| | | | Trump team's Russia strategy: Blame Democrats | | President-elect Donald Trump's top advisers today admitted -- finally -- that Russia is behind the election-season hacks of Democratic operatives. But they weren't willing to blame Vladimir Putin. Instead, on CNN's "State of the Union," Kellyanne Conway repeatedly insisted the hacks had no outcome on the election -- even as Jake Tapper played videos of Trump himself touting the WikiLeaks publication of those hacked emails. And on "Fox News Sunday," Reince Priebus said the Democratic National Committee made itself vulnerable.
Here's Conway: "Any attempt, any aspiration to influence our election failed. They were not successful in doing that." (To be clear: The US intelligence community didn't weigh in either way on this topic.)
Tapper: "Obviously, he thought it was going to have an effect on the election." Conway: "Well, it had an effect on his debate answer. And it had an effect on the Clinton campaign because it was quite embarrassing to watch a host of advisers question her judgment, question whether she would ever find her voice ... why she was testing 84 slogans to find out who she was and what she'd run on -- this guy had 'make America great again' and never changed. I know that's very embarrassing. I'm sure Dems calling Chelsea Clinton a spoiled brat -- that's very uncomfortable. But that's what was hacked. The (Republican National Committee) -- apparently there was an attempted hack on the RNC, I'm informed but they had sufficient cybersecurity firewalls in place."
Trump tweeted this weekend that he hopes for improved relations with Russia. | | | Are those hopes realistic? No way, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on CBS' "Face the Nation" this morning. "I don't think it's all that unusual for a new president to want to get along with the Russians. I remember George W. Bush having the same hope," McConnell said. "My suspicion is, these hopes will be dashed pretty quickly. The Russians are a big adversary, and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election." | | "I don't expect her to ever run for any elected office again." | | | Conservative author and television personality Monica Crowley, whom Donald Trump has tapped for a top national security communications role, plagiarized large sections of her 2012 book, a CNN KFile review has found.
The review of Crowley's June 2012 book, "What The (Bleep) Just Happened," found upward of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia. The New York Times best-seller, published by the HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books, contains no notes or bibliography. | | Joe Biden's 'Grow up' -- the new political catchphrase | | A note from CNN's Steve Brusk: Joan Rivers would be so proud. "Grow up" seems to be the new insult catchphrase in politics. Vice President Joe Biden's "Grow up, Donald" will be one of the great lines of the early new year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lectured Senate Democrats to "grow up" today on CBS' "Face the Nation."
It started before Biden uttered the phrase. British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn snapped that Donald Trump needs to grow up in a BBC interview in November about the importance of migrant workers, and Trump's plans to build a US-Mexico border wall. Even Bristol Palin used the line ending a blog post critical of Kathy Griffin on Trump. | | | Fox News pro-Donald Trump host Sean Hannity curiously retweeted a "make Russia great again" message today. CNN's Brian Stelter took note. | | Boris Johnson in US for talks with Trump team | | | From CNN's Eli Watkins: UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrived in the United States on Sunday for what his office said was a series of meetings with President-elect Donald Trump's closest advisers and congressional leaders. Johnson, a former mayor of London, became the principle diplomat for one of the United States' strongest partners after the narrow success of 2016's referendum to leave the European Union, commonly referred to as Brexit. Johnson was among the referendum's highest profile supporters. Trump billed himself on Twitter as "Mr. Brexit" and likened his unlikely victory to the shocking success of the "yes" vote in the UK referendum. | | Conway noncommittal on Obamacare replacement timing | | | Sen. Rand Paul claimed President-elect Donald Trump supports the Kentucky Republican's calls to approve an Obamacare replacement on the same day Congress repeals the health care law. That'd be big news: Congressional Republicans haven't yet figured out what they'll replace Obamacare with -- and Paul is on a lonely crusade to slow down what's expected to be a vote early in the year to repeal it. | | | Was Paul right about Trump? Not so fast. Asked by CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" Sunday whether Trump and Paul agree that a replacement needs to be passed at the same time Obamacare is repealed, Kellyanne Conway dodged. "I can confirm that he is committed to replacing Obamacare with something that actually is affordable and accessible and allows you to buy health insurance over state lines," she said. | | | Charles Brotman had announced every inaugural parade since Dwight Eisenhower -- but Donald Trump is dropping him. ... Sen. Lindsey Graham wants Trump to know senators aren't trying to undermine him by investigating Russian hacking. ... President Barack Obama is tapping close aide Anita Decker Breckenridge to oversee his White House's presidential records process. | | | 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. | | | | | |
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