Trump news live - President attacks Democrats over antisemitism as his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort faces sentencing
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has stirred controversy by accusing House Democrats of failing to tackle antisemitism in their ranks, saying it was “shameful” the opposition had not taken a “stronger stand”.
The president appeared to be exploiting divisions exposed by congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s criticism of Israeli lobby groups in Washington, which has seen her spar with fellow representatives including New York veteran Nita Lowey while the House dawdles over whether to stage a vote on a resolution condemning prejudice against the Jewish faith outright.
President Trump has also threatened to stop “the Fake News Networks” covering the 2020 presidential election debates on a day his former campaign manager Paul Manafort is sentenced after being found guilty of bank and tax fraud.
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On Manafort, the possibility of course exists that President Trump could use his powers of office to pardon his old friend.
Doing so would of course provoke fresh outrage but here's how it might work.
One of President Trump's actions from yesterday deserving greater attention was his decision to end an Obama-era requirement that the US government publish information on people killed in drone strikes or other counter-terrorism operations outside of war zones.
The executive order - ending a requirement brought in in July 2016 following criticism of his predecessor's lack of transparency over the military's use of drone warfare in Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen - was made without further explanation.
“This action eliminates superfluous reporting requirements, requirements that do not improve government transparency, but rather distract our intelligence professionals from their primary mission,” a National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson said.
Ned Price, an Obama administration NSC official, has hit out at the decision.
Here's Peter Stubley's report.
President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani has told The New York Times attorneys for several people of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation have previously approached him to discuss the possibility of being granted presidential pardons.
Mr Giuliani did not give names but the news follows the issue being raised in relation to Michael Cohen, who says he had discussed the possibility with Trump attorneys including Jay Sekulow when the FBI raided his house and business premises last April.
One wonders whether Paul Manafort was one of those people.
Barack Obama's vice-president Joe Biden is reportedly telling Democrats he is 95 percent certain to run for president, entering an ever-more crowded field featuring the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker.
Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg are among those high-profile possibilities to have ruled themselves out.
The US government reportedly kept a database of journalists and activists covering the migrant caravan's progress from Honduras across Mexico to the Texas border last year, according to documents apparently leaked to NBC 7 San Diego by an unnamed Homeland Security source.
At least 21 people from a list of 51, entitled "San Diego Sector Foreign Operations Branch: Migrant Caravan FY-2019 Suspected Organizers, Coordinators, Instigators, and Media" were duly arrested or questioned, according to NBC. Some had alerts placed on their passports.
The convoy of refugees were heavily-politicised by President Trump and Fox News in particular in a fairly transparent bid to whip up paranoia ahead of the midterms, with bogus claims bandied around regarding the group's supposed villainous intent, before the story was emphatically dropped once the polls had closed.
It's good to be the king.
President Trump reportedly received gifts worth more than $140,000 (£106,000) from foreign leaders during his first year in office.
Chinese President Xi Jinping gave Mr Trump and first lady Melania Trump a $14,000 (£100,000) ornate calligraphy set and $16,250 (£12,350) of porcelain dinnerware while Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad gave them a $4,850 (£3685) gold-plated model of a fighter jet.
A zinger (of sorts) from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on why the upper chamber will not take up a House election reform bill whereas the progressive Green New Deal on greenhouse gases will reach the floor.
The Kentucky senator had already dismissed the House Democrats' sweeping anti-corruption bill, known as HR 1, earlier this week.
"This sprawling 622-page doorstop is never going to become law. I certainly don't plan to even bring it to the floor here in the Senate," Mr McConnell said on Monday.
The bill proposes to introduce automatic voter registration and to make Election Day a national holiday.
Here's journalist Berny Belvedere for Indy Voices on why Republicans should subject Donald Trump to a presidential primary against a serious opponent ahead of the 2020 election.
The current cracks emerging in Democratic unity appear to be placing the old guard, represented by pragmatic party elders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, against an idealistic younger generation embodied by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.
How best to respond to Ms Omar's criticism of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has sharply divided the party and allowed President Trump to exploit the political tensions to take the pressure off the whirl of congressional investigations embroiling him.
“I just think that we lose too many battles up here arguing over the stuff that’s kind of silly to argue over,” Democratic whip James Clyburn told The Hill.
He suggested Ms Omar's experiences as a Somali refugee should not be dismissed in her attack on what she regards as oppressive forces.
He also promised the new resolution against prejudice will not be a rebuke for her comments.
“She won’t be targeted. We’re going to target those people who had her picture on the Twin Towers,” Mr Clyburn said, referring to the Islamophobic image below, posted outside the West Virginia House of Delegates chamber during a celebration of the state's Republican Party and linking the congresswoman to the 9/11 terror attacks.
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