Trump news: President vows to release 'racism list' after being labelled 'white supremacist' by Democratic candidates
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Donald Trump has returned to Washington, DC, after an “amazing day” visiting the grieving communities of El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, on a mission to heal divisions in the aftermath of the two devastating mass shootings that left 31 people dead over the weekend.
The president was met with boos from protesters upset by his racist rhetoric and undermined his own efforts to bring consolation by angrily tweeting about the “LameStream Media” and his political rivals and enemies in the press from Air Force One, even threatening to release a “racism list” to attack Democrats.
In Iowa, Democratic 2020 challenger Joe Biden accused him of “fanning the flames of white supremacy” - a sentiment later echoed by Elizabeth Warren - prompting Mr Trump to respond on Twitter: “Sooo Boring”.
On Wednesday alone, three White House hopefuls — Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar — offered sweeping proposals that touch on everything from farm subsidies to rural broadband and health care.
The trio of senators are among the parade of candidates who will fan out across Iowa this weekend to participate in the famed state fair and other events.
Trump protests: President visits Texas and Ohio after mass shootings
Show all 31The focus on rural Iowa is a mainstay of presidential politics, sending candidates on a sometimes-awkward pilgrimage to the far corners of the state that holds the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
But Democrats say the chase for the heartland is especially urgent this year as the party tries to win back some voters who supported Mr Trump in 2016.
A strong showing in Iowa, they say, could prove a candidate’s ability to make inroads in other rural communities across the country.
The challenge for Democrats is to rebuild the multiracial coalition across urban and rural areas that twice sent Barack Obama to the White House. His victory in the 2008 Iowa caucuses helped build momentum to claim the party’s presidential nomination. He later carried Iowa in the 2008 and 2012 general elections while also winning states with urban centers, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
In 2016, Mr Trump ate into that path , carrying Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Some Democratic candidates are working to reverse those gains by offering ambitious changes to rural voters. Ms Warren’s proposal on Wednesday would reshape the current farm subsidy system into a program that would break up big agribusinesses and guarantee farmers certain prices, which she said would raise farmers’ incomes and save taxpayer money.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
It's easy to feel bogged down and depressed by the current state of the American political climate, dominated as it by the language of division and hatred.
But one man who is not taking matters too seriously is Green Shirt Guy, who went viral last night after attending a city council meeting in Tucson, Arizona, and breaking into a fit of hysterical giggles at the sight of two Trump supporters making fools of themselves protesting legislation that could see the location become a "sanctuary city" and host asylum seekers.
As MAGA-hat sporting activists Jennifer Harrison and Jeremy Bronaugh took to their feet brandishing signs reading "respect our laws or we will deport you" and "stop rewarding start deporting", someone shouted: "You are in direct violation of being an asshole!"
This line really tickled Green Shirt Guy, who became a meme when he could not stop laughing at the duo.
Later identified as comedian Alex Kack, he told Arizona Public Media: "The majority of this country, regardless of their political affiliation understands that the loudest voices happening right now are kind of ridiculous. And I think that laughter is resonating because that's how people feel right now."
There were also two musical performances to enjoy on what looks like a fairly wild evening.
Here's Andy Gregory for Indy100.
Another national treasure bringing some much needed levity is the great Woody Harrelson, who tells Esquire he once attended a dinner with Donald Trump as the guest of former wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura that was so "brutal" and boring he "had to burn one".
Here's Ellie Harrison with more.
In light of the aforementioned Joaquin Castro affair, attention appears to be turning towards Trump campaign donors and their role in sponsoring his divisive reign and its consequences.
Celebrities including Chrissy Teigen and Billy Eichner have advocated the boycotting of popular fitness clubs Equinox and SoulCycle after it was reported parent company chairman Stephen Ross - who also owns the Miami Dolphins NFL team - plans to hold a fundraiser for the president.
Here's more from Chelsea Ritschel and Sabrina Barr.
As pressure grows on Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to recall the upper chamber of Congress from recess and act on gun control - perhaps by voting on the HR8 universal background checks bill passed through the House of Representatives as long ago as February - 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and Ohio congressman Tim Ryan is leading a "caravan" to McConnell's native Kentucky to force his hand.
"I am leading a caravan in my official capacity as a congressman, working with Moms Demand Action, to start in Youngstown and go to Akron, and Columbus, and Dayton, and Cincinnati and pick people up along the way, and we're going to Louisville," Ryan told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Newsroom on Wednesday.
President Trump and his cronies at Fox News have of course repeatedly demonised migrant caravans crossing Mexico from Central America to reach asylum in the US - not least to cynically whip up fear among right-wing voters ahead of last November's midterm elections.
"We're going to make sure that Mitch McConnell knows that there are two pieces of legislation sitting on his desk that he needs to bring up for a vote to actually get some action," Ryan said, adding his intention was also to let McConnell "know that we're very, very serious about what's happening here."
"Get your cojones, OK, grab 'em, and do something, because the American people are fed up with you stonewalling everything," Ryan continued, addressing his adversary directly. "People are dying on the streets just a couple hours from your house, and you're sitting there doing nothing.
"Get off your ass, and get something done. We're fed up... Ohioans aren't forgetting - we're going to see Mitch McConnell tomorrow and we're inviting every surrounding state to get a caravan and meet us in Louisville, Kentucky."
The Trump administration's top diplomat for Latin America has resigned amid internal disputes over immigration policy for the region, US officials said on Wednesday.
Kimberly Breier, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, stepped down earlier this week but confusion reigns over whether she did so for family reasons or in opposition to the recent "Safe Third Country" migration accord with Guatemala.
The Washington Post, which first reported Breier's resignation, said she had clashed with the White House over the Guatemala accord that many human rights advocates oppose.
In a tweet, President Trump's daughter Ivanka thanked Breier for her "friendship and great service" and said she would miss working with her.
Breier is the second senior State Department official to leave the administration this month. Last week, Kiron Skinner, the department's director of policy planning, was removed from her post following complaints about her management style, officials said.
The Trump administration has struggled to fill numerous senior diplomatic positions and only recently were top diplomats for East Asia and the Pacific and the Middle East confirmed by the Senate. The posts of assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia and for Europe are occupied by officials on an acting basis.
Breier, who specialised in Mexico, joined the Trump administration in October 2018, after a career in government and the private sector focused on Latin America. She had been praised for her insights and analysis of the region while serving on the National Security Council during the George W Bush administration.
But her refusal to testify before Congress even once during her 10-month tenure had irritated several politicians. Breier was known to have an ongoing feud with Mauricio Claver-Carone, her Western Hemisphere counterpart at the National Security Council.
They said she also was marginalised from playing a role in policy toward Venezuela - with immigration and trade, the most-pressing foreign policy challenge in the region - after Trump named Elliott Abrams as special envoy to the crisis-wracked country.
Additional reporting by AP
Trump says he is considering commuting the prison sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, currently serving a 14-year prison sentence on federal corruption charges, which began in 2012.
"I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly," the president told reporters on Air Force One on his return to Washington yesterday. "His wife I think is fantastic and I’m thinking about commuting his sentence very strongly. I think it’s enough, seven years."
Blagojevich was removed from office in 2009 and later convicted of a smorgasbord of corruption charges, including trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after he was elected president in 2008. "I've got this thing, and it's f***ing golden. I'm just not giving it up for f***ing- nothing," Blagojevich said of Obama's Senate seat in a recorded phone call.
Trump dismissed the significance of the recording on Wednesday, keen to come to the aid of a former contestant on his NBC reality show The Celebrity Apprentice.
Here he is lambasting the equally elaborately coiffed Blagojevich before firing him: "Your Harry Potter facts were not accurate!"
"He’s been in jail for seven years over a phone call where nothing happens - over a phone call which he shouldn’t have said what he said, but it was braggadocio you would say," the president said.
"I would think that there have been many politicians - I’m not one of them by the way - that have said a lot worse over the telephone."
Here's Chris Riotta with a reminder of Trump's remarks on the White House lawn on Wednesday, in which he said he was "concerned about the rise of any group of hate" and claimed - with extraordinary chutzpah - that his rhetoric actually "brings people together".
Leaping on a suggestion that the Ohio gunman had "leftist" leanings and supported Antifa, Trump has suggested he will move to label the anti-fascist protest group a terror organisation.
This is why that gesture amounts to nothing more than political theatre.
For Indy Voices, the supremely wise Slavoj Zizek says Trump's trade war with China is all too real and should not be ignored.
Also for Voices, Andrew Buncombe has this on white America's struggle to acknowledge its mass murderers.
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