Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee have launched the first impeachment hearings into allegations that Donald Trump obstructed justice and abused power, with the president's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski appearing before the committee as the first witness to testify on questions that were raised by the Mueller report released earlier this year.
The witness had been gagged by the White House, however, and two more aides – Rick Dearborn and Rob Porter – were reportedly told to ignore subpoenas and not attend the session with the Democratic-led panel on the grounds that they are protected by “absolute immunity”.
"The White House has no authority legal or otherwise to give these orders," House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler said of those gags.
But, Mr Lewandowski nevertheless refused to answer questions from Democrats, citing a gag letter from the White House, where he never worked.
The president’s latest campaign rally on Monday evening saw him attempt to appeal to the Hispanic voters of New Mexico he alienated in 2016, a day bookended by his calls for resignations at The New York Times over the latest sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh and a new poll forecasting Mr Trump’s defeat in key 2020 swing states.
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Donald Trump's latest campaign rally saw him attempt to appeal to the Hispanic voters of New Mexico he alienated in 2016 at an event characterised by false statements and a series of interruptions by protesters - and flies.
Addressing supporters at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, Trump insisted that his energy policies have made the state wealthier and warning that the gains could disappear if an ambitious Democratic proposal known as the Green New Deal takes effect.
"The Democrats want to completely annihilate New Mexico's economy," claimed Trump, who boasted that an oil and gas boom during his administration has helped increase the state's revenues. "The Democrats will never get the chance because New Mexico will never give them that chance."
New Mexico is in the midst of an oil production boom that has boosted employment and spurred a state government spending spree from first-year Democratic governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on public education, roadway projects and tax rebates for film productions.
The Green New Deal calls for virtual elimination by 2030 of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming and meeting 100 per cent of US power demand through renewable and zero-emission energy sources, including nuclear power. The proposal has broad support among Democratic activists and 2020 presidential contenders, putting it at the forefront of the party's sprawling presidential primary.
No Republican presidential candidate has won New Mexico since George W Bush in 2004 but Trump insisted he could do it: ''I think we're going to do great here. We're here because we really think we're going to turn this state and make it a Republican state." But he captured just 40 per cent of the state vote three years ago, as compared to Hillary Clinton's 48 per cent - secured without her even visiting the state during the 2016 campaign.
Over the course of another rambling sermon to the converted in the Albuquerque suburbs, the president also accused his opponents of wanting the US "to be at the mercy of rogue regimes” and to “confiscate your guns and eliminate your god-give right to self-defence”.
Falsely claiming Latino support for his border wall to shut off the southeastern states from Mexico, Trump risked further losing ground with Hispanic voters naturally opposed to his frequently racist anti-immigration rhetoric. Nearly 40 per cent of New Mexico's electorate is Spanish speaking and their endorsement of his plans for 500 miles of border wall can hardly be taken for granted.
The president joked about race and the MeToo movement in Rio Rancho ("We can't say this, but I'll say it anyway: You're better looking. Including the men!") before a pesky fly and those even peskier protesters disrupted his flow.
Here's Andrew Buncombe's report on another hot night in the south.
A few of the characters in attendance at Rio Rancho yesterday.
(Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty)
(Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty)
(Andres Leighton/AP)
(Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty)
(Tom Brenner/Reuters)
(Andres Leighton/AP)
(Cengiz Yar/Getty)
Trump may bluster about his chances of turning New Mexico red in 2020 but, according to a new poll from AARP, he's got a fight on his hands in the key swing states of North Carolina, Arizona, Maine and Colorado, where he is currently projected to lose against Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, should the latter ultimately secure his party's nomination.
Speaking at the White House yesterday in the company of the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Trump made the worrying claim that the US is ready for war, talking tough on Iran before ultimately concluding that Saudi Arabia should be left to defend itself without foreign intervention.
He also backed away from the idea of making a state visit to North Korea and fumbled a question on auto strikes.
He had earlier made a memorable gaffe in handing out America's highest civilian honour to baseball legend Mariano Rivera, misremembering the dates of the New York Yankees star's career by a cool four decades.
Here's Andrew Buncombe on that Iran threat.
New York state prosecutors in Manhattan have subpoenaed eight years of Trump's personal and corporate tax returns, according to The New York Times.
The subpoena was issued late last month, after investigators opened up a criminal inquiry into the role that Trump and his family played in making hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to cover up the tycoon's alleged extramarital affairs in the run up to the 2016 election.
Clark Mindock has the full story.
On Twitter, Trump has been aggressively calling for resignations at The New York Times after taking issue with its latest sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, which has seen the latter facing calls for his impeachment.
You will recall that Trump's nominee to the bench was subjected to a dramatic confirmation hearing a year ago when accuser Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers in 1982.
The same man now stands accused of exposing himself to a young woman at a party at Yale during his student days.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman and Trump apologist Lindsey Graham has also been at it, assuring their boy he won't be prosecuted over the "scurrilous accusations".
Lily Puckett has more.
Also on Twitter, Trump has been griping about accusations he has been profiteering from the presidency by likening his situation to Barack Obama's lucrative Netflix deal (entirely disingenously, that tie-up being agreed long after the 44th president left office).
Hard to believe that whining about losing “BILLIONS of DOLLARS for the privilege of being your President” will endear him to anybody.
Trump has also pointedly corrected an error he made on stage in New Mexico last night, when he referred to the California criminal gang MS-13 as "MS-3"...
...and absolutely phoned in one of his approval ratings tweets in the laziest fashion possible.
Here's Lowenna Waters on the "Obama Netflix" meme.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee has launched a corruption investigation into Trump's transportation secretary Elaine Chao over accusations she abused her position to enrich herself and her family. Her husband, incidentally, is none other than Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Chao has been accused of abusing her position to the advantage of Foremost Group, a shipping firm founded by her father James Chao, having previously provoked outrage by neglecting to sell the shares she held in Vulcan Materials, a major construction company, despite signing an ethics agreement ordering her to do so when she took office.
Foremost has received hundreds of millions of dollars in loan commitments from a bank run by the Chinese government and reports of Chao and her father planning to travel to China in October 2017 and again in April 2018 to meet with officials on the matter has aroused the committee's interest in possible conflict of interest violations.
“The committee is examining your misstatements of fact, your actions that may have benefitted the company in which you continued to hold shares, and your compliance with ethics and financial disclosure requirements,” Oversight committee chairman Elijah Cummings and congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, wrote in a letter to Chao requesting documents.
"Media attacks targeting the secretary’s family are stale and only attempt to undermine her long career of public service,” a loyal transportation department spokesman countered.
(Chris Kelponis/AFP)
Speaking of graft, 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren labelled the president "corruption in the flesh" at a campaign event held beneath the magnificent marble arch of New York City's Washington Square Park.
The location for her speech was chosen in part because of its close proximity to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, site of a tragic 1911 fire that claimed the lives of 15 mostly Jewish and Italian women trapped inside because of lacklustre health and safety standards.
Clark Mindock was there for the unveiling of Warren's latest plan.
Another 2020 candidate with a nice line on Trump is Hawaii congresswoman and war veteran Tulsi Gabbard, who says the president is making the US military "act as Saudi Arabia's bitch" by offering their services to crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in any forthcoming fight with Iran.
"We are not your prostitutes. You are not our pimp," she counters.
These old Trump tweets on the same subject have not aged well, incidentally.
Former Trump aides Rob Porter and Rick Dearborn are supposed to be appearing before the House Judicary Committee today - along with ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski - over the possible obstruction of justice instances raised by the Mueller report but have been directed by the White House not to appear because they are protected by from testifying by immunity,
Lewandowski is expected to show up but has meanwhile been told not to answer questions about conversations he had with the president beyond those already recounted in the special counsel's report.
White House lawyer Pat Cipollone wrote to the panel's chairman Jerrold Nadler to argue: "Mr Lewandowski's conversations with the president and with senior advisers to the president are protected from disclosure by long-settled principles protecting executive branch confidentiality interests and, as a result, the White House has directed Mr Lewandowski not to provide information about such communications beyond the information provided in the portions of the report that have already been disclosed to the committee."
Here's that note in full.
Trump is making a rare visit to California today, a Democratic stronghold where he is expected to rake in millions of dollars during a series of fundraisers for his re-election effort that are almost certain to be met with jeering protests.
Trump has routinely mocked California over its liberal culture, policies and politics. His visit on Tuesday and Wednesday signals that despite the state's decidedly leftward swing in recent years there are still plenty of wealthy Republicans who support him.
"There's not been a president in living history that is as unpopular in the state of California as Trump," said Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant who is an outspoken Trump critic. "But our money spends the same as everyone else's."
Trump continues to rake in gobs of cash more than a year out from the November 2020 contest, with his campaign and the Republican National Committee pulling in over $210m (£169m) since the start of 2019, Federal Election Commission records show. That's more than all the current Democrats seeking to replace him raised combined during that period.
The California events, which will be spread across two days in in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego, are expected to bring in an additional $15m (£12m), according to one Republican official.
California was an incubator for the modern conservative movement that swept the state's former governor, Ronald Reagan, into the White House in 1980. But demographic changes and an influx of new residents have helped drastically rework the political contours of the country's most populated state, with the former GOP stronghold of Orange County now home to more registered Democrats than Republicans. For Republicans, who have been resigned to political irrelevance at the state level, a donation to Trump can amount to its own form of protest.
"By showing up to a fundraiser deep in the belly of the beast, one is saying: 'I don't care what the liberal politicians are saying and I want to show my support for him publicly,"' said California's Republican National committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon, who is an ardent Trump supporter. She added: "I sold $100,000 (£80,575) worth of tickets and I could have sold another $100,000 more."
California has long been a key fundraising hotbed for politicians of both parties, which have relied on the entertainment industry and wealthy industry heads to finance their political ambitions. But under Trump, the run-of-the-mill fundraising trip has taken on a complicating dimension due to his harsh criticism of everything from the state's immigration laws to its forest management practices, which he blamed for fatal wildfires.
Earlier this month, Trump lashed out at Will and Grace TV star Debra Messing after she tweeted that attendees of the Trump's California fundraisers should be outed publicly.
In August, he took aim at the state's massive film industry, calling Hollywood "very dangerous for our country." That's contributed to heightened security concerns surrounding the trip.
Trump has also complained about the extent of homelessness in California. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Ben Carson is expected to follow Trump to California, if one day behind him, on visits to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. A senior HUD official said Carson will speak on a range of issues, including increasing the supply of affordable housing and incentivising investment in distressed communities while protecting vulnerable neighbours.
Already, the Backbone Campaign, a Washington state-based progressive group, said on Facebook that it planned to fly a large "Baby Trump" balloon in the Bay Area when Trump is scheduled to be there on Tuesday.
In an unusual move, Trump campaign officials - not his top donors - have been listed as sponsors of the event.
Dhillon said there were concerns that Antifa, an anti-fascist group, could stir violent protests. "For every person coming to this event, there would probably be 10 more," she said.
Trump referred to California a couple of times in his speech in New Mexico last night - and not in a particularly complimentary fashion.
The president noted that his administration is at odds with the state over fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. He long has made clear he wants to end California's clout in setting mileage standards, and Monday night he said he wants heavier cars because they're safer and cheaper, even if they are less fuel efficient.
"California wants you to do the other cars and we don't," Trump said. "We will end up in big litigation and I am fighting for you," he told the crowd.
He also joked about moving part of the border wall in San Diego to where it would be more appreciated. "I would love to take that sucker down and move it right now to New Mexico," he said to rousing cheers.
AP
If you thought Trump was digging deep to defend Brett Kavanaugh, spare a thought for the desperate lengths alt-right podcaster Ben Shapiro is going to here.
He wants a full description of the man's genitals, you see. "Maybe they were generic, who knows?" he wonders.
For Indy Voices, Carli Pierson says America has a moral duty to impeach Kavanaugh.
Also for Voices, Andrew Feinberg accuses Trump of spreading some fake news of his own on Iran.
Speaking of Tehran, supreme leader Ali Khamenei has ruled out talking to the Trump administration until the US returns to the 2015 nuclear deal it abandoned last year.
"The maximum pressure policy is worthless in front of the Iranian nation and every official in Iran collectively believes there will be no talks with America at any level," he told seminary students.
Our international correspondent, Borzou Daragahi, has more.
A reminder from AP that this is going down today:
As they investigate President Trump, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will hold their first official hearing today in what they are calling an impeachment investigation.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump's outspoken former campaign manager, is scheduled to appear to discuss the report by former special counsel Robert Mueller.
But it's unlikely that Democrats will get much new information.
A devoted friend and supporter of the Republican president, Lewandowski isn't expected to elaborate much beyond what he told Mueller's investigators last year. Mueller himself testified this summer, with no bombshells.
Two other witnesses who were subpoenaed alongside Lewandowski - former White House aides Rick Dearborn and Rob Porter - won't show up at all, on orders from the White House.
Kamala Harris appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night and asked the audience to raise their hands if they had been forced to undergo mass shooting drills in high school. Almost everyone did so. It was an extraordinary moment.
The candidate declared that, if she were in the Oval Office, she would introduce a comprehensive background checks policy and ban the sale of assault rifles. Cue a huge round of applause.
Over on NBC, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer made his debut on Dancing with the Stars, playing the bongos, wearing a lime green ruffled shirt and moving to - what else? - "Spice Up Your Life" by the Spice Girls.
Another Trump administration veteran, ex-chief of staff Reince Preibus, was back stage to cheer him on. Yuck.
Here's Spicey responding to an admittedly apt GIF from ex-Arkansas governor (and father of his successor) Mike Huckabee with a fine example of modern Republican persecution mania.
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