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| Trump: transition is going 'so smoothly' despite reports of disorder – politics live | Trump: transition is going 'so smoothly' despite reports of disorder – politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 5.31pm GMT | |
| 17:31 | |
| Assad: Trump's words 'promising' but 'can he deliver?' | |
| 5.24pm GMT | |
| 17:24 | |
| Conway: 'you don’t form a federal government overnight' | |
| Here’s a transcript of a conversation just then between former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and the press pool. | |
| Conway: | |
| I was in DC yesterday at both transition offices and it’s really something to walk into our transition office in Washington DC and see everything from seasoned Reagan hands .. and then to look around the room and see millennials who were born after President Reagan left office. That’s really the hive of activity. | |
| Question on rumors that transition is disorganized, not going well, slow, people are getting fired: | |
| I just don’t see it that way. It’s just not that way. Those are false.” | |
| Question: did Trump intentionally mislead the press when he went to dinner (last night)? | |
| No. He was just having dinner with his family.” | |
| Question: when will Trump do a press conference? | |
| Shortly, I would say. Sometime soon. But obviously he’s meeting with – talking to heads of state and possible members of his Cabinet and senior team, filling out his senior leadership team. A lot of activity going on upstairs. So. I know he looking forward to” [addressing you all?] | |
| Question: any names announced today? | |
| I’m not sure it’ll be today. But it will be soon. It’s a lot to digest in putting together a federal government.” | |
| Question: is Trump considering a registry for Muslims or a ban on Muslims? | |
| We haven’t talked about that. I think he’s been very clear on his position on that issue.” | |
| Question: over a week since election and only 2 appointments so far? | |
| You don’t form a federal government overnight and these are very serious issues, very serious appointments, very serious considerations. And I was reading Politico earlier and noticed that we’re pretty much on track to where other administrations had been, definitely internally in terms of vetting different candidates and thinking through and interviewing different people. It’s not the kind of thing to rush through.” (She seemed to be scanning the pool for someone from Politico) | |
| 5.20pm GMT | |
| 17:20 | |
| Colorado senator Cory Gardner will be in charge of coordinating and directing Republican efforts to strengthen their hold on the senate, as incoming chairman of the national Republican senatorial committee, the NRSC announces: | |
| .@CoryGardner, you ready? pic.twitter.com/9IsOvx6zb0 | |
| 5.17pm GMT | |
| 17:17 | |
| Reuters reports that “Mexico’s foreign ministry announced fresh steps on Wednesday to provide support to Mexican citizens living in the United States following the victory in last week’s U.S. presidential election by Donald Trump, who has promised to crack down on immigrants in the country illegally”: | |
| The ministry said it was acting to help Mexicans avoid fraud and abuses in the United States. It said it would expand the availability of mobile consulate services to reach more migrants in their communities, establish a 24-hour telephone line for questions about immigration, and provide more appointments for migrants to get passports, birth certificates and consular identification cards. | |
| The ministry also said Mexico will “strengthen dialogue” with U.S. state and local authorities to protect its citizens, and added that migrants in the United States should “avoid any conflict situation” and stay out of trouble with the law. | |
| Read the full piece here. | |
| 5.12pm GMT | |
| 17:12 | |
| Trump spokesman dismisses Bannon concerns: 'That’s just folks that are bitter the election’s over' | |
| Here’s a partial transcript of what Trump spokesman Jason Miller has just told reporters at Trump tower. Thanks to Todd Gillman of the Dallas News. PE stands for president-elect and VPE stands for vice-president-elect. | |
| Question on the perceived slow pace of personnel announcements and decisions: | |
| The PE and the VPE are taking a very structured methodical approach to this….We’re not going to rush.… We’re going to make sure that they’re people that we are confident will pass confirmation and they’re going to be people that we think can implement the PE’s vision. It’s also important to look back that President Obama even didn’t have his entire cabinet formed in the first week. We’re going to make sure we get it right.” | |
| Question: Will you announce national security team first? | |
| When the PE is ready to put that forward then we will.” (no timetable who will be announced before others.) “Obviously we’re taking this very seriously and we know we have a finite amount of time to get this put together…. Inside, there’s a very solid plan. There’s a methodical approach to all this being put together. [despite news reports] … It’s very calm, it’s very structured and anyone saying anything else is either A, bitter, because they’re not on the inside and they’re not being considered, or they’re someone who’s just bitter because the election was last week and they didn’t get the result that they wanted. … The PE will be putting forward some very fine people. It’ll be some folks who’ll be outside the box. There will be some people who have been very successful in fields of business, in fields of education.” | |
| Question on reports that Jared Kushner has been purging Christie allies? | |
| Couldn’t be further from the truth. Jared did a fantastic job with the campaign. Obviously the PE seeks and respects his counsel very much. Jared is one of the most brilliant people I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the course of this campaign. The way that you described it I would say is completely inaccurate. The one thing I would say is that with the VPE coming in to run the transition team, we’re making sure that we’re bringing in folks who are ready to implement the PE’s vision. And of course the PE is going to have his VPE in charge of the transition team because he spent all this time with him on the campaign trail. He knows exactly what the PE wants to see. He knows the types of people he’ll want to put in place.” | |
| Question on response to claims that Steve Bannon is a white supremecist or anti-Semite: | |
| That’s just folks that are bitter the election’s over. They didn’t get the result that they wanted. Steve Bannon is someone who’s done a fantastic job implementing the PE’s vision on the campaign trail. He’s someone I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the past three or four months, someone ive seen very high character from. Someone who’s been a fantastic example of really being inclusive. Someone who’s embraced diversity at every step. I think he’ll do a great job working with chief of staff Reince Priebus… to implement PE Trump’s vision. And that’s the important thing. There’s one boss, and that’s the PE. He’s the person who’s going to have the final say on nominees who are going to be put forward” and on senior staff. | |
| Question on how serious a contender is Ted Cruz for attorney general? | |
| Obviously I am a big fan of Senator Cruz’s and whether there is something within the administration or whether it’s as an ally on Capitol Hill, I think Senator Cruz is happy that we’re going to have a president who’s going to push for conservative reforms, who’s going to make sure that we’re appointing the right kind of Supreme Court choices, and I think Senator Cruz will be a strong ally for President-elect Trump. | |
| 4.56pm GMT | 4.56pm GMT |
| 16:56 | 16:56 |
| Sanders to deliver 'major' speech on Trump | Sanders to deliver 'major' speech on Trump |
| Incoming senate budgetary committee ranking member Bernie Sanders – he ran for president this year too – is going to give what his activist group Our Revolution bills as “a major speech” this evening “about the future of our country under the presidency of Donald Trump.” | Incoming senate budgetary committee ranking member Bernie Sanders – he ran for president this year too – is going to give what his activist group Our Revolution bills as “a major speech” this evening “about the future of our country under the presidency of Donald Trump.” |
| Developing... | Developing... |
| 4.53pm GMT | 4.53pm GMT |
| 16:53 | 16:53 |
| Fellow white evangelicals: your votes for Trump shook my faith | Fellow white evangelicals: your votes for Trump shook my faith |
| Sam Thielman | Sam Thielman |
| As we enter the era of Donald Trump, I have to confess that I only now understand how purely cruel my fellow Christians are. I find it hard to pray as a result. | As we enter the era of Donald Trump, I have to confess that I only now understand how purely cruel my fellow Christians are. I find it hard to pray as a result. |
| White American evangelicals, who produced me, and among whom I must count myself, have thoroughly demonstrated how little we care about our representation of Christ to the world, how gleefully willing we are to put our own interests and grievances above the teachings of Jesus. And we have done that where we always do it: in the voting booth. | White American evangelicals, who produced me, and among whom I must count myself, have thoroughly demonstrated how little we care about our representation of Christ to the world, how gleefully willing we are to put our own interests and grievances above the teachings of Jesus. And we have done that where we always do it: in the voting booth. |
| Four in five white evangelicals who cast a vote last week did so for president-elect Trump, who repeatedly encouraged violence at his rallies and bragged that being a celebrity meant no one would stop him from grabbing women “by the pussy”. A dozen women came forward to accuse him of mistreating them. And Christians have such contempt for the work of government that we voted for him anyway. | Four in five white evangelicals who cast a vote last week did so for president-elect Trump, who repeatedly encouraged violence at his rallies and bragged that being a celebrity meant no one would stop him from grabbing women “by the pussy”. A dozen women came forward to accuse him of mistreating them. And Christians have such contempt for the work of government that we voted for him anyway. |
| Dismantle the social safety net, the argument goes, and let the church do the work it was called to do. God forbid the church simply express gratitude for aid in a work so infinite that Jesus himself said “The poor you will always have with you.” | Dismantle the social safety net, the argument goes, and let the church do the work it was called to do. God forbid the church simply express gratitude for aid in a work so infinite that Jesus himself said “The poor you will always have with you.” |
| But the words of Jesus are apparently worthless to people who are angry that immigrants might be made citizens without suffering enough. If you want your impoverished neighbor’s insulin supply cruelly torn away from her on the extremely slim chance that it might make your own monthly health insurance premiums go down, you will find little validation in the Sermon on the Mount. If you want to halt immigration for people who are fleeing persecution, you will have some trouble with the God of Zechariah, who tells you in so many words, “[D]o not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.” | But the words of Jesus are apparently worthless to people who are angry that immigrants might be made citizens without suffering enough. If you want your impoverished neighbor’s insulin supply cruelly torn away from her on the extremely slim chance that it might make your own monthly health insurance premiums go down, you will find little validation in the Sermon on the Mount. If you want to halt immigration for people who are fleeing persecution, you will have some trouble with the God of Zechariah, who tells you in so many words, “[D]o not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.” |
| Why must an abused child be forced to carry another child to term? Why shouldn’t women be able to easily access birth control or surgeries that will prevent them from dying of sepsis? I can’t find answers for these questions in my Bible. | Why must an abused child be forced to carry another child to term? Why shouldn’t women be able to easily access birth control or surgeries that will prevent them from dying of sepsis? I can’t find answers for these questions in my Bible. |
| Perhaps white Christians simply gave ourselves the extravagant gift of forgetfulness before entering the voting booth. Perhaps we simply didn’t care. [...] | Perhaps white Christians simply gave ourselves the extravagant gift of forgetfulness before entering the voting booth. Perhaps we simply didn’t care. [...] |
| Read the full piece here: | Read the full piece here: |
| 4.48pm GMT | 4.48pm GMT |
| 16:48 | 16:48 |
| Le Pen: Trump-Putin-Le Pen trio would bring safety | Le Pen: Trump-Putin-Le Pen trio would bring safety |
| “French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that her election as president next year would form a trio of world leaders with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin that ‘would be good for world peace’,” Reuters reports: | “French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that her election as president next year would form a trio of world leaders with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin that ‘would be good for world peace’,” Reuters reports: |
| Inaugurating her campaign headquarters for France’s 2017 election, just less than one mile away from the Elysee presidential palace, Le Pen said the premises were “a stopover on the way to (her) final destination down the road.” | Inaugurating her campaign headquarters for France’s 2017 election, just less than one mile away from the Elysee presidential palace, Le Pen said the premises were “a stopover on the way to (her) final destination down the road.” |
| Anti-Europe and anti-immigration, the 48-year-old Le Pen was the only French political leader who backed Trump in the U.S. election. | Anti-Europe and anti-immigration, the 48-year-old Le Pen was the only French political leader who backed Trump in the U.S. election. |
| Her National Front party has been buoyed by his victory and that of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, hoping to ride a similar anti-establishment wave in France to victory in next year’s poll. | Her National Front party has been buoyed by his victory and that of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, hoping to ride a similar anti-establishment wave in France to victory in next year’s poll. |
| “There is a worldwide movement. A worldwide movement which rejects unchecked globalisation, destructive ultra-liberalism ... the elimination of nation states, the disappearance of borders,” Le Pen told reporters. | “There is a worldwide movement. A worldwide movement which rejects unchecked globalisation, destructive ultra-liberalism ... the elimination of nation states, the disappearance of borders,” Le Pen told reporters. |
| “The forces at work in these various elections are ideas, forces which could bring about my election as the president of France next May.” | “The forces at work in these various elections are ideas, forces which could bring about my election as the president of France next May.” |
| 4.42pm GMT | 4.42pm GMT |
| 16:42 | 16:42 |
| As for the Republican senate leadership: If it ain’t broke (?!?), don’t fix it: | As for the Republican senate leadership: If it ain’t broke (?!?), don’t fix it: |
| Senate GOP ldrshp stays the same. McConnell as Ldr. Cornyn as Whip, et al. | Senate GOP ldrshp stays the same. McConnell as Ldr. Cornyn as Whip, et al. |
| 4.41pm GMT | 4.41pm GMT |
| 16:41 | 16:41 |
| Trump team re-asserts that Trump is at Trump tower | Trump team re-asserts that Trump is at Trump tower |
| Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tells the press pool that a rumor that Donald Trump is not in Trump tower is “incorrect”: | Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tells the press pool that a rumor that Donald Trump is not in Trump tower is “incorrect”: |
| Conway sent a text message to pooler Hunter Walker (@hunterw): “Incorrect. How do these nonsense rumors get started,” Conway wrote, adding, “He is here.” | Conway sent a text message to pooler Hunter Walker (@hunterw): “Incorrect. How do these nonsense rumors get started,” Conway wrote, adding, “He is here.” |
| Further from Walker: | Further from Walker: |
| Trump spokesman Jason Miller just spoke with the media for approximately 10 minutes. He denied rumors that [Trump son-in-law] Jared Kushner has pushed [New Jersey governor Chris] Christie allies off the transition team, addressed claims that [incoming chief White House strategist] Steve Bannon is a white supremacist and an anti-Semite, and responded to criticism of Trump ditching the pool. | Trump spokesman Jason Miller just spoke with the media for approximately 10 minutes. He denied rumors that [Trump son-in-law] Jared Kushner has pushed [New Jersey governor Chris] Christie allies off the transition team, addressed claims that [incoming chief White House strategist] Steve Bannon is a white supremacist and an anti-Semite, and responded to criticism of Trump ditching the pool. |
| 4.33pm GMT | 4.33pm GMT |
| 16:33 | 16:33 |
| Trump’s spokeswoman promises that Trump is in Trump tower: | Trump’s spokeswoman promises that Trump is in Trump tower: |
| Hope Hicks to @ajjaffe on Trump: "He's in Trump Tower, I promise" | Hope Hicks to @ajjaffe on Trump: "He's in Trump Tower, I promise" |
| He’s totally not there, is he? <---- That’s a joke. <-----We think. | He’s totally not there, is he? <---- That’s a joke. <-----We think. |
| 4.29pm GMT | 4.29pm GMT |
| 16:29 | 16:29 |
| Rogers: 'there's some confusion going on' inside Trump transition | Rogers: 'there's some confusion going on' inside Trump transition |
| Former House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers, who more recently is a former member of Donald Trump’s transition team, says “there’s some confusion going on” inside the transition: | Former House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers, who more recently is a former member of Donald Trump’s transition team, says “there’s some confusion going on” inside the transition: |
| Mike Rogers to @CNN on his ouster from Trump transition: "there's some confusion going on about a chain-of-command coming out of NY" | Mike Rogers to @CNN on his ouster from Trump transition: "there's some confusion going on about a chain-of-command coming out of NY" |
| Here’s our further coverage of the transition in disarray: | Here’s our further coverage of the transition in disarray: |
| 4.24pm GMT | 4.24pm GMT |
| 16:24 | 16:24 |
| Vermont senator Bernie Sanders will be the ranking member on the budget committee in the 115th Congress, according to a list released by incoming minority leader Chuck Schumer. | Vermont senator Bernie Sanders will be the ranking member on the budget committee in the 115th Congress, according to a list released by incoming minority leader Chuck Schumer. |
| As the top Democrat on the committee, Sanders and his staff will be in charge of drafting an alternative budget to the one presented by Republicans. Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming chaired the budget committee in the 114th congress. | As the top Democrat on the committee, Sanders and his staff will be in charge of drafting an alternative budget to the one presented by Republicans. Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming chaired the budget committee in the 114th congress. |
| Here are the top Democrats’ committee assignments, via CQ Roll Call: | Here are the top Democrats’ committee assignments, via CQ Roll Call: |
| Your top Democrats on each Senate committee for the 115th, per new minority leader @SenSchumer pic.twitter.com/upMM44Yuxy | Your top Democrats on each Senate committee for the 115th, per new minority leader @SenSchumer pic.twitter.com/upMM44Yuxy |