Trump news: White House 'is in fast competition' with Nixon administration on obstruction, Watergate accuser says
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump is facing a renewed onslaught from House Democrats, who will begin picking over the Mueller report‘s obstruction of justice evidence on Monday as the party continues to weigh up launching impeachment proceedings against the president.
The House will stage a vote on whether to hold attorney general William Barr and ex-White House adviser Don McGahn in contempt of Congress on Tuesday after the pair ignored congressional subpoenas. Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee will review the ramifications of 2016 Russian election hacking for national security on Wednesday.
With those actions in mind, the House Judiciary Committee heard from former Watergate witness John Dean, and former US attorneys, who repeatedly told Congress that they believe that Mr Trump had attempted to obstruct justice. If he were anyone other than the president, they said, he would have been charged with the crime.
Mr Dean, during his prepared remarks, said that the Mueller report is very similar to a "Watergate Road Map", meaning it could help the panel as it investigates Mr Trump for obstruction or collusion.
He continued to say that Mr McGahn, should he not testify before Congress, would be perpetuating a "cover up" for the president.
"I sincerely hope that Mr McGahn will voluntarily appear and testify," he said. "His silence is perpetuating an ongoing cover-up, and while his testimony will create a few political enemies, based on almost 50 years of experience I can assure him he will make far more real friends."
Mr Trump had blasted Mr Dean, and Republicans on the committee likewise questioned why he should be trusted to give testimony, since he had pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice related to the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
The president has also threatened China with further tariffs during a phone interview with CNBC, saying the Asian nation will ultimately make a deal “because they have to”, while also warning the tech giants of Silicon Valley he could take action against them over the “discrimination” he believes he and other prominent conservatives have been subjected to.
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Mr Trump said that this weekend’s trade deal with Mexico came out so quickly because of tariff threats from the US.
The president said during his CNBC interview with Squawk Box the deal came together in just two days because Mexico’s leaders knew that the alternative would have been worse.
“Tariffs are a beautiful thing when you’re the piggy bank,” Mr Trump said.
“If we didn’t have tariffs, we wouldn’t have a deal with Mexico,” he added. “We got everything we wanted and we’re going to be a great partner to Mexico now because now they respect us. They didn’t even respect us. They couldn’t believe how stupid we were with everything that’s going on.”
The trade deal has been criticised for not containing much new information, with activists saying it will do little to slow down immigration at the US-Mexico border, which was Mr Trump's main target in threatening tariffs.
Last month, Mr Trump threatened 5 per cent tariffs on Mexican goods to be imposed on Monday. The duties would have increased every month until they reached 25 per cent in October, unless Mexico stopped illegal immigration across its border with the US.
But there are few details about the new deal and it does not contain any new announcements about combating the movement of migrants and refugees from Central America to the US, which make up the bulk of those crossing the southern border.
Moving onto the spat with China, Mr Trump said he believed China will make a trade deal with the United States because Beijing needs to make an agreement.
Mr Trump claimed China devalues its currency and said something should be done about that because it creates an uneven playing field. He criticised US Federal Reserve policies as "destructive" for not lowering US interest rates.
However, the president said that the issues over the involvement of Chinese technology firm Huawei in US infrastructure could be solved as part of a trade deal.
That is a bit of an odd statement as Washington has made it clear that it sees the company as a risk to US security and has admonished the UK for looking to involve the company in their 5G infrastructure projects.
Mr Trump added that potentially billions of dollars of additional tariffs on Chinese goods will go into place if Chinese president Xi Jinping does not attend the G20 meeting set to take place in Osaka, Japan at the end of the month.
When asked if that means the new tariffs would go into effect immediately, Mr Trump told CNBC: “Yes, it would.”
Mr Trump has said that a meeting is scheduled between himself and Mr Xi, although Beijing has told AFP it has "no information" about it.
Mr Trump has also had his say about the European Union, saying that he likes the way the EU fines big tech companies - and that the money collected would be useful for Washington too.
He pointed to previous EU investigations into companies like Apple and Google, saying that “they’re great companies” but “something’s going on.” The president said that as a result, EU gets “all this money, we should be doing that.”
“We should be doing what they’re doing.”
Ever one to try and give with one hand and take away with the other, Mr Trump also criticised the EU for their dealings with the US.
"The person at the European Union that's in charge of taxation hates the United States more than any person anywhere in the world," he said.
Mexico has just announced it will discuss a "safe third country" agreement with the United States - in which migrants entering Mexican territory must apply for asylum there rather than the US - if the flow of undocumented immigrants continues
Elsewhere, Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston won a Tony award for his performance as deranged newscaster Howard Beale in a new Broadway adaptation of Sidney Lumet's classic satire Network on Sunday night and used his platform to attack Trump.
"The media is not the enemy of the people," Cranston said as he picked up his best actor gong, contradicting one of the president’s frequent claims against The NYT. "Demagoguery is the enemy of the people."
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