Democratic congressmanDanny Heckhas dismissed the significance of the White House’s refusal to co-operate with the Houseimpeachment inquiry, saying the panel has already amassed “a mountain of evidence” againstDonald Trump.
Ex-national security adviserJohn Boltonon Thursday became the tenth scheduled witness not to turn up to give a deposition this week, with the House team since issuing a subpoena to the president’s acting chief of staffMick Mulvaneythat he is not expected to respond to.
Meanwhile, the latest excerpts fromA Warning, the new book by an anonymous administration insider, has revealed Mr Trump’s senior staff once considered resigning en masse in response to the president’s behavior, which the author characterises as volatile and incompetent.
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Michael Bloomberg set to join (Democratic field)
The billionaire former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, is plotting to join the Democratic race to challenge Trump in 2020 and is expected to file his candidacy in Alabama on Friday ahead of the state’s early deadline for applications to join the primary.
Here’s Andrew Buncombe’s report.
Don Jr tells wrestler Chris Jericho he receives most death threats in America behind his father
Don Jr, shilling his new bookTriggeredahead of the conservative Christmas rush, has also been on wrestler Chris Jericho’s podcastTalk is Jerichoand has had plenty to say for himself.
My redoubtable colleague Greg Evans has been listening in, for his sins, and tells me Don Jr …
– Reflects he was at the “tip of the spear of the greatest political upset in history”
– Claims he is the number two target for political opponents after his father and gets the second highest number of death threats
– Claims that the administration asking the Russians to look into Hillary Clinton’s emails was a joke
– Says he hates the #MeToo movement and “snowflake” culture and that suppo rters regularly say he is right about “these things”
– Claims that Trump supporters were beaten up after his father’s recent rally in Minneapolis
– Claims that his followers can’t like his social media posts and are effectively being “shadowbanned”
– Says Elizabeth Warren was “trolled” into taking a DNA test to prove her claim to Native American heritage
– Describes 47, 000 people showing up to a MAGA rally as being like “Wrestlemania on crack”
– Says that John F Kennedy would today be written off as “alt-right scum “
Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle given torrid time on morning chat showThe View
The aforementioned Don Jr and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle – formerly of Fox – appeared on ABC chat showThe Viewon Thursday and were given a torrid time by the panel, with co-host Megan McCain (whose late father Trump Sr regulalrly insulted, even after death) telling her guest: “You and your family have hurt a lot of people.”
Asked by another host, Joy Behar, about some of the president’s most controversial moments – calling Mexican’s “rapists”,theAccess Hollywood (tape) – Don Jr countered: We’ve all done things that we regret, I mean, if we’re talking ab out bringing the discourse down, Joy, you’ve worn blackface. ”
As Behar scrambled to deny that accusation, he turned to Whoopi Goldberg and continued:” You’ve said that Roman Polanski, it wasn’t ‘rape’ rape when he raped a child. So let’s talk about serious things. “
Goldberg, clearly irritated, was forced to throw to a commercial break.
Sean Hannity rants on Twitter after his name twice crops up in impeachment inquiry transcripts
Fox News host Sean Hannity has demanded that government employees “stop lying” about him after it was revealed he had been mentioned by two separate officials in their depositions to the impeachment inquiry.
Hannity’s name has cropped up twice in the investigation so far in relation to his significant influence over Trump, as recorded in the transcripts of the testimonies by Marie Yovanovitch and George Kent, prompting the right-wing anchor (don’t say that phrase too fast) to demand on Twitter: “I STRONGLY ADVISE ALL OF YOU TO STOP LYING ABOUT ME.”
He certainly sounds anxious.
Here’s Vincent Wood with more.
Whistleblower’s lawyer sends cease and desist letter to White House over persistent attacks
Andrew Bakaj, one of the attorneys representing the CIA whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, has sent a cease and desist letter to his White House counterpart Pat Cipollone demanding an end to Trump’s persistent attacks on his client.
“I am writing to respectfully request that you counsel your client on the legal and ethical peril in which he is placing himself should anyone be physically harmed as a result of his, or his surrogates’, behavior, “Bakaj wrote to Cipollone, adding that the president is” engaging in rhetoric and activity that places my client, the Intelligence Community Whistleblower, and their family in physical danger. “
Trump has repeatedly demanded the individual who complained about his 25 July call with President Zelensky come forward and denounced them on Twitter, encouraging the idea among his support base that the complaint is part of deep state conspiracy or “witch hunt” against him.
His son Don Jr and former aide Sebastian Gorka were meanwhile among those to have answered Kentucky senator Rand Paul’s call to name the suspected informant on Twitter earlier this week, while Paul himself blocked a Senate resolution reaffirming Congress’s commitment to safeguarding whisteblowers on Wednesday.
President ‘put on Hispanic accent’ to mock migrants arriving at US-Mexico border
A further revelation fromA Warningalleges that Trump put on a Hispanic accent in the Oval Office to deride asylum seekers arriving at the US southern border from Central America.
“We get these women coming in with like seven children,” the president said, according to the forthcoming book. “They are saying,‘ Oh, please help! My husband left me! ’They are useless. They don’t do anything for our country. At least if they came in with a husband we could put him in the fields to pick corn or something. ”
Wow. That’s about as racist as it gets.
Here’s Zamira Rahim’s report.
Rudy Giuliani led ‘campaign of slander’ to oust ambassador, George Kent told inquiry
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who is spearheading the impeachment inquiry, has been releasing transcripts of the marathon behind-closed-door interviews his team have been conducting so far all week and last night saw the publication of their conversation with State Department official George Kent.
Deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs – as well as a natty dresser – Kent told congressmen and women on Capitol Hill that Rudy Guiliani had led “a campaign of lies and misinformation” to oust US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch prior to her being recalled from Kiev in May.
“I believe that Mr Giuliani, as a US citizen, has First Amendment rights to say whatever he wants, but he’s a private citizen,” Kent said. “His assertions and allegations against former Ambassador Yovanovitch were without basis, untrue, period.”
President Trump “wanted nothing less than President [Volodymyr] Zelensky to go to the microphone and say: investigations, Biden, and Clinton, “the 27 – year foreign service veteran also asserts in the transcript, citing Yovanovitch’s acting successor, Bill Taylor.
Here’s Andrew Buncombe’s report.
Trump ‘regularly stumbles, slurs and gets confused’
Another revelation fromA Warningis that there are serious concerns about the president’s health. The mystery writer discloses that Trump “regularly stumbles, slurs and gets confused”, something we’ve often seen at the podium or in Q & As when he frequently struggles to read an autocue or pronounce words. Who could forget “the oranges of the inquiry”?
“I am not qualified to diagnose the president’s mental acuity,” writes the book’s author. “All I can tell you is that normal people who spend any time with Donald Trump are uncomfortable by what they witness. “
Here’s more from Peter Stubley.
New book reveals Trump’s senior staff plotted ‘midnight self-massacre’
The latest excerpts fromA Warning, the new book by an anonymous administration insider, has revealed that Trump’s senior staff once considered resigning en masse – phrased as a “midnight self-massacre” – in response to the president’s behavior, which the author characterises as volatile and incompetent , according toThe Washington Post.
The author, who wrotean explosive op-edforThe New York Timeslast year, now expresses pessimism about being able to influence the president:
Unelected bureaucrats and cabinet appointees were never going to steer Donald Trump the right direction in the long run, or refine his malignant management style. He is who he is.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released a statement late on Thursday, saying: “The coward who wrote this book didn’t put their name on it because it is nothing but lies.”
Here’s Jon Sharman’s report.
Mick Mulvaney expected to snub subpoena as House impeachment investigator says ‘mountain of evidence’ amassed
Democratic congressman Danny Heck has dismissed the significance of the White House’srefusal to co-operatewith the House impeachment inquiry, saying the panel has already amassed “a mountain of evidence” against Donald Trump.
“I think there’s more evidence to the effect that the president shook down Ukraine, tried to cover it up, and threatened to and then withheld security assistance to Ukraine than there is evidence that the sun will come u p in the East tomorrow, “Heck said.
Ex-national security adviser John Bolton on Thursday became the tenth scheduled witness not to turn up to give a deposition this week, with the House team since issuing a subpoena to the president’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney that he is not expected to respond to. Mark Sandy, the associate director for national security programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, is also scheduled to appear on Friday, but probably will not do so either.
An official working on the inquiry said the House intelligence panel subpoenaed Mulvaney because other testimony indicated he “could shed additional light on the president’s abuse of the power of his office for his personal gain,” according to the AP.
Mick Mulvaney (Evan Vucci / AP)
Mulvaney said in a news conference last month that the Trump administration’s decision to hold up military aidwas linked to Trump’s demand for the investigations. He later walked back his remarks, but Democrats said that was tantamount to a confession and have cited it as evidence in their inquiry.
Democrats say they will use the high-profile no-shows – like that ofenergy secretary Rick Perry– as evidence of the president’s obstruction of
A slew of current and former officials from the State Department and White House have appeared over the last several weeks and largely corroborated the same narrative – that Trump had delegated his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to guide US-Ukraine policy and that the two men were focused on pressuring Ukraine as the administration withheld military aid from the country.
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