Donald Trump has retweeted what appears to be an image of a dead body and a meme of senior Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer dressed as Muslims as he continues to lash out over the Iran crisis and his upcoming Senate impeachment trial.
The president reportedly first approved the assassination of Quds commander Qassem Soleimani back in June 2019, according to a new report, further clouding the administration’s claim that it faced an “imminent threat” against four of its embassies in the Middle East from the late general.
Mr Trump spent his weekend tweeting angrily about his impeachment, declaring he does not deserve the “stigma” of the reprimand and calling for the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges against him to be dismissed “outright” as Speaker Pelosi prepares to finally pass them over to the upper chamber for trial.
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Donald Trump reportedly authorised the killing of Iran‘s top general seven months before he was hit in a drone strike.
The US president said he would sign off on the operation to kill Qassem Soleimani if Iran crossed his red line of killing an American, NBC News reported, citing five current and former senior administration officials.
The officials told the network the decision explains why an airstrike on Soleimani was one of the options the military presented to Mr Trump as a response to an attack by Iranian proxy forces on a military base in Iraq, which caused the death of a US civilian contractor.
“There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time,” one senior administration official told NBC News. They said the president’s aides put killing Soleimani on the list of potential responses to Iranian aggression “some time ago”.
Donald Trump is tweeting about the impeachment process in the US Senate while slamming the Democrats in the US House of Representatives.
The president lambasted the House impeachment inquiry as "the most unfair witch-hunt in the history of Congress" while slamming the "Do Nothing Democrats".
Here's The Independent's Clark Mindock with more on Cory Booker's exit from the 2020 Democratic primary race, what it means for the campaign trail, and how Trump world is reacting to the news:
Mike Pompeo declines to testify before House Foreign Afairs Committee over Iran
Chairman Eliot Engel has already expressed his frustration after Trump's secretary of state refused to appear before his panel to explain the mixed messaging coming out of the administration over its rationale for killing General Soleimani, the latest act of White House stonewalling against congressional oversight.
Engel calls the Trump camp's explanations "wildly muddled" and it's hard to disagree.
Cory Booker drops out of Democratic 2020 presidential race
The New Jersey senator follows the likes of Kamala Harris, Julian Castro and Marianne Williamson in dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
He's already been on the receiving end of the president's boneheaded sarcasm.
Text messages and images that could expose Trump's Ukraine dealings handed over to inquiry
Our man in DC, Andrew Feinberg, has this on the Lev Parnas evidence we mentioned earlier and what it might mean for impeachment.
More typos as Trump accuses 'Rafical Left' of pursuing him over 'eminent' threat
As in the earlier meme, the president is continuing to push the appallingly disingenuous line that the Democrats are somehow more loyal to Iran than to the United States.
This all has strong echoes of his opportunism last year when he pounced on Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar's remarks about Israeli lobbyists in DC to accuse the whole party of being antisemitic, an equally grotesque distortion of the facts.
Trump attempts to stir Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren 'feud'
Here's Trump gloating over Bernie volunteers criticising Warren, claiming - based on nothing - that "everybody knows her campaign is dead" and throwing in a further jab at Bloomberg for good measure.
He also wrote "Pocahontus" there, which is wrong, for what it's worth.
Fox and Friends: White House 'has no choice' but to refrain from giving press briefings
Well, you have to hand it to them, this is at least an entirely original point of view.
Trump retweets image of dead body
The president is clearly enjoying the right-wing backlash against Pelosi's ABC interview on Twitter right now - #NancyPelosiFakeNews is trending - and has just retweeted a shocking image of what appears to be a dead body slung across a barbed wire fence, as well as a meme of her and Chuck Schumer in Muslim dress, pushing an entirely false conservative narrative that the House Democrats are sympathetic to Iran and "mourning" the passing of Soleimani.
This is outrageous stuff, even for a man who has set the bar as low as Donald J Trump has.
President attacks Mike Bloomberg and disingenuously claims to be healthcare champion
Trump's first tweets of the day find him attacking Democratic 2020 challenger "Mini" Mike Bloomberg (apparently feeling threatened by his considerable campaign spending capabilities) and attempting to spin himself as a champion of healthcare.
Here's one important qualifier.
Cardi B hints she could run for Congress
Sick and tired of the current crop of politicians? Rapper Cardi B, a vocal backer of Bernie Sanders, says she has been watching "War documentaries" and believes she could be the future.
Here's Roisin O'Connor with more.
George W Bush warns against Trumpian 'isolationism, protectionism and nativism' in resurfaced 2011 clip
The rejuvenation of George W Bush continues as the behaviour of the Trump administration continues to cast a flattering light on the 43rd president's legacy by contrast.
Here's Greg Evans on a resurfaced viral video from 2011 spotlighting Bush's comparatively enlightened views on immigration, entirely at odds with the racism, Islamophobia and polarising populism of his eventual successor.
Trump claims to be 'dealmaker not warmonger' days after narrowly averting self-inflicted conflict with Iran
Another of the president's more ludicrous tweets over the weekend saw him quoting extensively from a sympathetic piece by New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin (an old friend) in which a fanciful case was made for Trump's policy of "peace through strength" towards Iran.
"Plainly, Trump is not a warmonger," Goodwin wrote. "He’s a deal maker and his record is that of someone who uses our military might as a deterrent, unleashes it with discretion and only as a last resort."
Which is total nonsense - and was well before the events of January 2020 - but Trump lapped it up like a fat tabby cat with a saucer of almond milk.
The same writer expresses anxiety about bias against Harvey Weinstein among trial jurors at the close of this piece, incidentally, which gives you an idea of the sort of man we're dealing with here.
Here's Vincent Wood with more.
Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has further records 'essential' to impeachment inquiry, says attorney
Lev Parnas, the Ukraine born businessman indicted with his partner Igor Fruman in October over campaign finance violations, has further records of communications with the Trump camp he considers "essential" to the House impeachment inquiry, his attorney has written to a district court judge to argue.
“Review of these materials is essential to the committee’s ability to corroborate the strength of Mr Parnas’ potential testimony,” his lawyer Joseph A Bondy wrote to Judge Paul Oetken on Saturday, following on from Parnas winning permission to hand over his phone records and other documents to congressional investigators last week.
He apparently wants to throw in the contents of two mobile phones and an iPad to the bundle, although it is currently unclear how Adam Schiff's panel might make use of them as that phase of the impeachment process is now over and the ball about to be placed in the Senate's court.
Schiff told Margaret Brennan yesterday that he would not rule out reopening matters to issue a subpoena for John Bolton, who said last week he would comply with one if it were issued by the Senate.
He also joined in with Speaker Pelosi's efforts to publicly pressure Mitch McConnell into ensuring a fair trail.
Trump branded 'dangerous, irresponsible narcissist' by Canadian CEO after employee's family die in Iran plane crash
The president's decision to assassinate Qassem Soleimani was rooted in his narcissism and designed to distract voters from his impeachment, a furious Canadian corporate leader has said.
Michael McCain, the chief executive of meatpacking firm Maple Leaf Foods, said one of his employees had lost his wife and 11-year-old son in the downing of a Ukrainian Airlines passenger jet on 8 January, following “a needless, irresponsible series of events” instigated by Trump.
The airliner was brought down by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shortly after the force rained down ballistic missiles on two US bases in Iraq in retaliation for Soleimani’s killing.
Tehran has admitted responsibility, blaming the incident on human error and American “adventurism”. Vast crowds of protesters have called for president Hassan Rouhani to resign over the deaths of 176 people in the missile strike.
Jon Sharman has this report.
Elizabeth Warren 'disappointed' Bernie supporters sent out to discredit her
Speaking of Bernie, Elizabeth Warren has said she is "disappointed" to hear her rival "is sending volunteers out to trash me", with a script advising activists to tell potential voters leaning towards her that she only appeals to "affluent" and "highly educated" elites and will bring "no new bases into the Democratic Party".
The line appears to violate the pair's non-aggression pact and Warren urges her old friend to "reconsider" the approach, warning against "factionalism" as a negative force.
In better news, Warren has the backing of beloved West Wing star Martin Sheen, who endorsed her before being arrested at Jane Fonda's Fire Drill Fridays climate demonstrations in DC.
Bernie Sanders hits back at Trump after president questions his rise in polls
Another of Trump's targets on Twitter yesterday was Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, whom he derided as "Crazy" and asked what his surge in the polls might mean for the Democratic 2020 race to challenge him.
This was the candidate's answer.
Conrad Duncan has more.
White House accused of 'fake news' by declaring first snow of the year seen in Washington
Yep, the administration is again being accused of presenting "alternative facts" on the subject of the weather - as it was last September during Sharpiegate when Trump presented a doctored map indicating Hurricane Dorian would tear into the state of Alabama as he had tweeted (entirely wrongly, inviting mass panic).
This time its divorce from reality finds the White House claiming it is currently snowing in Washington, despite that simply not being true and the temperature too high to allow for it.
It seems the photograph in question was actually taken six days ago but why tweet it now?
Here's Greg Evans for Indy100 to explore the matter.
Trump national security adviser: 'We're not going to cut and run every time somebody threatens us'
Also guesting on This Week was Bolton's successor, Robert O'Brien, who add this to say on that thorny embassy question after he was asked why the facilities had not been evacuated if an "imminent threat" was really in the wind:
