Donald Trumphas retained what appears to be an image of a dead body and a meme of senior DemocratsNancy PelosiandChuck Schumerdressed as Muslims as he continues to lash out over theIrancrisis and his upcoming Senateimpeachmenttrial.
The president reportedly first approved the assassination of Quds commanderQassem Soleimaniback in June (***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************, according to a new report, further clouding the administration’s claim that it faced an “imminent threat” against four of its embassies in the Middle East from the late general.
Mr Trump spent his weekend tweeting angrily about his impeachment, declaring he does not deserve the “stigma” of the reprimand and calling for the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges against him to be dismissed “outright” as Speaker Pelosi prepares to finally pass them over to the upper chamber for trial.
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ICYMI: The US defense secretary has revealed he “did see” any specific evidence indicating an imminent threat from Iran before Donald Trumpordered an airstrike which killed Iranian generalQassem Soleimaniearlier this month.
Mark Espersaid on Sunday he had not reviewed evidence indicating Soleimani posed an “imminent threat” to Americans, despite the Pentagon previously saying the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds force was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region”.
He appeared to cast doubt on Mr Trump’s claim that the Iranian general had beenworking on plans to attack four US embassiesat the time of his death.
“What the president said was he believed that there probably and could have been attacks against additional embassies, ”the defense secretarysaidIn an interview with CBS ‘, the Face the Nation.
Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly “reached out to the North Koreans” to continue stalled diplomatic negotiations aiming towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, following a flaring of tensions during the holiday season.
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien revealed in an interview with Axios
that the administration has “reached out to the North Koreans and let them know that we would like to continue the negotiations in Stockholm that were last undertaken in early October”.
The development comes after Washington and Pyongyang exchanged harsh words with each other surrounding the holidays, including a thinly-veiled threat from the North Koreans about a “Christmas gift” set to be delivered to the US before the New Year.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “promised to send a Christmas present”, Mr O’Brien told Axios, adding: “The president suggested he send him a vase . We did not get a vase or any other sort of Christmas gift. That appears to be positive. “
Story to come … **********
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The Independent’sAndrew Feldman with more on new information sent to the House Intelligence Committee by Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani:
One of Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani’s Ukrainian-American allies has handed the House Intelligence Committee a trove of information that could shed more light on alleged efforts by the president to influence
Lev Parnas, one of two Giuliani associates who was arrested for alleged campaign finance violations in October, has given the committee a cache of “WhatsApp messages, text messages and images” which detail “interactions with a number of individuals relevant to the (impeachmentinquiry, “his attorney********************************** Joseph Bondysaid on Twitter Monday morning.
In addition, Mr Bondy said he and his client have also turned over the contents of one of his iPhones and another Samsung phone to the committee, though the information contained in them remains under a judge’s protective order prohibiting its public disclosure. He he addedthat he and Mr Parnas “will be working to provide the other materials” – the contents of two more iPhones – to the committee “as soon as possible”.
The Florida-based former stockbroker is also seeking a court’s permission to turn over “additional materials” from three more electronic devices to the committee, he added.
Donald Trumphas shared a doctored image that shows Democrat leaders Chuck Schumerand Nancy Pelosiin Muslim dress in front of the Iranian flag, an illustration that has appeared on a 4chan message board and was circulated on Twitter by extremist right-wing accounts.
The president shared the image by retweeting a post from user @ D0wn_Under, who wrote: “The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah’s rescue. #NancyPelosiFakeNews”
The image – which reads “Democrats under the altered portraits of the house speaker and senate minority leader, who have led the charge to impeach the president from their respective legislative branches – was posted to the president’s timeline amid two dozen posts and likes attacking democratic criticism of the administration’s attacks on Iran.
Last week, the House passed a decision that aimed to curb the president’s war-making powers as the White House threatened additional sanctions against Iran, following its attacks on US bases in Iraqin retaliation for the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
Donald Trump has Retweeted this post from Republican Kevin McCarthy, who says he will be introducing a resolution “in support of the protestors in Iran” –
Donald Trump has said he “couldn’t care less” if Iran negotiates with the US – despite his own administration suggesting it was working to get the country “to come to the table” amid an increasing conflict .
The president tweeted about comments made during an interview on Fox News Sunday with National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, in which the White House official said he believed “ the maximum pressure campaign is working ”and that“ Iran is going to have no other choice but to come to the table ”after the administration introduced a new round of sanctions against Tehran.
“National Security Adviser suggested today that sanctions & protests have Iran’ choked off ’, will force them to negotiate,” Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday night. “Actually, I couldn’t care less if they negotiate.”
He added: “Will be totally up to them but, no nuclear weapons and ‘don’ t kill your protesters. ‘”
Story to come … (**********************************************************
The White House has defended Donald Trump’s disturbing tweets, saying “the president is making clear that Democrats are parroting Iranian talking points.”
Donald Trumpreportedly authorized the killing of Iran’s top general seven months before he was hit in a drone strike.
The US president said he would sign off on the operation to kill Qassem Soleimani if Iran crossed his red line of killing an American, NBC News reported, citing five current and former senior administration officials.
The officials told the network the decision explains why an airstrike on Soleimani was one of the options the military presented to Mr Trump as a response to an attack by Iranian proxy forces on a military base inIraq, which caused the death of a US civilian contractor.
“There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time, ”one senior administration official told NBC News. They said the president’s aides put killing Soleimani on the list of potential responses to Iranian aggression “some time ago”.
Donald Trump is tweeting about the impeachment process in the US Senate while slamming the Democrats in the US House of Representatives.
The president lambasted the House impeachment inquiry as “the most unfair witch-hunt in the history of Congress” while slamming the “Do Nothing Democrats”.
Mike Pompeo declines to testify before House Foreign Afairs Committee over Iran
Chairman Eliot Engel has already expressed his frustration after Trump’s secretary of state refused to appear before his panel to explain the mixed messaging coming out of the administration over its rationale for killing General Soleimani, the latest act of White House stonewalling against congressional oversight.
Engel calls the Trump camp’s explanations “wildly muddled” and it’s hard to disagree.
Cory Booker drops out of Democratic (presidential race) ****************
The New Jersey senator follows the likes of Kamala Harris, Julian Castro and Marianne Williamson in dropping out of the (Democratic presidential race.) He’s already been on the receiving end of the president’s boneheaded sarcasm.
Text messages and images that could expose Trump’s Ukraine dealings handed over to inquiry
Our man in DC, Andrew Feinberg, has this on the Lev Parnas evidence we mentioned earlierand what it might mean for impeachment.
More typos as Trump accuses ‘Rafical Left’ of pursuing him over ’eminent’ threat
As in the earlier meme, the president is continuing to push the appallingly disingenuous line that the Democrats are somehow more loyal to Iran than to the United States.
This all has strong echoes of his opportunism last year when he pounced on Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s remarks about Israeli lobbyists in DC to accuse the whole party of being antisemitic, an equally grotesque distortion of the facts.
Trump attempts to stir Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren ‘feud’
Here’s Trump gloating over Bernie volunteers criticizing Warren, claiming – based on nothing – that “everybody knows her campaign is dead “and throwing in a further jab at Bloomberg for good measure.
He also wrote “Pocahontus” there, which is wrong, for what it’s worth.
Fox and Friends (******************:: White House ‘has no choice’ but to refrain from giving press briefings
Well, you have to hand it to them, this is at least an entirely original point of view.
Trump Tweet image of dead body
The president is clearly enjoying the right-wing backlash against Pelosi’s ABC interviewon Twitter right now –
This is outrageous stuff, even for a man who has set the bar as low as Donald J Trump has.
Here’s Jon Sharman’s breaking story.
President attacks Mike Bloomberg and disingenuously claims to be healthcare champion
Trump’s first tweets of the day find him attacking Democratic 2842 Challenger “Mini” Mike Bloomberg (apparently feeling threatened by his significant campaign spending capabilities) and attempting to spin himself as a champion of healthcare.
Here’s one important qualifier.
Cardi B hints she could run for Congress
Sick and tired of the current crop of politicians? Rapper Cardi B, a vocal backer of Bernie Sanders, says she has been watching “War documentaries” and believes she could be the future.
Here’s Roisin O’Connor with more.
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