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Trump - news: President suddenly cuts short press conference for emergency call

US president Donald Trump departing Pittsburgh on Tuesday (AFP via Getty Images)
US president Donald Trump departing Pittsburgh on Tuesday (AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Trump abruptly cut short a press conference on Wednesday to "leave for an emergency phone call". When pressed, Mr Trump said it was a "big call" without offering any further detail. White House reporters, however, later claimed it was for two TV appearances later in the evening.

He made scant reference to the Breonna Taylor unrest in Louisville, instead praising the Kentucky attorney general and saying deployment of the National Guard was a "positive" thing.

The president claimed he had not yet made a decision on a Supreme Court nominee, despite saying he has no meetings scheduled with one of the top contenders, Barbara Lagoa, and that the person is "highly qualified, totally brilliant, top of the line, academic student, the highest credentials".

"All of them have that," he quickly qualified.

He will visit the Supreme Court on Thursday where the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg is lying in state, paying tribute despite ignoring the late justice’s final wish of not nominating her successor until the election has been decided, even doubting the provenance of the request.

Mr Trump will need a friendly Scotus if he follows through on his suggestion that there won't be a peaceful transfer of power at the end of his term, if only they got "rid of the ballots", then he would win and there would be a continuation of power.

Speaking in Pennsylvania earlier, Trump also defended overseeing the world’s highest coronavirus death toll, saying 200,000 Americans amounted to "doing it right" because the mortality rate could potentially have been far higher.

Following a story on Wednesday claiming Dr Deborah Birx was unhappy with her diminished role on the White House coronavirus taskforce, the person she was reported to be replaced with said there is no bad blood between them. Dr Scott Atlas said the CNN report was totally false, "really super journalism" that Dr Birx later denied.

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