Trump news live - President attacks Democrats over antisemitism as his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort faces sentencing
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Donald Trump has stirred controversy by accusing House Democrats of failing to tackle antisemitism in their ranks, saying it was “shameful” the opposition had not taken a “stronger stand”.
The president appeared to be exploiting divisions exposed by congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s criticism of Israeli lobby groups in Washington, which has seen her spar with fellow representatives including New York veteran Nita Lowey while the House dawdles over whether to stage a vote on a resolution condemning prejudice against the Jewish faith outright.
President Trump has also threatened to stop “the Fake News Networks” covering the 2020 presidential election debates on a day his former campaign manager Paul Manafort is sentenced after being found guilty of bank and tax fraud.
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President Trump attacked House Democrats on Twitter last night for failing to take a "stronger stand" on antisemitism after newly sworn-in Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota criticised the influence of Israeli lobbyists in Washington, sparking a debate within her own party.
Ms Omar's remarks about interest groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee having the power to "push for allegiance to a foreign country" stirred debate within her own party, bringing condemnation from veterans Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey, the latter suggested her comments "mischaracterised support for Israel" and were "hurtful".
House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have reprimanded Ms Omar but fellow newbies Alexandria Ocascio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have supported her.
The House is currently considering a vote on a resolution to condemn antisemitism, as alluded to by Mr Trump, but the failure to move quickly has left them vulnerable to further attack on the issue, undermining party unity and distracting from the House's multiple investigations into the president's affairs.
The House of Representatives were due to vote on the motion - widely seen as a rebuke to Representative Omar - on Wednesday but delayed to reword the motion in more general terms related to prejudice of all kinds due to the congresswoman receiving Islamophobic abuse as a result of the controversy.
Here's some background from Clark Mindock.
On that delay to the antisemitism resolution, House majority leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said the party leadership had not yet set a new time for the vote.
"We are working on the language," he said.
"Let me repeat, every Democrat is against all these '-isms'; all this hate, all this prejudice which unfortunately the president of the United States stokes on a regular basis.
"Israel hasn't always existed, obviously, as a country, but this is not a new trope. Therefore, it was perceived to be, correctly in my opinion, a particular danger to this kind of rhetoric, whoever said it. So, that is why this question is being raised and being dealt with and being discussed," he said, adding that he did not personally think Ilhan Omar was antisemitic.
In another of the president's tweets, he laid into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for blocking Fox News from hosting a Democratic primary debate and threatened to ban "Fake News Networks" from covering debates in the 2020 presidential election in retaliation.
In practice, Donald Trump would not have the power to do this. Media partners for the presidential debates are decided by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is co-sponsored by the DNC and their Republican counterpart to ensure impartiality.
The DNC acted in response to Jane Mayer's New Yorker article on Monday arguing the right-wing broadcaster now acts as a propaganda arm of the White House,
“Recent reporting in The New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates. Therefore, Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates,” DNC chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the president's old ghosts are continuing to haunt him.
His former campaign manager Paul Manafort is scheduled for sentencing later today, seven months after being found guilty of two counts of bank fraud, five counts of tax fraud and one count of failing to declare a foreign bank account by a US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The government says Manafort's misconduct involved more than $16m (£12m) in unreported income, more than $55m (£42m) hidden in foreign bank accounts and more than $25m (£19m) secured through lies to banks.
Manafort, 69, faces as many as 24 years in prison and millions of dollars in financial penalties. The decision on how much to punish Manafort lies in the hands of Judge TS Ellis III, a man known for cautioning defendants before pronouncing sentence with the words: "You write the pages of your own life."
The case against the veteran lobbyist - who has represented such clients as Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos - was brought by the Justice Department as part of FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and related to Manafort's work overseas in Ukraine.
After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 (£11,400) ostrich-skin jacket.
"Manafort did not commit these crimes out of necessity or hardship," Mr Mueller's office wrote in its sentencing memo.
"He was well educated, professionally successful, and financially well off. He nonetheless cheated the United States Treasury and the public out of more than $6m (£4.6m) in taxes at a time when he had substantial resources."
Manafort's lawyers are pleading for leniency and insist their client is "truly remorseful for his conduct".
He is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mr Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen all pleaded guilty.
Mr Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen returned again to Capitol Hill yesterday for a second appearance before the House Intelligence Committee, his fourth and final day of testimony on his soured relationship with his former boss.
Chairman Adam Schiff said the talks, which took place behind closed doors, were "enormously productive", clearly enjoying the theatre of the moment.
Cohen, facing three years in jail, last week accused the president of being "a racist, a cheat and a conman" during an explosive seven-hour appearance before the House Oversight and Reform Committee last week.
Here's Andrew Buncombe.
All this and we haven't even gotten around to "Tim Apple" yet!
Having previously referred to Lockheed Martin CEO Marilyn Hewson as "Marilyn Lockheed", the president made the same gaffe in addressing Apple CEO Tim Cook at the first meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board in the State Dining Room of the White House yesterday.
Apparently unable to imagine anyone running a company they weren't born into, Mr Trump's slip of the tongue has brought delight to the internet.
Samuel Osborne has more.
While Nancy Pelosi has so far discouraged her fellow Democrats from pursuing Donald Trump's impeachment, not everyone in the party is so cautious on the strategy.
Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, already famous for telling supporters she wanted to "impeach the mother****er", yesterday announced her plans to make good on that pledge.
Here's Andrew Buncombe.
The president's pick to run the Office on Violence Against Women, which manages grants for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, has been under fire after some of her more controversial opinions resurfaced online.
Shannon Lee Goessling, a Republican who has a history of opposing LGBT+ and immigrant rights, has previously claimed guns would protect women from violence, despite research demonstrating the contrary.
Here's Maya Oppenheim.
Donald Trump's denuclearisation summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam last week appears to have had the adverse effect, with new activity reportedly underway at missile test sites in the territory.
The US president blamed the failure of the talks on the distraction caused by Michael Cohen's appearance before Congress and yesterday said he would be"very disappointed" if Mr Kim's apparent resumption of long-range rocket testing turned out to be true.
State TV in Pyongyang has meanwhile aired a documentary on the Hanoi summit glorifying its leader's contribution, hailing the event as "yet another meaningful incident on the issue of world peace".
Here's Samuel Osborne again.
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