Trump suggests he wants to be impeached and says 'I want a trial' – live – The Guardian, Google News

Presidential candidatePete Buttigieghas a long way to go with black voters if he wants to win the Democratic nomination, and he just suffered another defeat in that department.

Oliver Davis, the longest-serving African American man on the South Bend, Indiana, Common Council, announced he is endorsingJoe Bidenfor president – even though Buttigieg is the mayor of his city.

“In times like these, when the political winds are fiercely blowing across our country, it’s important for us to have an experienced leader who has been through the diverse storms of life to guide our country, ”Davis said in a statement released by the Biden campaign. “That’s why I am very pleased to support Vice President Joe Biden to be our next President of the United States of America.”

Davis also criticized Buttigieg for struggling to connect with voters of color. “For us, this has been a consistent issue that has not gone away,” Davistold Politico.

Buttigieg has surged in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, but according to arecent Quinnipiac poll, he is hitting close to 0% with black voters in South Carolina, the first southern state of the Democratic primary.

Buttigieg will need to win over non-white voters if he wants a shot at the nomination, and currently Biden is the only candidate attracting consisent support from blackDemocrats.

Trump’sRepublican allies on the House intelligence committee have used the public impeachment hearings to air baseless allegations that Ukraine may have meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

The US intelligence community has thoroughly confirmed it was Russia that inteference in the 2016 election, and senior intelligence officials reported informed senators in a recent briefing that the Kremlin has led a disinformation campaign to blame Ukraine for the meddling.

The New York Timesreports:

The Republican defense of Mr. Trump became central to the impeachment proceedings whenFiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony on Thursday. She told some of Mr. Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress that they were repeating ‘a fictional narrative’ – and that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian security services, which themselves propagated it.

In a briefing that closely aligned with Dr. Hill’s testimony, American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election, according to three American officials. The briefing came asRepublicansstepped up their defenses of Mr. Trump in the Ukraine affair.

WhenJohn Boltonfirst started tweeting this morning about regaining access to his Twitter account, the national security council declined to comment on the formerTrumpofficial’s renewed social media presence.

The former national security adviser may simply be trying to attract attention before releasing his new book, which he signed a deal for earlier this month.

John Bolton,Trump‘s former national security adviser who resigned (or was fired, depending on who you ask) in September, is offering more details on the resurrection of his Twitter account.

Bolton took to Twitter in September to claim that he had not been fired, as Trump claimed, but had instead offered his resignation as he and the president increasinly diverged on foreign policy.

But his Twitter account has been conspicuously silent since then, prompting questions about why Bolton was not offering more details on his departure. The former official now says the White House blocked access to his personal Twitter account after he left the administration.

Happy Friday, live blog readers! This is Joanie Greve in Washington, taking over for Adam Gabbatt.

AmongTrump‘s many complaints during his morning “ Fox and Friends ”interview was thatMaria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, allegedly took more than a year to hang his official picture up at the Kyiv embassy.

However, a member of the longtime diplomat’s legal team has now chimed in to deny Trump’s claim, asserting Yovanovitch hung the photos of the president, vice president and secretary of state “as soon as they arrived” at the embassy. ************

•Donald Trump addressed the issue of impeachment this morning,claiming: “I want a trial.” A trial in the Senate is the next step should the House vote to impeach the Trump.

•Trump expressed his desire during a bizarre, near hour-long interview on Fox & Friends. Trump also saidhis own EU ambassador’s sworn testimonyon Wednesday hearing was “total nonsense. ”

•Elsewhere in his Fox & Friends appearanceTrump saidpeople had praised former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch because “she’s a woman, you have to be nice”, and described Rudy Giuliani as “One of the great crime fighters of all time”.

•In other news, former national security adviser John Bolton hassparked intrigueby returning to Twitter. Bolton, who Democrats are keen to hear from as part of the impeachment inquiry, said he was “glad to be back on Twitter after more than two months. For the backstory, stay tuned …….. ”

Time for some Democrat news!Amy Klobuchar, campaigning in New Hampshire today, has been scooping up staff from the embers of Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign.

Klobuchar, undeterred by polls showing she has just 1.5% support nationally, has hired Marina Negroponte to serve as her Nevada state director, and Cameron Miller to serve as her Nevada political director, according to Associated Press. Nevada votes third in the Democratic primaries. Klobuchar is polling better in the state than she is nationally, at 2% of the vote.

Pete Buttigieg,flying highin the Iowa polls,flying lowin states which have a significant population of people of color, has had his South Bend office taken over by protesters this morning.

Garrett Blad, from the Sunrise Movement climate organization, says the occupation is to urge Buttigieg to adopt a Green New Deal for South Bend.

Shephard Smith, the former Fox News anchor who resigned in October, is to donate $ 500, 000 to a non-profit press freedom group,according to the New York Times.

For years Smith was one of the few centrist journalists on Fox News, sometimes clashing with the network’s right-wing hosts.

The Times reported that Smith pledged the $ 500, 000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists while speaking at the group’s annual dinner in Manhattan.

“We know that journalists are sometimes wary of being perceived as activists for some cause,” the Times reported Smith as saying.

“But press freedom is not the preserve of one political group or one political party. It’s a value embedded in our very foundational documents. Journalists need to join hands to defend it. ”

The Trump administration is withholding more than $ 100 million in US military assistance to Lebanon, according to Associated Press – aid that has been approved by Congress and is favored by his national security team.

From AP:

It’s an assertion of control of foreign aid similar to the delay in support for Ukraine that is at the center of the impeachment inquiry into PresidentDonald Trump. State Department and Pentagon officials and lawmakers have been complaining about it for weeks, according to officials.

The $ 105 million in Foreign Military Funding for the Lebanese Armed Forces has languished for months, awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget. This is despite the congressional approval, an early September notification to lawmakers that it would be spent and overwhelming support for it from the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council.

John Bolton, former national security adviser toDonald Trump, has posted a couple of cryptic messages on Twitter this morning.

Bolton’s name has come up often recently during the House impeachment inquiry.YesterdayFiona Hill, a former national security official, said Bolton had described Rudy Giuliani as a “hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up”.

The accounts of Hill and others have put Bolton at the center of the controversy, and have intensified calls for him to come forward and give his version of events.

Before today Bolton’s (most recent tweet) was on September 10, when he said he had offered his resignation to Trump. Trump later claimed he had fired Bolton.

Earlier this month Bolton’s lawyer said the former adviser has “personal knowledge” of meetings and conversations “That have not yet been discussed in testimonies thus far”. Bolton is reportedly refusing to testify until a judge rules in a case between the House committees and the Trump administration.

Boltonsigned a book deal– reportedly worth $ 2m – after leaving the White House. As yet there is no release date.

Amanda Holpuch

The under-fire White House adviser Stephen Miller said in a 2016 radio interview that immigration could see America lose its sovereignty and be “decimated”, echoing racist and white nationalist themes at the heart of a current scandal that has seen growing demands for him to resign.

In the 17 – minute radio interview withBreitbartin February of that year, Miller claimed that Obama-era trade and immigration policies, which had bipartisan support, would “decimate” the US, give amnesty to dangerous immigrants, and end US sovereignty.

Miller claimed “the sovereign powers of the United States have been bled away” in the interview with Breitbart’s then executive chairman,Steve Bannon.

Miller’s extreme language in public is under renewed scrutiny following a series of reports by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that revealed how leaked emails showed the White House aide espousingwhite nationalist viewsandinjecting that agendainto Breitbart.

More than 80 members of Congress, 55 civil rights groups and Democratic presidential candidates havedemanded Miller resign in response to the leaked emails.

President Donald Trump isstillpromoting the debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.

Trump’s evidence-free claim came a day after former White House security adviser Fiona Hill called the Ukraine interference theorya “fictional narrative”. Here’s the clip:

Barack Obama has warnedDemocratsagainst adopting “purity tests” in the primary race, saying the party needs to be able to appeal to a wide range of voters.

Speaking at a question-and-answer session with DNC chair Tom Perez in California, Obama said:

“We will not win just by increasing the turnout of the people who already agree with us completely on everything.”

He added: “Which is why I am always suspicious of purity tests during elections. Because, you know what, the country is complicated. ”

Obama praised the historic diversity of the Democratic field – which includes five women, and has three black candidates, a Latino man, an Asian-American man and a gay man.

He compared that to his own election as the nation’s first black president.

“We have a number of women candidates and we have one gay candidate. And those candidates are going to have barriers if they win the nomination, or they win the general election just like I did, ”Obama said.

“You can overcome that resistance if the way you are framing these issues and messages indicate: ‘Look, I’m part of an American tradition … of opening up opportunity.”

Another extraordinary moment: Trump insisting that he wants to go on trial – iehe wants to be impeached.

The president complained thatRepublicanscouldn’t call witnesses during the House impeachment hearings, and suggested a trial would enable him to quiz the whistleblower and House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff.

“We wanna call the whistleblower. But you know who I want as the first witness, because frankly, I want a trial, ”Trump said.

“You want a trial?” Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade asked incredulously.

“Oh I would …” Trump said, before trailing off and then beginning an attack on Schiff.

Here’s the clip:

Well that interview was unusual. Even by Trump’s standards. The president actually sounded quite tired at the beginning, but whipped himself up pretty quickly as he rattled through a range of topics.

One thing Trump was particularly animated about wasMarie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine.

Government officials havelined up to praise Yovanovitch, who Trump recalled from her role, over the past two weeks. But to Trump’s mind, she was simply benefitting from sexism.

Trump was particularly upset about Yovanovitch allegedly taking too long to hang his picture up in the US embassy. He mentioned it (at lea st) three times:

Trumpattacked Yovanovitch on Twitteras she was giving testimony last week. Speaking about Trump’s smears against her Yovanovitch told the House intelligence committee: “the effect is intimidating”.

Good morning, and welcome to live coverage of today’s political news.

Donald Trumphas had quite a morning of it already. The president called into Fox & Friends for an extraordinary, at times bizarre, 55 – minute interview during which Trump:

•Reiterated the conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election

•Said his own EU ambassador’s sworn testimony was “total nonsense”

•Called Nancy Pelosi “crazy as a bedbug”

•Suggested he wanted to be impeached, saying: “I want a trial”

•Complained that former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch took too long to hang his picture in the Ukraine embassy

•Said people praised Yovanovitch – a highly regarded official – because “she’s a woman, you have to be nice ”

•Described Rudy Giuliani as “one of the great crime fighters of all time”

The Fox & Friends hosts were largely bystanders during what effectively became a Trump monologue.

Trump sounded slightly hoarse as he ran through some of his greatest hits: his 2016 election victory, how much he has invested in the military and the highly dubious claim that “no one” has done as much during their first term.

We’ll get some video clips up shortly. It really was something to behold.

In other political news …the Democratic candidatesare fanned out around the key primary states today – no rest for the wicked, etc. Each of them will be out hassling potential voters in their own unique ways.

Iowans can look out for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, while those in New Hampshire are treated to Tulsi Gabbard, Cory Booker, Bill Weld and Amy Klobuchar.

Andrew Yang, and presumably his Gang, is in South Carolina; Marianne Williamson, who apparently is still running, is in Arkansas for some reason; and Joe Walsh, plowing a lonely furrow in his Republican primary bid against Trump, is in Texas.