A quick summary of the last three hours out of the US... because about a month's worth of news has broken in that time period. /THREAD/
US Vice President Mike Pence announced a ceasefire with Turkey.
But Turkey says it's not a ceasefire... because they're not fighting with the US, and they don't recognise the Kurds as anything other than terrorists
Donald Trump, in his customary engineside press conference, heaped praise on Turkish President Erdogan
(Trump is talking like he is the one in control of the situation, but in the last two weeks, that role has very quickly shifted. Vladimir Putin is in charge of that part of the world now.)
MEANWHILE, Mick Mulvaney given a press conference. Mulvaney has been the Acting Chief of Staff for 69 days longer than Reince Priebus was the actual Chief of Staff. Trump could appoint him to the role permanently any time he wants... but for some reason he doesn't.
Mulvaney is very confident, but he's also got a habit of saying the quiet part out loud.
This morning he admitted that there was a quid pro quo involved in the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky.
This morning he admitted that there was a quid pro quo involved in the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Mulvaney is insistent that the quid pro quo only involved pushing Ukraine to investigate the 2016 DNC server conspiracy theory... but as he spoke, US Ambassador to EU Gordon Sondland was saying that wasn't true
The defence of the President that there was "no quid pro quo" now seems to have been debunked by Mulvaney and Sondland.
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. Mulvaney also had an announcement to make. As floated by President Trump previously - next year's G7 will be held at Trump's golf course in Miami
Mulvaney went through a bit of a song and dance to try and make it seem like there was some sort of independent process which just happened to decide that the President's golf course was the best place in entire US to host a G7 summit
There's a real question about whether this is permitted by the constitution.
Fox News Senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano says flat out that this is unconstitutional, saying "This is about as direct and profound a violation of the emoluments clause as one could create"
Mulvaney says it's not a problem because the President is doing it at cost price, and not profiting. Although as Napolitano notes, that absolutely doesn't matter.
By the way, I'll be talking about how the Syria and Ukraine controversies benefit Vladimir Putin in the next series of Russia, If You're Listening. First episode out Monday. Teaser here: abclisten.page.link/dpUK
Oh and by the way the Energy Secretary resigned. nytimes.com/2019/10/17/us/…
Turns out Mulvaney wasn’t meant to go out and admit that Trump did the thing he’s being impeached for
And now he’s denying saying something which he literally said on television.
Now Trump is saying the Turkish invasion was a good thing
This quote in video form
