Trump lashes out at ‘rigged election’ moments after sharing Christmas video with Melania

Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose crimes were labelled “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes" witnessed by former Trump ally and New Jersey governor Chris Christie.  

Kushner, a wealthy real estate executive who pleaded guilty years ago to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations, was found to have  hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law to a New Jersey motel room that was set-up with a hidden camera, as part of a failed scheme and revenge for his cooperation with authorities investigating him. 

The Associated Press’ reports. 

“We needed some leadership here,” said increasingly infuriated Trump ally and Fox News host Geraldo Rivera on Wednesday, as the US president touched down in Florida to start the Christmas holiday while lawmakers in Congress wondered whether or not he would sign a critical stimulus bill, or achieve a veto on an annual military policy and spending bill. 

“Is [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi going to meet with [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell? Are they going to get together and get a plan? What are the American people going to do? We are left adrift right now,” Mr Rivera said

“He’s threatening a veto. He’s gone on Christmas holiday. What the hell are we supposed to do now?," added the host, on Mr Trump’s veto of the military bill. 

Congress has made plans to return to Washington DC after Christmas to override Mr Trump’s veto and make the $740bn annual bill into law. 

Announcing the veto on Wednesday, Mr Trump cited a clause in the bill to rename 10 military bases currently named for Confederate leaders and once again repeated his unrelated demand that Congress reforms Section 230, the bylaw that governs freedom of speech on the internet.

It will likely be the first time one of Mr Trump’s vetoes has been overridden, when Congress returns on 28 December. Both sides view the bill as a “must pass” piece of legislation, reports Griffin Connolly. 

That’s what White House aides were working out overnight on Tuesday and into Wednesday, after the president suggested he would oppose the $900 billion coronavirus relief package passed by Congress because its $600 direct payments to most Americans were not enough. 

“Complete clusterf***,” one Republican source told Politico of the situation, with the party’s members in Congress having argued against bigger payments during nine months of talks on the package. 

But Democrats, sensing an opportunity to deliver more aid to Americans hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, were due to try passing $2,000 direct payments through Congress by Friday - in a move that Republicans, against the president’s apparent wishes, are unlikely to support, MSNBC reported. 

A dentist, a music producer and former campaign aides are all among the pardons issued by Donald Trump in recent days. Read all about them, below. 

On Thursday morning, the US president begun his Christmas holiday in Florida and - in true fashion - shared a neatly-edited campaign-style video that contained multiple false truths and lies about the presidential election, which he has continued to claim was rigged - without evidence. 

The video ends by calling on his supporters to contact legislators, although the election is already settled, with Mr Biden having been declared winner by the Electoral College last week. 

Republicans in the House of Represenatives have shot down a Democrat attempt - partially spurred on by president Trump - to increase the amount included in Covid relief payments to millions of Americans. 

Mr Trump has threatened to veto the entire $900bn Covid package unless lawmakers increase the value of direct payments to $2,000, in a surprise last minute intervention that went against Republican opinion on the issue.

Here’s the latest. 

Remarks by Republican congressman Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, have resurfaced from last year, when he told CNN’s Manu Raju that pardoning Paul Manafort “would be seen as a political disaster for the President.” 

“There may come a day down the road, after the politics have changed that you’d want to consider an application of him like everybody else, but now would be a disaster,” Mr Graham added at the time. 

The pardoning of Manafort and other former Trump aides on Wednesday night has been widely condemned by the president’s opponents and Republican alike, with senator Ben Sasse saying Mr Trump was “rotten to the core.”

A good job, then, that the president left the controversial pardons until his final days in office. 

According to a poll on Thursday, almost half of all Americans surveyed said history will view Donald Trump as a “failed” president. 

The poll, carried out by USA Today/Suffolk University, also revealed that among Republicans, 78 per cent see Joe Biden's electoral win as illegitimate, in what marked a clear division between both sides. 

It comes as Mr Trump continues to rage about his self-disputed election loss to Mr Biden, in what has been a months-long attempt to delegitimatise the election outcome. 

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged Donald Trump to sign the Covid stimulus bill passed by Congress, despite a failure to increase Covid payments to Americans  on Thursday. 

Speaking after Republicans blocked a request to increase Covid stimulus payments to $2,000 per American, the Democrat said she would call the House back into session on Monday to vote on the proposals in a separate bill.  

Republican leaders appeared to be acting in defiance of the president, who on Tuesday warned that $600 payments to Americans were too low, in a surprise intervention. 

"On Monday, I will bring the House back to session where we will hold a recorded vote on our stand-alone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000," Ms Pelosi said in a statement.

 She also urged the Republican president to sign legislation that funds the US government and offers Covid relief funding to American businesses and families, so that Americans will still receive help. 

"To vote against this bill is to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny them the relief they need."