Russia likely main topic in Trump's first news conference since election

[snoop1130]

Russia likely main topic in Trump's first news conference since election

By Steve Holland

 

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump listens to questions from reporters in the lobby at Trump Tower in New York, U.S., January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump will use his first news conference in nearly six months on Wednesday to lay out a plan to separate himself from his business empire to try to erase questions about potential conflicts of interest, but Russia is likely to take centre stage.

 

In his first formal session with reporters since winning the Nov. 8 election, Trump will likely face questions about his bid to warm U.S. relations with Moscow after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Russia used cyber hacking to try to tilt the election in his favour.

 

There was an unpredictable element to the news conference, to be held at his Trump Tower headquarters in New York, given Trump's repeated criticism of the U.S. news media and his belief that many news organizations favoured Democrat Hillary Clinton during last year's presidential campaign.

 

The president-elect, who is to be sworn in on Jan. 20, has been under pressure to separate himself from his global business operations to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest once he moves into the White House.

 

After initially declaring there was no law that prohibited him from maintaining control of his business while serving as president, Trump switched gears in December and said legal documents were being crafted "which take me completely out of business operations."

 

Trump has said his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, will manage his businesses and no new deals will be done during his time in office, but has offered few details.

 

He has not said he would divest from his companies, a step some critics say he should take. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, announced plans on Monday to divest much of his holdings in preparation for taking a senior advisory role in the Trump White House.

 

RUSSIA QUESTIONS

 

While North Korea, Syria, Iran, China, tax reform and border security could well come up at the news conference, questions about Russia are likely to dominate the session.

 

Trump has faced persistent questions about Russia throughout the past year given his reluctance to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin and his desire to improve U.S. relations with Moscow, including working together to defeat Islamic State militants.

 

His stance has rattled traditional U.S. allies such as NATO countries and many U.S. foreign policy experts who consider Russia a geopolitical adversary.

 

Trump has left open how he would respond to the Russian cyber hacking that U.S. intelligence agencies said was aimed at disrupting the presidential campaign.

U.S. intelligence chiefs briefed him on Russian involvement in the election last Friday and he has accepted the fact that it happened.

 

CNN reported on Tuesday that classified documents presented to Trump in that session included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising information about him.

 

The allegations were in a two-page synopsis appended to a report presented by U.S. intelligence officials to Trump and Obama on Russian interference in the 2016 election, CNN said, citing multiple U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings.

 

In an apparent reference to the reports, Trump said in a Twitter posting on Tuesday night: FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT."

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-1-11

[Guest]

I bet Trump didn't expect his presidency to start this way. He is currently having a meltdown on Twitter trying to deny everything. Lot's of caps! 

 

This is beautiful. 

[Opl]

Trump knows something about peddling fake news,  let see how Trump's team reacts to allegations "without  strong substance"  ( their specialty during their campaign)

Edited January 11, 2017 by Opl

[SheungWan]

Russia should certainly be the main topic and my first question is exactly how many Russian hookers were providing the lemonade service?

[Guest]

That was something! I haven't laughed this much to a world leaders 'speech' before. He mumbled and rumbled, refered himself as 3rd person, blamed media, bragged how rich he is etc etc.. 

 

.. and then he just walked away  .. 

 

Oh good, he came back.

 

Edited January 11, 2017 by Guest

[craigt3365]

He continued along the same lines as he did during the election campaign.  Lie.

 

http://www.factcheck.org/2017/01/factchecking-trumps-press-conference-2/

 

Quote

In his first press conference since July, President-elect Donald Trump repeated some false and misleading claims on jobs, health care and his tax returns:

 

[alex8912]

Great news conference. Not sure what other posters saw.  No more BS political correctness. European leaders should use this as a model or they will go down even deeper. I loved it when he pointed to the CNN guy and said "you are fake news".  The thinned skin will have to start living under rocks!  Good. Don't start saying it's lies until after Jan 20 ( or a few months later). You really don't know what will happen. 

[craigt3365]

13 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

Great news conference. Not sure what other posters saw.  No more BS political correctness. European leaders should use this as a model or they will go down even deeper. I loved it when he pointed to the CNN guy and said "you are fake news".  The thinned skin will have to start living under rocks!  Good. Don't start saying it's lies until after Jan 20 ( or a few months later). You really don't know what will happen. 

He's after CNN because they keep publishing reports detrimental to him.  We all know his ego, he can't handle the truth! LOL

 

I sure hope EU leaders don't go this route.  We don't need politicians to lie more.  I think the opposite is better.  More truth.  And less outside business influences to potentially impact their decisions.  Trumps businesses are worse than lobbyists!

[stevenl]

Great news conference. Not sure what other posters saw.  No more BS political correctness. European leaders should use this as a model or they will go down even deeper. I loved it when he pointed to the CNN guy and said "you are fake news".  The thinned skin will have to start living under rocks!  Good. Don't start saying it's lies until after Jan 20 ( or a few months later). You really don't know what will happen. 

So lying, dividing and attacking is the way forward?

Sent from my ROBBY using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[KarenBravo]

28 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

Great news conference. Not sure what other posters saw.  No more BS political correctness. European leaders should use this as a model or they will go down even deeper. I loved it when he pointed to the CNN guy and said "you are fake news".  The thinned skin will have to start living under rocks!  Good. Don't start saying it's lies until after Jan 20 ( or a few months later). You really don't know what will happen. 

 

If you think outright provable lies (too many to mention), bullying (disabled reporter), willful ignorance (not taking daily intelligence briefings) is the way forward, you do American democracy a great dis-service.

Insulting people is not "telling it how it is", or, getting rid of PC.

Edited January 12, 2017 by KarenBravo

[ChoakMyDee]

It was very refreshing to see someone with no filter shooting from the hip, telling it as he sees it, calling out CNN for spreading lies etc. It is a stark contrast to Obama's speeches...droning on forever while saying nothing.

 

There is a new hope. The next 4 to 8 years should prove interesting to say the least.

 

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, ChoakMyDee said:

It was very refreshing to see someone with no filter shooting from the hip, telling it as he sees it, calling out CNN for spreading lies etc. It is a stark contrast to Obama's speeches...droning on forever while saying nothing.

 

There is a new hope. The next 4 to 8 years should prove interesting to say the least.

 

I really don't understand how anybody can still say of Trump 'he is telling it like it is'.

[Boon Mee]

1 hour ago, ChoakMyDee said:

It was very refreshing to see someone with no filter shooting from the hip, telling it as he sees it, calling out CNN for spreading lies etc. It is a stark contrast to Obama's speeches...droning on forever while saying nothing.

 

There is a new hope. The next 4 to 8 years should prove interesting to say the least.

 

Absolutely!  

A new dawn is emerging with hopefully the end of Political Correctness.

[craigt3365]

16 hours ago, ChoakMyDee said:

It was very refreshing to see someone with no filter shooting from the hip, telling it as he sees it, calling out CNN for spreading lies etc. It is a stark contrast to Obama's speeches...droning on forever while saying nothing.

 

There is a new hope. The next 4 to 8 years should prove interesting to say the least.

 

It was Trump spreading lies, not CNN.  Trump just doesn't like reports that aren't favorable towards him.  He creates his own mess.  Stop Tweeting lies and rude comments and the media will stop reporting about it.  LOL

[SheungWan]

19 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Absolutely!  

A new dawn is emerging with hopefully the end of Political Correctness.

 

This is equivalent to attempting to put a Chateau label on a bottle of the Russian hooker lemonade.