Trump news: Ex-AG launches attack on Trump in new book as he blames Biden for war in

Sen Mark Warner, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday alongside Republican Sen Rob Portman to discuss the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The senator refused to comment on specific intelligence but said that reports indicated that Vladimir Putin has spent much of his time at vacation or personal properties and is likely isolated from many of his Kremlin advisers as the war continues.

“[W]hat we do know is that over the last couple of years, Putin has been more and more isolated. He’s not been in the Kremlin for the most part. He’s been down at his place in Sochi, or at his dacha outside of Moscow,” said Mr Warner. “And when you are an authoritarian leader and you have less and less inputs, and you’re only hearing from people that want to say to the boss, ‘Hey, you’re right,’ I think that leads to miscalculation.”

He added that such a “miscalculation” was what likely led to Mr Putin’s decision to go ahead with an invasion.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki joined ABC News on Sunday where she was confronted by This Week host George Stephanopoulos about President Joe Biden’s flailing poll numbers, which are now at the lowest they’ve been since Mr Biden took office.

Democrats are looking at that polling nervously as they prepare for an unfriendly midterm map and the possibility of losing one or both houses of Congress in November.

“The president is approaching his State of the Union in a pretty difficult political position right now, 37 percent approval rating, Democrats trailing badly in the midterm polling,” said Mr Stephanopoulos, adding of Tuesday’s State of the Union address: “How is he going to turn that around on Tuesday night?”

Ms Psaki responded: “Leaders lead during crises. That’s exactly what President Biden is doing. He’ll speak to that, but he’s also going to speak about his optimism about what’s ahead and what we all have to look forward to.”

US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, previewed the response she says the United Nations will take to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Sunday.

Speaking with CNN’s State of the Union, Ms Greenfield said that the US was pursuing a number of efforts in the UN to keep up diplomatic pressure on Russia’s government.

“[W]e will be having a discussion in Geneva at the UN Human Rights Council, bringing Russia before the Human Rights Council as well. And there’s another resolution that we’re bringing before the General Assembly in a special emergency meeting that we’re requesting tonight,” said Ms Thomas-Greenfield.

“So we’re keeping the pressure up on the Russians,” she claimed.

Sarah Kendzior, a liberal guest on Joy Reid’s show Sunday on MSNBC, attacked Donald Trump and insinuated baselessly that he had been “installed” as president of the United States.

Russian operatives were found to have worked to denigrate Hillary Clinton’s public image in 2016, but her defeat to Donald Trump on Election Day is the result of many factors, Russian efforts included.

On Sunday, Ms Kendzior made the claim that Mr Trump was placed in charge of the US for the purpose of weakening NATO.

“Trump was installed as the president of the United States in order to weaken the alliances that were preventing Putin from achieving his goals. Alliances like NATO, our relationship with our European partners…with Ukraine,” she said.

Former US attorney general Bill Barr has unleashed a volley of criticism at Donald Trump in a new book, saying the ex-president has “shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed” and that the Republican Party should move on from him.

“The absurd lengths to which he took his ‘stolen election’ claim led to the rioting on Capitol Hill,” Mr Barr writes.

Follow this developing story below.

Joe Biden finally responded in an interview on Saturday after his predecessor made a handful of remarks praising Russia’s Vladimir Putin for his strategy regarding the invasion of Ukraine.

In the interview, recorded following Russia’s invasion late Wednesday night, the US president was asked to respond to Donald Trump’s statement referring to Mr Putin’s plan to send so-called “peacekeeping” forces into the Donbas a “genius” move. The troop deployment immediately preceded the full-scale invasion of the rest of Ukraine’s territory.

Citing polls that suggest Mr Trump’s hold on the Republican Party is waning, the Real Time with Bill Maher host said on Friday’s episode there were “signs that the Trump fever is starting to break”.

The 66-year-old comedian said Mr Trump no longer commanded nearly the same level of attention as he did a year ago, and attendance at his rallies was down.

Attendees at a far-right conference in Florida cheered former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio when he said that he was considered the “biggest racist” in the United States.

Days into Russian forces’ unprovoked incursion into Ukraine, the tide appears to be turning against Mr Putin among Republicans at CPAC, Richard Hall and Andrew Feinberg report from Orlando, Florida.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday exhibited no desire to revisit the glowing opinion of Vladimir Putin he’d shared across multiple news appearances this year after the Russian president ordered an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Orlando, Florida.