Trump Calls on Pennsylvania Crowd to Cheer African-Americans Who ‘Didn’t Come Out to Vote’

Donald Trump’s barnstorming tour across the states that won him the White House continues to feature far more taunts of triumph than notes of healing after a bruising election.

Thursday’s rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, found the president-elect calling for the mostly white crowd to cheer for African-Americans who were “smart” to heed his message and therefore “didn’t come out to vote” for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

“That was the big thing, so thank you to the African-American community,” Trump said.

He also edged closer Thursday to completing his Cabinet, announcing his choice for interior secretary: Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, who should fit smoothly into an administration favoring more energy drilling and less regulation.

The president-elect — who also found time to hit Twitter, playing media critic and then stating anew his doubts about charges that Russia hackers tried to disrupt the U.S. election — boasted to the crowd in Pennsylvania that he captured a state that for many Republicans was “the bride that got away.”

“Everyone leaves Pennsylvania, Republicans, thinking they won Pennsylvania. And they never do. They just don’t win Pennsylvania,” said Trump.

Pennsylvania had not gone for a Republican candidate since 1988. But the Trump campaign staff long thought that the state, rich in white working-class voters, would be receptive to his populist message and not be part of Clinton’s hoped-for firewall.

Trump repeatedly campaigned there, drawing some of the largest and loudest crowds of the campaign. He won the state by less than 1 percentage point, giving him a vital 20 electoral college votes.

The evening rally in Hershey also featured a nearly 20-minute recap of Trump’s election night win with the crowd cheering as the president-elect slowly ticked off his victories state by state, mixing in rambling criticisms of incorrect pundits and politicians from both sides of the aisle.

Trump earlier praised Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, as having “built one of the strongest track records on championing regulatory relief, forest management, responsible energy development and public land issues.” Zinke, 55, was an early supporter of the president-elect and publicly expressed his interest in a Cabinet post when Trump visited Montana in May.

As with several other Cabinet selections, Zinke has advocated increased drilling and mining on public lands and has expressed skepticism about the urgency of climate change. House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the pick, saying Zinke “has been an ardent supporter of all-of-the-above energy policies and responsible land management.”

But his nomination could have a ripple effect on control of the Senate, since Zinke now may forgo what was once a near-certain challenge to Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in 2018.

The president-elect also tapped attorney Daniel Friedman, his adviser on Israeli affairs, to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Friedman, in a statement, said he would help fulfill Trump’s promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Many Republican presidents have made a similar vow without success.

Trump also added to his national security team by announcing the appointments of retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as chief of staff of the National Security Council and Monica Crowley, a Fox News analyst, as the organization’s director of communications. Kellogg spent more than 35 years in the Army and, in 2003, oversaw the efforts to form the new Iraqi military after it was disbanded. Crowley and Fox ended their relationship on Thursday.

Trump has two Cabinet selections yet to make though he also needs to fill out much of his White House staff. And he was busy on Twitter Thursday morning.

He again cast doubt on U.S. intelligence assertions about Russia election hacking, writing: “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”

That assertion is untrue. A month before the election, the Obama administration bluntly accused Russia of hacking American political sites and email accounts to interfere.

Trump has repeatedly said he’d like to improve ties with Russia, a hope that has been echoed in Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday lauded Trump’s Cabinet selections, and particularly Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State, as people with no “anti-Russian stereotypes.”

The Kremlin has cheered Trump’s victory although some Russian officials have recently said they are not expecting relations between Russia and the U.S., which were battered after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, to improve overnight.

Trump also tweeted, “The media tries so hard to make my move to the White House, as it pertains to my business, so complex – when actually it isn’t!” His declaration came on the day he was supposed to hold a news conference, now postponed until January, to reveal how he plans to distance himself from his business. Aides said more time was needed to finalize the complicated arrangement.

(h/t Chicago Tribune)

Trump Again Asks Why Russian Hacking Wasn’t Addressed Before The Election, Even Though It Was

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday asked once again why Russia hacking the U.S. election wasn’t brought up before Nov. 8 ― even though it was.

In a tweet, Trump wondered why the White House didn’t “complain” about the hacking until after he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The president-elect asked a similar question Monday morning while pushing a false claim that it’s hard to catch hackers in the act.

But the White House ― and many others, including intelligence officials, Clinton and even Trump himself ― did bring up the Russian hacking before the election.

Here’s part of a New York Times report from July 26:

American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have “high confidence” that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, according to federal officials who have been briefed on the evidence.

But intelligence officials have cautioned that they are uncertain whether the electronic break-in at the committee’s computer systems was intended as fairly routine cyberespionage — of the kind the United States also conducts around the world — or as part of an effort to manipulate the 2016 presidential election.

The emails were released by WikiLeaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, has made it clear that he hoped to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency. It is unclear how the documents made their way to the group. But a large sampling was published before the WikiLeaks release by several news organizations and someone who called himself “Guccifer 2.0,” who investigators now believe was an agent of the G.R.U., Russia’s military intelligence service.

In an interview with Time magazine published Dec. 7, Trump discussed the U.S. intelligence community’s findings about Russia stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, saying he thought U.S. officials’ findings were politically motivated.

The CIA conducted a secret assessment of the U.S. election and concluded that Russia intervened in an effort to help Trump win the presidency, The Washington Post reported Dec. 9. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there’s “ample evidence” Trump was “obviously aware” Russia was involved in helping him win.

Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired Sunday that he thinks the hacking claims are “ridiculous.”

“I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” Trump said.

Back in July, Trump said he hoped Russia would hack into Clinton’s emails.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said at a press conference.

(h/t Huffington Post)

 

Trump Backer, Man He Sucker-Punched at Trump Rally Meet in Court

Assailant John Franklin McGraw

A man accused of hitting a protester at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina has received a 30-day suspended sentence and 12 months of unsupervised probation.

CBS Raleigh, North Carolina affiliate WNCN-TV reports 79-year-old John Franklin McGraw, of Linden, pleaded no contest on Wednesday to misdemeanor charges of assault and battery and disorderly conduct. A judge also ordered McGraw to pay $180 in court costs and a $250 fine.

McGraw was accused of hitting Rakeem Jones as Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies were removing Jones from the Trump rally in Fayetteville on March 9. The assault was captured on video.

McGraw apologized for his actions, and Judge Tal Baggett told him to talk to Jones. The two men spoke, shook hands and hugged, and people in the courtroom applauded.

McGraw said he and Jones were both caught up in a “political mess.”

Jones accepted his apology and the two then hugged and agreed to work together to heal the country.

“It just felt good being able to shake his hand … and face him,” Jones said.

The judge said he was pleased that both men found a way to peacefully resolve the issue.

WNCN notes that video of the punch was tweeted by New York Daily News writer Shaun King.

In a video later posted by “Inside Edition” shortly after the incident, McGraw defended his actions, WNCN says.

“He deserved it,” McGraw said of Jones.

“The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.”

McGraw showed little remorse for the attack.

“You bet I liked it. Knocking the hell out of that big mouth,” McGraw continued. “No. 1, we don’t know if he’s ISIS. We don’t know who he is, but we know he’s not acting like an American.”

Reality

Donald J. Trump has broken another campaign promise, this time he backed out of paying the legal fees and to personally defend it court those supporters who commit violence against the people who protest at his rallies.

John Franklin McGraw, who sucker-punched a defenseless man at a Trump rally just days after Trump himself promised to defend his supporters in court for hurting protesters, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of assault and battery and disorderly conduct without the defense or aide of the president-elect

Trump: Vanity Fair is ‘dead’

President-elect Donald Trump took aim at a new media target Thursday morning, writing on Twitter that Vanity Fair magazine is “dead” and its editor has “no talent.”

The magazine has been regularly critical of Trump throughout his candidacy and into his transition, publishing stories this week headlined “someone has finally agreed to perform at Donald Trump inauguration” and “Trump Grill could be the worst restaurant in America.”

Trump shot back at the magazine Thursday morning, asking his followers, “has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!”

Carter, the long-serving editor of Vanity Fair, is credited with originating a popular joke about the size of Trump’s hands. The Manhattan billionaire was regularly referred to as a “short-fingered vulgarian” in the pages of now-defunct Spy magazine, which was co-founded by Carter. Sen. Marco Rubio cracked a joke about Trump’s hands during the Republican presidential primary, prompting Trump to hold up his hands at a GOP debate and say “Look at these hands. Are these small hands? And he referred to my hands if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee you.”

Vanity Fair is the latest addition to a long list of media outlets attacked by Trump, including POLITICO, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post and NBC News.

(h/t Politico)

Ivanka Trump to Get White House Office

Ivanka Trump will reportedly get an office in the space typically reserved for the first lady, according to CNN.

CNN’s Lisa Miranda tweeted the news on Wednesday, citing a report by CNN’s Sara Murray, who covered President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

Instead of moving into the White House in January, the incoming first lady, Melania Trump, will continue to live in New York City with her son Barron as he finishes the school year.

Some have speculated that Ivanka, one of the president-elect’s daughters, will fill a role similar to first lady’s during her father’s presidency. The New York Times reported this month that she may be one of the most powerful first daughters in history.

In early December, she met with former Vice President Al Gore, a prominent climate change activist, at Trump Tower in New York City. The first daughter reportedly plans to make global warming one of her main issues.

Trump has said he’d “love” to have Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, involved in his administration.

“If you look at Ivanka – she’s so strongly, as you know, into the women’s issues and childcare, … nobody could do better than her,” Trump said earlier this month.

He announced in two tweets earlier this week that his adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, “plus executives” will take over his businesses before the inauguration. But he canceled a press conference scheduled for Thursday where he would have discussed details of his plan for transitioning his businesses.

The tweets did not include information on Ivanka’s relationship to his businesses moving forward.

(h/t The Hill)

Donald Trump Brings His “Blind Trust” to Meeting with Tech Executives

Every day is “take your kids to work day” when you’re Donald Trump — at least it’s starting to seem that way. The president-elect met Wednesday with top technology executives in Trump Tower in New York City, and it turned out that his adult children Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric Trump had come along for the ride:

Also in the room were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Larry Page and Eric E. Schmidt of Google parent Alphabet, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, along with several other tech leaders.

Notably, Trump has vowed to put his business in a “blind trust” run by Donald Jr. and Eric. Already the “blindness” of such a trust is suspect as a true blind trust is run by an independent trustee — and typically, not trustees that accompany the U.S. president to major conversations about the tech industry.

 

Trump Denies US Intel Experts of Russian Involvement in Election

President-elect Donald Trump believes that American intelligence agencies were motivated by politics, and not hard evidence, when they determined earlier this year that Russian state-sponsored hackers were behind the theft and release of internal emails from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe [Russia] interfered,” Trump told Time magazine in his “Person of the Year” interview, released Wednesday.

“That became a laughing point, not a talking point,” he went on. “Any time I do something, they say ‘oh, Russia interfered.’”

When Time reporters asked Trump if the conclusions reached by U.S. intelligence professionals who analyzed the hacks were “politically driven,” Trump replied, “I think so.”

The remark has received relatively little attention since the interview was published. But it is astonishing to hear an American president-elect accuse the nation’s intelligence community ― which comprises 16 separate agencies and thousands of employees, many of whom perform dangerous jobs with zero recognition ― of conspiring to lie to the country in order to bolster one political candidate over another.

Trump’s comments are likely to further alienate him and his incoming administration from career intelligence officers, who serve on the front lines of America’s most sensitive military and diplomatic endeavors.

Already, Trump has raised concerns among intelligence professionals for his decision to skip most of his daily intelligence briefings, widely considered to be the most significant daily meetings on a U.S. president’s calendar.

Trump also upset U.S. spies this fall when he publicly described his classified intelligence briefings. Specifically, Trump claimed that he could tell from the body language of national security staffers after one briefing that they “were not happy” serving President Barack Obama.

Those comments prompted former deputy CIA Director Michael Morell to say Trump had “zero understanding of how intelligence works.”

Trump’s willingness to repeat false information has also caused headaches at U.S. spy agencies. In August, Trump repeatedly claimed to have seen a new “top secret” video of U.S. currency being unloaded from an airplane in Iran.

Pressed by reporters to explain what Trump was talking about, his campaign soon acknowledged that the video Trump was referring to was a months-old public clip of U.S. citizens getting off a plane in Switzerland.

In other words, the video did not show currency, it was not “top secret” and it was not filmed in Iran.

Speaking to Time, Trump continued to sow doubts about who was behind the DNC hacks. “It could be Russia, and it could be China, and it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey,” Trump said.

This directly contradicts the findings of U.S. intel officers, who traced the data theft back to Russian state-sponsored hackers, who appeared to be trying to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in Trump’s favor.

The president-elect has made no secret of his admiration for Russia’s autocratic president, Vladimir Putin, and his desire to strengthen U.S.-Russia ties, despite Russia’s myriad violations of international law.

(h/t Huffington Post)

Trump Attacks Union Boss Who Fact Checked Him

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, has been critical of Trump’s claim to have saved 1,100 jobs at the Indianapolis plant since Tuesday.But shortly after Jones appeared on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Out Front” program Wednesday night, the president-elect appeared to blame union leaders like him for companies leaving the U.S.

“Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!” Trump wrote.

He followed up with another attack just over an hour later: “If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana.”

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is also the governor of Indiana, gave a very different description of the union back in March. He tweeted a photo of a meeting he had about Carrier with Jones and Local 1999 members, calling them “hardworking.”

Jones has complained that Trump has fallen short of his campaign promise to keep Carrier from moving 1,400 jobs to Mexico.

“You made a promise to keep all these jobs. You half-way delivered,” Jones told CNNMoney in an interview earlier Wednesday. “We expect you go back and keep all the jobs.”

Jones added that Trump should also help the 350 workers at an Indianapolis plant owned by another company, Rexnord, which is also slated to move to Mexico. Workers there are also members of USW Local 1999.

“Trump said no companies would be allowed to go to Mexico,” Jones said. “There are more than 300 people over there at Rexnord. He needs to deliver for them as well.”

Jones did not get to speak with Trump when the President-elect visited Carrier last week. But he said he was angry when Trump praised Carrier for “keeping 1,100 people” in jobs that won’t move to Mexico. The real number is 800.

To get the higher number, Carrier and Trump are counting 300 administrative and engineering jobs at a different facility in Indianapolis that were never at risk of being shipped to Mexico.

Carrier is still shifting about 600 jobs building fan coils to Mexico sometime next year. Under the deal with Trump, Carrier only agreed to keep the part of the plant that builds furnaces open, saving the 800 jobs in Indianapolis.

Carrier confirmed to CNNMoney on Friday that it never planned to move the 300 administrative and engineering positions.

“He’s lying his a– off,” Jones said about Trump’s claim of saving 1,100 jobs. “That’s not just my feeling. The numbers prove he’s lying his a– off. It’s a damn shame when you come in and make a false statements like that.”

Later Wednesday Jones elaborated in an interview with Erin Burnett.

Jones said many of the workers whose jobs may now be saved are grateful to Trump, but that some workers who are still worried about losing their jobs are angry.

“We have a lot of our members, when word was coming out… they thought they would have a job. Then they found out Friday, that most likely they weren’t,” he said.

Burnett asked if Jones thought Trump should apologize, and he said, “I think he ought to make sure he gets all the facts straight before he starts talking about what he’s done.”

“I’m extremely grateful for what he did. There’s 800 people who have jobs… It’s not all one sided. I just wished it had been handled in more of a professional matter.”

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment about the jobs still moving to Mexico.

Jones said he hopes the company will offer workers the chance to leave voluntarily with the severance package that was previously negotiated — one week of pay for every year of service.

Ideally, more senior workers at the plant would take the package and retire, which would save the jobs of younger workers. The plant has a large number of senior employees.

“For workers who have 40 years in and were getting close to retirement, that 40 weeks pay might look pretty good,” Jones said. But severance talks have yet to start.

(h/t CNN)

Update

Jones wrote a follow-up explaining his side.

Trump: ‘I Would Have Far Less Reason to Tweet’ If the Media Covered Me ‘Honorably’

Twitter

President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Monday that he’d have “far less” of a reason to use Twitter if he received what he believed to be more fair coverage.

“If the press would cover me accurately & honorably, I would have far less reason to ‘tweet,'” Trump tweeted. “Sadly, I don’t know if that will ever happen!”

Trump used the social-media platform to bash NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” as “unwatchable” and “totally biased” for a skit in which Alec Baldwin impersonated the Manhattan billionaire and his tweeting habits.

“The Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad!” Trump tweeted.

He also used Twitter recently to defend himself for what he described as a congratulatory from the president of Taiwan. The call, which broke decades of US foreign-policy orthodoxy, was the first communication between the leaders of the two countries since 1979 and risked angering the Chinese government.

As is typically the case when Trump criticizes the media, he did not point out anything that was inaccurately reported but merely sowed doubt about whether the media was being forthcoming regarding its coverage of him.

(h/t Business Insider)

Reality

If only the press would stop reporting on the lies he makes

Donald Trump ‘supports policy’ that has killed 4,500 people in the Philippines in five months

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to “kill all” the country’s suspected drug users and dealers has many foreign critics, including the United States, the European Parliament and the International Criminal Court. It now has at least one high-profile supporter: President-elect Donald Trump, at least according to Duterte.

In a statement on Saturday, Duterte shared details of a seven-minute conversation that took place on Friday. He said that during the call, Trump endorsed his campaign against drug users and dealers — a campaign that has left at least 4,500 Filipinos dead in about five months. Trump told Duterte that he was doing it the “right way,” according to Duterte’s account.

“I could sense a good rapport, an animated President-elect Trump,” he added. “And he was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem.”

The comments, which have not been confirmed by Trump’s team, could signal another significant twist in U.S.-Philippine ties.

The Philippines is a former U.S. colony that has been a close U.S. partner for decades. Since sweeping to power last spring, Duterte has repeatedly lashed out at his longtime ally, threatening to ditch the United States for China and Russia.

In September, when President Obama raised questions about the bloody anti-drug crusade, Duterte lectured him on colonialism, referring to him with a slang term that translates, roughly, as “son of a whore.”

In the weeks that followed, he made several surprise announcements on U.S.-Philippine military ties, calling for the ouster of U.S. Special Operations forces from the southern island of Mindanao and the end of joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises — only to backtrack repeatedly.

But Trump’s triumph in the US presidential race saw Duterte switch direction again. Weeks after railing against “uncivilized” Americans, Duterte greeted the U.S. president-elect with an enthusiastic “long live” Trump. Duterte also mused that they might get along — because they both like to swear.

For the Philippine president, an expression of support from Trump could help reset ties with the United States. But endorsing Duterte’s crackdown may put Trump at odds with allies such as the European Union, whose parliament issued a resolution urging the Philippines to halt “extrajudicial executions and killings” in connection with the drug war.

(h/t Independent)

Reality

Duterte, also an authoritarian, threatens political rivals and other enemies with baseless claims that they too are drug dealers in order to intimidate into submission or move them aside, even having one political rival murdered under police custody.

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