TV News LIES

President Donald Trump abruptly ended a long-planned summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Thursday, acknowledging the two leaders did not reach an agreement that accomplished the U.S. goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

"Sometimes you have to walk," Trump told a news conference in Hanoi that was moved up by several hours and took place in the middle of the night in the United States.

Here are key takeaways from Trump's two-day summit with Kim in Vietnam.

No Deal on Nukes

Trump began his second summit with Kim with an eye toward "denuclearization," but one major sticking point between the two sides centered on what that term means. The White House had initially scheduled what it called a "signing ceremony" for Thursday, but Trump indicated Kim had not met U.S. expectations for a commitment to dismantling his nuclear program. The ceremony was cancelled and Trump moved up a scheduled press conference by two hours. He then departed Vietnam ahead of schedule.

More...

Michael Cohen offered riveting testimony about his allegations against President Trump on Wednesday, laying into his former boss as a “racist” and a “cheat” in a packed House Oversight and Reform Committee room.

A decidedly contrite Cohen said he was ashamed of things he had done as Trump's personal lawyer and fixer, saying he had paid for his loyalty dearly.

“I blindly followed his demands,” Cohen said in closing remarks after more than seven hours of testimony. “My loyalty to Mr. Trump has cost me everything.”

More...

The political operative at the center of the election fraud scandal in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was indicted today by the Wake County district attorney's office.

Dowless faces three felony counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots.

The district attorney's office says it met with investigators for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which ordered a new election in the 9th District last week after hearing testimony about absentee ballot tampering allegedly masterminded by Dowless, who worked for the consulting firm involved in Republican Mark Harris' 2018 campaign.

More...

A U.S. House panel investigating President Donald Trump wants to depose Trump’s long-time tax lawyer Sheri Dillon, as well as Stefan Passantino, former deputy White House Counsel in charge of compliance and ethics, according to letters sent to both of them on Wednesday and seen by Reuters.

House of Representatives Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, said in the letters that the panel wants to ask about Trump’s legally mandated financial ethics disclosures.

The panel, the letters said, also seeks information about payments made before the 2016 presidential election by former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen to buy the silence of women who claimed they had affairs with the married Trump.

More...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that North Korea remains a nuclear threat, straying from President Donald Trump's past comments but maintaining the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, continues to show commitment to denuclearizing the peninsula.

On CNN's "State of the Union," Pompeo was asked by host Jake Tapper whether he believes North Korea remains a nuclear threat.

"Yes," Pompeo replied. Trump and Kim are set to hold a second summit in Vietnam this week.

When pressed about Trump no longer seeing North Korea as a nuclear threat, Pompeo said that's not what Trump said.

More...

 

President Trump on Tuesday announced his intention to nominate Jeffrey Rosen, the current deputy Transportation secretary, to be the next deputy attorney general.

If confirmed, Rosen would replace Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling.

Rosenstein plans to leave the Department of Justice next month, according to the Washington Post.

Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Attorney General William Barr, who was confirmed last week, chose Rosen as his deputy.

More...

Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee announced Tuesday they are launching an investigation into the Trump administration’s dealings with Saudi Arabia after several whistleblowers expressed concern about efforts to sell the kingdom nuclear technology.

The announcement came in conjunction with the release of a report by committee staff that said senior White House officials pushed for the sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia despite warnings from ethics advisers and national security officials to stop.

The commander of U.S.-aligned Syrian forces wants as many as 1,500 U.S. service members to remain in the country to assist with operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Reuters reports that Mazloum Kobani, commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told reporters on Monday that he hopes the U.S. will halt plans to fully withdraw from the country, which President Trump announced in December.

“We would like to have air cover, air support and a force on the ground to coordinate with us,” Kobani said at an airbase in Syria, according to Reuters. British and French forces are already in talks to remain in the country, he reportedly added, but stressed that “a partial group of American forces" would ideally remain as well.

More...