war crimes.
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