Donald Trump began his week avidly tweeting along to Fox News before jetting out for a Nato summit in London, as the House impeachment report into his dealings with Ukraine are set to be unveiled to members of Congress in advance of the Judiciary Committee staging its first hearing of the inquiry on Wednesday.
The White House yesterday declined to be part of the midweek session, with lawyer Pat Cipollone branding the process a “baseless and highly partisan” attack on the president in a letter to Judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler.
Republicans continued to defend Mr Trump on the Sunday talk shows, with the ranking GOP representative on the committee Doug Collins calling on inquiry figurehead Adam Schiff to testify and accusing him of “hiding behind the report”.
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Donald Trump has tweeted about ex-FBI official Lisa Page after she broke her nearly two-year public silence about the Mueller investigation and her involvement in the scandal that clouded the first years of his presidency -
Donald Trump is now claiming on Twitter that the GOP "has NEVER been so united" in spite of the impeachment proceedings against him -
The president has tweeted out an artist's image of him, describing the work as "fantastic" and encouraging him to "never give up on your dream" -
Donald Trump's re-election campaign is taking a swipe at newly-announced 2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg by announcing it will not immediately credential Bloomberg reporters - whose publication is owned by the billionaire - for campaign events:
Trump attacks 'Sleepy Eyes' Chuck Todd
En route to London, Trump is still finding time to thank his Republican henchmen for their media appearances over the weekend coming to his defence on impeachment.
The president applauds GOP congressman Ben Cline and Andy Biggs as well as senator John Kennedy, who was on disgraceful form on Meet the Pressas addressed earlier.
Trump also takes relish in attacking host "Sleepy Eyes" Chuck Todd, who pressed him on caging migrant children in an extended White House interview earlier this year.
Democrats look to keep pressure on Trump as impeachment inquiry enters another new phase
For Indy Premium, Chris Stevenson has this handy explainer on what to expect next from House Democrats this week as the impeachment inquiry grinds into gear once again.
Trump slams 'not nice' Democrats with farewell tweet
The president has sent his final tweet before jetting out for the UK, including footage of Air Force One taking off from a slippery runway and one last dig at the Democrats.
George Conway has not wasted a second.
Climate change close to 'point of no return', warns UN secretary general
Trump may still believe global warming is a "hoax" and consider leaving the Paris accord a priority but Antonio Guterres of the UN has issued a stark warning on the future of the planet.
“The point of no return is no longer over the horizon. It is in sight and hurtling towards us,” he said at the rescheduled COP25 conference in Madrid, Spain.
America's co-operation and leadership will surely be essential to averting disaster.
Here's Andy Gregory's report.
'We need Nato now more than ever'
For Indy Voices, Ed Davey offers this stout defence of Nato as the likes of Trump place the future of the transatlantic alliance in jeopardy.
President rants about impeachment 'hoax' hearing outside White House lawn before jetting to London
Trump has been outside the White House just now taking questions from reporters underneath a large umbrella.
He attacked the Democrats for scheduling the latest impeachment hearing while he is away at the Nato summit and reiterated his argument from Twitter that the Zelensky interview "should be case over".
According to the pool report, he says the Republicans have never been more united and that the Democrats "are being killed in their own districts" (politically, one hopes).
‘If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us’
Here's Chris Riotta with an account of Voldymyr Zelenksy's new interview with Time, the subject of Trump's tweet earlier.
The Ukrainian president has a few things to say about quid pro quos and the nasty business of withholding aid.
China announces first sanctions against US over support for Hong Kong protesters
Beijing has announced it will sanction US-based non-profits including the National Endowment for Democracy and Human Rights Watch in retaliation for the Trump administration passing legislation in support of Hong Kong's protesters.
Ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page breaks silence on Trump's 'reprehensible' attacks
Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer who exchanged anti-Trump texts with colleague and lover Peter Strzok, has spoken out for the first time about the president’s "sickening" attacks on her.
Page has joined Twitter and said she is “done being quiet” about the furore which thrust her into a political storm two years ago and has made her a repeated target of the president's ire - and morbid fascination (see the clip below from his rabid October rally in Minneapolis).
“I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse,” she told The Daily Beast. “It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back.”
Here's Chris Baynes's report on her sudden re-emergence.
Trump declares his own 'breaking news' event on Twitter
In the last hour, Trump has served up a few more choice quotes in his favour and declared a "breaking news" event, also very much in his favour. He says President Zelensky of Ukraine has declared he did nothing wrong and that: "If the Radical Left Democrats were sane, which they are not, it would be case over!"
He's also back to moaning about the impeachment hearing, the morning after the White House declined to take part and have its say.
Public support for Trump will collapse with impeachment vote, warns presidential historian
Historian Doug Brinkley has told CNN he believes Trump's fabled base will desert him if Congress votes to impeach him.
Responding to a recent impeachment poll, Brinkley told New Day: “It just tells you what deep trouble Donald Trump is in. I mean, when you have 50 per cent of the country wanting you not just impeached but removed from office, and the game hasn’t even gotten fast yet.
"I think once the vote is taken by Congress to impeach him and he’s wearing the ‘I’ on his chest, you’re going to see that movement grow even more."
He continued: "It tells you he doesn’t have a lot of friends. He’s a base politician. He doesn’t know how to turn this around."
Newsweek fires journalist who misreported Trump Thanksgiving scheduling
Reporter Jessica Kwong has been sacked by Newsweek for writing an article saying Trump's Thanksgiving plans amounted to "tweeting, golfing and more", not knowing at the time that he was actually heading to Afghanistan to meet the troops.
The White House went to elaborate lengths to conceal the visit, to be fair to Kwong, who quickly amended her article, but the president and his son delighted in calling out the news outlet on Twitter as yet more evidence of "fake news" at work:
Kwong's was by no means the worst journalistic blunder of the weekend, however, as MSNBC was forced to apologise for using a picture of white nationalist Richard Spencer to illustrate a story about ex-Navy secretary Richard V Spencer, forced out by the administration after objecting to Trump pardoning war criminal Eddie Gallagher.
New Pelosi meme shows House speaker delivering knock-out blow to Trump
"The memes matter", pundit David Zurawik told Brian Stelter on CNN yesterday, after it emerged Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters had brandished posters of Trump photoshopped onto the body of Rocky Balboa in tribute to his signing legislation endorsing their cause last week to the fury of China.
Here's Greg Evans for Indy100 with a great answer to the president's delusional vanity tweet courtesy of Christine Pelosi, daughter of the House speaker.
Donald Trump Jr: 'Political correctness will destroy western civilisation'
Among the least helpful hot takes on the London Bridge terror attack on Friday - in which two members of the public were killed and three more injured by Islamist extremist Usman Khan, shot dead by police officers at the scene - comes courtesy of the president's idiot son, who says political correctness is to blame for society's ills.
Which, conveniently, is the theme of Triggered, his new book - out now!
Amy Klobuchar: Trump's actions amount to a 'global Watergate'
For an alternative view on impeachment, here's 2020 contender Amy Klobuchar speaking to Chuck Todd yesterday and making a great deal more sense than John Kennedy.
It's a line she's used before but it bears repeating.
Here's my colleague Andrew Buncombe's piece on the Minnesotan's campaign.
Trump tweeting Fox lines on impeachment
The president is busy catching up with Maria Bartiromo, it seems.
