| | | | White House hammers Trump over Russian hacking | | The White House escalated its post-election criticism of Donald Trump today, insisting it was plainly obvious to the Republican's team that Russia was meddling -- with Vladimir Putin's personal approval, NBC News first reported -- in the US election to bolster their chances of victory. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest dismissed the President-elect's response as unserious, and encouraged Trump to answer questions about the hacking instead of questioning US intelligence.
Earnest said Trump "obviously knew that Russia was engaged in malicious cyberactivity that was helping him and hurting Hillary Clinton's campaign." More Earnest: "It might be time to not attack the intelligence community but to actually be supportive of a thorough, transparent, rigorous, nonpolitical investigation into what exactly happened."
Later Thursday, President Barack Obama vowed to take action against Russia for its meddling in the US presidential election. "I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing," Obama told National Public Radio.
All this came after Trump lashed out on Twitter: | | Here's the deal: Trump is wrong -- Russia's role was well-documented before the election. But Trump is also raising substantive questions, write The New York Times' Julie Hirschfeld Davis and David Sanger.
Why so cozy with Russia? Trump's push for greater ties to Russia will help in key administration priorities in the region, starting with ending the civil war in Syria, Walid Phares, a foreign policy adviser with Trump's transition team, told Middle East diplomats on Wednesday. | | "If there is repeal, there would be chaos."
-- Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell's grave warning to Republicans on repealing Obamacare | | | Perez enters DNC race; Warren and Booker make moves | | Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a Democrat with close ties to the Obama administration's political infrastructure, announced a bid for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, telling party leaders on a call that he was ready to reshape the "Washington-centric" organization, CNN's Dan Merica reports.
What makes Perez different than the other candidates -- Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, New Hampshire chair Ray Buckley and South Carolina chair Jaime Harrison -- one Democrat asked Perez on the call. "You may hear a lot of similar things, but the question is, who can get it done?" he said.
Ellison strikes back: The progressive favorite welcomed Perez into the race by blasting out a statement from Lee Saunders, the president of AFSCME -- an implicit reminder of Ellison's labor union support. With Perez in the running, organized labor is in a tough spot in this race, Politico reports.
2020 watch: Two top Democratic presidential prospects -- Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey -- had the same major weakness: No foreign policy experience. Both are changing that. Warren got a spot on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Booker a position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. What that means short-term: Both will be involved in the Russian election hacking investigation, and Booker will participate in Rex Tillerson's secretary of state confirmation hearing.
The Center for American Progress -- the big left-wing think tank -- is reorganizing with a focus on opposing President-elect Donald Trump. Heading up the effort is longtime Harry Reid aide Adam Jentleson. | | President-elect Donald Trump is blaming news media for a flurry of reports about conflicts of interest between his business empire and his incoming administration -- especially since Trump's children, who will be running the business, are also sitting in on Cabinet interviews.
Of course, it's not news media casting all this as "so complex" -- it's Trump's own team. Trump delayed a news conference initially scheduled for today to unveil how he'd separate himself from his business. Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway attributed the delay to "how convoluted and complex many of these business holdings are" in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Trump's incoming top White House lawyer, Don McGahn, is spending his time behind the scenes working on this exact issue.
Democrats are pushing a bill to force Trump to put his assets in a "true blind trust," per Salon's Sophia Tesfaye. | | In the latest transition news ... | | Fox News analyst Monica Crowley will join President-elect Donald Trump's administration as senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, CNN's Dylan Byers reports.
Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee communications director, is a leading candidate to serve as White House press secretary under Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
And Trump's pick for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, defended 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney's comments describing 47% of Americans as "dependent upon the government" and "victims" as "accurate," CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports. | | Trump to attend 7-hour deposition in January | | DC Superior Court Judge Jennifer A. Di Toro ruled Wednesday that Donald Trump must sit for a deposition in New York City the first week of January -- and it may last up to seven hours, CNN's Laura Jarrett reports.
Trump is suing celebrity chef Jose Andres for breach of contract after Andres backed out of a plan for a restaurant in Trump's new luxury hotel in Washington. Andres claimed he canceled plans for the project after Trump made disparaging remarks about Mexicans during the presidential campaign. | | | The Daily Beast's Olivia Nuzzi's tweet comes after Vanity Fair's Tina Nguyen's slamming review about her experience at Trump Tower's Trump Grill. Trump seems to have read that review, too. | | | Facebook has announced its detailed plan to combat fake news on news feeds. California Gov. Jerry Brown says his state will "launch its own damn satellite" to monitor global warming if President-elect Donald Trump guts federal efforts. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said do not expect to see blanket pardons "en masse" for undocumented immigrants or nonviolent drug offenders from President Barack Obama before Trump takes office next month. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
Post a Comment