Trump news: President says Muslim congresswoman ‘has tremendous hatred of Israel’ as trade war with China escalates
Michigan Democrats defends herself against right-wing smears after controversial Holocaust comments
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Your support makes all the difference.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."
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Here's a handy summary of where we're at with the stonewalling from CNN's Joe Johns.
Democratic 2020 hopefuls Pete Buttigieg and Eric Swalwell have been answering questions on Armando Iannucci's brilliant political satire Veep.
Swalwell in particular sounds like a buff.
Former White House photographer Pete Souza had a brutal response to President Trump's insistence companies should manufacture their goods in America, a put-down that quickly went viral.
Here's Sirena Bergman for Indy100.
Welcome to the start of another busy day on Capitol Hill.
Donald Trump will receive his intelligence briefing at 11:30am, before signing an executive order “on the economic empowerment of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders” at 12:15pm.
The president and vice president will meet for lunch in the White House private dining room at 12:30pm, before Mr Trump participates in the arrival of the prime minister of Hungary at 2:00pm.
He and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will then meet for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at 2:05, before an expanded bilateral meeting at 2:20pm in the Cabinet room.
Mr Orbán will depart at 2:50pm, before Mr Trump participates in the White House Iftar at 8:30pm.
China has responded to an increase in tariffs Donald Trump’s administration threatened to impose by vowing to issue $60bn (£46bn) worth of tariffs against US goods.
The escalating trade war arrives amid an apparent dissolve in US-Chinese trade negotiations.
Mr Trump warned China against retaliating to his new promises of tariffs in a series of misspelled tweets Monday, saying the country would “hurt very badly” if the trade war were to continue.
Britain is warning US officials about what it says could become an unintended escalation of conflict in the Persian Gulf.
British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt told reporters on Monday “we need to make sure that we don’t end up putting Iran back on the path to re-nuclearisation” before meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and EU foreign ministers.
The group was scheduled to reportedly discuss the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East shortly after Donald Trump ordered US warplanes and an aircraft carrier to the increasingly unstable region.
Story to come...
The president is now also attacking one of the nation’s first Muslim women elected to serve in the US House of Representatives, claiming Rashida Tlaib “obviously has tremendous hated of Israel and the Jewish people” in a tweet:
Donald Trump is now hitting out at one of his 2020 Democratic challengers, blasting Bernie Sanders for seemingly not giving him enough credit over the current state of the economy:
2020 contender Kamala Harris is hitting out at the Trump administration after it was reported today that more than a billion dollars would be diverted from defence to build the president’s border wall.
“This is reckless & the height of irresponsibility,” the California Democrat tweeted, adding, “the American people don’t want a wall.”
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