World AM News Briefs For Tuesday, 1 Oct 2019
Hello Australia!! - Is Scott Morrison being sucked into Trump's whirlwind of corruption allegations? - Congress subpoenas Giuliani - Trump threatens civil war - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
The bombshell of the day: Donald Trump reportedly pressured Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to work with US Attorney General William Barr to come up with "evidence" to discredit the Mueller probe into Russian influence over the 2016 US presidential election and Trump campaign. The New York Times on Monday afternoon said its report is based on "two American officials with knowledge of the call". The call occurred weeks after the 25 July call in which Trump tried to strong-arm Ukraine into concocting incriminating evidence against his political rival Joe Biden, and months after the Mueller probe anti-climatically concluded. If true, it shows how Trump and his mob are willing to continually attempt to weaponize US foreign policy to benefits his personal political aims.
The New York Times report does not make clear if Mr. Morrison agreed to Trump's idea and in effect become a willing operative in Trump's political apparatus in the biggest corruption scandal to envelop Washington since Watergate. It does state that Morrison "met Mr. Trump in Washington this month for official meetings and a state dinner at the White House", and that "Mr. Barr attended the dinner". Australia has never made a secret of its role in the Mueller probe: It was Australian officials who initially told the US FBI that Trump campaign aide George Papadopolous was fishing around with Russia sources for information that might have damaged Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
The US House Intelligence Committee on Monday afternoon issued a subpoena to Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani for documents related to the White House attempt to force Ukraine to open an investigation into baseless corruption allegations against Joe Biden, Trump's rival in the 2020 presidential election. Trump admitted that he asked Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for this in a 25 July telephone call in which it was hinted that hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid was on the line. Giuliani has five days to cooperate with the order. On Wednesday in Washington, Congress holds its first hearing on the Ukraine scandal - the first witness will be former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch who was prematurely recalled to Washington after facing criticism from Giuliani.
Donald Trump in the past couple of days has repeatedly threatened the safety of the still-unknown whistleblower who raised red flags over the Ukraine phone call; accused a Congressional committee chair of treason for investigating him; and threatened America with civil war if he is impeached. The accusation against and threat to arrest Intelligence Committee head and California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff could be an impeachable offense in itself. The US Constitution's Speech and Debate specifically protects lawmakers, stating that "for speech or debate in either House, (members of Congress) shall not be questioned in any other Place". Political science Professor Paul Musgrave of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst said, "Imagine this was happening in another country - it would signify a massive breakdown. You'd expect someone to fix it. And if not, you'd worry a lot."
Trump's threat of civil war if he is impeached earned the disgust of Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who tweeted: "I have visited nations ravaged by civil war, "adding, "I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant." This came after Trump had retweeted anti-Semitic preacher Robert Jeffress bloodlust fantasy that impeachment "will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal". Others pointed out that Trump was allegedly trying to signal his fans to fight and die in the streets of the United States to extract him out of a downward spiral of corruption charges, devaluing their lives as nothing more than his personal cannon-fodder.
The first lawmaker to endorse Trump for president in 2016 was forced to resignn in disgrace on Monday. Rep. Chris Collins of upstate New York will plead guilty in a federal case on Tuesday involving the illegal trade of insider of information of an Australian biotech company, allowing him and his son to dump their stock before word of a failed drug trial got out. Collins, who is at least the sixth Trump associate to be convicted of a crime since this administration began, could have faced 20 years in the slammer if convicted in a trial; this way, he'll probaby get a lesser sentence.
The BBC has reversed itself and now says a news presenter did nothing wrong in commenting on one of Trump's more racist statements. Earlier this year, Trump said four US Congresswomen of color should "go back" to "the crime infested places from which they came". BBC Newsreader Naga Munchetty replied on air, "Every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where I came from, that was embedded in racism," adding, "Now I'm not accusing anyone of anything here, but you know what certain phrases mean." Seems pretty harmless, right? Well, someone filed a complaint and for some reason the Beeb last week decided that Ms. Munchetty had "partially" violated standards, and immediately came under fire for coddling racism. Bollocks, said BBC General Director Lord Hall on Monday: "Racism is racism and the BBC is not impartial on the topic," adding that Ms. Munchetty was never in trouble or in threat of workplace sanctions.
Yeah, sorry that was all Trump. Tomorrow will be better.