Trump news - live: 'Shaken' president insults Pelosi at Syria meeting, as he repeats discredited conspiracy theories about Ukraine

Donald Trump has raged about the “totally illegal & absurd” impeachment inquiry on Twitter and justified his decision to pull US troops out of Syria, leaving America’s allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces under siege from Turkey, by telling reporters at the White House the Kurdish people are “no angels”.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated on Tuesday that the House of Representatives would not cave in to Republican demands for a vote to approve the Democratic-led inquiry, which vice president Mike Pence and Mr Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are now refusing to co-operate with, declaring: ”This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We’re on a path that is taking us, a path to the truth.”

As the president’s Democratic challengers for the presidency in 2020 squared off on the debate stage in Ohio, White House lawyers opened their own internal review of the handling of the president’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of 25 July, examining the response of aides and raising concerns they are seeking out a potential scapegoat.

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