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Donald Trump has attacked House impeachment inquiry witnesses as “Never Trumpers” without basis and delayed the release of a transcript of his first call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, a gesture his supporters had hoped would prove the president’s intentions towards the country were entirely innocent.
Kiev was reportedly alarmed by the hold-up of $400m (£312m) in American military aid this summer and reached out to Washington for answers, according to the latest records of witness testimony released by the inquiry from senior officials Laura Cooper, Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson.
A federal judge has meanwhile ruled that the president cannot sue to stop his home state of New York from acquiring his tax returns while Mr Trump has unexpectedly come under fire from Fox host Andrew Napolitano, who took him to task for his “often tasteless banter” and disrespect for the US Constitution.
One man who also won’t be suing: Mick Mulvaney. The president’s acting chief of staff said Tuesday that he no longer plans to sue over the House impeachment proceedings and will instead follow Mr Trump’s directions and decline to cooperate.
In a court filing Tuesday, one day before the impeachment inquiry enters a critical phase of public hearings, Mr Mulvaney said he no longer planned to ask a judge for guidance on whether he must cooperate with the House.
Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal
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He said he would rely on Mr Trump’s instructions “as supported by an opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice, in not appearing for the relevant deposition.”
Mr Mulvaney had been subpoenaed to appear last week for a closed-door deposition before House impeachment investigators but did not show up.
House Democrats had seen him as a potentially important witness, in part because he has publicly confirmed the contours of a quid pro quo arrangement in which the Trump administration would release military aid to Ukraine in exchange for the country announcing an investigation into Democratic rival Joe Biden.
His name has also repeatedly surfaced in the testimony of other witnesses who have cooperated.
The Justice Department legal opinion that Mr Mulvaney references says close advisers to the president are immune from having to testify to Congress because “preparing for such examinations would force them to divert time and attention from their duties to the President at the whim of congressional committees.”
Additional reporting by the Associated Press. Please allow a moment for our live blog to load
Donald Trump is praising his daughter Ivanka Trump and a job training initiative numerous companies have signed onto vowing to train their workers for better jobs.
“But everything that’s we’ve achieved is under threat from the left-wing ideology that demands total conformity”, he then adds.
"The best is yet to come", Donald Trump concluded during his speech at the Economic Club of New York, which sounded much more like a rally than a speech on the economy.
The president is now taking two prepared questions from the audience.
Donald Trump was asked about “economic headwinds” and concerns over the China trade dispute.
“The real cost … would be if had done nothing”, the president said about his dealings with China.
Mr Trump is also claiming “we will soon be up $100 bn in tariffs from China” and touting a relief package he provided to US farmers to deal with the impact caused to the demographic.
“Now China is coming back and as you know they’re starting very big buys, and the farmers are very happy”, Mr Trump said.
“If we don’t make a deal with China,” he adds, “we’re going to substantially raise those tariffs.”
Asked about how Donald Trump considers risk when thinking about trade deals and climate change, the president claims it’s about “clean air and crystal clear clean water” before claiming the US has the cleanest of both in modern American history.
“I want clean air and clean water,” he adds, before claiming the Paris Climate Accord would put the US “out of business”.
“We have a relatively small piece of land, the United States, and you compare that to many other countries … that are doing absolutely nothing to clean up”, Mr Trump says, “when you see this happening, nobody wants to talk about it. They want to talk about our country. We can’t have planes anymore, we can’t have cows anymore.”
He then says he believes Democrats “have gone totally loco” over climate change and that their efforts to reduce the impact of global warming would reduce jobs and make the US less competitive.
Donald Trump says “you have no choice” but to vote for him “because the people we are running against are crazy” during a speech at the Economic Club in New York.
He then says he believes the 2020 election is the biggest risk in terms of the economy. “It’ll be something that’s very important for all of you … our country is strong, our country is great, our economy is strong and we want to keep it that way.”
The president's former national security adviser reportedly slammed Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law who work in the White House and criticised his use of business experience to lead in terms of foreign affairs.
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