Evening summary
- Donald Trump publicly called for China to investigate Joe Biden. He reportedly also discussed his leading political rivals in a June phone call with the Chinese president during which he suggested he’d refrain from commenting on the Hong Kong protests so long as US-China trade talks progressed.
- Former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker testified before lawmakers today. He and another US diplomat reportedly drafted a statement for the Ukrainian leader, pushing him to publicly commit to investigating Biden.
- A whistleblower from within the Internal Revenue Service reportedly filed a complaint regarding either the president or the vice president’s tax returns.
- Trump and his supporters have tried to argue that the House democrats’ impeachment investigations aren’t valid because they haven’t formally voted on opening an inquiry. House leader Nancy Pelosi responded that there is no constitutional requirement to hold such a vote.
- Joe Biden is trailing 2020 rivals Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg in third-quarter fundraising. Elizabeth Warren has yet to release her fundraising numbers.
- Sanders has yet to return to the campaign trail after undergoing a procedure for a blocked artery, but it seems he will attend the upcoming debate on Oct. 15.
Energy secretary Rick Perry is expected to resign
Perry, whose contacts in Ukraine have pulled him into the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry, is planning to resign next month, Politico reports.
Earlier this week he indicated that he would cooperate with House democrats investigations.
In May, Perry attended Ukrainian leader Vlodomyr Zelenskiy’s inauguration in lieu of vice-president Mike Pence after Pence canceled his planned trip, according to the whistleblower complaint that raised concerns over Trump’s communications with Ukraine.
Perry has largely avoided controversy as energy secretary, though his conduct has drawn some criticism. The former Texas governor and former Dancing with the Stars participant as energy secretary suggested that fossil fuels can help prevent sexual assault.
Updated
The White House is planning to send Nancy Pelosi a letter arguing that Trump and his team don’t have to comply with the impeachment inquiry
Echoing the argument that House minority leader Kevin McCarthy made earlier today, the White House plans to inform House speaker Nancy Pelosi that Donald Trump and his team don’t have to cooperate with the impeachment investigation until congress votes to formally approve the inquiry.
Axios has the news from two sources familiar with the letter.
In response to McCarthy, Pelosi said that there is no constitutional requirement to vote on opening an impeachment inquiry. Pelosi and House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff have also warned that officials who do not cooperate with their investigation could be charged with obstructing justice.
Trump envoys reportedly pushed Ukraine to publicly back investigations
Another bit of late-breaking news from the New York Times.
Two Trump administration diplomats, including Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine who was questioned by House investigators earlier today, reportedly drafted a statement for Volodymyr Zelenskiy that would have committed the Ukrainian leader to investigating Trump’s political rivals.
The statement would have committed Ukraine to investigating the energy company Burisma, which had employed Hunter Biden, the younger son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. And it would have called for the Ukrainian government to look into what Mr. Trump and his allies believe was interference by Ukrainians in the 2016 election in the United States to benefit Hillary Clinton.
The idea behind the statement was to break the Ukrainians of their habit of promising American diplomats and leaders behind closed doors that they would look into matters and never follow through.
It is unclear if the statement was delivered to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, but no statement was released publicly under his name. Around that time, the Ukrainian officials indicated to the Americans that they wanted to avoid becoming more deeply enmeshed in American politics.
Updated
Trump reportedly discussed Biden and Warren with Chinese president Xi
When Donald Trump suggested today, at a press conference, that China should investigate Joe Biden he said he’d never actually pushed Chinese leader Xi Jinping to investigate his political rivals.
Now CNN reports that Trump discussed Biden and Elizabeth Warren with Xi during a whole call. He also reportedly told Xi he’d keep quiet about the protests in Hong Kong, so long as trade talks between China and the US progressed:
During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden’s political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protestsas trade talks progressed.
The White House record of that call was later stored in the highly secured electronic system used to house a now-infamous phone call with Ukraine’s President and which helped spark a whistleblower complaint that’s led Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump.On Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House he’d consider asking his counterpart in Beijing to investigate the Bidens, adding to a growing list of foreign leaders he’s tried to enlist in his attempts to bring down a potential Democratic challenger.
Though it’s unclear whether Trump actually asked Xi to investigate his rivals, it seems he was willing to trade favors — and look the other way while China violently quashes protests in Hong Kong, so long as Xi continued to negotiate on trade.
The Guardian has not independently verified CNN’s reporting.
Given the revelations from CNN, however, it’s worth noting that Trump has kept mostly quiet on Hong Kong.
Even amidst mounting violence in Hong Kong this week, Trump offered only a message of congratulations to Xi, tweeting: “Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China!”
Earlier today senator Warren published an op-ed in Foreign Policy, urging Washington to stand up for the protesters.
Updated
California congressman Devin Nunes has filed yet another lawsuit -- this time against Hearst magazine.
The litigious republican lawmaker filed a $77.5m lawsuit in federal court against the published of Esquire magazine and former reporter Ryan Lizza, allecting that a story from September 2018 about Nunes’ family daily farm caused “injury to his good name and professional reputation.”
Last year, Nunes sued the publishers of The Fresno Bee claiming that one of the paper’s stories was a “character assassination” and in March he sued Twitter, and a handful of users including those behind the parody accounts “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow”.
Lizza’s Esquire story “Devin Nunes’s Family Farm Is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret” focused on members of Nunes’ family who lived in Iowa and operated a dairy farm there even as the congressman promoted his deep roots in California.
Updated
More from Kurt Volker’s testimony
Former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker told lawmakers that he wasn’t personally involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian leaders to investigate Joe Biden.
Volker, who testified in the House this morning, reportedly warned Ukrainian officials to steer clear of American politics, according to the Associated Press:
Volker, who has become a central figure in the House’s impeachment inquiry, spent hours behind closed doors as lawmakers and staff pored through dozens of pages of text messages, photos and other correspondence during the interview, according to those familiar with the meeting.
Volker resigned on Friday after being asked to testify to Congress about the whistleblower complaint that describes how Trump, in a July 25 phone call , repeatedly prodded Zelenskiy for an investigation of Biden and his son Hunter, while his administration delayed the release of military aid to help Ukraine fight Russia-backed separatists. The complaint says Volker met in Kyiv with Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian political figures a day after the call, and he provided advice about how to “navigate” Trump’s demands.
...The former envoy was in office as the administration was holding back $250 million for Ukraine at the time Trump was pressing Zelenskiy about the Bidens. Volker told the House investigators it was unusual for the U.S. to withhold aid to Ukraine, but said he was given no explanation for it, the person said.
Republican lawmakers who took part in the interview with Volker downplayed what they heard.
“Not one thing he has said comports with any of the Democrats’ impeachment narrative, not one thing,” said Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Updated
Joe Biden trails Sanders, Buttigieg in fundraising
Biden raised $15m during the third quarter of this year, lagging behind Bernie Sanders (who raised $25m) and Pete Buttigieg (who raised $19.1m). Bloomberg has more details here.
Elizabeth Warren has yet to release her third-quarter fundraising.
Biden held five private fundraisers in California last week.
Updated
Warren subtweets right-wing conspiracy theorists and promotes student debt forgiveness plan all in one go
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl tried and spectacularly failed to smear 2020 front-runner Elizabeth Warren by claiming he had evidence that she had carried on a “long-term sexual relationship” with a 24-year-old bodybuilder marine.
Wohl and his frequent collaborator, conservative lobbyist Jack Burkman, hosted a press conference at Burkman’s Arlington, Virginia townhouse to promote this highly implausible scandal. They even printed up a special sign for the occasion:
Today’s Jacob Wohl press conference topic: pic.twitter.com/48cSCHlrpw
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 3, 2019
The duo — which previously failed to smear Robert Mueller and Ilhan Omar with other highly implausible sex scandals — even organized snacks:
On this momentous day in history we will be providing complimentary @DunkinDonuts
— Jack Burkman (@Jack_Burkman) October 3, 2019
1599 • 2:30 PM EST pic.twitter.com/fp4y870Yv8
Though they failed to create a playlist to suit the occasion, a heckler reportedly remedied the situation - with Chumbawumba.
It was good fun for the neighbors and tourists.
Onlookers are now posing with Wohl’s Warren sign. There’s a crowd of roughly two dozen people, non-media, who just swung by to see the show, including some tourists. pic.twitter.com/ONjpIP9ncu
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 3, 2019
But Elizabeth Warren appears to have had the last laugh.
It's always a good day to be reminded that I got where I am because a great education was available for $50 a semester at the University of Houston (go Cougars!). We need to cancel student debt and make college free for everyone who wants it. pic.twitter.com/fHasLm0j9P
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 3, 2019
Updated
Nancy Pelosi brushes off request from minority leader to suspend impeachment inquiry
In response to House minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s request to suspend the impeachment inquiry until “rules and procedures are established”, House leader Nancy Pelosi responded that “there is no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry.”
Pelosi continued that she received McCarthy’s request “this morning shortly after the world witnessed President Trump on national television asking yet another foreign power to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections. We hope you and other Republicans share our commitment to following the facts, upholding the Constitution, protecting our national security, and defending the integrity of our elections at such a serious moment in our nation’s history.”
Late afternoon summary
Our west coast colleague Maanvi Singh will take over coverage for the next few hours, and there are still a lot of news developments to come.
Earlier:
•Donald Trump has called for China to investigate his leading political rival, even as the president is the subject of impeachment proceedings for pressuring Ukraine to do the same.
•In a press conference outside the White House, Trump said: “China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened in Ukraine”.
•The president then suggested he may specifically ask President Xi of China to begin an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. In the same press conference he again implored Ukraine to investigate his potential 2020 rival.
•Adam Schiff, the House intelligence committee chair, described Trump’s comments as “repugnant”. Schiff said Trump’s requests to China and Ukraine: “Is an illustration that if this president has learned anything from the two years of the Mueller investigation is that he feels he can do anything with impunity.”
Another whistleblower complaint - about Trump or Pence's tax returns
Hard on the heels of the Trump-Ukraine scandal, broken in to the open by an intelligence community whistleblower complaint, comes more breaking news this afternoon that an Internal Revenue Service official has filed a whistleblower complaint relating to either the president or the vice president’s tax returns, the Washington Post reports.
The complainant reportedly says he was told that at least one political appointee in the Treasury Department tried to interfere with the annual audit of Donald Trump or Mike Pence’s tax returns.
The Post attributes this to “multiple people familiar with the document” and adds that the complaint was revealed in a court filing several months ago, but details have been clouded.
The report comes amid heightened tension between the treasury department and House Democrats over Trump’s tax returns, which have never been released, and the integrity of the annual audit of his and Pence’s tax returns, which is supposed to be sealed off from any partisan involvement.
Rudy Giuliani was told Ukrainian claims about Biden were false
Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy for the Ukraine, says he warned Rudy Giuliani that information Giuliani was receiving on Joe and Hunter Biden, from Ukraine, was false, according to the Washington Post.
Volker gave testimony in the House this morning. According to the Post, Volker told House investigators that he had “tried to caution Guiliani that his sources, including Ukraine’s former top prosecutor, were unreliable and that he should be careful about putting faith in the prosecutor’s stories, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed door meeting”.
From the Post:
The former US special envoy for Ukraine told House investigators on Thursday that he warned President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, that Giuliani was receiving untrustworthy information from Ukrainian political figures about former vice president Joe Biden and his son, according to two people familiar with his testimony.
[...]
Volker was named in the whistleblower complaint as the diplomat who set up a meeting between Giuliani and a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
A tweet:
ELECTION INTERFERENCE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019
More from Adam Schiff, who has continued to criticize Trump’s earlier exhortation for China to investigate Biden:
“Once again, having the president of the United States suggesting, urging, a foreign country to interfere in our presidential elections is an illustration that if this president has learned anything from the two years of the Mueller investigation is that he feels he can do anything with impunity.”
Trump suggests the “pharmaceutical” industry, and other industries, could be behind what he describes as a “hoax”.
I’m not sure which of the things Trump believes to be a hoax he is discussing, but it’s likely the Mueller investigation or the Ukraine scandal.
Trump then sits down and signs his Medicare bill. Then he hands out some pens to people standing around him. He leaves the stage to the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want. (The band have repeatedly asked him not to use their music.)
Updated
A brief riff from Trump just now, floating a venture into the media business...
Trump laments that CNN is the one U.S. cable news channel with an international presence.
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) October 3, 2019
"We ought to start our own network and put some real news out there," he says.
This is in the midst of a speech nominally about health care https://t.co/5T9xObqggS
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 3, 2019
Vice-president Mike Pence appears to have fallen in line with Trump. Pence has spent this afternoon defending Trump’s pressuring of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
In particular, Pence said: “The American people have a right to know if the vice president of the United States, or his family, profited from his position.” Interesting.
.@VP Pence defended Trump soliciting election help from Ukraine [a felony] by pressing Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. "The American people have a right to know if the vice president of the United States, or his family, profited from his position."pic.twitter.com/6Rpw1tnTZ4
— Polly Sigh (@dcpoll) October 3, 2019
Trump says Republicans will never allow health insurance companies to turn away those with pre-existing conditions.
(It was Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act that stopped health insurance companies being able to refuse treatment to those with pre-existing conditions. Most Republicans voted against it.)
Trump is discussing some of his legislative achievements. Of his agenda, and vision for the country, Trump invokes botany:
“It’s like a plant. It’s like a tree. Those roots have to grab hold [...] That thing has to grow and it has to get in there and then nobody’s gong to be able to take it down later on.”
Trump touts waiting times compared to the UK and Canada.
Just as an aside: the US spends “about twice what other high-income nations do on health care”, with significantly worse results. Check out this report from Reuters last year.
Trump is running through some of his talking points about Democrats and healthcare. The majority of Democrats running for president – according to Trump – will “slash Medicare” to “pay for socialism”.
Oh, and Democrats would also drain Medicare to pay for “open borders”, Trump says.
Trump is now mis-characterizing the idea of universal healthcare. He goes on to call Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas”, which is a racist slur, and riffs briefly about “Sleepy Joe”.
“Democrat lawmakers only want to wreck and destroy all the things we’ve built up over the last three years,” Trump says.
If a Democrat gets in, “the country is gonna go to hell”, Trump says.
Then he brings up Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.
Trump is speaking in Florida at a healthcare rally.
The president is expected to sign an executive order this afternoon that, Trump says, will protect medicare. Trump claims his administration is aiming to deliver the best quality healthcare system in the world.
We’ll have to wait and see if Trump wades back into the Ukraine scandal. He roped China into the whole saga earlier.
Schiff: Trump's call for China to investigate Biden 'repugnant'
House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff is less than impressed with Trump’s request that China also investigate Joe Biden... from Politico reporter Andrew Desiderio:
Schiff emerges from Volker deposition, won’t comment since it hasn’t concluded yet, but says Trump’s Ukraine/China comments this morning were “repugnant” and “a fundamental breach of his oath of office.”
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) October 3, 2019
I’m sure we’ll hear more from Schiff before the day is out.
Updated
Here’s the Guardian’s main story on Trump’s remarkable calls for China – as well as Ukraine – to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.
Bernie Sanders will appear at next DNC debate – report
Washington Post political reporter Sean Sullivan reports that Bernie Sanders will appear at the next Democratic presidential debate:
NEW: @BernieSanders will be at the next debate, according to a Sanders aide. The debate is on 10/15.
— Sean Sullivan (@WaPoSean) October 3, 2019
Sanders’ campaign had been silent as to when, or whether, he would return to the campaign trail.
He canceled events this week after undergoing heart surgery on Tuesday. The Vermont senator had a blockage in an artery, and required two stents to be inserted.
Some reaction from House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff to Trump’s Ukraine-China debacle this morning:
The President cannot use the power of his office to pressure foreign leaders to investigate his political opponents.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 3, 2019
His rant this morning reinforces the urgency of our work.
America is a Republic, if we can keep it. https://t.co/9KDCx1hVjs
George Conway, husband of Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway and a persistent thorn in the president’s side, has resumed his criticism of the president in an article for the Atlantic.
Conway, an attorney, has been asking questions about Trump’s mental state throughout Trump’s presidency.
Now, Conway reckons, there has been “a recent escalation in Trump’s bizarre behavior, as the pressures of his upcoming reelection campaign, a possibly deteriorating economy, and now a full-blown impeachment inquiry have mounted”.
You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and you don’t need to be a mental-health professional to see that something’s very seriously off with Trump—particularly after nearly three years of watching his erratic and abnormal behavior in the White House.
Updated
A former US special envoy for Ukraine is testifying before three House committees today – the first official to testify over the Trump-Ukraine scandal.
Kurt Volker is giving testimony to the Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs committees. The hearings are behind closed doors.
My colleague Julian Borger profiled Volker this week:
When Kurt Volker agreed to work for the Trump administration in 2017, he told colleagues he hoped to navigate the president’s mercurial nature and his evident attachment to Vladimir Putin, and still pursue a traditional US policy of upholding Ukrainian independence and pushing back against Moscow.
We’ll bring more if news leaks out from the hearing.
Updated
Andrew Yang, the tech entrepreneur running an outsider bid for president, raised $10m in the third quarter of 2019, according to his campaign.
Campaign merchandise accounted for about $2.4m of the total, Yang’s campaign said, including the sale of more than 20,000 ‘MATH’ hats.
“This grassroots fund-raising total, with more than $6 million in the bank, ensures this campaign will have the funding to compete and outperform expectations through Super Tuesday and beyond,” Yang’s campaign said.
Yang is only averaging 3.5% in national polls, but has met the requirements for the fourth Democratic presidential debate, which will be held on October 15.
CNN has refused to air a Trump campaign advert which pushes false claims about the Bidens actions in Ukraine, according to the Daily Beast:
The 30-second ad, titled “Biden Corruption,” peddles misleading accusations about Joe Biden and his son Hunter in an attempt by President Trump to deflect from controversy over his pressuring of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on the former vice president.
“Joe Biden promised Ukraine $1 billion if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son’s company,” the cinematic trailer-like narrator blares. “But when President Trump asks Ukraine to investigate corruption, the Democrats want to impeach him,” the ad continues over footage of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
In fact, multiple countries wanted the prosecutor Trump mentions to be fired. And the investigation into the company where Hunter Biden worked was dormant when the prosecutor was fired.
Trump calls on Ukraine and China to investigate Biden
Donald Trump has called for Ukraine and China to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, even as Trump is the subject of an impeachment inquiry for... pushing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
In an extraordinary press conference outside the White House – aired on cable news and attended by multiple journalists – Trump said China should investigate the Bidens, and suggested he may ask the country to do so.
Trump also said the Ukraine government should start a “major investigation” into the Bidens, “if they were honest about it”.
As a reminder: there is no evidence that Joe or Hunter Biden did anything wrong in Ukraine. Or in China.
Trump was asked what he thought Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy – who Trump was recorded pressuring to investigate the Bidens – should do.
“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when asked what he wanted Ukrainepresident Volodymyr Zelensky to do.
“I would say President Zelenskiy, if it was me, I would start an investigation into the Bidens.”
Trump then discussed his trade war with China, before adding:
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened in Ukraine.”
Trump did not explain what he meant by “what happened in China”. Again: there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens.
Trump was then asked if he had requested President Xi of China to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.
“I haven’t but it’s certainly something we can start thinking about,” Trump said.
Updated
Donald Trump’s remarks just now were extraordinary.
Trump, currently under investigation for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, again encouraged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. On live tv.
Not only that, the president then urged China to investigate Biden.
Some context:
Trump admits he asked Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, and asks China to do the same. Like Nixon telling America "I ordered the break in." pic.twitter.com/Zw3aZby4uc
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) October 3, 2019
Just to be clear, Trump is currently, this morning, calling on foreign leaders to investigate Biden in the midst of an impeachment proceeding about whether he has encouraged foreign leaders to investigate Biden
— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 3, 2019
This. Is. The. Thing. Republicans. Spent. Days. Denying. He Asked. https://t.co/KmLwINOp2N
— Blake News (@blakehounshell) October 3, 2019
Trump: China should also 'start an investigation into the Bidens'
Trump continues talking about Ukraine, making false statements about how the country got rid of its prosecutor.
Of the whistleblower complaint, Trump says: “It’s totally inaccurate because the conversation that I had was absolutely perfect.”
Trump says he is meeting with China next week and will discuss trade. “I have a lot of options on China but if they don’t do what we want we have tremendous power,” Trump says.
Then he pivots to the Bidens, making unfounded and context-free claims about wrongdoing in China:
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened in Ukraine.”
Updated
Trump: Ukraine should start 'major investigation' into Biden
Donald Trump, speaking outside the White House, said Ukraine should investigate his rival Joe Biden – exactly the thing Trump is under threat of impeachment for – and added that China should also start a probe.
“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when asked what he wanted Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to do.
“I would say President Zelenskiy, if it was me, I would start an investigation into the Bidens.”
Trump said China should also start an investigation into the Bidens, and suggested he might ask the country to do so.
Asked if he had requested President Xi of China to help investigate the Bidens, POTUS replied: “I haven’t but it’s certainly something we can start thinking about.”
Asked what he wanted President Zelensky to do about the Bidens, “If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens.” pic.twitter.com/CZ0ikrtEdp
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) October 3, 2019
Q: What did you want president of Ukraine to do about Joe & Hunter Biden?
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 3, 2019
Trump: If they were honest, they would start a “major investigation.” He adds that China should also start an investigation into Bidens but says he hasn’t asked the president of China to do that yet.
Updated
On Tuesday we learned about Donald Trump’s plans to construct a
Moot
moat along the US-Mexico border and fill it with snakes and alligators.
That was according to a report from the New York Times, which has now been confirmed by the Washington Post.
According to the Post, Trump also suggested arming US forces “with bayonets to block people from crossing into the United States across the Mexico border”.
The Times had reported that Trump additionally proposed shooting would-be migrants in the legs, so as to prevent them crossing into the US, and wanted his as-yet unbuilt border wall to be electrified, with spikes on top.
Trump has denied the reporting.
Some bad news for Kamala Harris this morning: the California senator is drooping in the polls in her home state.
Harris is the choice of just 8% of Californians, according to a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. That puts her in fourth place, way behind Elizabeth Warren (23%), Joe Biden (22%) and Bernie Sanders (21%).
It’s not looking good for Harris nationally, either. Real Clear Politics’ polling average shows her on just 4.8%.
So what’s Donald Trump up to this morning?
WELL, he’s been attacking Adam Schiff – a “lowlife” and a “lying disaster – and also having a go at 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. Lovely.
Schiff is a lowlife who should resign (at least!). https://t.co/nGp9aFP3rX
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019
Schiff is a lying disaster for our Country. He should resign! https://t.co/ytwEy5NasJ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019
Keep up the great work Kellie! https://t.co/PcAnK009EW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019
Trump is heading to Florida at 10am. He is expected to speak about his health-care agenda, such as it is, and could address the Ukraine scandal on his way to the airport.
Updated
Lindsay Graham urged foreign governments to investigate Mueller inquiry
Storm clouds are continuing to gather around Donald Trump over the Ukraine scandal, but that hasn’t stopped his faithful confidante, Lindsay Graham, from reportedly urging foreign governments to work with William Barr in investigating the origins of the Mueller inquiry.
Graham is said to have written to the prime ministers of Australia, Italy and the UK to request their “continued cooperation with attorney general Barr as the Department of Justice continues to investigate the origins and extent of foreign influence in the 2016 election”.
The investigation is an attempt to discredit Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A GOP tactic as 2020 looms is to claim the entire investigation was flawed.
According to numerous reports, in the letter Graham wrote that US intelligence agencies used a “deeply flawed dossier filled with hearsay and written by a biased, former United Kingdom intelligence officer” as part of the Mueller inquiry.
Elsewhere this morning:
•Donald Trump has been tweeting since 6am. It’s the usual stuff: the US is being ripped off, Adam Schiff=bad, the Bidens are corrupt, etc etc.
•Joe Biden is ramping up his investment in key Super Tuesday states, Politico reports – trying to develop a firewall if the former-vice president doesn’t do so well in Iowa and New Hampshire.
•A number of foreign companies are reconsidering plans to invest in the US because of Trump’s trade war with China, according to Axios.
Updated
