In a fiery press conference his first since the election, President-elect Donald Trump vented his anger on fake news report by Buzzfeed and CNN, Trump got into a heated exchange with CNN reporter Jim Acosta over the news organization's coverage of the unverified report -- first posted on BuzzFeed -- claiming Trump's deep ties with Russia.
Trump specifically called out BuzzFeed as a "failing pile of garbage" and CNN for building up the story after BuzzFeed first released it, while answering a question relating to his earlier tweet asking "Are we living in Nazi Germany,". After Trump finished his response, Acosta could be heard loudly trying to ask a question.
"Since you're attacking us can you give us a question? Since you are attacking our news organization can you give us a chance?" Acosta said.
Trump refused to take the question, "Not you, your organization is terrible," Trump responded, telling Acosta to be quiet. "She's asking a question, don't be rude."
Acosta however kept trying to ask his question, until Trump not having it again, slammed,
"No, I'm not going to give you a question. You are fake news!" he said.
"Mr. President-elect that's not appropriate," Acosta said before allowing the next reporter to ask her question.
President-elect Donald Trump held his first press conference at 11 am ET today (17:00 UK Time), and as expected, there are much to say and comments. Social media networks around the world very much active as people are giving their opinion on today's press conference.
We have compiled a few highlights from the press conference below, so ahead and read them.
Here are the top highlights of the press conference:
“ObamaCare is a complete and total disaster.” Trump says he is doing Dems a "great service" by planning to repeal and replace #ObamaCare. pic.twitter.com/J3MHJtd836
DJT: "That's something that Nazi Germany would've done and did do... that information that was false... got released to the public." pic.twitter.com/ttbhqfmW8f
President-elect Trump calls for an apology on the Russia report: “That’s something that Nazi Germany would’ve done and did to.” pic.twitter.com/qYi4m4G7st
Moscow denied claims Wednesday that the Kremlin has gathered compromising data about President-elect Donald Trump and slams news reports regarding the matter, calling it "complete fabrication and utter nonsense." President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov demanded that the Kremlin "does not engage in collecting compromising material."
I win an election easily, a great "movement" is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state!
There has been unconfirmed reports that Russia had possessed compromising personal and money related data on Trump. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that intelligence officials had briefed Trump about the unverified report.
After news reports were distributed about the briefing, Trump tweeted: "FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!"
The New York Times and CNN, refering to anonymous authorities, revealed that the summary was displayed a week ago as an add to the discoveries with respect to asserted Russian hacking amid the 2016 presidential campaign.
Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is "A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE." Very unfair!
The information apparently depended on updates made by anti-Trump operatives including a former British intelligence operative. As per CNN, the FBI is researching the credibility of the cases – which supposedly come from Russian sources.
The FBI apparently has not affirmed many key points of interest from the updates, which contain obscene affirmations about data the Russian government could use as influence against Trump.
Sessions: I will recuse myself from Clinton investigations
Attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions and his allies, at the first confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, mounted a full-scale response Tuesday to what they described as “character” attacks against him – decrying “false charges” about his past while offering assurances that if confirmed he would uphold and enforce the law. Read More...
The US President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office in under two weeks. Whether he has a bureau prepared to help him on the very beginning to a great extent relies on upon how quick the men and ladies he tapped to lead government organizations can be affirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Eight of Trump's picks will sit for affirmation hearings on Capitol Hill this week and they can expect a flame broiling.
Here are when all the committee hearings are taking place.
Tuesday, January 10
Jeff Sessions, Attorney General: 9:30 a.m. Eastern (Senate Judiciary Committee)
John Kelly, Secretary of Homeland Security: 3:30 p.m. Eastern (Note: CNN lists his hearing as taking place Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., but C-SPAN lists his hearing as taking place Wednesday, January 11 at 2 p.m. Eastern.)
Wednesday, January 11
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State: 9 a.m. Eastern and afternoon (Senate Foreign Relations Committee)
Ben Carson, HUD Secretary: 10:00 a.m. Eastern (Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee)
Tuesday, January 17
Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary: Time TBA (Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee) (She was originally scheduled for Jan. 11, but her hearing was pushed back to accommodate the Senate’s schedule)
Wednesday, January 18
Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services: Time to be announced.
Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (R) and U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (C) look at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as he talks with the media at Mar-a-Lago estate where Trump attends meetings, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 21, 2016. (REUTERS)
President-elect Donald Trump is finding himself caught between his desire to improve relations with Russia and fellow Republicans who are pushing for a harsher response to what American spy agencies say was the Kremlin's meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Read More...
Mr Kushner and wife, Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka (Reuters)
The 35-year-old assumed a key role in the presidential campaign of Mr Trump and his new White House occupation will cover both household and outside approach.
Mr Kushner, married to Ivanka Trump, is a property developer with an extensive variety of business interests.
The opposition Democrats instantly called for a review of the appointment, refering to nepotism laws and potential clashes.
Individuals from the House Legal Advisory Committee (House Judiciary Committee) asked the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics to venture in.
Prior, Mr Trump hailed his son-in-law as a "tremendous asset" and he was pleased to give him a "key leadership role" in the administration.
The President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th president on 20 January. More on Jared Kushner below: [tab] [content title="Short Biography"] [/content] [content title="A Political Advisor"] [/content] [/tab]
He kept on protecting his conduct from a meeting with a disabled journalist in 2015 in which he demands he didn't taunt anybody, a minute Streep had said was a case of Trump's "instinct to humiliate."
"I was never mocking anyone. I was calling into question a reporter who had gotten nervous because he had changed his story," he told the paper in a phone interview after the Globes. "People keep saying I intended to mock the reporter’s disability, as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind, and I did no such thing."
His tweets Monday morning resounded his contemplations late Sunday night.
What's more, with the inauguration only 11 days away, the President-elect said he's not stressed in regards to having superstars attend the momentous day.
"We are going to have an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout for the inauguration, and there will be plenty of movie and entertainment stars," Trump said. "All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It's hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.
Donald Trump says he respects America's intelligence agencies (Reuters)
Following the US election hacking, The US president-elect Donald Trump says Democrats have shown "gross negligence" by allowing their servers to be hacked in the run-up to the 8 November presidential election.
The comments were made after a US intelligence report said Russian President Vladimir Putin had "sought to help Donald Trump win".
Although The president-elect has refuse to blame Russia for meddling, saying just that the race result was not influenced. But Russia has previously denied the claims.
Taking after the report's discoveries, the US Department of Homeland Security declared that voting machines and other voting databases would be named "critical infrastructure" and given more protection from cyber-attacks.
U.S. President Barack Obama attends a military full honor review farewell ceremony given in his honor, accompanied by Defense Secretary Ash Carter at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Washington, U.S. January 4, 2017. (REUTERS)
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has issued a blanket mandate requiring politically appointed ambassadors installed by President Barack Obama to leave their posts by Inauguration Day, the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand said on Friday.
"I will be departing on January 20th," Ambassador Mark Gilbert said in a Twitter message to Reuters.
The mandate was issued "without exceptions" through an order sent in a State Department cable on Dec. 23, Gilbert said.
He was confirming a report in the New York Times, which quoted diplomatic sources as saying previous U.S. administrations, from both major political parties, have traditionally granted extensions to allow a few ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.
Officials from the State Department and Trump's transition team were was not immediately available for comment.
The order threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain, the New York Times reported.
A senior Trump transition official told the newspaper there was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring Obama's overseas envoys leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do.
Trump has taken a strict stance against leaving any of Obama's political appointees in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20, aiming to break up many of his predecessor's signature foreign and domestic policy achievements, the newspaper said.
Diplomats told New York Times the order has thrown their personal lives into a tailspin, leaving them scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to stay in their countries so their children can remain in school.
President-elect Donald Trump has backed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in casting doubt on intelligence alleging Russian meddling in the US election.
Mr Assange said Russia was not the source for the site's mass leak of emails from the Democratic Party.
Mr Trump has now backed that view in a tweet. He wrote: "Assange... said Russians did not give him the info!"
The president-elect has repeatedly refused to accept the conclusions of the US intelligence community.
Several US agencies including the FBI and the CIA believe Russia directed hacks against the Democratic Party and the campaign of its presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The information, released through Wikileaks and other outlets, was intended to help Mr Trump win the election, say the FBI and CIA.
On Tuesday evening, Mr Trump said an intelligence briefing he was due to receive on the issue had been delayed.
"Perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" he wrote.
But US intelligence officials insisted there had been no delay in the briefing schedule.
He also said a 14-year-old boy could have carried out one of the hacks, on the email account of John Podesta, a top aide of Mrs Clinton.
In 2010, several leading Republican figures were calling for the Wikileaks founder to be imprisoned after his website published thousands of embarrassing diplomatic cables leaked by former Army Pvt Chelsea Manning.
Mr Trump tweeted twice on Wednesday morning in support of what Mr Assange said on Fox News.
Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, led the effort to overhaul (Reuters)
WASHINGTON – House Republicans on Tuesday abruptly dropped a proposal seeking controversial changes to the Office of Congressional Ethics after President-elect Donald Trump criticized the plan, as the 115th Congress opened on a contentious note.
The new Republican-controlled Congress gaveled into session at noon, and the opening day largely was being spent on leadership elections and other matters. Speaker Paul Ryan was elected to a full term in the post Tuesday afternoon.
But GOP leaders worked quickly to resolve the dispute with Trump after he challenged fellow Republicans Tuesday morning on the ethics office plan. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., held a short meeting and moved to pull the language.
The semi-independent ethics body was created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct by lawmakers after several bribery and corruption scandals sent members to prison. Under the change initially pushed by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the non-partisan office would fall under the oversight of the House Ethics Committee, which is run by lawmakers.
While Democrats decried the plan, Trump earlier took to Twitter to nudge Republicans to focus more on repealing ObamaCare, pursuing tax reform and other priorities.
He wrote: “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it … may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”
The ethics change that had been sought by House Republicans Monday was part of a rules package that the full House will vote on Tuesday. The package also includes a means for Republican leaders to punish lawmakers if there is a repeat of the Democratic sit-in last summer over gun control.
The House still plans to vote on the overall rules package – but GOP leaders plan to deal with the ethics issue later, sometime before the August recess.
Speaker Ryan, R-Wis., and Majority Leader McCarthy already had argued against making a unilateral ethics change in a meeting on Monday, pressing for a bipartisan approach at a later date, but rank-and-file Republicans defied their leadership.
Under the proposed ethics change, the office would be known as the Office of Congressional Complaint Review, and the rule change would require that "any matter that may involve a violation of criminal law must be referred to the Committee on Ethics for potential referral to law enforcement agencies after an affirmative vote by the members," according to Goodlatte's office.
Lawmakers would have the final say on their colleagues under the change.
Democrats, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, reacted angrily.
"Republicans claim they want to `drain the swamp,' but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions," the California Democrat said in a statement. "Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress."
In a statement, Goodlatte said the rules amendment "builds upon and strengthens the existing Office of Congressional Ethics by maintaining its primary area of focus of accepting and reviewing complaints from the public and referring them, if appropriate, to the Committee on Ethics."
But others said the new system would make it easier for corruption to flourish under Ryan and his leadership team.
The OCE was created in March 2008 after the cases of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., who served more than seven years in prison on bribery and other charges; as well as cases involving former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who was charged in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and pleaded guilty to corruption charges, and former Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., convicted on corruption in a separate case.
Before he's even taken office, President-elect Donald Trump has proven to be quite the job creator.
Ford Motor Company announced Tuesday it will cancel a $1.6 billion plant planned for Mexico and will instead invest $700 million in a Michigan assembly plant, directly tying the decision to “pro-growth policies” championed by President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump had previously been critical of Ford’s plans to build in Mexico. After the announcement, Trump tweeted a link to a story about the Ford decision and then added in a subsequent message: "Instead of driving jobs and wealth away, AMERICA will become the world's great magnet for INNOVATION & JOB CREATION."
CEO Mark Fields, speaking at an event at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, said the policies that Trump “and the new Congress have indicated they will pursue” were vital to the company’s decision.
“We believe these tax and regulatory reforms are necessary to boost U.S. competitiveness,” Fields said.
Tuesday's announcement was the latest in a string of pre-inauguration successes for Trump in the manufacturing sector.
Instead of driving jobs and wealth away, AMERICA will become the world's great magnet for INNOVATION & JOB CREATION.https://t.co/siXrptsOrt
In early December, air conditioner and furnace maker Carrier agreed to stay in Indiana after weeks of negotiations headed by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. The decision reportedly saved about 700 jobs that would have been shifted to Mexico.
Later in the month, wireless provider Sprint and Internet company OneWeb announced they would be adding thousands of jobs in the U.S. Both companies are controlled by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who had previously met with Trump.
Earlier Tuesday morning, Trump took aim at another auto giant: General Motors.
"General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!" Trump tweeted.
GM, however, quickly pushed back on Trump's assertions.
"GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S." a statement said.
The investment in the Flat Rock plant is set to create 700 jobs, according to Fields. The money, which was taken from the $1.6 billion earmarked for the Mexico plant, will be used to open a new factory that will build high-tech autonomous and electric vehicles as well as the Mustang and Lincoln Continental, the company said in a press release.
"I am thrilled that we have been able to secure additional UAW-Ford jobs for American workers," UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said in the release. "The men and women of Flat Rock Assembly have shown a great commitment to manufacturing quality products, and we look forward to their continued success with a new generation of high-tech vehicles."
