US Senator Jack Reed was accidentally recorded telling Senator Susan Collins that President Donald Trump “is crazy” while the two lawmakers discussed the federal budget and Trump’s lack of familiarity with the details of governing.

Someone sitting near Collins, a Republican from Maine, didn’t switch off a microphone near her at the end of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post. After Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, praises Collins’ handling of the hearing, she laments the Trump administration’s handling of spending.

“I swear, [the Office of Management and Budget] just went through and whenever there was ‘grant,’ they just X it out,” Collins says. “With no measurement, no thinking about it, no metrics, no nothing. It’s just incredibly irresponsible.”

“Yes,” Reed replies. “I think – I think he’s crazy,” apparently referring to the president. “I mean, I don’t say that lightly and as a kind of a goofy guy.”
“I’m worried,” Collins replies.

“You know, this thing — if we don’t get a budget deal, we’re going to be paralyzed,” Reed says. “The DoD (Department) of Defense) is going to be paralyzed, everybody is going to be paralyzed.”

“I don’t think he [Trump] knows there is a BCA (Budget Control Act) or anything,” Collins says, referring to a 2011 law that defines the budget process.

Ousted FBI Director James Comey reportedly told associates in March that Trump was “outside the realm of normal,” even “crazy.”

Comey made the remarks after Trump suggested former President Barack Obama had spied on him. Trump was furious when Comey publicly dismissed his spying claims. Comey told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in March that his agency had “no information” to back Trump’s allegations.

In May, Trump fired Comey, who had been leading a politically-charged investigation into alleged ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, telling him it was time for a “new beginning” at America’s “crown jewel of law enforcement.”

Source: Presstv

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has wrapped up a tour of Arab countries involved in a dispute but has failed to help bring the feuding sides closer to one another. Erdogan arrived in Qatar on Monday on the last leg of a tour that had also taken him to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

In Qatar, he met with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha. Qatari state news agency QNA said the two sides discussed joint efforts to combat terrorism and extremism, reviewed defense and economic cooperation, and praised Kuwait’s mediation role in the crisis. During the talks, Sheikh Tamim “reviewed regional developments, specifically the [Persian] Gulf crisis and efforts to contain it and to resolve it through diplomatic means,” according to the QNA.

But it was unclear how Erdogan had sought to contribute to a resolution of the dispute beyond calling on the leaders he met to try and ease the tensions. It was also improbable that he conveyed any messages from Saudi Arabia — the country leading a diplomatic and economic war on Qatar — to the leadership in Doha. Turkey has firmly taken Qatar’s side, to the displeasure of Doha’s adversaries, and is thus not looked upon as a trusted go-between.

The dispute has seen Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar and blocking their transit routes to the country. They have accused Doha of “supporting terrorism” — a charge that the blockading countries face themselves. Qatar has denied the accusation and has said it is being targeted because of its independent foreign policies.

The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash seemed to display the Saudi-led side’s unhappiness with Ankara on Monday when he said in effect that Erdogan’s regional tour had been useless. “The Turkish president’s visit did not carry anything new, and the hasty stand his country had taken made neutrality as the best option for Ankara. A Qatari review will achieve more than repeated visits,” Gargash wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

When Erdogan left Saudi Arabia, where he had met with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed, it was unclear what, if anything, he had achieved diplomatically. The official Saudi news agency did not report much about the meetings except that they had taken place. In addition to Erdogan, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and representatives from Europe have toured the region in recent weeks in a bid to soothe the tensions between the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, all to no avail.

Qatar has said the dispute is likely to linger. More recently, the Qatari emir said that the blockade by the Saudi-led bloc had been “a pre-planned smearing campaign.” While in Qatar, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was accompanying Erdogan in the regional tour, said that Ankara was trying to organize direct talks between Qatar and the Saudi-led bloc.

“The most appropriate way is to sit together around the table and [have] direct talks. This is the main obstacle in front of us and I hope there will be an opportunity for such format soon,” he said. Also on Monday, Russia expressed its own readiness to help mediate in the dispute if requested to do so.

“We are interested in this crisis being overcome, taking into account mutual concerns and finding solutions which will be acceptable for all participants of this process,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Kurdish television channel Rudaw.

Source: Presstv

Just a quarter of the US population is sure President Donald Trump will manage to stay in the White House by the end of his term, a new poll shows. Conducted by USA Today and iMediaEthics, the poll found that 27 percent of the people believe he “definitely will complete” the four-year term as the president of the United State.

The percentage includes 1 in 10 Republicans, among those who took part in the online poll. Another 30 percent also think that he “probably will,” while 23 percent of the adults maintain that he“probably won’t” finish his term. Thirteen percent believe that he “definitely won’t” manage.

The majority of those polled, 51 percent, said they were dissatisfied with the president while 44 percent approved of his performance. The poll showed that the nation is equally divided on whether Trump should be impeached with 42 percent on each side of the dispute. An investigation has been launched to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s associates during the 2016 campaign and transition.

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman has formally introduced an article of impeachment against Trump, accusing him of obstructing justice during the federal investigation of Russia’s role in 2016 election. A majority vote in the US House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans, is required to impeach a president, which means the measure is unlikely for now.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump’s historically low approval ratings is leading to a growing movement against his administration and the ruling class in America, says Daniel Shaw, an analyst in New York. Trump has set a new record low for second quarter job approval rating, becoming the least popular president early in a White House term since World War ll, according to a Gallup poll.

He averaged 38.8 percent job approval during his second quarter in office, which spanned from April 20 through July 19, Gallup’s daily tracking average shows. “You can really feel these low approval ratings playing out across the United States as the American people are extremely displeased with his attacks on healthcare,” Shaw, a university lecturer, told Press TV on Sunday. “He is trying to gut every social program that exists.”

That is why, the analyst argued, a “movement” is taking shape against Trump and the way the country is being run. “Trump is an individual who personally is worth $4 billion, so he is not representative in any way of the electorate who voted for him,” Shaw added.

No other president has had a worse second-quarter average approval since Gallup began assessing approval ratings in 1945. Former US President Bill Clinton’s second quarter approval rating was 44 percent, the only other president aside from Trump whose approval fell below 50 percent early in his administration.

The average approval rating for US presidents in their second quarter is 62 percent, meaning Trump’s support is 23 percentage points below the historical norm, Gallup said. Shaw said the low 55 percent voter turnout — the lowest in the past two decades– played a key role in Trump’s rise to the presidency.

Trump was able to defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton through Electoral College votes, despite losing the popular vote to Clinton. However, the analyst said the mainstream media should also take some of the credit.

“The media that represents the most powerful sections of this country and this ruling class comes out against the president,” he noted, pointing to examples of anti-Trump media headlines that revolve around his unpopular policies as well as his alleged “collusion” with Russia. Shaw said the “resistant movement” against Trump was separate from the “fake” one led by Clinton and aimed at fighting racist, Islamophobic and other divisive policies.

Source: Presstv

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has not yet decided whether to stand for re-election in 2018, promising not to change the constitution so as to allow him to keep on running for Russia’s political leadership indefinitely.

“I have not decided yet if I should continue my work in this capacity. I will see. The election will take place in 2018. There is still time ahead of the election race. We will see,” Putin said during a Q&A session with school children at a school in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday.

The 64-year-old Russian leader first became president in 2000, before most of the audience in the Friday program was even born. In 2008, he concluded his second term in office after winning another term in the 2004 election, and became Russia’s prime minister for a second time under President Dmitry Medvedev from 2008 to 2012.

Presidential terms were extended from four to six years in 2011, only a year before Putin emerged victorious in the presidential race. The next election is scheduled to be held in March 2018, and the Russian leader, who has dominated Russia’s political landscape for the past 17 years and boasts massive popularity ratings, is widely expected to seek to secure another six-year term in office.

Putin stepped down in 2008 as the president of the Russian Federation in order to avoid a constitutional ban on running for a third consecutive term. Some political commentators at the time suggested that he could change the constitution so as to allow himself to stay on as president for a third consecutive term. Some still say he might pursue changing the constitution to run for another term after 2024. The Russian leader, however, has ruled out the possibility.

“I had an opportunity, I was even asked to change the constitution at some time. I did not do it, and I don’t intend to do it in the future. Everything is written in the constitution,” Putin said.Back in December last year, Forbes named Putin the most powerful man on the planet for the fourth consecutive year.

Source: Presstv

White House spokesman Sean Spicer has resigned, barely six months after US President Trump gave him the post. It is now evident that America needs credible liars and that Spicer was not fit for the job.

According to The New York Times, Spicer stepped down on Friday after Trump appointed Anthony Scaramucci his new communications director.

Trump requested that Spicer stay on, but he declined to do so and told the president that hiring Scaramucci was a big mistake, the Times reported. Spicer is a former spokesman and strategist from the Republican National Committee.

Camcordnews Desk with files from Presstv

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had a second and previously undisclosed meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany earlier this month, US officials say. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed on Tuesday that the two held an informal talk during the dinner at the summit in the German city of Hamburg on July 7, hours after their first formal bilateral sit-down.

US National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton also acknowledged that a second meeting had taken place at the world leaders’ dinner, with Trump leaving his seat to occupy an empty chair next to Putin.

“There was a couples-only social dinner at the G20. Toward the end, the President spoke to Putin at the dinner,” Anton said in an interview with CNN. “No staff or Cabinet were at the dinner at all, for any of the countries,” with the exception of translators. The two leaders did not go to a separate room for their conversation, but remained in the main room where the dinner was being hosted, according to Anton. The official declined to provide further details on the Trump-Putin conversation, citing the fact that no staff were present at the time.

During their first formal and face-to-face meeting on that day, the two presidents exchanged viewpoints on a host of international problems and bilateral issues such as the ongoing crises in Syria and Ukraine, anti-terrorism campaign and cyber security. News of the second encounter came as Trump was struggling at home with a deepening scandal over alleged Russian efforts to help him defeat his rival Hillary Clinton in the last year’s White House race.

The scandal has now entangled his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who last week released emails purportedly showing he embraced Russia’s efforts to support his father’s presidential campaign, and admitting he would “love” to get dirt from Moscow on Clinton. Trump later defended his son, praising his “transparency” for releasing the email chain and again condemning the investigation about whether Moscow helped him win the White House last November.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump’s six-month approval rating is the lowest of any president in polls in 70 years, a new survey shows. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Sunday surveyed people’s opinion about Trump’s competence on the world stage, his effectiveness, the GOP healthcare plan as well as his handling of Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 election.

Only 36 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, down 6 points from his 100-day mark, which itself was a low. The previous president, whose approval rating was very close to this level at or near six months, was Gerald Ford, who received 39 percent in February 1975.

Sixty-three percent of Americans polled believe it was not appropriate for Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign manager to have meetings with a Russian lawyer during the campaign for the presidential election last year. Also, 6 in 10 believe Russia sought to influence the campaign, and among those who believe so, 67 percent say Trump’s aides helped, similar to results released in April.

Nonetheless, the Russia controversy is only one of Trump’s troubles. Just 38 percent say he is making significant progress toward his goals, while 55 percent believe otherwise. Two-thirds do not trust his ability to negotiate with other world leaders specifically with Russian President Vladimir Putin on America’s behalf. And about half argue that the US leadership has become weaker under Trump, whereas just 27 percent say it has grown stronger. With regard to his party’s signature campaign issue which is to replace Obamacare, Americans by a 2-1 margin prefer it over the Republican plan, 50-24 percent.

Overall, Trump’s job approval rating, after six months in office, is 4 points lower than his predecessor Barack Obama’s career low, which came in his sixth year, according to the poll. Forty-eight percent “strongly” disapprove of Trump’s job performance, again slightly surpassing the strongest disapproval of Obama’s career, in his fifth year. The president’s 58 percent overall disapproval is 7 points higher than the next-highest disapproval rating at six months which belongs to President Bill Clinton in 1993, the poll shows.

Source: Presstv

Russia says the US is sheltering “too many” spies at its embassy in Moscow, warning that it may expel some American diplomats amid a deepening diplomatic row between the two countries. “There are too many CIA and Pentagon intelligence employees under the roof of the American diplomatic mission whose activities do not correspond to their status,” Russia’s Tass news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Friday.

She also reminded that the public must have heard about the “adventures” of some of the US spies, adding that “everything was available to the public – wigs, disguises and installations with performances.” Zakharova was apparently referring to the January remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said Moscow had foiled several intelligence activities involving US nationals working under diplomatic cover while wearing disguises, among them men dressing as women.

In one of the incidents, a disguised diplomat wearing a wig and false eyebrows penetrated into the US embassy after hitting the security officer and refusing to show his ID card. Elsewhere in her comments, Zakharova said Russia is prepared to expel US diplomats and shut down some American compounds if Washington fails to reopen two Russian recreational estates that were closed in the US.

In December 2016, former US president Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian officials from the US and seized two pieces of property belonging to the Kremlin. Washington said the measure was taken in response to Russia’s alleged hacking of US political groups during the 2016 presidential election, an accusation flatly denied by Moscow.

The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman warned that his country “will have to take reciprocal measures” if the issue of the confiscated compounds is not resolved. She further complained that US officials were not issuing visas to Russian diplomats to allow Moscow to replace the expelled employees.

Zakharova also expressed hope that the US will take “a more constructive approach” to resolve the dispute over the seized properties after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, met face-to-face for the first time on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the German city of Hamburg last week.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow may retaliate Washington’s measures. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow’s patience was running out in its diplomatic row with the US, saying Washington should either correct its 2016 decision to expel Russian politicians and “illegally” seize Russian compounds or wait for “measures of reciprocity.”

Source: Presstv

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday suspended negotiations with Washington aimed at ending sanctions against Khartoum, after the United States extended its embargo for another three months, state media said.

US President Donald Trump prolonged a review period overnight to October 12 before his administration decides whether or not to permanently lift the decades-old sanctions.

His predecessor Barack Obama had eased the sanctions in January, but kept Sudan on review for six months, a period that ended on Wednesday. Obama had made the permanent lifting of the sanctions dependent on the East African country’s progress in five areas of concern at the end of the review period.

In his executive order issued on Tuesday, Trump extended the deadline, saying “more time is needed” for the review. And on Wednesday, Bashir decided to suspend the talks between Washington and Khartoum.

Bashir “issued a presidential decree ordering the suspension of the committee that was negotiating (the lifting of the sanctions) with the United States until October 12,” the official news agency SUNA said, quoting a presidential decree. The committee has been negotiating for more than a year with US officials on lifting the American trade embargo in force against Khartoum since 1997.

(Source: AFP)