Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to provoke the Democrats into impeaching him for “political advantage”, allowing him to cultivate his “Witch Hunt” narrative in the wake of the Mueller report and illicit sympathy from voters in time for the 2020 presidential race.
“He certainly seems to be trying and maybe this is his perverse way of dividing us more…He thinks that’s to his political advantage, but it’s certainly not to the country’s advantage,” said Adam Schiff, Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
The president has meanwhile lashed out at Democrat Rashida Tlaib over comments she made about the Holocaust, claiming she has "tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people," while continuing to play hardball with China over ongoing trade tariff negotiations as far-right Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban flies in to meet him at the White House.
The Michigan Democrat told a Yahoo News podcast that she gets "a calming feeling" when she thinks of "the tragedy of the Holocaust" and how the suffering of her Palestinian ancestors helped in trying to create "a safe haven" for Jews in the new state of Israel.
The remark instantly ignited an online fight, with Republicans incorrectly describing Ms Tlaib's words as reflecting her feelings about the genocide itself that cost millions of lives, including those of 6 million Jews.
It was the latest upheaval over the words of some of the first Muslims in Congress after Ilhan Omar questioned Israel's influence in Washington. Senior Democrats rebuked her, and Ms Omar eventually apologised.
A Democratic leader has instead demanded an apology to Ms Tlaib.
"If you read Rep. Tlaib's comments, it is clear that President Trump and Congressional Republicans are taking them out of context," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
He added, “They must stop, and they owe her an apology."
"Obviously I don't think that she hates Israel or hates Jews," Dan Kildee, also a Michigan Democrat, on Fox News. "She's not a hateful person. She's not a bigoted person."
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Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to provoke the Democrats into impeaching him for “political advantage” by blocking congressional oversight, allowing him to cultivate his “Witch Hunt” narrative in the wake of the Mueller report and illicit sympathy from voters in time for the 2020 presidential race.
“He certainly seems to be trying and maybe this is his perverse way of dividing us more…He thinks that’s to his political advantage, but it’s certainly not to the country’s advantage,” said Adam Schiff, Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, speaking on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
The majority of House Democrats are reluctant to undertake such an extreme measure as impeachment, which would be unlikely to succeed in the Republican-held Senate, but they are running out of options as the Trump White House continues to resist congressional investigations into its administration, ignoring subpoenas and refusing to release key documents, from the unredacted Mueller report to the president's tax returns.
Last week, Jerrold Nadler's House Judiciary Committee voted to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt of Congress for hanging on to the report despite a subpoena being issued for its release. The AG called on President Trump to shield him from having to comply by invoking his executive privilege, a highly controversial step.
Richard Neal, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has since issued a subpoena for the president's tax returns from 2013 to 2018 in an attempt to force Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin to hand over the files from the Internal Revenue Service by Friday, while the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, has one out requesting the president's son, Don Jr, appear before his panel to testify over the infamous Trump Tower meeting with influential Russians.
Last week, Jerrold Nadler's House Judiciary Committee voted to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt of Congress for hanging on to the report despite a subpoena being issued for its release. The AG called on President Trump to shield him from having to comply by invoking his executive privilege, a highly controversial step.
Richard Neal, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has since issued a subpoena for the president's tax returns from 2013 to 2018 in an attempt to force Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin to hand over the files from the Internal Revenue Service by Friday, while the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, has one out requesting the president's son, Don Jr, appear before his panel to testify over the infamous Trump Tower meeting with influential Russians.
Further stonewalling is expected, leaving the Democrats deeply frustrated and unsure how best to proceed.
Schiff had one suggestion: introducing hefty fines.
Schiff also addressed the president's evident interest in dredging up controversy on Joe Biden, the Democrats' 2020 front-runner.
On Friday, The New York Times reported that Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was planning to fly out to Ukraine to investigate the same newspaper's story on Biden, who, as Barack Obama's veep in 2016, allegedly threatened to withhold $1bn (£768m) in US loan guarantees unless Ukraine removed a top prosecutor who was investigating an energy company Biden's own son Hunter was a board member of.
The trip has since been cancelled.
Trump nevertheless thinks it would be “appropriate” for him to talk to attorney general Barr about opening an investigation into Biden.
In an interview with Politico, Trump said he and Barr had not considered an inquiry into his potential 2020 opponent but did not rule it out either, saying “certainly it would be an appropriate thing to” discuss.
Trump had another wild weekend on Twitter, retweeting no fewer than 63 accounts on Saturday from such friends and well-wishers as Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel, senator Lindsey Graham, congressman Devin Nunes, Fox anchor Lou Dobbs and particularly Tom Fitton of conservative media watchdogs Judicial Watch, with whom he appears to have developed a queasy obsession.
Perhaps feeling insecure that his image as a big business mastermind is under threat in the wake of The NYT's story last week that he lost a whopping $1.17bn (£897m) between 1985 and 1994, Trump continued to play hardball with China, with whom trade negotiations are still underway after the president increased tariffs on more than 6,000 Chinese consumer goods by 25 percent to $200bn (£153bn).
Here's Peter Stubley's report on Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow's suggestion that both the US and China will suffer in a trade war.
He also had plenty to say about the "Radical Left Dems", the "sick and unlawful" FBI investigation into Russian collusion and the ongoing interest in his tax returns, repeating the old lies that the American people don't care (they do) and that he can't release them if he's under audit (he very much can).
Of particular significance among all this rabid ranting is his turning his back on once-trusted adviser Don McGahn, a figure of particular interest to the opposition in light of his frequent citations in the Mueller report. "Never a big fan!" the president now says of McGahn.
His most potent line is perhaps the suggestion the Democrats "Don't care about anything else!", a charge that could stick if they allow the pursuit of him to become a distraction at the expense of meaningful policy discussions on the road to 2020.
Also notable among his choice selection of quotations from Fitton and Dobbs was his sudden interest in FBI director Christopher Wray, whom he both calls upon to investigate "spying" from the Obama-era Justice Department and suggests is overseeing a bureau with "no leadership".
And this, the sentimentality of which I can't help finding hilarious coming from Trump, a man known for his less than enlightened views on women.
Trump is meeting with far-right Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban at the White House today.
The pair will no doubt bond over their shared distaste for immigrants but are nominally gathering to talk trade, energy and national security.
Orban was an early Trump advocate in 2016 and is known for building a razor wire fence at Hungary’s southern border to stop refugees travelling from Serbia and Croatia during the peak of the refugee crisis.
Last week David Cornstein, the US ambassador to Hungary, suggested Trump's was envious of Orban's "illiberal democracy".
The pair will no doubt bond over their shared distaste for immigrants but are nominally gathering to talk trade, energy and national security.
Orban was an early Trump advocate in 2016 and is known for building a razor wire fence at Hungary’s southern border to stop refugees travelling from Serbia and Croatia during the peak of the refugee crisis.
Last week David Cornstein, the US ambassador to Hungary, suggested Trump's was envious of Orban's "illiberal democracy".
A white supremacist from Connecticut has been indicted after prosecutors say he threatened to kill President Trump and sent others bomb threats and mail containing suspicious white powder, according to court documents.
Gary Gravelle, 51, was indicted on 16 counts, including that he threatened the president in September 2018 by sending an envelope containing white powder and the handwritten message “You Die.”
He sent similar envelopes to a synagogue, a mosque and a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), according to the indictment.
The note claimed the power was a biotoxin but it was found to be harmless, officials said.
Gravelle also sent emails and made phone calls threatening to detonate bombs in Vermont, Washington, and at various locations in Connecticut, including government buildings and a mental health facility.
Gravelle - who is also known as Ronald Prejean - was identified in the indictment as a member of the white separatist organisation American Knights of Anarchy (AKA), according to The New Haven Register.
If convicted of all 16 counts, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 140 years.
Gravelle was previously sentenced in 2013 for sending threatening communications and had been released under federal supervision until his arrest on the new charges last year, according to US attorney John Durham.
Police are meanwhile reportedly investigating a shooting that took place near one of President Trump's resorts in Florida yesterday and left one person dead and two others injured.
Miami Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said that a call came in at 1.41pm on Sunday stating that shots were fired at the Trump International Beach Resort Miami in Sunny Isles Beach. Officers responded to the scene and found several vehicles with bullet holes.
A 19-year-old woman was found inside one vehicle with a gunshot wound to the upper extremities, Zabaleta said. She was transported to a hospital and is listed as being in a stable condition.
Moments later another 911 call came in reporting a male shot inside a vehicle at a shopping centre across the street from the hotel. Sunny Isle officers immediately responded and discovered the man with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
The victim has been identified as 43-year-old Mohammed Jradi, an employee of the resort who appears to have been hit by a stray bullet, Zabaleta said. "We have spoken to family members and of course our heart and our deepest condolences go to the family," he said.
A five-year-old boy was also grazed by a bullet. He was treated at the scene by fire rescue and released.
Homicide detectives from the Miami Dade Police Department were called in and detained several people for questioning. Several firearms were also seized at the scene.
According to TMZ, rapper NBA YoungBoy might have been the target. Local witnesses suggest he has been picked up and is being interviewed about what happened by officers.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo is to cancel the Moscow leg of his trip to Russia this week to make way for emergency talks with Iran in Brussels but will meet with president Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as planned on Tuesday, a State Department official has said.
On Sunday, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the US military presence in the Gulf used to be a serious threat but now represented a target, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) said.
Forces sent by the US military to the Middle East include an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers, in a move US officials said was aimed at countering "clear indications" of threats from Iran to American forces in the region.
President Trump also has stepped up economic pressure on Iran, moving to cut off all its oil exports, to try to get Tehran to curb its nuclear and missile programmes as well as end support for proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Speaking to CNBC in an interview to be broadcast on Monday, Pompeo said the US deployments were in response to intelligence about potential Iranian attacks and aimed both to deter them and to be able to respond if necessary.
"In the event that Iran decided to come after an American interest - whether that be in Iraq or Afghanistan or Yemen or any place in the Middle East - we are prepared to respond in an appropriate way," he said, adding: "Our aim is not war."
Last week, European countries said they wanted to preserve Iran's nuclear deal and rejected "ultimatums" from Tehran, after Iran eased curbs on its nuclear programme and threatened moves that might breach the 2015 international pact. Iran's announcement was in response to US sanctions imposed following Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the accord with Tehran a year ago.
On his first trip to Russia as U.S. secretary of state, Pompeo is expected to discuss with Putin and Lavrov the "aggressive and destabilising actions" Moscow has taken around the world, a senior state department official said last week, with particular reference to Venezuela and Syria.
Vice-president Mike Pence has warned young Christians they should expect to be shunned for their beliefs and urged them to stand strong in their opposition to abortion.
Speaking at the evangelical Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Saturday, Pence said: "Throughout most of American history, it’s been pretty easy to call yourself Christian. It didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible. But things are different now.
"You’re going to be asked not just to tolerate things that violate your faith, you’re going to be asked to endorse them. You’re going to be asked to bow down to the idols of the popular culture."
The state of Georgia recently introduced a law prohibiting access to terminations in the event that a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which often occurs before a woman knows she is pregnant, at about six weeks’ gestation.
On Friday, Pence appeared on his boss's favourite breakfast show Fox and Friends to argue that outspoken Democrat Ilhan Omar should be booted off the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"Ilhan Omar has made statements, antisemitic comments, statements against our most cherished ally Israel that ought to be rejected by every American," the veep said, referring to remarks the Muslim congresswoman made earlier this year about what she regards as the excessive influence Israeli lobbyists enjoy in Washington, a stance that caused a major stir within her own party and allowed Trump to accuse the Democrats of being and "anti-Jewish party".
Pence and Omar have previously sparred angrily over Venezuela.
Trump is again attempting to turn up the heat on China on Twitter and is now addressing President Xi directly in the hope of pressuring his negotiators into a deal.
He's now congratulating his media allies. Did Obama ever do this?
Democratic rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has compared the Republican Party to Dwight Schrute from the US version of The Office.
The character, played by Rainn Wilson, is the American answer to Mackenzie Crook's Gareth in the British original, an "assistant to the regional manager" terminally unable to recognise a joke at his expense.
AOC's popularity is such that even Trump supporters are now praising her for being "genuine".
One Democrat quickly losing traction is 2020 challenger Beto O'Rourke, who is facing having to relaunch his campaign after his poll ratings halved.
O'Rourke has lost his initial momentum and failed to gain national intention to the same degree the previously unknown Pete Buttigieg has managed.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders continue to lead the field.
Sometimes a headline just says it all.
He's taking credit for Boston Red Sox victories now.
Here's more on President Trump's latest crack at China on Twitter.
The markets are anxious indeed about the US-China trade impasse.
