Trump news: 'Shaken' president insults Pelosi at Syria meeting, as he repeats discredited conspiracy theories about Ukraine
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has raged about the “totally illegal & absurd” impeachment inquiry on Twitter and justified his decision to pull US troops out of Syria, leaving America’s allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces under siege from Turkey, by telling reporters at the White House the Kurdish people are “no angels”.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated on Tuesday that the House of Representatives would not cave in to Republican demands for a vote to approve the Democratic-led inquiry, which vice president Mike Pence and Mr Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are now refusing to co-operate with, declaring: ”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.”
As the president’s Democratic challengers for the presidency in 2020 squared off on the debate stage in Ohio, White House lawyers opened their own internal review of the handling of the president’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of 25 July, examining the response of aides and raising concerns they are seeking out a potential scapegoat.
A bizarre letter sent from Mr Trump to the Turkish president was laced with an equal mix of weird threats and friendly language. The White House confirmed that the nearly unbelievable dispatch was real.
The president also apparently had a "meltdown" during a meeting about the Syrian crisis with Democratic leaders, during which he told Nancy Pelosi that he "hates ISIS more than you do."
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This moment shows when Donald Trump sought to downplay his latest actions in Syria:
The US conducted a secretive cyber operation against Iran in September shortly after Tehran was accused by Donald Trump’s administration of carrying out attacks ion Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities.
Two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Reuters the operation took place in late September and was time at Tehran’s ability to spread what they called “propaganda”.
One of the officials said the strike affected physical hardware, but did not provide further details.
The attack highlights how Mr Trump’s administration has been trying to counter what it sees as Iranian aggression without spiralling into a broader conflict.
Asked about Reuters reporting on Wednesday, Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi said: “They must have dreamt it,” Fars news agency reported.
Additional reporting by Reuters. Story to come...
Donald Trump is now promoting Senator Rand Paul's book, The Case Against Socialism, and claiming America will "stay free, as long as I am your President!"
Lindsey Graham has responded to Donald Trump's apparent criticism's levelled earlier today:
Donald Trump has announced the signing of the Asylum Cooperation Agreement:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell does not seem to be happy with the current status of affairs in the Middle East after Donald Trump decided to pull US troops out of northeastern Syria:
George Kent, the deputy secretary of state responsible for European and Eurasian affairs, has told House investigators that he was told to “lie low” earlier this year as unorthodox diplomatic channels were set up to deal with the country now at the centre of an impeachment inquiry of the president.
Mr Kent, speaking to investigators in Washington, said that White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney organised a meeting this past spring in which energy secretary Rick Perry, ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland and special US envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker were put in charge of communications with the former Soviet republic — instead of the established traditional channels.
Today Mr Volker was seen in the US Capitol but it was unclear why he had returned following his testimony to the impeachment inquiry earlier this month.
The Independent's Zamira Rahim has more on what happened in an alleged conversation between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson surrounding Harry Dunn:
Donald Trump has claimed that Boris Johnson asked him to arrange a meeting between Harry Dunn’s parents and Anne Sacoolas.
The teenager was killed in a car crash RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August.
Ms Sacoolas is suspected of causing the 19-year-old’s death and left the UK following the crash.
Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, the teenager’s parents, turned down an invitation to speak with the diplomat’s wife during Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting.
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