Trump Says He Isn’t Watching Impeachment Hearings: ‘Too Busy to Watch It’

Geoff Regan Looks to Keep Role as Speaker of the House of Commons in Canada

OTTAWA—Geoff Regan, who presided over the House of Commons as Speaker for the past four years, is looking to reprise his role in the new session of Parliament. The Halifax Liberal MP plans to let his name stand among those who want to be the referee in what is likely to be a fractious Commons following last month’s bruising election campaign that returned Justin Trudeau’s Liberals with a minority government. The new session is to start on Dec. 5 and the first order of business will be for MPs to elect a new Speaker. Speaker’s office spokeswoman Heather Bradley said Regan “would welcome the opportunity to place his experience as Speaker in the [last] 42nd Parliament at the service of the House of Commons and will therefore be letting his name stand as a candidate for…

President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized the House Democrat-led impeachment inquiry during an Oval Office meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, describing it as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”

“I’m too busy to watch it. It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax, I’m too busy to watch it. So, I’m sure I’ll get a report,” Trump told reporters when he was asked about whether he is watching it.

“There’s nothing—I have not been briefed. There’s nothing there. I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers, they took some guys off television. You know. I’m not surprised to see it, because [House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam] Schiff can’t do his own questions,” Trump added.

He was meeting with the Turkish president at the White House, and will hold a joint press conference later in the day.

adam-schiff-at-impeachment-hearing-1200x800

The Turkish president was meeting with Trump and other Republicans to discuss his country’s decision to buy Russian air defense systems, and they also plan to talk about Turkeys attack on American allies, the Kurds.

The House Intelligence Committee stated that its public impeachment hearings on Wednesday will include testimony from two State Department officials about the Trump administration’s actions on Ukraine.

The inquiry is focused on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Kyiv’s involvement in alleged 2016 election interference as well as former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in Ukraine. Hunter Biden sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas firm while his father was in office.

During the hearing, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that the identity of the whistleblower at the focus on the inquiry won’t be revealed.

“We will do everything necessary to protect the whistleblower’s identity and I am disturbed to hear members of the committee who have in the past voiced strong support for whistleblower protections, seek to undermine those protections by outing the whistleblower,” Schiff said during the Wednesday’s hearing.

This article is from the Internet:Trump Says He Isn’t Watching Impeachment Hearings: ‘Too Busy to Watch It’

Trump Expected to Delay European Auto Tariff Decision, Say EU Officials

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce this week he is delaying a decision on whether to slap tariffs on cars and auto parts imported from the European Union, likely for another six months, EU officials said. “We have a solid indication from the administration that there will not be tariffs on us this week,” one EU official said on Monday. The Trump administration has a Thursday deadline to decide whether to impose threatened “Section 232” national security tariffs of as much as 25 percent on imported vehicles and parts under a Cold War-era trade law. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose agency is overseeing an investigation into the effect of auto imports on U.S. national security, said on Nov. 3 the United States may not need such tariffs…