Trump news: President calls coronavirus testing 'double-edged sword' as 17 states sue over student visa rule

White House denies Trump undermining Dr Fauci despite sending 'opposition research' to reporters

The White House on Monday denied sending campaign-style opposition research to reporters to discredit Anthony Fauci, the federal government's top infectious disease expert who has at times contradicted Donald Trump on coronavirus.

"There is no opposition research being dumped to reporters," press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.

She contended that emails were sent from White House press aides to The Washington Post in response to a "straightforward question."

The statement was also released to other outlets and did not have a name attached but attacked Dr Fauci saying, in part, that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things."

Kayleigh McEnany slams AOC over poverty links to violent crime

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, in a briefing previewing Donald Trump's roundtable celebrating police, attacked New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for assessing crime as a symptom of a "diseased society that neglects its most marginalized people, and we do not solve that problem with police."

AOC's discussion prompted outrage from conservatives, who pulled from the discussion her remarks that violence "maybe has to do with the fact that people aren't paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent and so they go out and they need to feed their child and they don't have money so ... they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry."

Ms McEnany also summarised AOC's claims in bad faith, calling her claims "just preposterous" and used it as an example of progressive lawmakers attacking "heroes" in law enforcement.

Earlier on Twitter, AOC elaborated:

Trump holds roundtable to highlight 'positive impact' of police as he depicts America at war with itself

As Donald Trump raged against New York City crime as "out of control", he claimed that "radical politicians" are "waging war" against "innocent Americans".

In a roundtable "with stakeholders positively impacted by law enforcement," the president attacked calls to defund police departments as city officials consider shifting budgets – the majorities of which fund law enforcement – to social services that address root causes of crime.

The president and attendees attacked majority black cities as "ravaged" by crime.

Attorney General William Barr said "extremist" calls to defund police departments pulls the US "in the opposite direction".

Police need "more training, more support and more resources," he said.

Watch: White House denies Trump undermining Dr Fauci despite sending 'opposition research' to reporters

Trump repeats false claims about US mortality rates and coronavirus testing, repeating that 'it's a double-edged sword' and blaming Obama

Donald Trump once again has claimed that ramped-up coronavirus testing is a "double-edged sword" – suggesting that discovering new cases negatively impacts his administration – as he falsely claimed that the US has "one of the lowest mortality rates."

The US has the opposite. It currently has the ninth highest, according to Johns Hopkins University.

While he hailed the scale of Covid-19 testing, he also blamed his predecessor for its shortcomings. "Biden and Obama stopped their testing," he said, despite the pandemic hitting three years after they left office.

He also said he has a "very good relationship" with Dr Anthony Fauci though "I don't always agree with him" after a memo surfaced that the White House appeared to try to undermine his experience.

"We saved a lot of lives, so we made a lot of good decisions," the president said.

Here's Donald Trump's clemency order for Roger Stone

Donald Trump's Friday night clemency granted to Roger Stone, who was set to report to prison this week, also voids all fines related to his conviction.

He's off the hook for $20,000 and two years of supervised release.

Read it here.

17 states and DC sue Trump administration over immigration order

Attorneys general in 17 states and in Washington DC have sued Donald Trump's administration following its mandate preventing foreign students to take online-only courses in the fall despite a raging coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security argues that the order "fails to consider the harm to international students and their families whose lives will be upended" and that it "will also cause irreparable harm to the public health and the economy" of each state.

Several universities have joined on to the lawsuit in support. Harvard and MIT sued last week, along with the state of California.

The latest anti-immigration policy ushered in by the administration under the auspices of combatting coronavirus orders students on F-1 and M-1 visas to "depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status."

'Is that what you want?': Trump claims Biden presidency would mean low ratings for media outlets in bizarre tweet

Donald Trump has claimed a Joe Biden presidency would result in low ratings for media outlets covering the White House — an issue he suggested would cause the end of "our great USA" in a tweet.

The president attacked his presumptive Democratic opponent in the 2020 presidential elections on Monday, retweeting a highly edited video of Mr Biden posted by Dan Scavino, a White House communications official.

“Is this what you want for your President???” Mr Trump wrote in a caption. “With no ratings, media will go down along with our great USA!”

Chris Riotta breaks down the president's Monday morning message:

GOP official deletes post mocking photo of Joe Biden with son in Washington football cap

Republican National Committee rapid response director Steve Guest deleted two tweets mocking an image of Joe Biden the 1970s – an image on the Democratic nominee's website – holding one of his sons, who is wearing a Washington NFL team hat. The team is under scrutiny to change its name from a Native American slur.

"Hey Joe Biden, are you still a Redskins fan?" he asked.

Mr Biden's wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident in the early 1970s. He raised his two young sons Hunter and Beau in the years that followed as he was a freshman lawmaker from Delaware, commuting to Washington DC. Beau Biden died in 2015 following a brain cancer diagnoses.

Mr Guest also said "odds are this is a photo of Hunter Biden," who he called Mr Biden's "crack smoking son". The child in the photo is an infant.

Biden campaign on White House attacks on Fauci: 'another horrible and revealing failure of leadership'

Joe Biden's campaign has hit out at Donald Trump over a White House memo to reporters seeking to undermine Dr Anthony Fauci.

A campaign statement reads: "Infections in the United States have skyrocketed, surpassing every other country in the world by far, specifically because of Trump's refusal to listen to science. The president's disgusting attempt to pass the buck by blaming the top infectious disease expert in the country – whose advice he repeatedly ignored and Joe Biden consistently implored him to take – is yet another horrible and revealing failure of leadership as the tragic death toll continues to needlessly grow."

Within the last 24 hours, the president has retweeted anti-CDC conspiracies from game show host Chuck Woolery, repeated that coronavirus testing is a "double-edged sword," and defended his relationship with Dr Fauci while White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany denied that the administration had sent out "opposition research" despite circulating information that appeared to serve the same effect.

The memo that Dr Fauci was "wrong on things" used several quotes out of context and ignored that the president had used many of the same statements.