Donald Trump’s claim he was asked by British prime minister Boris Johnson to set up a White House meeting between the grieving parents of Harry Dunn and the wife of a US diplomat blamed for his death has been rubbished by Downing Street.
The US president was already facing ridicule following the release of a bizarre letter he had written to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan imploring him not to attack the Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which appears to have been thrown away and ignored by the recipient.
The mockery follows an explosive day in which Mr Trump said the crisis in Syria was “not our problem” and that the Kurds were “no angels” before falling out with senior Democrats when they urged him to halt the withdrawal of US troops from the region, the president branding House speaker Nancy Pelosi “a third-rate politician” before trolling her on Twitter, a move that backfired when Ms Pelosi adopted his picture of their confrontation for her own profile page.
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Wow. Bravo that man.
Here's Sondland's opening statement...
...with a few points of contention.
The golf-and-politics alliance between Trump and the aforementioned Lindsey Graham frayed further on Wednesday over Syria, with the South Carolina Republican threatening to become the White House's "worst nightmare" unless more is done to protect Kurdish fighters against Turkish attacks.
Trump, in turn, suggested Graham focus on his job leading the Senate Judiciary Committee and reminded him who's in a position to threaten whom. "I am the boss," Trump said.
Asked whether he could still work with Trump, Graham huffed, "I don't care right now."
It was a striking change in one of Trump's most unlikely Washington partnerships, part of a broader rupture with congressional Republicans who increasingly struggle to defend the president's foreign policy. That's generally not been a challenge for Graham, at least since the 2016 election. Throughout Trump's time in office, Graham has modeled the technique of flattering and supporting the president where possible and saying he "disagrees" with him at other times.
Their falling out may not last long, as Graham has publicly disagreed with Trump before only to return to the fold. And Trump has reason to preserve ties, as Graham has become a useful ally - something he can't spare as he tries to hold GOP support against possible impeachment by the House. Graham in recent weeks had been on the airwaves defending him on that.
The relationship between the two men is walking proof at how successful Trump has been at bending the Republican Party to his will.
The two men clashed repeatedly during the early stages of the 2016 campaign, with Graham declaring that the brash New York businessman was unfit for the post he sought. Trump accused the senator of Beltway hypocrisy, at one point even reading out his cell phone number at a rally.
But after that November's stunning result, Graham began to cozy up to the new president. And Trump let him.
For the president, having Graham as an ally opened a conduit to the establishment in the Republican Senate. Graham was willing to provide ardent support for the White House's doomed efforts to overturn "Obamacare."
It was during those negotiations that the two men began to forge a friendship and Trump told confidants that he was surprised and appreciative of the senator's willingness to aggressively defend him on television - something few other Republican senators seemed willing to do with any consistency.
Trump has observed that Graham's eagerness to attach himself to the president was likely to ward off a possible primary challenge from the right, a testament to the power of his base. But Graham's willingness to break with his longtime friend, senator John McCain - whom Trump loathed - to frequently side with Trump also delighted the president, his allies said. And the president still praises Graham's aggressive defense of Brett Kavanaugh during last year's Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Trump has mused that he needs more "energy" like that from other Republicans, according to the officials.
All that recent professed goodwill seemed to crumble when the White House announced 6 October that Trump was withdrawing US forces from protecting the Syrian Kurds, clearing the way for a brutal invasion by the Turks. Trump's move was a stick in the eye of the hawkish senator who had acted as something of a presidential educator on foreign policy. Three years after raging against the former New York developer for being unqualified for the presidency, Graham was back to hammering Trump.
Syria, Graham tweeted, was "the biggest mistake of his presidency" and made Trump no better than president Barack Obama. The move would help Isis break the prisons the Kurds have been guarding, Graham said. And if there is another terrorist attack, he said, it's on Trump.
Then Graham, who is up for re-election next year, launched a vague threat against a president fond of retaliating against his critics.
"I will do anything I can to help him, but I will also become President Trump's worst nightmare," Graham told Pat Robertson on TV's The 700 Club in remarks broadcast on Wednesday. "To President Trump, if you're listening to this interview, if you remove all of our forces from Syria, you're throwing the Kurds over, Isis will come back on your watch, and Iran will take over and you, my friend, will be in great jeopardy of losing the election."
Trump suggested Graham mind his own Senate business and his political fortunes, which Trump defined partly as defending Trump.
"I think Lindsey should focus on Judiciary," Trump said at the White House alongside Italian president Sergio Mattarella. "The people of South Carolina want to see those troops come home and I won an election based on that."
Politically, the threats are thin gruel, as neither man is in danger of losing South Carolina next year. Trump remains popular there, and Graham's outspokenness tracks with his campaign's announcement this week of record fund-raising - for the state and among Republican Senate candidates in this filing period.
But both men face blowback from their pasts. Trump is facing the House's impeachment inquiry over his pressure on Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Biden family, a matter that troubles many Republicans and is replayed daily as the House hauls in a different current or former administration official to testify on the subject.
And Graham is weathering criticism over his flip-flop for trashing Trump as a "nutjob" in 2016, only to turn around and embrace him as president. He's also got a past when it comes to impeachment. Graham, a former Air Force prosecutor, was among the House members most aggressively gunning for president Bill Clinton during impeachment proceedings in 1999.
Then a House prosecutor, Graham spoke from the well of the Senate to make the case: "Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office."
Now a senator, Graham seems to be part of the impeachment defense. Asked about whether Trump improperly asked Ukraine's leader to undermine a political opponent, Graham replied he had "zero problems with this phone call."
A little more on Pelosi's superb trolling of Trump on Twitter following their spat yesterday.
She appears to have taken a leaf out of Greta Thunberg's playbook.
Republican big wig Mitch McConnell has set up a Senate vote today to override Trump's veto of a resolution attempting to overturn his national emergency declaration on the immigration "crisis" at the southern border, which he called back on 15 February.
The president thwarted the resolution on Tuesday after it sailed through both chambers - having done the same thing with an earlier attempt back in March - as Congress continue to dispute a manouvre that enabled the president to rake in funds from Pentagon construction projects to pay for his US-Mexico wall.
Remember when Mexico were going to pay for the thing? Feels like centuries ago.
Under the National Emergencies Act, such a resolution needs only a simple majority to pass but this latest push is expected to fall short of the 67 votes needed to swing it.
Ah well. The Democrats will be able to have another crack at in six months time.
Trump's latest "Keep America Great Again" rally (or whatever the hell they're calling it) takes place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, this evening and 2020 candidate Beto O'Rourke will be staging a protest nearby.
Sondland has arrived on Capitol Hill for his deposition.
Here's Chris Riotta with the latest.
Trump's already back to his pet theme.
This obnoxious clip is also currently his pinned tweet.
It's almost as though he wasn't 100 per cent sincere about Cummings.
Some more tributes to Chairman Cummings.
The president's message on the death of Elijah Cummings was actually perfectly respectful.
The only trouble was, it came an hour after this and a series of retweets.
Don Jr continues to make himself look like a complete doofus by going after Hunter Biden on nepotism grounds.
When you're the father and your son's entire career is dependent on that, they own you.
Narjas Zatat has more for Indy100.
Joe Biden has a new message for the president: "Release your tax returns or shut up."
Chris Riotta has the latest on this long-running theme.
Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger has attacked Trump after The Wall Street Journal reported the US had intentionally bombed a military base operated by its own coalition against Isis as part of the hasty retreat from Syria.
"Is this the America you grew up believing in?" he asks.
Yikes. Trump is likely to cruise to re-election in 2020, according to Moody’s Analytics, a forecaster focused on economic trends that has only been wrong once since its launch in 1980.
Chris Baynes has more.
The British government has denied Trump's claim that Boris Johnson asked him to arrange a meeting between the grieving parents of teenager Harry Dunn and the American woman allegedly responsible for his death.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said he was not aware the US president planned to bring the couple to the White House on Tuesday at the same as Anne Sacoolas, who fled the UK following the car crash which killed the 19-year-old in August.
A little more on Sondland.
The US ambassador to the EU is expected to tell House lawmakers today that he was merely repeating Trump's reassurances when he told another envoy that there was no quid pro quo in the administration's dealings with Ukraine. Trump blocked Sondland's appearance last week but Democrats promptly subpoenaed him.
Sondland, whose name first surfaced in the initial CIA whistleblower complaint in August, is certain to be asked about the text messages that show him working with two other diplomats to navigate the interests of Trump and Giuliani.
One text exchange that has attracted particular attention involves one diplomat, Bill Taylor, telling Sondland that he thought it was "crazy" to withhold military aid from Ukraine "for help with a political campaign." Sondland said in response that Trump had been clear about his intentions and that there was no quid pro quo.
Now, Sondland is prepared to tell lawmakers that Trump told him by phone before he sent the text that there was no quid pro quo and that he was simply parroting those reassurances to Taylor, according to a person familiar with his account. He is expected to say that though he did understand there to be a quid pro quo involving a White House visit, he did not associate Burisma with the Biden family and believed that an anti-corruption public statement was a goal widely shared across the administration.
Sondland will be testifying three days after Fiona Hill said that his actions so unnerved John Bolton that the latter said he was not part of "whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up" - a reference to White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. But Sondland is reportedly prepared to say that neither Hill nor Bolton personally raised concerns about the Ukraine work directly with him.
Meanwhile, the ambassador is in trouble as it emerges he is spending $1m (£777,000) of US taxpayers' money on sprucing up his residence in Brussels.
Here's the full story on that outrage.
It's still early morning in DC but tributes will soon begin to pour in for the late Elijah Cummings. This clip of him speaking with Pelosi, Schiff and House Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler is already being widely shared.
The prospect of Trump having to pay his condolensces on the passing of this civil rights hero is almost too much to thing about.
Sources in the Middle East are reporting that President Erdogan simply threw Trump's letter away and then launched his offensive against the Kurds.
Here's Borzou Daragahi's report from Istanbul.
Schiff said yesterday his investigating team will release transcripts of the closed-door interviews lawmakers have conducted with current and former administration officials.
In a letter to colleagues, the House Intelligence Committee chairman said his staff will unveil the transcripts when "it will not jeopardise" the investigation. He also said he expects to hold public hearings but doesn't reveal who the witnesses might be.
Republicans attending the private depositions have complained about the sessions' secrecy and claimed Democrats have run them unfairly. Democrats say secrecy is needed to prevent witnesses from co-ordinating their stories.
Republicans are meanwhile continuing to cry foul over the process of the impeachment inquiry, but as House Democrats press on with the investigation, McConnell briefed Republicans about the possible trial ahead.
McConnell warned of a possible House impeachment vote by Thanksgiving that would force a trial in the Senate, likely by Christmas. He used slides and history lessons during a private Senate GOP lunch in the Capitol to talk about the process.
While that was going on, Chuck Schumer said he knows his House colleagues didn't run for office to conduct an impeachment investigation, but:
The facts that are already in the public domain are so deeply troubling and must be taken very seriously.
Another key figure in the impeachment investigation, special envoy Kurt Volker, also returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to review the transcript of his 3 October testimony to investigators
.
Volker provided text messages to lawmakers that revealed an effort at the State Department to push Ukraine's leader into opening an investigation of the gas company Burisma connected to Biden's son, Hunter, in return for a visit with Trump.
Volker provided text messages to lawmakers that revealed an effort at the State Department to push Ukraine's leader into opening an investigation of the gas company Burisma connected to Biden's son, Hunter, in return for a visit with Trump.
That effort soon escalated into what one diplomat feared was a quid pro quo for US military aid. Trump has denied that, saying assistance to Ukraine was delayed to pressure the country into addressing corruption.
Another ambassador involved in those text message exchanges, Gordon Sondland, has been asked to appear on Thursday.
The testimony so far from the witnesses, mainly officials from the State Department and other foreign policy posts, largely corroborates the account of the government whistleblower whose complaint first sparked the impeachment inquiry, according to lawmakers attending the closed-door interviews.
One witness - George Kent - said it appeared "the Three Amigos" tied to the White House - Sondland, Volker and energy secretary Rick Perry - had taken over foreign policy. Another - Fiona Hill - quoted national security adviser John Bolton as calling Giuliani a "hand grenade" for his back-channel efforts to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Trump's 25 July phone call in which he pressed Ukraine's president , Volodymr Zelensky, to investigate Biden's family is at the centre of the Democrats' inquiry.
Pelosi, despite intensifying calls from Trump and Republicans to hold a formal vote to authorise the impeachment inquiry, showed no indication she would do so. She said Congress will continue its investigation as part of the Constitution's system of checks and balances of the executive branch.
"This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We're on a path that is taking us, a path to the truth," Pelosi told reporters Tuesday.
Trump calls the impeachment inquiry an "illegitimate process" and has blocked officials from co-operating.
At the same time, Republicans are bracing for a vote and trial. House GOP whip Steve Scalise invited senator Lindsey Graham, who was an impeachment manager decades ago during president Bill Clinton's impeachment, to brief Republican lawmakers on the process ahead.
Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee overseeing the probe, has praised the State Department officials for stepping forward, under subpoena, to shed light on the matter.
"We have learned much of this thanks to the courageous testimony of the State Department officials who have been put in an impossible situation by the administration," which is urging them not to comply with requests to testify to Congress, he said. "They are doing their duty."
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