Republican 2020 candidate Bill Weld believes Donald Trump is impeachable
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Donald Trump lost $1.17bn (£897m) from real estate ventures between 1985 and 1994 and paid no income tax for eight years, according to The New York Times, reporting after the newspaper got hold of copies of his tax returns for the period.
The president predictably branded the story, ”A highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!”, the news coming at a time when his treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin was already under fire for refusing to release his boss’s tax returns for 2013 to 2018, setting up what promises to be a protracted legal battle with Democrats.
The vote capped a day of ever-deepening dispute between congressional Democrats and the president, who for the first time invoked the principle of executive privilege, claiming the right to block lawmakers from the full report.
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York declared the action by Mr Trump’s Justice Department a clear new sign of the president’s “blanket defiance” of Congress’ constitutional rights to conduct oversight.
Mueller investigation: The key figures
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“We did not relish doing this, but we have no choice,” Nadler said after the vote.
The White House’s blockade, he said, “is an attack on the ability of the American people to know what the executive branch is doing.” He said, “This cannot be.”
But Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said it was disappointing that members of Congress “have chosen to engage in such inappropriate political theatrics.”
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Yesterday Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell attempted to draw a line under the whole Mueller report from the floor of the upper chamber by declaring "case closed". Good luck with that pal.
Needless to say, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi were not impressed.
Nor were 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren or House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff for that matter.
In a hammer blow on behalf of irony fans everywhere, the Trump administration recently proposed making life easier for debt collectors, by allowing them to send unlimited calls and texts to customers in the red without fear of subsequently facing harassment lawsuits.
Pete Buttgieg - the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has been the surprise hit of the 2020 race thus far - has suggested God is not a Republican, a remark likely to stoke a good deal of controversy.
Buttigieg has done well for himself recently by questioning vice-president Mike Pence, a devout Christian, over his support for "the porn star presidency".
Trump is due in Florida today to survey the damage to the Panhandle caused by Hurricane Michael seven months ago and to address a campaign rally in Panama City. He discussed the trip in Washington with state governor Ron DeSantis and congressman Matt Gaetz yesterday.
You'd think he'd welcome the distraction but Floridians are angry about the delay to disaster relief funding the area had expected in the wake of its being hit by the Category 5 storm.
He retweeted his gripe about the amount of money being given to Puerto Rico by Congress overnight in an apparent bid to put pressure on the situation.
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