A senior Democrat has said congress should consider impeachment against Donald Trump “whatever timeframe there is”, in his strongest hint yet that proceedings will be launched.
Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chair, was asked if the panel should abandon its investigation into the president, as election season approaches.
“We have to do this, whatever time frame there is and we’re doing it now,” he said.
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Reverend Al Sharpton has addressed Donald Trump’s frequent attacks against him and Baltimore at a press conference held Monday in the majority-black city, in which he said the president “has a particular venom for blacks and people of colour” -
Baltimore’s most famous newspaper responded in kind over the weekend as Donald Trump hurled incendiary tweets about the “rat and rodent infested” city.
“Better to have a few rats than to be one” was the headline Baltimore Suneditorial board ran with Saturday after the president’s vicious insults, which many saw as racist attacks against the majority black city and its senior Democratic congressman of colour, Elijah Cummings.
“It’s not hard to see what’s going on here,” the editorial board wrote Saturday night, after Mr Trump tweeted throughout the morning about Mr Cummings, writing at one point, “Cumming [sic] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
The paper said Mr Cummings has been a “thorn in this president’s side” as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which has steadily investigated Mr Trump’s financial dealings while attempting to get a hold of his personal tax records.
At the White House Rose Garden bill signing ceremony, Donald Trump says “we will continue to work together as communities and as citizens to stop evil” after the deadly California shooting over the weekend.
The president thanked first responders who “swiftly killed the shooter” and added: “We grieve for their families and we ask that God will comfort them with his overflowing mercy and grace.”
Donald Trump’s White House has defended the president in the wake of incendiary tweets he launched at a senior Democratic congressman of colour whose district he claimed was “rodent and rat infested”.
Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of staff, described the tweets as “hyperbolic” after they sparked backlash across the country and among top Democrats, who rebuked the “racist attacks”.
“I understand that everything Donald Trump says is offensive to some people,” Mr Mulvaney said in an interview with CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday.
The president celebrated the first responders for their service in the single deadliest terror attack in US history while signing the bill that effectively makes the victims compensation fund permanent. Many of the first responders and other victims have continued to suffer debilitating medical issues due to the debris and destruction that blanketed downtown Manhattan.
“I spent a lot of time down there with you,” the president added, appearing to suggest without evidence that he participated in either rescue efforts or surveying the damage in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
On Monday, the president described the group of first responders present at the White House as a “great looking group of people”.
“You inspire all of humanity,” he said.
The US leader has steadfastly opposed ambitious gun control measures but said the nation would "answer violence with the courage of our national resolve."
Police said the gunman appeared to randomly target people when he opened fire just after 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the large festival in Gilroy.
Among those killed was a 6-year-old boy.
"This is Trump getting ready for re-election," the civil rights figure told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "He will do anything, including to his own supporters, if it is to his advantage."
The US leader has made clear his tweets targeting Eljah Cummings and the four female lawmakers known as the "squad" - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan - were tied to his efforts to win the 2020 election.
"If the Democrats are going to defend the Radical Left 'Squad' and King Elijah's Baltimore Fail, it will be a long road to 2020," the president said on Twitter.
“The departure of DNI Coats is bad news for the security of America," said Nancy Pelosi.
"As a Republican Senator from Indiana, a George W. Bush-appointed Ambassador to Germany and Director of National Intelligence, he was respected by those on both sides of the aisle as an American patriot."
“DNI Coats’ successor must put patriotism before politics, and remember that his oath is to protect the Constitution and the American people, not the President.”
Mr Coats will leave his post on 15 August. He will be replaced by John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist.
Mr Ratcliffe is a congressman and frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
"It's clear Rep. Ratcliffe was selected because he exhibited blind loyalty to [Donald Trump] with his demagogic questioning of Mueller," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
"If Senate Republicans elevate such a partisan player to a position requiring intelligence expertise & non-partisanship, it'd be a big mistake."
"During an address to camera, he drew attention to the context within which Mr Trump tended to use the word "infested".
“Infested. That’s usually reserved for references to rodents and insects, but we’ve seen the president invoke infestation to criticise lawmakers before. You see a pattern here?” said Blackwell.
“Donald Trump has tweeted more than 43,000 times, he’s insulted thousands of people many different types of people, but when he tweets about infestation it’s about black and brown people.”
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“We’re engaged in an investigation into these different alleged crimes and to whether the President violated his oath of office.”
Mr Nadler’s panel is looking into the special counsel’s conclusions, as well as whether Donald Trump’s businesses are profiting from his presidency.
“My personal view is that [Trump] richly deserves impeachment. He has done many impeachable offenses, he’s violated the laws six ways from Sunday,” he added.
“We have to defend the Constitution against these kinds of unconstitutional and illegal deeds.”
The president is also facing a backlash over tweets about Elijah Cummings, a black congressman and his Baltimore district.
Mr Trump described the district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess”, in an attack described as racist by Democrats.
He also retweeted a post from Katie Hopkins, a far-right British columnist, declaring Baltimore “a proper s***hole”.
