Hello 'Pussy' this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle:
Stephen King is right: Put the good of the country before your own ego.
Do you have any idea why they feel so ashamed? I do!
Should I remain in bed, leave my country or fight against the dragon?
( see also the story by Wolfgang Hampel,
' Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say ' )
Betty and Don MacDonald in Hollywood
Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
we enjoy this excellent Betty MacDonald poem by Betty MacDonald fan club honor member, artist, author and poet Perry Woodfin very much.
The Egg and Me
Copyright by Perry Woodfin
All rights reserved
When her name comes up, as it has on occasion,
I reminisce about our only meeting.
We had climbed the long flight to the ferry boat cabin.
We stop suddenly at the top.
A woman is coming down.
Dad and Mom talk with her.
Dad, proud, introduces me, his boy.
Then he tells me, “This is Betty MacDonald.
”To me she’s just a another grown up.
I seem to remember all of that.
I think she had on silk stockings, high heels.
There may also have been white gloves, perfume.
I wonder if I’ve invented all this ?
It’s just a memory, a brief moment in time.
As I said, on occasion it has come up.
Then I turn it over, move it around,
gaining nothing except what is here.
Well, maybe a slight scent of sophistication;
maybe a touch of class.
But have I hatched this too ?
Questions remain as questions always seem to do,
just laying there.
Whenever I catch a ferry and see that high flight,
small memories like this, soar.
Hope you enjoy this.
I like poetry for its more immediate creative outlet (usually).
More immediate than painting, anyway.
The poem describes an incident that occurred in I would guess, about 1950.
Perry Woodfin
Perry Woodfin has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Washington State University, and has made a living with his art since 1965. Puget Sound raised, he lives on Whidbey Island 50 miles north of Seattle.
Perry Woodfin:
Even remember being introduced to Betty McDonald of "The Egg and I" fame on one when I was maybe 8-9 years old. Somehow knew it was special. But what isn't on the ferries.
more info about Don Woodfin, Perry Woodfin's father
If you know the city send us a mail, please and you'll win a new Betty MacDonald essay.
Vita Magica by Wolfgang Hampel is really fascinating and very interesting.
Wolfgang Hampel introduces life and work of Betty MacDonald at Vita Magica January 2017.
Wolfgang Hampel and Friends of Vita Magica visited Minister of Science of Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer in Stuttgart.
They visited Landtag and had a great time there.
We are looking for your favourite city for International Betty MacDonald fan club event 2017.
Send us your votes please.
Deadline: January 31, 2017
Do you have any books by Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard Jensen with funny or interesting dedications?
If so would you be so kind to share them?
Our next Betty MacDonald fan club project is a collection of these unique dedications.
If you share your dedication from your Betty MacDonald - and Mary Bard Jensen collection you might be the winner of our new Betty MacDonald fan club items.
Thank you so much in advance for your support.
Thank you so much for sending us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote.
You'll be able to read more info during January.
We are so glad that our beloved Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is back.
New Betty MacDonald documentary will be very interesting with many new interviews.
Alison Bard Burnett and other Betty MacDonald fan club honor members will be included in Wolfgang Hampel's fascinating project Vita Magica.
Very exciting Betty MacDonald fan club news!
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel is going to present life and work of Betty MacDonald in Vita Magica January 2017.
You'll be able to read more info during January!
Vita Magica December was very successful.Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel invited a very famous author.
The visitors enjoyed Vita Magica very much.
A great event!
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel interviewed Betty MacDonald's daughter Joan MacDonald Keil and her husband Jerry Keil.
This interview will be published for the first time ever.
New Betty MacDonald documentary will be very interesting with many interviews never published before.
We adore Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli
Thank you so much for sharing this witty memories with us.
Wolfgang Hampel's literary event Vita Magica is very fascinating because he is going to include Betty MacDonald, other members of the Bard family and Betty MacDonald fan club honor members.
It's simply great to read Wolfgang Hampel's new very well researched stories about Betty MacDonald, Robert Eugene Heskett, Donald Chauncey MacDonald, Darsie Bard, Sydney Bard, Gammy, Alison Bard Burnett, Darsie Beck, Mary Bard Jensen, Clyde Reynolds Jensen, Sydney Cleveland Bard, Mary Alice Bard, Dorothea DeDe Goldsmith, Madge Baldwin, Don Woodfin, Mike Gordon, Ma and Pa Kettle, Nancy and Plum, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and others.
Linde Lund and many fans from all over the world adore this funny sketch by Wolfgang Hampel very much although our German isn't the best.
I won't ever forget the way Wolfgang Hampel is shouting ' Brexit '.
Don't miss it, please.
It's simply great!
You can hear that Wolfgang Hampel got an outstandig voice.
He presented one of Linde Lund's favourite songs ' Try to remember ' like a professional singer.
Thanks a million!
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli and our 'Italian Betty MacDonald' - Betty MacDonald fan club honor member author and artist Letizia Mancino belong to the most popular Betty MacDonald fan club teams in our history.
Their many devoted fans are waiting for a new Mr. Tigerli adventure.
Letizia Mancino's magical Betty MacDonald Gallery is a special gift for Betty MacDonald fan club fans from all over the world.
Don't miss Brad Craft's 'More friends', please.
Betty MacDonald's very beautiful Vashon Island is one of my favourites.
I agree with Betty in this very witty Betty MacDonald story Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say by Wolfgang Hampel.
I can't imagine to live in a country with him as so-called elected President although there are very good reasons to remain there to fight against these brainless politics.
World-famous author Stephen King took to Twitter today to respond to Donald Trump’s Twitter tirade about actress Meryl Streep’s criticisms last night at the Golden Globes.
As he so often does, King nails exactly what is disturbing about Trump’s hypersensitivity and the danger it presents to the American people. To be the leader of the United States of America requires a certain thickness of skin; a need to rise above slights real and perceived in order to put the good of the country before your own ego.
Lately,
it appears Trump has gone back into the field to drag in a whole new
bunch of State contenders.
My favorite is Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, a person you have probably never heard of even though he’s been in Congress since the 1980s and is currently head of the prestigious Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.
Rohrabacher
is also a surfer and former folk singer who once claimed global warming
might be connected to “dinosaur flatulence.” My favorite is Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, a person you have probably never heard of even though he’s been in Congress since the 1980s and is currently head of the prestigious Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.
Don't miss the very interesting articles below, please.
I think the future dinosaur flatulence will be the behaviour of 'Pussy' and his very strange government.
Poor World! Poor America!
The most difficult case in Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle's career
Hello 'Pussy', this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
You took calls from foreign leaders on unsecured phone lines, without consultung the State Department. We have to change your silly behaviour with a new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure. I know you are the most difficult case in my career - but we have to try everything.......................
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel sent his brilliant thoughts. Thank you so much dear Wolfgang!
Hi Libi, nice to meet you. Can you feel it?
I'll be the most powerful leader in the world.
Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say
Copyright 2016 by Wolfgang Hampel
All rights reserved
Betty MacDonald was sitting on her egg-shaped cloud and listened to a rather strange guy.
He said to his friends: So sorry to keep you waiting. Very complicated business! Very complicated!
Betty said: Obviously much too complicated for you old toupee!
Besides him ( by the way the First Lady's place ) his 10 year old son was bored to death and listened to this 'exciting' victory speech.
The old man could be his great-grandfather.
The boy was very tired and thought: I don't know what this old guy is talking about. Come on and finish it, please. I'd like to go to bed.
Dear 'great-grandfather' continued and praised the Democratic candidate.
He congratulated her and her family for a very strong campaign although he wanted to put her in jail.
He always called her the most corrupt person ever and repeated it over and over again in the fashion of a Tibetan prayer wheel.
She is so corrupt. She is so corrupt. Do you know how corrupt she is?
Betty MacDonald couldn't believe it when he said: She has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.
Afterwards old toupee praised his parents, wife, children, siblings and friends.
He asked the same question like a parrot all the time:
Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
I know you are here!
Betty MacDonald answered: No Pussy they are not! They left the country.
They immigrated to Canada because they are very much afraid of the future in the U.S.A. with you as their leader like the majority of all so-called more or less normal citizens.
By the way keep your finger far away from the pussies and the Red Button, please.
I'm going to fly with my egg-shaped cloud to Canada within a minute too.
Away - away - there is nothing more to say!
I can understand the reason why Betty MacDonald, Barbara Streisand, other artists and several of my friends want to leave the United States of America.
I totally agree with these comments:
This
is incredible! I'll You get what you pay/vote for and Trump is the
epitome of this ideology. America I won't feel bad for you because you
don't need my sympathy for what's coming but I am genuinely scared for
you. 'Forgive them lord for they know not who they do' or maybe they do
but just don't care about their future generations who will suffer for
this long after the culprits have passed away.
Daniel Mount wrote a great article about Betty MacDonald and her garden.
We hope you'll enjoy it very much.
I adore Mount Rainier and Betty MacDonald's outstanding descriptions
Can you remember in which book you can find it?
If so let us know, please and you might be the next Betty MacDonald fan club contest winner.
I hope we'll be able to read Wolfgang Hampel's new very well researched stories about Betty MacDonald, Robert Eugene Heskett, Donald Chauncey MacDonald, Darsie Bard, Sydney Bard, Gammy, Alison Bard Burnett, Darsie Beck, Mary Bard Jensen, Clyde Reynolds Jensen, Sydney Cleveland Bard, Mary Alice Bard, Dorothea DeDe Goldsmith, Madge Baldwin, Don Woodfin, Mike Gordon, Ma and Pa Kettle, Nancy and Plum, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and others - very soon.
It' s such a pleasure to read them.
Let's go to magical Betty MacDonald's Vashon Island.
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund and Betty MacDonald fan club research team share their recent Betty MacDonald fan club research results.
Congratulations! They found the most interesting and important info for Wolfgang Hampel's oustanding Betty MacDonald biography.
I enjoy Bradley Craft's story very much.
Don't miss our Betty MacDonald fan club contests, please.
You can win a never published before Alison Bard Burnett interview by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel.
Good luck!
This CD is a golden treasure because Betty MacDonald's very witty sister Alison Bard Burnett shares unique stories about Betty MacDonald, Mary Bard Jensen, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Nancy and Plum.
Wolfgang Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty MacDonald interviews have fans in 40 countries. I'm one of their many devoted fans.
Many Betty MacDonald - and Wolfgang Hampel fans are very interested in a Wolfgang Hampel CD and DVD with his very funny poems and stories.
We are going to publish new Betty MacDonald essays on Betty MacDonald's gardens and nature in Washington State.
Tell us the names of this mysterious couple please and you can win a very new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is beloved all over the World.
We are so happy that our 'Casanova' is back.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are going to share very
interesting info on ' Betty MacDonald and the movie The Egg and I '.
Another rare episode (from March 21 1952) of the short-lived comedy soap opera, "The Egg and I," based on best selling book by Betty MacDonald which also became a popular film.
The series premiered on September 3, 1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1, 1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Enjoy a great breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Wishing you a very nice Saturday with lots of fun and joy
Andrea
Another rare episode (from March 21 1952) of the short-lived comedy soap opera, "The Egg and I," based on best selling book by Betty MacDonald which also became a popular film.
The series premiered on September 3, 1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1, 1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Enjoy a great breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Wishing you a very nice Saturday with lots of fun and joy
Andrea
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald
Betty MacDonald fan club
Betty MacDonald forum
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( Polski)
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - LinkFang ( German ) Wolfgang Hampel - Academic ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - cyclopaedia.net ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - DBpedia ( English / German )
Wolfgang Hampel - people check ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Memim ( English )
Vashon Island - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )
Wolfgang Hampel - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - Wikipedia ( English)
Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD
Betty MacDonald fan club items
Betty MacDonald fan club items - comments
Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I
Betty MacDonald fan club groups
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Greta Larson
Betty MacDonald fan club fan Heiderose Teynor
Stephen King Just Summed Up Trump’s Attack On Meryl Streep Brilliantly
By
Posted on
As he so often does, King nails exactly what is disturbing about Trump’s hypersensitivity and the danger it presents to the American people. To be the leader of the United States of America requires a certain thickness of skin; a need to rise above slights real and perceived in order to put the good of the country before your own ego.
But Trump is incapable of ignoring even the pettiest of slights.
The presidency of the United States is perhaps the most emotionally taxing job in the world, and requires great personal strength and conviction to properly execute. The well-being of millions of people lie in the hands of the president, along with their very lives.
Trump’s inability to let a perceived slight from an actress who didn’t even call him out by name – and his insistent need to insult and demean his critics – shows just how emotionally immature he is and how unqualified he is to lead this nation.
Friday January 13, 2017
Donald Trump news conference 'clear attack on the free press'
President-elect Donald Trump refused to answer questions
from CNN at his first news conference, Jan 11, 2017, declaring the news
outlet as 'fake news.' (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
more stories from this episode
- Donald Trump news conference 'clear attack on the free press'
- 1 in 10 Canadians can't afford prescriptions: the case for national pharmacare
- Ont.'s anti-human trafficking director knows first-hand about 'hidden' crime
- We're bad at feeling compassion for large groups, says psychology professor
- January 13, 2017 full episode transcript
- Full Episode
On Jan. 11, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump held his first press conference in months.
It was at this news conference Trump declared CNN as so-called "fake news" and refused to take questions relating to the network's report on unverified intelligence documents that suggests Russia has compromising information on the president-elect.
Some observers worry this move signals a presidency that is already taking an authoritarian tone. And it has journalists having to explore the best ways to cover the incoming U.S. administration.
"This is a clear attack on the free press. It's violating every norm and standard that we have in countries like the United States and Canada," policy analyst Jasmin Mujanović tells The Current's Friday host Laura Lynch.
"It's signaling that he intends to … fundamentally remake what it means to live in a republic of laws in the United States."
Trump on fake news0:45
"I don't think it's an accident that some of the most prescient analysis and critique that has come out over the last year year and a half has been from people who have studied authoritarianism, you know in the Middle East and Eastern Europe etc."
He tells Lynch that Trump normalizing lying on public record as a means of public policy and as a means of governance as well as normalizing fringe extreme movements, "are all incredible blaring red flags."
Political columnist Susan Delacourt takes issue with journalists in that news conference telling Lynch "they were egging [Trump] on and trying to get him to say something scandalous."
"It was kind of a dereliction of duty on the part of the media I thought."
Trump's conduct at his recent news conference
is 'not becoming of someone who purports to be the leader of the free
world or at the very least the leader of a democratic republic,' says
policy analyst Jasmin Mujanović. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)
"Donald Trump is a marketer. He's a businessman and he thinks that the media is there primarily to help him do his job and when it doesn't he's you know 'you're fired' or 'you're fake news' or he can shout them down."
"The problem is is that the line between using the media for that purpose and then just discounting them altogether is it can be easily breached."
When it comes to holding Trump to account, Mujanović has little faith the media can make that happen.
"I don't want that to be interpreted as an attack on the media. I have colleagues who work in journalism. I just think that the issue is that reporters in the United States and Canada and large parts of Europe really have no first-hand experience with authoritarianism so to them this is this is entertainment. This is a circus."
Delacourt's advice to the Washington press corporations over the next four years:
"Don't allow yourself to be played off each other. Hang together."
"And remember that your job is a public service that sometimes competition between the media is not as important as the public service — a democratic rule of the media."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Pacinthe Mattar, Ines Colabrese and Sujata Berry.
How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump
WASHINGTON
— Seven months ago, a respected former British spy named Christopher
Steele won a contract to build a file on Donald J. Trump’s ties to
Russia. Last week, the explosive details — unsubstantiated accounts of
frolics with prostitutes, real estate deals that were intended as bribes
and coordination with Russian intelligence of the hacking of Democrats —
were summarized for Mr. Trump in an appendix to a top-secret intelligence report.
The
consequences have been incalculable and will play out long past
Inauguration Day. Word of the summary, which was also given to President
Obama and congressional leaders, leaked to CNN Tuesday, and the rest of
the media followed with sensational reports.
Mr.
Trump denounced the unproven claims Wednesday as a fabrication, a
Nazi-style smear concocted by “sick people.” It has further undermined
his relationship with the intelligence agencies and cast a shadow over
the new administration.
Late
Wednesday night, after speaking with Mr. Trump, James R. Clapper Jr.,
the director of national intelligence, issued a statement decrying leaks
about the matter and saying of Mr. Steele’s dossier that the
intelligence agencies have “not made any judgment that the information
in this document is reliable.” Mr. Clapper suggested that intelligence
officials had nonetheless shared it to give policy makers “the fullest
possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.”
Parts
of the story remain out of reach — most critically the basic question
of how much, if anything, in the dossier is true. But it is possible to
piece together a rough narrative of what led to the current crisis,
including lingering questions about the ties binding Mr. Trump and his
team to Russia. The episode also offers a glimpse of the hidden side of
presidential campaigns, involving private sleuths-for-hire looking for
the worst they can find about the next American leader.
The
story began in September 2015, when a wealthy Republican donor who
strongly opposed Mr. Trump put up the money to hire a Washington
research firm run by former journalists, Fusion GPS, to compile a
dossier about the real estate magnate’s past scandals and weaknesses,
according to a person familiar with the effort. The person described the
opposition research work on condition of anonymity, citing the volatile
nature of the story and the likelihood of future legal disputes. The
identity of the donor is unclear.
Fusion
GPS, headed by a former Wall Street Journal journalist known for his
dogged reporting, Glenn Simpson, most often works for business clients.
But in presidential elections, the firm is sometimes hired by
candidates, party organizations or donors to do political “oppo” work —
shorthand for opposition research — on the side.
It
is routine work and ordinarily involves creating a big, searchable
database of public information: past news reports, documents from
lawsuits and other relevant data. For months, Fusion GPS gathered the
documents and put together the files from Mr. Trump’s past in business
and entertainment, a rich target.
After
Mr. Trump emerged as the presumptive nominee in the spring, the
Republican interest in financing the effort ended. But Democratic
supporters of Hillary Clinton were very interested, and Fusion GPS kept
doing the same deep dives, but on behalf of new clients.
In June, the tenor of the effort suddenly changed. The Washington Post reported that the Democratic National Committee had been hacked, apparently by Russian government agents, and a mysterious figure calling himself “Guccifer 2.0” began to publish the stolen documents online.
Mr.
Simpson hired Mr. Steele, a former British intelligence officer with
whom he had worked before. Mr. Steele, in his early 50s, had served
undercover in Moscow in the early 1990s and later was the top expert on
Russia at the London headquarters of Britain’s spy service, MI6. When he
stepped down in 2009, he started his own commercial intelligence firm,
Orbis Business Intelligence.
The
former journalist and the former spy, according to people who know
them, had similarly dark views of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia,
a former K.G.B. officer, and the varied tactics he and his intelligence
operatives used to smear, blackmail or bribe their targets.
As
a former spy who had carried out espionage inside Russia, Mr. Steele
was in no position to travel to Moscow to study Mr. Trump’s connections
there. Instead, he hired native Russian speakers to call informants
inside Russia and made surreptitious contact with his own connections in
the country as well.
Mr.
Steele wrote up his findings in a series of memos, each a few pages
long, that he began to deliver to Fusion GPS in June and continued at
least until December. By then, the election was over, and neither Mr.
Steele nor Mr. Simpson was being paid by a client, but they did not stop
what they believed to be very important work. (Mr. Simpson declined to
comment for this article, and Mr. Steele did not immediately reply to a
request for comment.)
The
memos described two different Russian operations. The first was a
yearslong effort to find a way to influence Mr. Trump, perhaps because
he had contacts with Russian oligarchs whom Mr. Putin wanted to keep
track of. According to Mr. Steele’s memos, it used an array of familiar
tactics: the gathering of “kompromat,” compromising material such as
alleged tapes of Mr. Trump with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel, and
proposals for business deals attractive to Mr. Trump.
The
goal would probably never have been to make Mr. Trump a knowing agent
of Russia, but to make him a source who might provide information to
friendly Russian contacts. But if Mr. Putin and his agents wanted to
entangle Mr. Trump using business deals, they did not do it very
successfully. Mr. Trump has said he has no major properties there,
though one of his sons said at a real estate conference in 2008 that “a
lot of money” was “pouring in from Russia.”
The
second Russian operation described was recent: a series of contacts
with Mr. Trump’s representatives during the campaign, in part to discuss
the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Mrs. Clinton’s
campaign chairman, John D. Podesta. According to Mr. Steele’s sources,
it involved, among other things, a late-summer meeting in Prague between
Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, and Oleg Solodukhin, a Russian
official who works for Rossotrudnichestvo, an organization that promotes
Russia’s interests abroad.
By
all accounts, Mr. Steele has an excellent reputation with American and
British intelligence colleagues and had done work for the F.B.I. on the
investigation of bribery at FIFA, soccer’s global governing body.
Colleagues say he was acutely aware of the danger he and his associates
were being fed Russian disinformation. Russian intelligence had mounted a
complex hacking operation to damage Mrs. Clinton, and a similar
operation against Mr. Trump was possible.
But
much of what he was told, and passed on to Fusion GPS, was very
difficult to check. And some of the claims that can be checked seem
problematic. Mr. Cohen, for instance, said on Twitter on Tuesday night that he has never been in Prague; Mr. Solodukhin, his purported Russian contact, denied in a telephone interview
that he had ever met Mr. Cohen or anyone associated with Mr. Trump. The
president-elect on Wednesday cited news reports that a different
Michael Cohen with no Trump ties may have visited Prague and that the
two Cohens might have been mixed up in Mr. Steele’s reports.
But
word of a dossier had begun to spread through political circles. Rick
Wilson, a Republican political operative who was working for a super PAC
supporting Marco Rubio, said he heard about it in July, when an
investigative reporter for a major news network called him to ask what
he knew.
By
early fall, some of Mr. Steele’s memos had been given to the F.B.I.,
which was already investigating Mr. Trump’s Russian ties, and to
journalists. An MI6 official, whose job does not permit him to be quoted
by name, said that in late summer or early fall, Mr. Steele also passed
the reports he had prepared on Mr. Trump and Russia to British
intelligence. Mr. Steele was concerned about what he was hearing about
Mr. Trump, and he thought that the information should not be solely in
the hands of people looking to win a political contest.
After
the election, the memos, still being supplemented by his inquiries,
became one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets, as reporters — including
from The New York Times — scrambled to confirm or disprove them.
Word
also reached Capitol Hill. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona,
heard about the dossier and obtained a copy in December from David J.
Kramer, a former top State Department official who works for the McCain
Institute at Arizona State University. Mr. McCain passed the information
to James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director.
Remarkably
for Washington, many reporters for competing news organizations had the
salacious and damning memos, but they did not leak, because their
contents could not be confirmed. (Mother Jones magazine was an
exception, publishing a story on Oct. 31
that described the dossier, its origin and significance, while omitting
the titillating details.) That changed only this week, after the heads
of the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency added a
summary of the memos, along with information gathered from other
intelligence sources, to their report on the Russian cyberattack on the
election.
Now,
after the most contentious of elections, Americans are divided and
confused about what to believe about the incoming president. And there
is no prospect soon for full clarity on the veracity of the claims made
against him.
“It is a remarkable moment in history,” said Mr. Wilson, the Florida political operative. “What world did I wake up in?”
Jonathan Martin, Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and in the Morning Briefing newsletter.
A version of this article appears in print on January 12, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: How a Crisis Spilled Out of a Sensational, Unverified Dossier. McCain unloads on Putin during Mattis confirmation hearing: ‘He needs us as his enemy’
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unloaded on Russian President
Vladimir Putin Thursday during Defense Secretary-designate Gen. James
Mattis’ confirmation hearing.
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that, under Putin, Russia has “invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, threatened NATO allies, intervened militarily in Syria, leaving a trail of death and destruction and broken promises in his wake.”
“Russia’s military has targeted Syrian hospitals and first responders with precision weapons,” McCain added. “Russia supplied the weapons that shot down a commercial aircraft in Ukraine. Russia’s war on Ukraine has killed thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.”
The senator pointed out that Putin’s “disrespect for our nation” is evidenced by Russia’s deliberate interference in the November election through “cyber attacks and a disinformation campaign designed to weaken America and discredit Western values.”
McCain said that he has watched three presidents fail to improve relations with Russia — and those failures were not due to “a lack of good faith and effort on the U.S. side”: “Putin wants to be our enemy. He needs us as his enemy. He will never be our partner, including in fighting ISIL. He believes that strengthening Russia means weakening America.”
“We must proceed realistically on this basis,” McCain continued, adding that the United States must display strength to any “adversary that seeks to undermine our national interest and challenge the world order.”
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that, under Putin, Russia has “invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, threatened NATO allies, intervened militarily in Syria, leaving a trail of death and destruction and broken promises in his wake.”
“Russia’s military has targeted Syrian hospitals and first responders with precision weapons,” McCain added. “Russia supplied the weapons that shot down a commercial aircraft in Ukraine. Russia’s war on Ukraine has killed thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.”
The senator pointed out that Putin’s “disrespect for our nation” is evidenced by Russia’s deliberate interference in the November election through “cyber attacks and a disinformation campaign designed to weaken America and discredit Western values.”
McCain said that he has watched three presidents fail to improve relations with Russia — and those failures were not due to “a lack of good faith and effort on the U.S. side”: “Putin wants to be our enemy. He needs us as his enemy. He will never be our partner, including in fighting ISIL. He believes that strengthening Russia means weakening America.”
“We must proceed realistically on this basis,” McCain continued, adding that the United States must display strength to any “adversary that seeks to undermine our national interest and challenge the world order.”
Politics
Donald Trump’s News Conference: Full Transcript and Video
The
following is a complete transcript of a news conference that
President-elect Donald J. Trump held in New York on Wednesday, as
prepared by the Federal News Service.
SEAN SPICER:
Morning. Thanks for being here (inaudible) days away from the
inauguration of the next president and vice president of the United
States. It’s an opportunity to be here today to allow the
president-elect to take your questions.
After
the president-elect makes some remarks, he will introduce Ms. Sheri
Dillon, a prominent attorney in Washington, D.C., with the prestigious
firm of Morgan Lewis who will — who structured the agreements pursuant
to the president’s business arrangements and she will give brief
remarks.
Before
we start, I want to bring your attention to a few points on the report
that was published in BuzzFeed last night. It’s frankly outrageous and
highly irresponsible for a left-wing blog that was openly hostile to the
president-elect’s campaign to drop highly salacious and flat-out false
information on the internet just days before he takes the oath of
office.
According
to BuzzFeed’s own editor, there are some serious reasons to doubt the
allegations in the report. The executive editor of The New York Times
also dismissed the report by saying it was, quote, “Totally
unsubstantiated, echoing the concerns that many other reporters
expressed on the internet.”
SPICER:
The fact that BuzzFeed and CNN made the decision to run with this
unsubstantiated claim is a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks. The
report is not an intelligence report, plain and simple. One issue that
the report talked about was the relationship of three individuals
associated with the campaign. These three individuals; Paul Manafort,
Michael Cohen and Carter Page.
Carter
Page is an individual who the president-elect does not know and was put
on notice months ago by the campaign. Paul Manafort has adamantly
denied any of this involvement and Michael Cohen, who is said to have
visited Prague in August and September did not leave or enter the United
States during this time. We asked him to produce his passport to
confirm his whereabouts on the dates in question and there was no doubt
that he was not in Prague.
In
fact, Mr. Cohen has never been in Prague. A new report actually
suggests that Michael Cohen was at — at the University of Southern
California with his son at a baseball game. One report now suggested
apparently it’s another Michael Cohen. For all the talk lately about
fake news, this political witch hunt by some in the media is based on
some of the most flimsy reporting and is frankly shameful and
disgraceful.
With that, it is my honor to introduce the next vice president of the United States, Mike Pence.
(APPLAUSE)
PENCE: We are nine days away from the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
I
am profoundly honored and humbled that I will take the oath of office
to serve as vice president of the United States nine days from today,
but I’m even more honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with a new
president who will make America great again.
(APPLAUSE)
Now,
the president-elect’s leadership and his energy during the campaign was
impressive. But as the chairman of the transition effort, I can assure
the American people that his energy and his vision during the course of
this transition has been even more inspiring. To see the way he has
brought together men and women of extraordinary capability at a historic
pace in this cabinet.
Nineteen
of the 21 cabinet officials have been announced, nine committee
hearings already scheduled, seven more soon to go on the books in the
next several days and it is a — it is a compilation of men and women
with an unprecedented caliber of leadership and background to help this
administration move our nation forward. Perhaps that’s why there’s been
such a concerted effort by some in the mainstream media to delegitimize
this election and to demean our incoming administration.
You
know, I have long been a supporter of a free and independent press and I
always will be. But with freedom comes responsibility. And the
irresponsible decision of a few news organizations to run with a false
and unsubstantiated report, when most news organizations resisted the
temptation to propagate this fake news, can only be attributed to media
bias and attempt to demean the president-elect and our incoming
administration and the American people are sick and tired of it.
(APPLAUSE)
But
today, we’ll get back to real news, to real facts and the real progress
our incoming president has already made in reviving the American
economy and assembling a team that will make America great again. And
we’ll hear from the president-elect about issues that are of paramount
importance to the American people today.
So, it is my honor to introduce to all of you, my friend and the president-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
It’s
very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them
on an almost daily basis. I think we probably maybe won the nomination
because of news conferences and it’s good to be with you.
TRUMP:
We stopped giving them because we were getting quite a bit of
inaccurate news, but I do have to say that — and I must say that I want
to thank a lot of the news organizations here today because they looked
at that nonsense that was released by maybe the intelligence agencies?
Who knows, but maybe the intelligence agencies which would be a
tremendous blot on their record if they in fact did that. A tremendous
blot, because a thing like that should have never been written, it
should never have been had and it should certainly never been released.
But
I want to thank a lot of the news organizations for some of whom have
not treated me very well over the years — a couple in particular — and
they came out so strongly against that fake news and the fact that it
was written about by primarily one group and one television station.
So,
I just want to compliment many of the people in the room. I have great
respect for the news and great respect for freedom of the press and all
of that. But I will tell you, there were some news organizations with
all that was just said that were so professional — so incredibly
professional, that I’ve just gone up a notch as to what I think of you.
OK?
All
right. We’ve had some great news over the last couple of weeks. I’ve
been quite active, I guess you could say, in an economic way for the
country. A lot of car companies are going to be moving in, we have other
companies — big news is going to be announced over the next couple of
weeks about companies that are getting building in the Midwest.
You
saw yesterday Fiat Chrysler; big, big factory going to be built in this
country as opposed to another country. Ford just announced that they
stopped plans for a billion dollar plant in Mexico and they’re going to
be moving into Michigan and expanding, very substantially, an existing
plant.
I
appreciate that from Ford. I appreciate it very much from Fiat
Chrysler. I hope that General Motors will be following and I think they
will be. I think a lot of people will be following. I think a lot of
industries are going to be coming back.
We’ve
got to get our drug industry back. Our drug industry has been
disastrous. They’re leaving left and right. They supply our drugs, but
they don’t make them here, to a large extent. And the other thing we
have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry
because they’re getting away with murder.
Pharma,
pharma has a lot of lobbies and a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power
and there’s very little bidding on drugs. We’re the largest buyer of
drugs in the world and yet we don’t bid properly and we’re going to
start bidding and we’re going to save billions of dollars over a period
of time.
And
we’re going to do that with a lot of other industries. I’m very much
involved with the generals and admirals on the airplane, the F-35,
you’ve been reading about it. And it’s way, way behind schedule and
many, many billions of dollars over budget. I don’t like that. And the
admirals have been fantastic, the generals have been fantastic. I’ve
really gotten to know them well. And we’re going to do some big things
on the F-35 program, and perhaps the F-18 program. And we’re going to
get those costs way down and we’re going to get the plane to be even
better. And we’re going to have some competition and it’s going to be a
beautiful thing.
So,
we’ve been very, very much involved, and other things. We had Jack Ma,
we had so many incredible people coming here. There are no — they’re
going to do tremendous things — tremendous things in this country. And
they’re very excited.
And
I will say, if the election didn’t turn out the way it turned out, they
would not be here. They would not be in my office. They would not be in
anybody else’s office. They’d be building and doing things in other
countries. So, there’s a great spirit going on right now. A spirit that
many people have told me they’ve never seen before, ever.
We’re
going to create jobs. I said that I will be the greatest jobs producer
that God ever created. And I mean that, I really — I’m going to work
very hard on that. We need certain amounts of other things, including a
little bit of luck, but I think we’re going to do a real job. And I’m
very proud of what we’ve done.
And
we haven’t even gotten there yet. I look very much forward to the
inauguration. It’s going to be a beautiful event. We have great talent,
tremendous talent. And we have the — all of the bands — or most of the
bands are from the different — from the different segments of the
military. And I’ve heard some of these bands over the years, they’re
incredible.
We’re
going to have a very, very elegant day. The 20th is going to be
something that will be very, very special; very beautiful. And I think
we’re going to have massive crowds because we have a movement.
TRUMP:
It’s a movement like the world has never seen before. It’s a movement
that a lot of people didn’t expect. And even the polls — although some
of them did get it right, but many of them didn’t. And that was a
beautiful scene on November 8th as those states started to pour in.
And
we focused very hard in those states and they really reciprocated. And
those states are gonna have a lot of jobs and they’re gonna have a lot
of security. They’re going to have a lot of good news for their
veterans.
And
by the way, speaking of veterans, I appointed today the head secretary
of the Veterans Administration, David Shulkin. And we’ll do a news
release in a little while. Tell you about David, he’s fantastic — he’s
fantastic. He will do a truly great job.
One
of the commitments I made is that we’re gonna straighten out the whole
situation for our veterans. Our veterans have been treated horribly.
They’re waiting in line for 15, 16, 17 days, cases where they go in and
they have a minor early-stage form of cancer and they can’t see a
doctor. By the time they get to the doctor, they’re terminal. Not gonna
happen, it’s not gonna happen.
So,
David is going to do a fantastic job. We’re going to be talking to a
few people also to help David. And we have some of the great hospitals
of the world going to align themselves with us on the Veterans
Administration, like the Cleveland Clinic, like the Mayo Clinic, a few
more than we have. And we’re gonna set up a — a group.
These
are hospitals that have been the top of the line, the absolute top of
the line. And they’re going to get together with their great doctors —
Dr. Toby Cosgrove, as you know from the Cleveland Clinic, has been very
involved.
Ike
Perlmutter has been very, very involved, one of the great men of
business. And we’re gonna straighten out the V.A. for our veterans. I’ve
been promising that for a long time and it’s something I feel very,
very strongly.
So,
you’ll get the information on David. And I think you’ll be very
impressed with the job he does. We looked long and hard. We interviewed
at least 100 people, some good, some not so good. But we had a lot of
talent. And we think this election will be something that will, with
time — with time, straighten it out and straighten it out for good
‘cause our veterans have been treated very unfairly.
OK, questions? Yes, John (ph)?
QUESTION: (Inaudible) so much.
TRUMP: Thank you.
QUESTION: Appreciate it.
A couple of aspects of the intelligence briefing that you received on Friday that we’re looking for further clarification on.
TRUMP: Sure.
QUESTION:
First of all, did the heads of the intelligence agencies provide you
with the two-page summary of these unsubstantiated allegations? And
secondly to that, on the broader picture, do you accept their opinion
that Vladimir Putin ordered the hack of the DNC and the attempted hack
of the RNC?
And
if you do, how will that color your attempts to build a relationship
with a leader who has been accused of committing an act of espionage
against the United States?
TRUMP:
OK, first of all, these readings as you know are confidential,
classified. So, I’m not allowed to talk about what went on in a meeting.
And
— but we had many witnesses in that meeting, many of them with us. And I
will say, again, I think it’s a disgrace that information would be let
out.
I
saw the information; I read the information outside of that meeting.
It’s all fake news. It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen. And it was
gotten by opponents of ours, as you know, because you reported it and so
did many of the other people. It was a group of opponents that got
together — sick people — and they put that crap together.
So,
I will tell you that not within the meeting, but outside of the
meeting, somebody released it. It should have never been — number one,
shouldn’t have even entered paper. But it should have never have been
released. But I read what was released and I think it’s a disgrace. I
think it’s an absolute disgrace.
As
far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked
by other countries and other people. And I — I can say that you know
when — when we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked
recently, they didn’t make a big deal out of that. That was something
that was extraordinary. That was probably China.
We
had — we had much hacking going on. And one of the things we’re gonna
do, we have some of the greatest computer minds anywhere in the world
that we’ve assembled. You saw just a sample of it two weeks ago up here
where we had the six top people in the world — they were never in the
same room together as a group. And we’re gonna put those minds together
and we’re going to form a defense.
TRUMP:
And I have to say this also, the Democratic National Committee was
totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job. They could’ve had
hacking defense, which we had.
And
I will give Reince Priebus credit, because when Reince saw what was
happening in the world and with this country, he went out and went to
various firms and ordered a very, very strong hacking defense.
And they tried to hack the Republican National Committee and they were unable to break through.
We have to do that for our country. It’s very important.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
... just to the last part of that question (inaudible) how could all of
this potentially color your attempts to build a better relationship
with President Putin?
TRUMP:
Well, you know, President Putin and Russia put out a statement today
that this fake news was indeed fake news. They said it totally never
happened.
Now, somebody would say, “Oh, of course he’s gonna say that.”
I respected the fact that he said that.
And I — I’ll be honest, I think if he did have something, they would’ve released it; they would’ve been glad to release it.
I
think, frankly, had they broken into the Republican National Committee,
I think they would’ve released it just like they did about Hillary and
all of the horrible things that her people, like Mr. Podesta, said about
her. I mean what he said about her was horrible.
If
somebody said about me, what Podesta said about Hillary, I was the
boss, I would’ve fired him immediately or that person. Because what he
said about her was horrible.
But
remember this: We talk about the hacking and hacking’s bad and it
shouldn’t be done. But look at the things that were hacked, look at what
was learned from that hacking.
That Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didn’t report it? That’s a horrible thing. That’s a horrible thing.
Can
you imagine that if Donald Trump got the questions to the debate — it
would’ve been the biggest story in the history of stories. And they
would’ve said immediately, “You have to get out of the race.” Nobody
even talked about it. It’s a very terrible thing.
Yeah?
QUESTION: Can I ask you a question, sir?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect.
On
that intelligence report, the second part of their conclusion was that
Vladimir Putin ordered it because he aspired to help you in the
election.
Do
you accept that part of the finding? And will you undo what President
Obama did to punish the Russians for this or will you keep it in place?
TRUMP:
Well, if — if Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a
liability, because we have a horrible relationship with Russia. Russia
can help us fight ISIS, which, by the way, is, number one, tricky. I
mean if you look, this administration created ISIS by leaving at the
wrong time. The void was created, ISIS was formed.
If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks? That’s called an asset, not a liability.
Now,
I don’t know that I’m gonna get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do.
But there’s a good chance I won’t. And if I don’t, do you honestly
believe that Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me? Does anybody in
this room really believe that? Give me a break.
OK?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... President Obama...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
... make clear whether during your visits to either Moscow or St.
Petersburg, you engaged in conduct that you now regret and that a
reasonable...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
Would a reasonable observer say that you are potentially vulnerable to
blackmail by Russia or by its intelligence agencies?
TRUMP: Lemme just tell you what I do.
When I leave our country, I’m a very high-profile person, would you say?
I am extremely careful. I’m surrounded by bodyguards. I’m surrounded by people.
And
I always tell them — anywhere, but I always tell them if I’m leaving
this country, “Be very careful, because in your hotel rooms and no
matter where you go, you’re gonna probably have cameras.” I’m not
referring just to Russia, but I would certainly put them in that
category.
And
number one, “I hope you’re gonna be good anyway. But in those rooms,
you have cameras in the strangest places. Cameras that are so small with
modern technology, you can’t see them and you won’t know. You better be
careful, or you’ll be watching yourself on nightly television.”
I tell this to people all the time.
I was in Russia years ago, with the Miss Universe contest, which did very well — Moscow, the Moscow area did very, very well.
And I told many people, “Be careful, because you don’t wanna see yourself on television. Cameras all over the place.”
And again, not just Russia, all over.
Does anyone really believe that story?
I’m also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
... how you plan to disentangle yourself from your business. But first,
I have to follow-up on some of these Russian remarks.
Based
on your comments here today, do you believe the hacking was justified?
Does Russia have any leverage over you, financial or otherwise? And if
not, will you release your tax returns to prove it?
TRUMP:
So I tweeted out that I have no dealings with Russia. I have no deals
that could happen in Russia, because we’ve stayed away. And I have no
loans with Russia.
As
a real estate developer, I have very, very little debt. I have assets
that are — and now people have found out how big the company is, I have
very little debt — I have very low debt. But I have no loans with Russia
at all.
And
I thought that was important to put out. I certified that. So I have no
deals, I have no loans and I have no dealings. We could make deals in
Russia very easily if we wanted to, I just don’t want to because I think
that would be a conflict. So I have no loans, no dealings, and no
current pending deals.
Now,
I have to say one other thing. Over the weekend, I was offered $2
billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a
great, great developer from the Middle East, Hussein Damack, a friend of
mine, great guy. And I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai — a
number of deals and I turned it down.
I
didn’t have to turn it down, because as you know, I have a no-conflict
situation because I’m president, which is — I didn’t know about that
until about three months ago, but it’s a nice thing to have. But I don’t
want to take advantage of something. I have something that others don’t
have, Vice President Pence also has it. I don’t think he’ll need it, I
have a feeling he’s not going to need it.
But
I have a no conflict of interest provision as president. It was many,
many years old, this is for presidents. Because they don’t want
presidents getting — I understand they don’t want presidents getting
tangled up in minutia; they want a president to run the country. So I
could actually run my business, I could actually run my business and run
government at the same time.
I
don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I
wanted to. I would be the only one to be able to do that. You can’t do
that in any other capacity. But as president, I could run the Trump
organization, great, great company, and I could run the company — the
country. I’d do a very good job, but I don’t want to do that.
Now, all of these papers that you see here — yes, go ahead.
QUESTION:
(inaudible) do you believe the hacking was justified? And will you
release your tax returns to prove what you’re saying about no deals in
Russia?
TRUMP: I’m not releasing the tax returns because as you know, they’re under audit.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... since the ’70’s has had a required audit from the IRS, the last place to release them, but as president sir...
TRUMP: You know, the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters, OK? They’re the only who ask.
QUESTION: You don’t think the American public is concerned about it?
TRUMP: No I don’t think so. I won, when I became president. No, I don’t think they care at all. I don’t think they care at all.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP:
I think you care — I think you care. First of all, you learn very
little to a tax return. What you should go down to federal elections and
take a look at the numbers. And actually, people have learned a lot
about my company and now they realize, my company is much bigger, much
more powerful than they ever thought. We’re in many, many countries, and
I’m very proud of it.
And
what I’m going to be doing is my two sons, who are right here, Don and
Eric, are going to be running the company. They are going to be running
it in a very professional manner. They’re not going to discuss it with
me. Again, I don’t have to do this. They’re not going to discuss it with
me. And with that, I’m going to bring up Sheri Dillon, and she’s going
to go — these papers are just some of the many documents that I’ve
signed turning over complete and total control to my sons.
(CROSSTALK)
DILLON: Good morning. It’s my honor and privilege to be here today at President-elect Trump’s request.
He’s
asked me, as you just heard, to speak about the conflicts of interest
and the steps he’s taking. As you know, the business empire built by
President-elect Trump over the years is massive, not dissimilar to the
fortunes of Nelson Rockefeller when he became vice president. But at
that time, no one was so concerned.
President-elect
Trump wants the American public to rest assured that all of his efforts
are directed to pursuing the people’s business and not his own. To that
end, as he explained a few moments ago, he directed me and my
colleagues at the law firm Morgan Lewis and Bockius to design a
structure for his business empire that will completely isolate him from
the management of the company.
He
further instructed that we build in protections that will assure the
American people the decisions he makes and the actions that he takes as
president are for their benefit and not to support his financial
interests.
DILLON:
As he said, he’s voluntarily taking this on. The conflicts of interest
laws simply do not apply to the president or the vice president and they
are not required to separate themselves from their financial assets.
The primary conflicts of interest statutes and some have questioned it,
is Section 18 USC 208 and it’s simply inapplicable by its terms. And
this is not just our interpretation. It’s Congress itself who have made
this clear in 1989 when it amended Section 18 USC 202 to state that,
except as otherwise provided, the terms office and employee in section
208 shall not include the president.
Even
so, President-elect Trump wants there to be no doubt in the minds of
the American public that he is completely isolating himself from his
business interests. He instructed us to take all steps realistically
possible to make it clear that he is not exploiting the office of the
presidency for his personal benefit. He also sought the guidance of
individuals who are familiar with and have worked extensively in the
fields of government ethics and constitutional law.
Critical
to the Morgan Lewis team is Fred Fielding, standing here to our side
and with us today and many of you have known him. He has served several
presidents over the years including serving as counsel to Presidents
Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush as well as serving on President George
H.W. Bush’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform and he also held the
position of vice chair of the Ethics Resource Center.
Mr.
Fielding has been extensively involved with and approved this plan.
He’s here today to support the plan and he will continue to provide
guidance as the plan is implemented and as Eric, Don, along with others,
take over management of the Trump organization.
I’m
gonna detail some of the extraordinary steps now that the
president-elect is taking. First, President-elect Trump’s investments
and business assets commonly known as the — as the Trump Organization,
comprising hundreds of entities which, again, if you all go and take a
look at his financial disclosure statement, the pages and pages and
pages of entities have all been or will be conveyed to a trust prior to
January 20th. Here is just some of the paperwork that’s taking care of
those actions.
Second,
through the trust agreement, he has relinquished leadership and
management of the Trump Organization to his sons Don and Eric and a
longtime Trump executive, Allen Weisselberg. Together, Don, Eric and
Allen will have the authority to manage the Trump Organization and will
make decisions for the duration of the presidency without any
involvement whatsoever by President-elect Trump.
Further,
at the president-elect’s direction, the trust agreement provides — that
to ensure the Trump Organization continues to operate in accordance
with the highest and legal ethics standards, an ethics adviser will be
appointed to the management team. The written approval of the ethics
adviser will be required for new deals, actions, and transactions that
could potentially raise ethics or conflicts of interest concerns.
President-elect
Trump as well as Don, Eric and Allen are committed to ensuring that the
activities of the Trump organization are beyond reproach and cannot be
perceived to be exploitive of the office of the presidency.
President-elect Trump will resign from all officer and other positions
he holds with the Trump Organization entities.
Further,
in addition, his daughter Ivanka will have no further involvement with
or management authority whatsoever with the Trump Organization. As she
and Jared move their family to D.C., Ivanka will focused on settling her
children into their new homes and their new schools.
The
president-elect has also already disposed of all of his investments in
publicly traded or easily liquidated investments. As a result, the trust
will have two types of assets; first, it will hold liquid assets. Cash,
cash equivalents and treasuries and perhaps some positions in a
government approved diversified portfolio, one that is consistent with
the regulations from the Office of Government Ethics.
Second,
the trust is going to hold his preexisting illiquid, but very valuable
business assets, the ones that everyone here is familiar with. Trump
owned, operated and branded golf clubs, commercial rental property,
resorts, hotels, rights to royalties from preexisting licenses of
Trump-Marks Productions and Goods. Things like Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago,
all of his other business assets, 40 Wall Street will all be in the
trust.
Through
instructions in the trust agreement, President-elect trust —
President-elect Trump first ordered that all pending deals be
terminated. This impacted more than 30 deals, many of which were set to
close by the end of 2016. As you can well imagine, that caused an
immediate financial loss of millions of dollars, not just for
President-elect Trump, but also for Don, Ivanka and Eric.
DILLON:
The trust agreement as directed by President Trump imposes severe
restrictions on new deals. No new foreign deals will be made whatsoever
during the duration of President Trump’s presidency. New domestic deals
will be allowed, but they will go through a vigorous vetting process.
The
president-elect will have no role in deciding whether the Trump
Organization engages in any new deal and he will only know of a deal if
he reads it in the paper or sees it on TV. Because any new deal could —
and I emphasize could — be perceived as causing a conflict or as
exploiting the office of the presidency, new deals must be vetted with
the ethics adviser, whose role will be to analyze any potential
transactions for conflicts and ethics issues.
The
ethics adviser will be a recognized expert in the field of government
experts. Again, his role will be to scrutinize the new deals and the
actions, and any new deal must receive written approval.
To
further reinforce the wall that we are building between President-elect
Trump and the Trump Organization, President-elect Trump has ordered,
through his trust agreement, to sharply limit his information rights.
Reports will only be available and reflect profit and loss on the
company as a whole. There will be no separate business by business
accounting.
Another
step that President-elect Trump has taken is he created a new position
at the Trump Organization; the position of chief compliance counsel,
whose responsibility will be to ensure that the Trump businesses, again,
are operating at the highest levels of integrity and not taking any
actions that could be perceived as exploiting the office of the
presidency.
He
has also directed that no communications of the Trump Organization,
including social media accounts, will reference or be tied to
President-elect Trump’s role as president of the United States or the
office of the presidency.
In
sum, all of these actions — complete relinquishment of management, no
foreign deals, ethics adviser approval of deals, sharply limited
information rights — will sever President-elect Trump’s presidency from
the Trump Organization.
Some
have asked questions. Why not divest? Why not just sell everything?
Form of blind trust. And I’d like to turn to addressing some of those
questions now.
Selling,
first and foremost, would not eliminate possibilities of conflicts of
interest. In fact, it would exacerbate them. The Trump brand is key to
the value of the Trump Organization’s assets. If President-elect Trump
sold his brand, he would be entitled to royalties for the use of it, and
this would result in the trust retaining an interest in the brand
without the ability to assure that it does not exploit the office of the
presidency.
Further,
whatever price was paid would be subject to criticism and scrutiny. Was
it too high, is there pay for play, was it too much pay to curry favor
with the president-elect. And selling his assets without the rights to
the brand would greatly diminish the value of the assets and create a
fire sale.
President-elect
Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built. This plan
offers a suitable alternative to address the concerns of the American
people, and selling the entire Trump Organization isn’t even feasible.
Some
people have suggested that the president-elect sell the business to his
adult children. This would require massive third-party debt sourced
with multiple lenders, whose motives and willingness to participate
would be questioned and undoubtedly investigated. And if the
president-elect were to finance the sale himself, he would retain the
financial interests in the assets that he owns now.
Some
people have suggested that the Trump — that President-elect Trump could
bundle the assets and turn the Trump Organization into a public
company. Anyone who has ever gone through this extraordinarily
cumbersome and complicated process knows that it is a non-starter. It is
not realistic and it would be inappropriate for the Trump Organization.
Some
people have suggested a blind trust, but you cannot have a totally
blind trust with operating businesses. President Trump can’t unknow he
owns Trump Tower and the press will make sure that any new developments
at the Trump Organization are well publicized.DILLON: Further, it would
be impossible to find an institutional trustee that would be competent
to run the Trump Organization. The approach that he is taking allows Don
and Eric to preserve this great company and its iconic assets. And this
approach is best from a conflicts and ethics perspective. It creates a
complete separation from President-elect Trump — it separates him and
prevents him from participating in the business and poses strict limits
on what the trustees can do and requires the assent of any ethics
adviser to a new deal.
I’m
going to turn to one last topic today that has been of interest lately
called emoluments. That’s a word I think we’ve all become familiar with
and perhaps had not heard before.
And we’re gonna describe some other actions that President-elect Trump is taking to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.
Emoluments
comes from the Constitution. The Constitution says “officials may not
accept gifts, titles of nobility, or emoluments from foreign governments
with respect to their office, and that no benefit should be derived by
holding in office.”
The
so-called Emoluments Clause has never been interpreted, however, to
apply to fair value exchanges that have absolutely nothing to do with an
office holder.
No
one would have thought when the Constitution was written that paying
your hotel bill was an emolument. Instead, it would have been thought of
as a value-for-value exchange; not a gift, not a title, and not an
emolument.
But
since President-elect Trump has been elected, some people want to
define emoluments to cover routine business transactions like paying for
hotel rooms. They suggest that the Constitution prohibits the
businesses from even arm’s-length transactions that the president-elect
has absolutely nothing to do with and isn’t even aware of.
These
people are wrong. This is not what the Constitution says. Paying for a
hotel room is not a gift or a present and it has nothing to do with an
office. It’s not an emolument.
The
Constitution does not require President-elect Trump to do anything
here. But, just like with conflicts of interests, he wants to do more
than what the Constitution requires.
So,
President-elect Trump has decided, and we are announcing today, that he
is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government
payments made to his hotel to the United States Treasury. This way, it
is the American people who will profit.
In
sum, I and president-elect’s (sic) other advisers at Morgan Lewis have
determined the approach we’ve outlined today will avoid potential
conflicts of interests or concerns regarding exploitation of the office
of the presidency without imposing unnecessary and unreasonable loses on
the president-elect and his family.
We
believe this structure and these steps will serve to accomplish the
president-elect’s desire to be isolated from his business interests and
give the American people confidence that his sole business and interest
is in making America great again, bringing back jobs to this country,
securing our borders and rebuilding our infrastructure.
The
American people were well — well aware of President-elect Trump’s
business empire and financial interests when they voted. Many people
voted for him precisely because of his business success.
President-elect Trump wants to bring this success to all Americans. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROSSTALK)
DILLON: You’re welcome. My pleasure. Yes (ph). Don’t want to lose your note. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Here you go, you (ph).
DILLON: Thank you.
QUESTION: Mr. Trump? Thank you. Mr. Trump, (inaudible) from America News.
What is your response to your critics that say not only you, but also your Cabinet is filled with conflicts of interest?
And
do you plan to set an example in the future to make sure that your —
your Cabinet and everyone throughout your administration...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP:
I — I really think that when you watch what’s going on with what’s
happening in — I was just watching, as an example, Rex Tillerson. I
think it’s brilliant what he’s doing and what he’s saying.
I
watched yesterday, as you know, our great senator, who is going to be a
great attorney general. And he was brilliant. And what people don’t
know is that he was a great prosecutor and attorney general in Alabama.
And he was brilliant yesterday.
So,
I really think that they are — I think we have one of the great
Cabinets ever put together. And we’ve been hearing that from so many
people. People are so happy.
You
know, in the case of Rex, he ran incredibly Exxon Mobil. When there was
a find, he would get it. When they needed something, he would be there.
A
friend of mine who’s very, very substantial in the oil business, Harold
Hamm — big supporter — he said there’s nobody in the business like Rex
Tillerson.
And that’s what we want. That’s what I want to bring to government.
I
want to bring the greatest people into government, because we’re way
behind. We don’t make good deals any more. I say it all the time in
speeches. We don’t make good deals anymore; we make bad deals. Our trade
deals are a disaster.
TRUMP: We have hundreds of billions of dollars of
losses on a yearly basis — hundreds of billions with China on trade and
trade imbalance, with Japan, with Mexico, with just about everybody. We
don’t make good deals anymore.
So
we need people that are smart, we need people that are successful and
they got successful because generally speaking, they’re smart. And
that’s what I’d put, I’m very proud of the Cabinet, I think they’re
doing very well.
It’s very interesting how it’s going, but it’s — I think they’re doing very, very well.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... a quick follow-up on — on Russia, sir.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect. I wanted to ask a few questions on Obamacare?
TRUMP: Yeah.
QUESTION:
Can you be specific on what guidance you’re giving congressional
Republicans on the timeline for repeal and replace, whether it needs to
be simultaneous or...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Finally, Obamacare, I thought it was never gonna be asked.
QUESTION:
(OFF-MIKE) though if you have outlined a plan for what you want the
replace package to look like, would it guarantee coverage for those who
have gotten health insurance through the current Obamacare law?
TRUMP:
You’re gonna be very, very proud, as not only the media and reporters,
you’re gonna be very proud of what we put forth having to do with health
care. Obamacare is a complete and total disaster.
They
can say what they want, they can guide you anyway they wanna guide you.
In some cases, they guide you incorrectly. In most cases, you realize
what’s happened, it’s imploding as we sit.
Some
states have over a hundred percent increase and ’17 and I said this two
years ago, ’17 is going to be the bad year. It’s going to be
catastrophic. Frankly, we could sit back and it was a thought from a
political standpoint, but it wouldn’t be fair to the people.
We
could sit back and wait and watch and criticize and we could be a Chuck
Schumer and sit back and criticize it and people would come, they would
come, begging to us please, we have to do something about Obamacare. We
don’t wanna own it, we don’t wanna own it politically. They own it
right now.
So
the easiest thing would be to let it implode in ’17 and believe me,
we’d get pretty much whatever we wanted, but it would take a long time.
We’re going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary’s approved,
almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan.
It’ll
be repeal and replace. It will be essentially, simultaneously. It will
be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same
day or the same week, but probably, the same day, could be the same
hour.
So
we’re gonna do repeal and replace, very complicated stuff. And we’re
gonna get a health bill passed, we’re gonna get health care taken care
of in this country. You have deductibles that are so high, that after
people go broke paying their premiums which are going through the roof,
the health care can’t even be used by them because their deductibles
bills are so high.
Obamacare
is the Democrats problem. We are gonna take the problem off the shelves
for them. We’re doing them a tremendous service by doing it. We could
sit back and let them hang with it. We are doing the Democrats a great
service.
So
as soon as our secretary is approved and gets into the office, we’ll be
filing a plan. And it was actually, pretty accurately reported today,
The New York Times. And the plan will be repeal and replace Obamacare.
We’re going to have a health care that is far less expensive and far better. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: President-elect, can we just ask you — sir, sir...
QUESTION: President-elect Trump...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Mr. President — which one?
TRUMP: I was going right here.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
President-elect Trump, Jon Steinberg (ph) from Cheddar. When you look
at all the meetings that you’ve had with Carrier, SoftBank and Alibaba,
do you conceive of making this a program, maybe sitting inside of
commerce?
And then my follow-up question to that, is how soon will we see the program on capital repatriation and corporate tax cuts?
TRUMP:
Well, if I can save jobs, for instance I was doing individual companies
and people said well, that’s only one company, like we did a good job
with Carrier. And I wanna thank United Technologies which owns Carrier,
but we saved close to a thousand jobs.
And
they were gone and Mike Pence and his staff really helped us, a lot.
But those were — that was a tough one because they announced a year and a
half before that they were leaving so it’s always tough when they’re
building a plan, just a little tougher than before they start or before
they make an announcement.TRUMP: So I wanna thank United Technologies.
But we’ve been meeting with a lot of companies. But what really is
happening, is the word is now out, that when you want to move your plant
to Mexico or some other place, and you want to fire all of your workers
from Michigan and Ohio and all these places that I won, for good
reason, it’s not going to happen that way anymore.
You
want to move your plant and you think, as an example, you’re going to
build that plant in Mexico and you’re going to make your air
conditioners or your cars or whatever you’re making, and you’re going to
sell it through what will be a very, very strong border — not a weak
border like it is — we don’t even have a border. It’s an open sieve.
But
you’re going to sell through a very strong border — not going to
happen. You’re going to pay a very large border tax. So if you want to
move to another country and if you want to fire all of our great
American workers that got you there in the first place, you can move
from Michigan to Tennessee and to North Carolina and South Carolina. You
can move from South Carolina back to Michigan.
You
can do anywhere — you’ve got a lot of states at play; a lot of
competition. So it’s not like, oh, gee, I’m taking the competition away.
You’ve got a lot of places you can move. And I don’t care, as along as
it’s within the United States, the borders of the United States.
There
will be a major border tax on these companies that are leaving and
getting away with murder. And if our politicians had what it takes, they
would have done this years ago. And you’d have millions more workers
right now in the United States that are — 96 million really wanting a
job and they can’t get. You know that story. The real number — that’s
the real number.
So, that’s the way it is. OK. Go ahead.
QUESTION:
President-elect, I have a question about the Supreme Court and border
security. But I also wanted to ask you about something you said on
Twitter this morning. Are we living in Nazi Germany? What were you
driving at there? Do you have a problem with the intelligence community?
And
on the Supreme Court, what’s your timeline? You said a while ago you
were down to four. Have you conducted those interviews yet? What’s your
timeline for nominating?
And on the border fence, it now appears clear U.S. taxpayers will have to pay for it up front. What is your plan to...
TRUMP: That’s not clear at all. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... to get Mexico to pay for it?
TRUMP: I’ve got it. Do you have any more?
(LAUGHTER)
On
the fence — it’s not a fence. It’s a wall. You just misreported it.
We’re going to build a wall. I could wait about a year-and-a-half until
we finish our negotiations with Mexico, which will start immediately
after we get to office, but I don’t want to wait. Mike Pence is leading
an effort to get final approvals through various agencies and through
Congress for the wall to begin.
I
don’t feel like waiting a year or a year-and-a-half. We’re going to
start building. Mexico in some form, and there are many different forms,
will reimburse us and they will reimburse us for the cost of the wall.
That will happen, whether it’s a tax or whether it’s a payment —
probably less likely that it’s a payment. But it will happen.
So,
remember this, OK? I would say we are going to build a wall and people
would go crazy. I would then say, who is going to pay for the wall? And
people would all scream out — 25,000, 30,000 people, because nobody has
ever had crowds like Trump has had. You know that. You don’t like to
report that, but that’s OK.
OK, now he agrees. Finally, he agrees.
But I say who is going to pay for the wall? And they will scream out, “Mexico.”
Now,
reports went out last week — oh, Mexico is not going to pay for the
wall because of a reimbursement. What’s the difference? I want to get
the wall started. I don’t want to wait a year-and-a-half until I make my
deal with Mexico. And we probably will have a deal sooner than that.
And
by the way, Mexico has been so nice, so nice. I respect the government
of Mexico. I respect the people of Mexico. I love the people of Mexico. I
have many people from Mexico working for me. They’re phenomenal people.
The
government of Mexico is terrific. I don’t blame them for what’s
happened. I don’t blame them for taking advantage of the United States. I
wish our politicians were so smart. Mexico has taken advantage of the
United States. I don’t blame the representatives and various presidents,
et cetera, of Mexico. What I say is we shouldn’t have allowed that to
happen. It’s not going to happen anymore.
So, in order to get the wall started, Mexico will pay for the wall, but it will be reimbursed. OK?
Supreme
Court judge. So, as you know, I have a list of 20. I’ve gone through
them. We’ve met with numerous candidates. They’re outstanding in every
case. They were largely recommended and highly recommended by Federalist
Society. Jim DeMint was also very much involved, and his group, which
is fantastic, and he’s a fantastic guy.TRUMP: So between Leo and Jim
DeMint and some senators and some congresspeople, we have a great group
of people. I’ll be making the decision on who we will put up for justice
of the United States Supreme Court, a replacement for the great, great
Justice Scalia. That will be probably within two weeks of the 20th. So
within about two weeks, probably the second week. I consider the first
day because we’ll also be doing some — some pretty good signings and I
think what we’ll do is we’ll wait until Monday.
That
will be our really first business day as opposed to doing it on Friday,
because on Friday, people are going to have a very good time at the
inauguration, and then Saturday, as you know, we’re having a big church
service and lots of good things are happening. So our first day — and
you’ll all be invited to the signings, but we’ll be doing some pretty
good signings on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and
Friday, and then also the next week. And you’re all invited.
But
on the Supreme Court, I’ll be making that decision, and it will be a
decision which I very strongly believe in. I think it’s one of the
reasons I got elected. I think the people of this country did not want
to see what was happening with the Supreme Court, so I think it was a
very, very big decision as to why I was elected.
QUESTION:
The tweet that you had this morning about are we living in Nazi
Germany, what were you driving at there? What are you trying to tell the
American public?
TRUMP:
I think it was disgraceful — disgraceful that the intelligence agencies
allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. I
think it’s a disgrace, and I say that — and I say that, and that’s
something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do. I think it’s a
disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got
released to the public.
As
far as Buzzfeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I
think they’re going to suffer the consequences. They already are. And as
far as CNN going out of their way to build it up — and by the way, we
just found out I was coming down. Michael Cohen — I was being — Michael
Cohen is a very talented lawyer. He’s a good lawyer in my firm. It was
just reported that it wasn’t this Michael Cohen they we’re talking
about. So all night long it’s Michael Cohen.
I
said, “I want to see your passport.” He brings his passport to my
office. I say, hey, wait a minute. He didn’t leave the country. He
wasn’t out of the country. They had Michael Cohen of the Trump
Organization was in Prague. It turned out to be a different Michael
Cohen. It’s a disgrace what took place. It’s a disgrace and I think they
ought to apologize to start with Michael Cohen.
QUESTION: Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question? Mr. President-elect —
TRUMP: Go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, since you are attacking our news organization...
TRUMP: Not you.
QUESTION: Can you give us a chance?
TRUMP: Your organization is terrible.
QUESTION: You are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir? Sir, can you...
TRUMP: Quiet.
QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, can you say...
TRUMP: He’s asking a question, don’t be rude. Don’t be rude.
QUESTION: Can you give us a question since you’re attacking us? Can you give us a question?
TRUMP: Don’t be rude. No, I’m not going to give you a question. I’m not going to give you a question.
QUESTION: Can you state...
TRUMP: You are fake news. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Sir, can you state categorically that nobody — no, Mr. President-elect, that’s not appropriate.
TRUMP: Go ahead.
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: Do you think President Obama went too far with the sanctions he put on Russia after the hacking?
TRUMP: I don’t think he went too far. No.
QUESTION: Will you roll them back? What do you think of Lindsey Graham’s plan to send you a bill for...
TRUMP: Plans to send me a bill for what?
QUESTION: Tougher sanctions.
TRUMP:
I hadn’t heard Lindsey Graham was going to do that. Lindsey Graham.
I’ve been competing with him for a long time. He is going to crack that
one percent barrier one day. I didn’t realize Lindsey Graham still had
it. That’s all right. I think Lindsey Graham is a nice guy. I’ve heard
that he is a nice guy and I’ve been hearing it.
Go ahead. Go ahead. You’ve been waiting.
QUESTION: As far as we understand, the intelligence community...
TRUMP: Stand up.
QUESTION: From BBC news. Ian Pannell from BBC news.
TRUMP: BBC news. That’s another beauty.
QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you.
As
far as we understand it, the intelligence community are still looking
at these allegations, this false news, as you describe it. If they come
back with any kind of conclusion that any of it stands up, that any of
it is true, will you consider your position...
TRUMP: There’s nothing they could come back with.
QUESTION: Can you...
TRUMP: Go ahead.
QUESTION:
(inaudible) published fake news and all the problems that we’ve seen
throughout the media over the course of the election, what reforms do
you recommend for this industry here?
TRUMP: Well, I don’t recommend reforms. I recommend people that are — that have some moral compass.
You
know, I’ve been hearing more and more about a thing called fake news
and they’re talking about people that go and say all sorts of things.
But I will tell you, some of the media outlets that I deal with are fake
news more so than anybody. I could name them, but I won’t bother, but
you have a few sitting right in front of us. They’re very, very
dishonest people, but I think it’s just something we’re going to have to
live with.TRUMP: I guess the advantage I have is that I can speak back.
When it happens to somebody that doesn’t have this — doesn’t have that
kind of a megaphone, they can’t speak back. It’s a very sad thing. I’ve
seen people destroyed. I’ve seen people absolutely destroyed. And I
think it’s very unfair. So, all I can ask for is honest reporters.
Yes?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
I just wanted to follow up on the questions about the U.S. intelligence
community. And be very clear about what you’re saying. Do you trust
your U.S. intelligence officials? And what do you say to foreign policy
experts who say you’re actually weakening national security by waging
this war of words against that community?
TRUMP:
Intelligence agencies are vital and very, very important. We are going
to be putting in, as you know, Mr. Pompeo and others, you know the
Senator Dan Coats. We’re going to be putting in some outstanding people.
Within 90 days, they’re going to be coming back to me with a major
report on hacking.
I
want them to cover this situation. I also want them, however, to cover,
maybe most importantly — because we’re hacked by everybody — you know,
the United States, our government out of a list of 17 in terms of
industries is the worst, it’s number 17, in terms of protection.
If
you look at the retail industry, if you look at the banking industry,
various industries, out of 17 industries — they put this in the category
of an industry — the United States is last in terms of protecting,
let’s say, hacking defense. Like we had a great hacking defense at the
Republican National Committee.
That’s
why we weren’t hacked. By the way, we were told that they were trying
to hack us, but they weren’t able to hack. And I think I get some credit
because I told Reince, and Reince did a phenomenal job, but I said I
want strong hacking defense.
The
Democratic National Committee didn’t do that. Maybe that’s why the
country runs so badly that way. But I will tell you — wait — wait —
wait, let me finish. Within 90 days, we will be coming up with a major
report on hacking defense, how do we stop this new phenomena — fairly
new phenomena because the United States is hacked by everybody.
That includes Russia and China and everybody — everybody. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Go ahead — go ahead.
QUESTION:
Mr. President-elect, you said, just now, that you believe Russia indeed
was responsible for the hacking of the DNC and Jon Podesta’s e-mails,
et cetera.
TRUMP: All right, but you know what, it could have been others also.
QUESTION:
But why did you spend weeks undermining U.S. intelligence community
before simply getting the facts and then making a public statement?
TRUMP:
Well, I think it’s pretty sad when intelligence reports get leaked out
to the press. I think it’s pretty sad. First of all, it’s illegal. You
know, these are — these are classified and certified meetings and
reports.
I’ll
tell you what does happen. I have many meetings with intelligence. And
every time I meet, people are reading about it. Somebody’s leaking it
out. So, there’s — maybe it’s my office. Maybe in my office because I
have a lot of people, a lot of great people. Maybe it’s them. And what I
did is I said I won’t tell anybody. I’m going to have a meeting and I
won’t tell anybody about my meeting with intelligence.
And
what happened is I had my meeting. Nobody knew, not even Rhona, my
executive assistant for years, she didn’t know — I didn’t tell her.
Nobody knew. The meeting was had, the meeting was over, they left. And
immediately the word got out that I had a meeting.
So,
I don’t want that — I don’t want that. It’s very unfair to the country.
It’s very unfair to our country; what’s happened. That report should
have never — first of all, it shouldn’t have been printed because it’s
not worth the paper it’s written on. And I thank the New York Times for
saying that.
I thank a lot of different people for saying that. But, I will tell you, that should never, ever happen. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION:
Thank you, Mr. President-elect, can you stand here today, once and for
all and say that no one connected to you or your campaign had any
contact with Russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign.
And if you do indeed believe that Russia was behind the hacking, what is
your message to Vladimir Putin right now?
TRUMP:
He shouldn’t be doing it. He won’t be doing it. Russia will have much
greater respect for our country when I’m leading than when other people
have led it. You will see that. Russia will respect our country more. He
shouldn’t have done it. I don’t believe that he will be doing it more
now.
We
have to work something out, but it’s not just Russia. Take a look at
what’s happened. You don’t report it the same way; 22 million accounts
were hacked in this country by China. And that’s because we have no
defense. That’s because we’re run by people that don’t know what they’re
doing.TRUMP: Russia will have far greater respect for our country when
I’m leading it and I believe and I hope — maybe it won’t happen, it’s
possible. But I won’t be giving (ph) a little reset button like Hillary.
Here, press this piece of plastic. A guy looked at her like what is she
doing? There’s no reset button. We’re either going to get along or
we’re not. I hope we get along, but if we don’t, that’s possible too.
But
Russia and other countries — and other countries, including China,
which has taken total advantage of us economically, totally advantage of
us in the South China Sea by building their massive fortress, total.
Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, all countries will respect us far more,
far more than they do under past administrations.
I
want to thank everybody. So this is all — just so you understand, these
papers — because I’m not sure that was explained properly. But these
papers are all just a piece of the many, many companies that are being
put into trust to be run by my two sons that I hope at the end of eight
years, I’ll come back and say, oh, you did a good job. Otherwise, if
they do a bad job, I’ll say, “You’re fired.”
Good-bye, everybody. Good-bye.
END
Mr. Tigerli in China
Copyright 2016 by Letizia Mancino
translation by Mary Holmes
All rights reserved
Yes Betty, either or it seems he wanted to fly only with
Singapore Airways.
Boeing or Airbus, it’s just the same
isn’t it? Aren’t they both just fat birds with 500 passengers?
Yes, but Singapore Airlines has the
most beautiful airhostesses: delicate, fine, graceful… Mr. Tigerli had looked forward to the flight
so much!
So the little man was disappointed?
You just can’t imagine how disappointed
he was.
But thank God one of the hostesses was a
pretty Chinese girl. Mr. Tigerli purred loudly but she didn’t hear him because
the purring of the Airbus 380 was even louder.
The poor cat!
You’ve said it Betty. Mr. Tigerli was
in a very bad mood and asked me for a loud speaker.
I’m sure you can get one in 1st
Class.
“”Russian Girl” had even heard you over
the roar of the Niagara Falls” I said to Mr. Tigerli. “You are a very
unfaithful cat. You wanted to get to know Asiatic girls. That’s how it is when
one leaves one’s first love”.
And what did he say to that?
“Men are hunters” was his answer.
Yes, my dear cat, a mouse hunter. And
what else did he say?
Not another word. He behaved as if he
hadn’t heard me.
The Airbus is very loud.
I told him shortly “Don’t trouble
yourself about “Chinese Girl”. There will be enough even prettier girls in
China. Wait till we land in Guilin”.
Did he understand you?
Naturally Mr. Tigerli understood me
immediately. Yes, sweetheart, don’t worry. They will find you something sweet
to eat.
And he?
He was so happy.
No problem going through the immigration
control?
Naturally! Lots of problems. How could I explain to
customs that the cat had come as a tourist to China to buy shoes?
Fur in exchange for shoes…
Don’t be so cynical Betty!
Cat meat in exchange for shoes?
He came through the pass control with
no trouble!
Is this Mr. Tigerli?
 |
Betty MacDonald's Vashon Island is a paradise.
info to: Sandra Lorinda Traci Petr Dana Jana Michaela Rebekah Swiss Charrd Tru John Darsie Darsie Toby Jeanine Carol Justin Lila Daniel Mo Nika Steve Neal Jitka Jitka Tami Pete Laurie Maia Nancy Kelly Pam Mary Jan and all our other friends
www.bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/
info to: Sandra Lorinda Traci Petr Dana Jana Michaela Rebekah Swiss Charrd Tru John Darsie Darsie Toby Jeanine Carol Justin Lila Daniel Mo Nika Steve Neal Jitka Jitka Tami Pete Laurie Maia Nancy Kelly Pam Mary Jan and all our other friends
www.bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/
Take an illustrated day trip through Washington state’s largest city with artist Candace Rose Rardon.
gadventures.com
Linda White yes,if my health allows.I have a few problems but is something I have always wanted to do,especially as I reread her books.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 6:37pm
Linde Lund Dear Linda I'll keep you posted.
Like · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 6:42pm
Bella Dillon · Friends with Darsie Beck
I still read Mrs Piggle Wiggle books to this day. I love her farm on vashon.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 10:32pm
Lila Taylor Good morning...Linde Lund
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 18 hrs
