Donald Trump‘s ambassador to the EU,Gordon Sondland, has been blocked from testifying before Congress about his role in theUkrainescandal, the president calling theimpeachmentinquiry a “Kangaroo court” as he frustrates its bid to examine the damning text messages Mr Sondland exchanged with another envoy,Kurt Volker.
The president meanwhile remains under fire from seniorRepublicansover his announcement that the US will withdraw troops from northernSyria– leaving its allies againstIsisin theSyrian Democratic Forcesexposed to Turkish aggression – a move that was also branded “bats *** crazy” by ex-US national security adviserSusan Riceand that reportedly left his own senior military officials completely blindsided.
“Everyone was absolutely flabbergasted by this. I tell you that as a fact, ”admiral James Stavridis told MSNBC. “Nobody saw it coming, and that is a real problem when you’re trying to conduct not only foreign policy … but also military operations.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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A new Senate Intelligence Committeereportsays Russia used social media throughout the 2016 US presidential election as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to spread disinformation and undermine Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in support ofDonald Trump
The Senate committee’s key finding in its report, published on Tuesday, says that Russia’s Internet Research Agency “sought to influence the 2016 US presidential election by harming Hillary Clinton’s chances of success and supporting Donald Trump at the direction of the Kremlin. “
“ Masquerading as Americans, these operatives used targeted advertisements, intentionally falsified news articles , self-generated contents, and scoaif media platform tools to interact with and attempt to deceive tens of millions of social media users in the United States, ”the report says.
It continues: “This campaign sought to polarise Americans on the basis of societal, ideological, and racial differences, provoked real world events, and was part of a foreign government covert support of Russia’s favored candidate in the US presidential election. ”
Here’s my latest on the White House blocking the US ambassador to the European Union from speaking to Congressional committees investigating the president, with reaction from Capitol Hill:
Donald Trump‘s campaign is threatening to sue after claiming a Democrat mayor was behind a major arena allegedly blocking a rally at the eleventh hour.
(The) ******************************************* (US president) ‘s campaign claims it was told to pay the “ridiculous sum” of $ 530, 00 0 for security and other costs if it wants the event at the Target Center, inMinneapolis, to go ahead on Thursday.
In a letter to AEG Worldwide (now ASM Global), which runs the arena, the campaign blamed the sudden payment on pressure from the city’s mayor Jacob Frey.
It threatened to take legal action if it does not receive confirmation that the rally will go ahead without the payment by 11 am local time (5pm BST) on Tuesday.
In a twist of events, Lindsey Graham – a top ally on Capitol Hill to the president – extended an invitation to Mr Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his allegations of corruption surrounding Ukraine.
Shortly after news broke on Tuesday of Mr Sondland’s absence, the senator tweeted that he had “heard on numerous occasions disturbing allegations by [Giuliani] about corruption in Ukraine. “
“ Given the House of Representatives’ behavior, it is time for the Senate to inquire about corruption and other improprieties involving Ukraine, ”he added.
A new Senate Intelligence Committee report says Russia used social media throughout the 2016 US presidential election as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to spread disinformation and undermine Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in support of Donald Trump.
House Democrats are weighing extraordinary steps to secure testimony from awhistleblowerwhose complaint prompted an impeachment inquiry, masking his identity to preventDonald Trump‘s congressional allies from exposing the individual, according to three officials familiar with the deliberations.
) The steps under consideration include having the whistleblower testify from a remote location and obscuring the individual’s appearance and voice, these officials said.
The efforts reflect the deepening distrust between Democrats running theimpeachmentinquiry of Mr Trump and their GOP colleagues they see as fully invested in defending a president who has attacked the whistleblower’s credibility and demanded absolute loyalty from Republicans.
Donald Trump is once again hitting out at the House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff –
Senator Mitt Romney reportedly believes he could be the key to taking down Donald Trump by corralling other Republicans into supporting the president’s impeachment in the US Senate, rather than launching a 2020 primary bid.
The Republican’s advisers reportedly toldVanity Fairhe “believes he has more potential power as a senator who will decide Trump’s fate in an impeachment trial” instead of competing against the incumbent president in a contentious election that began with more than two dozen Democratic hopefuls.
“He could have tremendous influence in the impeachment process as the lone voice of conscience in the Republican caucus,” one of Mr Romney’s advisers told the publication.
Still, Republican strategists told The Independent that Mr Romney would not be able to turn the tides of impeachment against Mr Trump alone.
Story to come …
“Nothing to see here folks, move it along.”
The president was just doing his job, says Republican congressman (Jim Jordan) .
A Trump retweet from earlier for broadcasterTodd Starnes, who left Fox Radio last week after a program went out in which he discussed Democrats worshiping Moloch, the pagan god of child sacrifice, with far-right Christian pastorRobert Jeffress, the man who predicted a “Civil War-like fracture” in America should Trump be impeached.
Democratic congresswomanIlhan Omar– a member of “The Squad” and an alt-right hate figure – has blamed the media for the collapse of her marriage.
Trump talks “constantly” behind the scenes about administering polygraph lie detector tests to his staff in the wake of major news events in a bid to flush out leakers,Politicoreports.
” He’d be angry and ask, ‘Why can’t we stop these things?’ ”An ex-White House official told the publication.
“ He wanted to polygraph every employee in the building to unearth who it was who spoke to the press, ”said another.
So far, aides have managed to talk him out of such a paranoid step but Trump has apparently been obsessed with the idea since the earliest days of his presidency.
“It was something that was discussed and people were trying to placate the president, and trying to show that they were taking it as personally and just as seriously as he was, ”another insider tol dPolitico.
“Taking that line of, ‘Oh yeah, we have to polygraph people’ was a way to ingratiate themselves with him, but it wasn’t an idea that ever went anywhere because it was absurd, ”they added.
The British response to Trump’s claim we’re thrilled American troops are being pulled out of Syria, leaving the Kurdishs fighters of the SDF alone in the face of Turkish aggression?
“No idea where that came from.”
Richard Hall elaborates.
Oliver Carroll has the inside story onViktor Shokin, Ukraine’s former chief prosecutor at the heart of the Biden conspiracy theory pushed by the Trump-Giuliani camp.
House Intelligence Committee chairmanAdam Schiff– still not imprisoned for treason, shockingly – has this say on the latest act of White House stonewalling, following Trump blocking Sondland from appearing.
“Not only is the Congress being deprived of his testimony … but we are also aware that the ambassador has text messages or emails on a personal device, which had been provided to the State Department, although we have requested those from the ambassador, and the State Department is withholding those messages as well, “Schiff told reporters.
“Those messages are also deeply relevant to this investigation and the impeachment inquiry,” he added.
Lindsey Grahamis inviting Trump’s lawyerRudy Giulianito testify before his Senate committee on corruption in the Ukraine.
While that promises to be a show trial giving Rudy the chance to air his favorite conspiracy theories and atttack the press and Democrats before being given a clean bill of health by a partisan panel, the ex-NYC mayor certainly has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth …
Here’s Clark Mindock’s story.
Trump is getting satirical here at the expense ofHillary Clinton.
Perhaps more interesting is the admission he feelsElizabeth Warrenposes a real threat to his re-election.
He also confirmsRecep Tayyip Erdoganwill visit the White House on 13 November in the course of all that.
Some telling commentary on those last tweets.
Here’s Zamira Rahim on Trump’s self-justification.
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