| | | | White House criticizes Trump's Taiwan call | | From CNN's Kevin Liptak: US officials have talked at least twice with Beijing amid concern that President-elect Donald Trump was endangering ties between the two countries after his conversation with Taiwan's leader last week, the White House said Monday. Trump's call has the potential to thrust US-China relations into tumult, White House spokesman Josh Earnest warned. "Some of the progress we have made in our relationship with China could be undermined by this issue flaring up," Earnest said.
He suggested Trump should begin taking briefings from the US State Department ahead of future conversations with foreign leaders. "That expertise is available to the President-elect," Earnest said, noting that President Barack Obama has benefited from that advice during his tenure. "President-elect Trump would as well," he said. | | "If China doesn't like it, screw 'em." -- Stephen Moore, an economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, on the Taiwan call on "The Big John and Ray Show" on WLS AM 890. | | | Transition watch: Trump taps Carson for HUD | | Ben Carson will be nominated as the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Trump transition team announced Monday. It means Carson's first job in government will be helming a 9,000-employee agency with a $45 billion annual budget.
Clearly, Trump has gotten past this impression of Carson, from November 2015: | | A bigger question: Will Carson roll back the Obama administration's moves to integrate public housing? He was critical of that policy in a Washington Times op-ed. It's worth reading this story from The Upshot's Emily Badger laying out the policy details.
More announcements coming soon? Vice President-elect Mike Pence foreshadowed some, telling reporters: "We had some decisions today, that will be made public in the days ahead."
A note to Nightcap readers: Go inside the election that changed everything: Order your copy of CNN's book "Unprecedented," and explore CNN's coverage of "A race like no other." | | This was perhaps the weirdest visit to Trump Tower yet: Former Vice President Al Gore was there Monday to talk climate science with Ivanka Trump -- and afterward, he met with President-elect Donald Trump.
What Gore said afterward: The bulk of his time was spent with the President-elect. It was "a lengthy and productive session," Gore said. "I found it an extremely interesting conversation, and to be continued, and I'm just going to leave it at that."
What Trump has said about global warming: Before and during the campaign, he called it a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. After the election, he told The New York Times there's "some connectivity" between human activity and climate change. More from CNN's Tal Kopan. | | Democrats lament filibuster rule change that helps Trump | | From CNN's Manu Raju and Ted Barrett: Senate Democrats are eager to make Donald Trump pay a political price for nominating staunch conservatives to fill out his Cabinet, hoping to exact revenge for the GOP's opposition to President Barack Obama's nominees. But there is little they can do about it -- and some top Democrats are now coming to regret it. That's because Senate Democrats muscled through an unprecedented rules change in 2013 to weaken the power of the minority party to filibuster Cabinet-level appointees and most judicial nominees, now setting the threshold for confirmation at 51 votes -- rather than 60 -- to overcome tactics aimed at derailing nominations.
"I do regret that," said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat who voted for the rules change three years ago. "I frankly think many of us will regret that in this Congress because it would have been a terrific speed bump, potential emergency break, to have in our system to slow down nominees."
Two Democratic Trump prospects? Democrats are worried that if Trump adds two Democrats up for re-election in 2018 to his Cabinet -- North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin -- the balance of power in the chamber could tilt further to the GOP, Manu and Ted report. | | Suburban Georgia gives Democrats reason for hope | | Ohio and Iowa were blowouts for Donald Trump. The good news for Democrats: Hillary Clinton actually got closer in Georgia and Arizona, suggesting those states could remain on their way to eventually turning blue. Suburban Cobb County -- the home of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- went for a Democrat for the first time since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Here's one more note on Cobb County from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The city of Kennesaw, where the law requires the head of every household to own a firearm (unless he or she doesn't want to), and which recently put up fierce opposition to a mosque's move into a near-empty shopping center, was won by Clinton with 47.8% of the vote. Trump garnered 47% in the gun-happy city. The vote totals: 6,227 for Clinton to 6,124 for the man who is now President-elect." | | | Michigan is moving forward with the recount sought by Jill Stein. ... The Supreme Court took up two cases that could decide how race can be used in gerrymandering cases. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out CNNMoney's Reliable Sources, an insider's look into the media brought to you by Brian Stelter. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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