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What Trump said about Putin, Russia and other things at his first press conference since US polls

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DailyBiteJan 12, 2017 | 00:51

What Trump said about Putin, Russia and other things at his first press conference since US polls

Barely after hours since the 44th and outgoing president of the United States, Barack Obama, gave an elegant and awe-inspiring farewell speech, the president-elect Donald Trump held his first press conference since he was elected in a contentious and controversial presidential poll on November 8, 2016. The current press meet, about 167 days since his last during his presidential election contest with Hillary Clinton, was about dispelling the "fake news" that Trump and his cabinet nominees think has been planted by the website Buzzfeed.

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Earlier, Trump had taken to Twitter to allege that the report saying Russia is "blackmailing" the president-elect with a salacious video of him in a compromising position in a hotel in Moscow - is "fake" and "lies". However, Trump's answers - ranging from his relations with the Russian president Valdimir Putin, to "conflicts of interest" with Trump organisation still within the family's control, his opposition to Obamacare which he wants repealed, as well as his tough anti-immigrant stance, which many think is patently racist - were at best a gaggle of incoherent ramblings, and at worst blatant falsehoods and cluelessness paraded as policy.   

At the Trump Tower lobby in New York, president-elect Trump said that the suspected Russian interference in the US election might have happened, but he blamed it on inadequate cybersecurity in the Domocratic camp.

Though he claimed emphatically that he had "nothing to do with Russia" and reiterated he is the real "victim of political attacks" wherein the current establishment, including the intelligence agencies such as the CIA and the FBI, are out to get him. Citing the timing of the reports that "intelligence officials possessed briefing material with damaging accusations about ties to Moscow", Trump said this was vendetta and attempt to malign him by those who still cannot accept that he has indeed won the presidential elections.

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Earlier on Twitter, Trump had called the reports "unfair" and said, "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me." Trump claimed that he has "no deals, no loans, no nothing" with Russia, an assertion that is difficult to verify because he has not released his tax returns, unlike every president since Jimmy Carter.

Trump said that he would hand over control of his business to his two eldest sons - Eric and Dan, but would not sell off his company, nor would fully divest or create a blind trust, as the Office of Government Ethics and former White House ethics lawyers have called for him to do. Sheri Dillon, a Washington DC lawyer advising Trump on ethics issues was called on stage to address the issues related to Trump's business and the conflict of interest allegations, who said that it would be too difficult to divest the whole company and could create even more conflicts.

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Photo: Twitter

Here are some of the highlights of Trump press conference. The full text can be found here.

On news organisations

"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."

On bringing back manufacturing to America 

"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."

On Boeing F-35 programme

"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."

On Russian hacking allegations

"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."

"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 they tried to hack the Republican National Committee and they were unable to break through."

On Vladimir Putin

"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."

On Buzzfeed report of a sex tape featuring him

"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."

On conflict of interest

"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 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."

On his family business

"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."

On Obamacare

"Obamacare is a total disaster. It 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." 

Last updated: January 12, 2017 | 00:51
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