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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Chuck Schumer says he is "particularly aware of the terror organisations like ISIS can present" to states like New York, where he is from.
"I asked the president what his plan was to contain ISIS," he adds. "He didn't really have one."
He says the secretary of defence did not have evidence that Syrians and Turks had the same interests as we did.
"The president had no real plan for containing ISIS besides relying on Syrians and the Turks," Chuck Schumer adds.
"he was insulting, particularly to the Speaker," Chuck Schumer adds. "He called her a third-rate politician."
"This was not a dialogue. It was sort of a diatribe ... not focused on the facts, particularly the facts about how to contain ISIS," he added.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the congressional leadership were "deeply offended" by the president's comments.
"the meeting deteriorated into a diatribe and a very offencive accusations made today by the president of the United States," Steny Hoyer said.
Nancy Pelosi said she believed the president was "very shaken up" by Republicans disavowing his actions in Syria.
Nancy Pelosi said it's "sad to say" the president had a "meltdown" in their White House meeting.
Chuck Schumer said the president claimed some "communists" were taking over ISIS "and that would make [Nancy Pelosi] happy".
The Democrats said they walked out of the meeting and once again referred to the meeting as a nasty "diatribe".
They have now concluded their press conference, which arrives just after the House passed a resolution refuting his actions in Syria.
Donald Trump has described Kurds as "no angels" as he attempted to defend his decision to allow Turkey's offensive in Syria.
The comments from the president — who also said it was "fine" for Russia to assist Assad regime in the conflict — come despite Kurdish forces being longstanding allies of the US who played a key role in the defeat of Isis.
He also claimed imposing US sanctions on Turkey would be better than fighting in the region.
"All American soldiers are away from the site. Syria and Turkey can fight... They’ve got a lot of sand over there... There’s a lot of sand that they can play with,” Mr Trump said in the White House.
"They are no angels, by the way," Mr Trump continued, referring to a group who have been bombarded since the US pulled troops from northern Syria, allowing the Turkish offensive.
This letter is one of the most absolutely bizarre foreign diplomatic cables I have ever read in my life:
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has slammed Nancy Pelosi for her comments following their meeting with Donald Trump, saying the House speaker "makes everything political."
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