Trump news: Cohen claims president said black people were ‘too stupid to vote’ for him as polls show RNC convention failed to give him election bump

Anita Hill vows to vote for Joe Biden

Lawyer and academic Anita Hill has said she will vote for Democratic presidential nominee in November’s election, and is also willing to work with him on gender issues if he becomes president.

The two have a troubled history. In 1991, Ms Hill testified that then-US Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her when they worked together at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

He denied the allegations, and Mr Biden, who was then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, oversaw Mr Thomas’ confirmation hearing.

Ms Hill said those hearings changed her life permanently, but said her commitment to finding solutions for survivors of gender violence were “really what it’s about”.

“Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past, and the mistakes that he made in the past, notwithstanding those - at this point, between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November,” she said in an interview with CNN’s Gloria Borger.

“My commitment is to finding solutions and I am more than willing to work with him.”

In his bombshell memoir, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen claims that the president’s three eldest children came to his office after their father’s campaign announcement in 2015, in which Trump referred to people coming to the US from Mexico as rapists and murderers. 

Cohen says Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric asked him to convince their father to drop out of the race, arguing his rhetoric was “killing the company.”

The former lawyer says Trump was unconcerned with any harm to his businesses. 

“Plus, I will never get the Hispanic vote,” Trump said, according to Cohen. “Like the blacks, they’re too stupid to vote for Trump. They’re not my people.”

Wire reporting

Michael Cohen also alleges in his memoir that Mr Trump leered at his teenage daughter.

The disgraced lawyer writes that during a trip to the president’s New Jersey golf club in 2012, Mr Trump ogled the then 15-year-old girl. 

Cohen writes that when he told his boss that it was his daughter, Trump replied: “When did she get so hot?”

The former fixer also describes the married businessman ogling contestants at his Miss Universe pageant and boasting he could “have all of them” if he wanted. 

He also claimed to have seen Mr Trump corner and forcibly kiss women at his office.

Wire reporting

Iran broadcasts televised confession of wrestler following Trump tweet

Iran has aired the televised confession of a wrestler facing the death penalty in response to US President Donald Trump tweeted criticism of the case.

The case of Navid Afkari, 27, has drawn the attention of a social media campaign that portrays him and his brothers as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran’s Shiite theocracy in 2018.

Mr Trump tweeted on Friday: “To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and not execute him. Thank you!”

Iranian authorities accuse Mr Afkari of stabbing a water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz. His televised confession resembled hundreds of other suspected coerced confessions aired over the last decade in the Islamic Republic.

Mr Afkari and his brothers took part in demonstrations in 2018 protesting against the country’s tanking economy and spiralled into direct calls to overthrow Iran’s theocracy.

The US president showed interest in the case after Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), said he spoke to Mr Trump about Mr Afkari’s case.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency dismissed the president’s tweet in a feature story on Friday, and said American sanctions have hurt Iranian hospitals amid the pandemic.

“Trump is worried about the life of a murderer while he puts many Iranian patients’ lives in danger by imposing severe sanctions,” said the agency.

Captain Sully criticises Trump for alleged remarks on war dead

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger has joined other veterans and military families in condemning the president over reports he allegedly called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers”.

Captain Sullenberger, who save 155 passengers in 2009 when he landed a damaged plane in what is know known as the “Miracle on the Hudson”, said in a series of tweets that Donald Trump has “repeatedly shown utter and vulgar contempt” for those who served.

Read the full story by Danielle Zoellner:

Concerns over coronavirus vaccine approval process mount as Trump pushes officials to deliver

Donald Trump promised American citizens on Friday that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready before the end of the year, “maybe even before 1 November” - but officials and companies working on vaccines remain trepidatious.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris said she would be skeptical if a vaccine was made available before Election Day - which is in less than nine weeks.

Scientists have cast doubt over the deadline, saying it is highly unlikely a vaccine would be ready within that time.

Ms Harris suggested that public health officials would be “muzzled” if they were to express reservations over a potential vaccine of the process for approving it.

“Because [Mr Trump’s] looking at an election coming up, in less than 60 days, and he’s grasping for whatever he can get to pretend he has been a leader on this issue, when he is not,” said Ms Harris.

It comes as at least three companies working to develop a Covid-19 vaccine are now drafting a pledge to reassure the public they would not seek approval for their vaccines before they are proven safe, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Veterans Affairs Secretary defends Trump over remarks on war dead

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie has defended President Donald Trump against reports that allege he called dead American soldiers “suckers”.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Mr Wilkie was asked how he could be sure that Mr Trump had not said those things, given the president’s past public remarks denigrating prisoners of war.

“I was born in khaki diapers, I spent my entire life around the military, I’ve never known any general officers to hide behind stars,” he told presenter Dana Bash.

“So what I’m looking at is the Donald Trump that I know, the Donald Trump who has turned around Veteran Affairs from a place that, in the Obama administration, was 16th of out 17 in terms of best places to work.”

He was played the clip in which Mr Trump, during his presidential campaigning, said the late Senator John McCain was “only a war hero because he got captured” and that he liked “people who weren’t captured”.

When asked if that was acceptable, Mr Wilkie said: “Well, it’s politics. It’s the heat of the campaign. I judge a man by his actions, and the actions [of Donald Trump] have been beneficial for veterans all across this country in ways that we’ve not seen since World War 2.”

Trump spent 2018 France trip choosing artwork to bring back to White House - report

Donald Trump reportedly spent the end of his 2018 trip in France - where it was planned he would visit a French cemetery for fallen Marines, which was cancelled - choosing pieces of art in the US ambassador’s Paris residence to bring back to the White House.

Following The Atlantic’s bombshell report earlier this week, which alleged the president was not keen on the visit to the cemetery and belittled the American soldiers buried there as “losers”, Bloomberg News has reported that Mr Trump had the pieces he liked removed from the ambassador’s residence on a whim and loaded onto Air Force One.

Citing people familiar with the matter, a portrait, a bust and a set of silver figurines were brought back to the White house.

Mr Trump has been staying at the official residence of US Ambassador Jamie McCourt, at the Hotel de Pontalba.

After his cemetery visit was cancelled, he had six hours of free time in the residence when he insisted on bringing back a bust Benjamin Franklin, a Franklin portrait and a set of figurines of Greek mythical characters to Washington.

White House spokesperson Judd Deere responded to Bloomberg News: “The President brought these beautiful, historical pieces, which belong to the American people, back to the United States to be prominently displayed in the People’s House.”

Trump accuses Democrats and media for launching ‘massive disinformation campaign’ against him

Donald Trump has doubled down on attacks against Democrats and the media following reports that he made disparaging comments about fallen soldiers. 

Since the report in The Atlantic was published, the president has denied all claims. 

He was now blaming Democrats and the media for launching a campaign to spread information about him to the public. 

'It hurts to breathe': Jacob Blake speaks out for first time on pain from police shooting injuries

Jacob Blake spoke from his hospital bed on Saturday about the pain he is experiencing since being shot seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

In a video, posted to Twitter by his attorney Ben Crump, Mr Blake says: “I got staples in my back, staples in my damn stomach ... every twenty-four hours it's pain, nothing but pain.”

He adds: “It hurts to breathe, it hurts to sleep, it hurts to move from side-to-side, it hurts to eat.”

Oliver O’Connell reports: