Opener, your world in 90 seconds. If this report were true and there were some cooperation or collusion between this his campaign and the elections, that would be unprecedented in american history. President elect trump dismisses reports of potentially compromising information. Guess what has president happened . Nobody is sourced, all unnamed. Most importantly its as if the fbi is trying to confirm it. Nothing has been confirmed. It has been the honor of my life to serve you. President obama delivering a farewell address to the nation. Yes, we can. Yes, we did. God bless the United States of america. Western states reeling from extreme winter weather, a new storm soaked Northern California. Convicted Charleston Church shooter dylann roof has been sentenced to death. Roof acted as his own attorney and never offered apologies. Former new york senator alde mat toe kicked off a plane, accused of trying to start a rebellion against the crew. Stand up for whats right and walk out with me. Dozens gathered at a vigil in orlando to remember a Police Officer gunned down in the line of duty. A massive manhunt is still under way. Senator Jeff Sessions hearing was interrupted by protesters seated in the gallery. A group of thrill seekers rescued from the top of a roller coaster. Clemson returning to South Carolina to a heros welcome. Impossible to figure out who was going to win the game because i was watching big bang theory. For the First Time Since the election, donald trump will hold a News Conference. Yes finally, finally, donald trump is going to give a press conference. Or as he calls it, tweeting out of the mouth. On cbs this morning. Top intelligence officials in the United States, fbi, cia, have presented evidence that russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and Financial Information about donald trump. Apparently the russian report on trum contains everything we opener inow. Announcer this mornings eye opener is presented by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. In about an hour president elect donald trump will face questions about a new and potentially explosive issue when he holds his first News Conference since july. Sources confirm to cbs news that mr. Trump and president obama received preliminary details of an alleged russian effort to compromise the president elect. Confidential documents may contain damaging information about his business and personal life. None of the details are confirmed to be true. The president elect tweeted this morning intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to leak into the public. One more shot at me. Aimswe living in nazi germany. Juliana goldman is following the story. Good morning. Good morning. Multiple government and intelligence officials tell cbs inte news that an appendix to the classified Intelligence Report on russias efforts to interfere affectu. S. Election contained the eleced details of potentially compromising information that russia has gathered on president elect donald trump. The officials tell cbs news the president eloriginally came from a former British Intelligence officer and was eventually anded over to u. S. Intelligence as wellas other government fficials last year. U. S. Intelligence is in the rocess of corroborating the sians mayf what the russians may have, but the officials tell cbs t thethe former british investigator and his network are credible. Cbs news has not con dpirmd what generated the intelligence that mation id along, but because this information is so f thetive, the appendix was not part of the classified report peoples distributed to a wider news if people last week. A source tells cbs news it was classifthe the most classified version of the report. Oat version would only have been presented to the president , the president elect and the gang t, the prehich is comprised of senatep democrat and republican ranhe house and senate and the chair and ranking members of the shows and Senate Intelligence ommittees. Syle, sources also told cbs news that trump was not verbally briefed on this information last week. Juliana, thank you. Theres a 35page report that was released online by buzzfeed yesterday that details potentially damaging personal and financial dealings by president elect trump during a past business trip to russia. Cbs news cannot confirm the authenticity or origin of this document, so we are not reporting on the details. Congress is asking questions what what the russians may know about president elect trump. The issue was raised at the nomination hearing for Jeff Sessions. It may come up at Rex Tillersons confirmation hearing this morning. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill where top intelligence officials testified yesterday to a senate daymittee. Nancy, good morning to you. Reporter good morning. I can tell you, gayle, this is a topic having lawmakers talking quietly for month, trying to for hese w out if these were just rumors or something more. Heyve had a chance to press top intelligence officials about matter the matter yesterday, but they we didnt get far. Were not going to talk about s sen reporter at yesterdays di enate intelligence hearing fbi irector comey was asked repeatedly for details but didnt answer them. Did you answer the question that there is an investigation that way as to connections estigatieither of the political campaigns and the russians . I didnt say one way or another. I didnt nt say that was my intention at y least. To reporter congress has been trying to get more information when theomey since october when then democratic leader harry this ent this letter. Ess expbecome clear that you possession explosive information about close ties and oordination between donald nd the his top advisers and the russian government. The newly retired reid told cbs ligencmy information did not come from Intelligence Co officials. Stmet with some investigators, bd the information they gave me ppeared to be very reliable. The subject also came up at the confirmation hearing for alabama senator Jeff Sessions who, as ttorney general, would be the nations top Law Enforcement yoficer. Do you know about this or know what compromising personal and Financial Information the russians claim to have . A allegations made about candidates all at times and fheyve been made about president elect trump lots of most times, most of them, virtually all of them have been proven to can aggerated and unclear. Ications ae democrat chris coons. If this was true, that russians had compromising trurial on the president elect and there was some cooperation or collusion between his campaign and the russians, that would be unprecedented in american history. Reporter it is in this highly charged environment that mr. Trumps pick for secretary of state. Former exxon mobil Ceo Rex Tillerson is undergoing his confirmation hearing on capitol hill this morning. He is expected to tell lawmakers that he views russia as a danger, but a predictable one. They are going to have a lot of questions. Oney will want a lot more specifics about his views on russia and mr. Trumps. Thanks, nancy. Kellyanne conway is counsel to president elect trump and his former Campaign Manager. Welcome to the program. Thank you, charlie. Can you tell us all the pr reports that the intelligence agencies delivered to the ed to the and to the residentelect, did he see the appendix, did he read it and has reacteded to it . I cant comment on that ave a topf the intelligence briefing. I myself have a top secret no clearance that is pending, so i cant comment on that. If youre referring to the the medi appendix people are ehowing about in the media that was meant to tip him off of a 35page unsubstantiated report unsu aom the internet, which is not a report from the intelligence. Sa s just fakethats not even fake so y thats just fake. Thature saying everything thats in that appendix is wrong fad fake . No. Hat im saying is that 35page report has clearly come from the internet, rife with misspellings, uncooperated, and i was unsubstantiated. I was very heartened last night o see journalists really pushing back on the publication ofthis type of information when we cantcomplete to the American People its confirm ntelligence information. Ation. W people were chasing e rum rumors for months and couldnt come up with any verification. Do you know how many innocent people were dragged through the mud in this report . One of my colleagues, someone at the Trump Corporation was said to be in prague. Hes never been to prague, never een to russia. Praghe president elect trump saying he never read this a addendum to the report . Aidhe has not said that. Shat im saying is were talking about that this morning because in addition you have some news ources going over i think really violating basic journ journalistic standards. Agreed. G thank you for agreeing, and hanks to cbs for agreeing, frankly. Ead g ahead and releasing 35 pages of something that reads like a grade b spy novel. Grade b tainly not an intelligence these are two different things. Id he read the report that was hiven to him . I cant comment on that. The fact is its classified. And he had an intelligence briefing ead it oant comment on whether thatd it or not. Whether he reads anything d read he reads everything givens given to him. I can tell you that. Then hes read it. The v hislets not confuse the viewers that anything in this 35 pages s ant to refer to the twopage erdendum. T. Important point. Very important point. Plemuch is lost in our sound bite Ridden Society where people arent talking about facts and theyr figures. Theyre talking about rumors and unsubstantiated information that we have been able to debunk at the very basic level. He is having his news hiserence today. Today, he can be asked about this. I was go into say, he tweeted ast night, fake news, total political witch hunt. Will he address this today . Ical will. E will address this today. We exhecht him to address this today. I expect, gayle, members of the fola will ask followup questions about it. The timing here smells to high heaven, too. Here is f we are announcing his first hackingnference as in thentelect, the russian mehow thessue is fading out of view. A nex ty . You acknowledge its been while anor a while and people have tried to call up and oonfirm it. And were unable to, and failed. Can we clear up one other thing. Saitor coons says if theres cooperation or collusion between Trumps Campaign and the russians, it would be a bombshell. Can you say nobody from the Trump Campaign had any body in the with the russians invre, during and after the wimpaign . B yes, i can. Ye Campaign Manager when i took over in august, i was talking to people in michigan, not moscow. Wons how we won the election. I dont like a United States senator saying things like that, r sayingit would be a bombshell be aould be investigated. Its very dangerous rhetoric, angerous rly the time when responsible outlets were chasing this story and came up emptyhanded and decided not to pursue it. Harry reid made an intimation to this report on october 30th. I didnt go anywhere people people couldnt verify it. The wall street journal twice suggests this dossier could be used to blackmail mr. Trump . Innot if anything in there is not true. Thats why those of last night with the president elect discussing this, he made the o tweion to tweet out fake news, ewsitical witch hunt. Ituld go out and say its not just fake news, its just fake. D whether hes read it or not seenhat hes seen or not, you have seen it and its all untrue. T ive seen the 35 pages. Havehe russian intelligence doesnt have anything that might be used as leverage against the president elect. Gou have seen it and youre saying the stuff thats being alked about is not true, never happened. The it i have seen is the 35page report that was released by one media outlet whose editor semediately took to twitter to sort of say, well, its unsubstantiated, unverified, anywaywe should mutt it out there any way. Anybody on the trum team that s thisen this and read its tell by item. Is this the two pages . Eceived it a received it as part of the intelligence briefing br have read it. I was not one of those people. The 35 pages should not in any any wa way, shape or form be confused with two pages released by the 35 pages cce community. Ere wges came from the internet where we see a lot of junk day by day. You. Ank you, kelly ann. Former Deputy Director of actcia Michael Morrell is with ectorom washington. He supported Hillary Clinton for andinghe nation moderator john dicker sorn is son is at the ta. Mike, what is your understanding tbout what president elect trump was briefed . It sound like he received a formatge document that outlined allegations of information the thaians may have on the president elect that could be compromising. Asd that twopage document was a sin synopsis of the 35page document published on buzzfeed. Thats my understanding. When you read the pages on buzzfeed, what did you make of r . At dossier . Back at, my reaction was i felt like i was back at cia reading formattelligence reports, information from a large number of sources. Inforf that information rings true. Ome off it doesnt. Much of it is contradictory. Nd because you dont have an esderstanding of who the sources mationd how the sources ak kwierpd the information, when you read the whole thing, you really cant come to any bottom line about exactly whats true d whats not true here. Mike, theres reference to a would mi6 operative, former fitish intelligence operatives. You would know former british inte intelligence operatives, i assume. O you know him and is he credible . Charlie, i dont know him. You know people who know him. These memos are written as a onal isional Intelligence Officer would write up a report earm a source. Hey appear to be written by an Intelligence Officer. But again, i dont know if hes wedible, and most important, we dont know who the sources are ion. How the sources got the information. Mike, is it common for the president or the president elect to be briefed on something that rified . Been verified . Is that common . It is not common. Its uncommon. But in this situation with material that is potentially so i ctically explosive, i could see a reason why you would give presidhe president and the president elect a headsup that it ous out there and that youre investigating it. O wouldnt you do everything within your power to find out whether it was true or not . You sure would. That would involve the cia and the fbi. John, were going to have the First Press Conference by ect trumtelect trump in about six months. This was largely supposed to be about how he was going to divest from his Business Empire. How do you think hell handle this. A version of the tweet. Th deny it all and say its all fake and move on. Wha whats the most important question though . Ighly this question hes been nd iny critical. Ne thing to context, theres an the ing battle between the president elect and the e theligence agencies. Of thieople see the leaking of nd of formation as a kind of backou know that background of the fight between the two, its a part of that spat. But donald trump has been highly umptical of the intelligence ical of , all of them. And the intelligence they have produced with respect to russian resp meddling. When he was given this annex, did he find any of it credible. Trump so far seems to be it becang it because its on andinternet and you cant internet. Hat you see on the internet. Two different things, the 35page thing, dismiss it on the cour net. Rnet, thats absolutely ight. There are standards to be and the ed both in the press and this ngence agencies. Inveof this wants to be investigated and apparently is ncies. Igated by the intelligence agencies. Just being on the internet is no standaron enough to repeat it which is a standard donald trump did not follow repeatedly during that waaign. Withing on the internet or he came up with, he put out there. Ence ae, do you assume the sidentigence agencies that met with the president would have some judgment as to whether some of this is credible because theyre worried about the possibility that the russians may have something on the president elect . Oremuch more work would need to be done. To charlie, i dont know how much has already been done. Be fbi could be investigating, did these Campaign Officials actually, were they in russia ayen these documents say they were in russia. The Intelligence Community ce commue sitting down with this british mi6 operative and ttting a better understanding of the source of this and how pry acquired the information. Yount know where they are in that process. Tha you do all of that, you whereget to a point where you could make a judgment about ands accurate here and whats not. I will say, charlie, that the telligs described by russian intelligence and how they operate against americans who visit russia, moscow, st. Ght. Rsburg, are absolutely right. Audi audio surveillance, video surveillance. This is how they operate. , this story is not going away, it it, john . No. In part because you have in fanslicans who are no fans of russians and Vladimir Putin who putilooking into a series of issues. Ms ofcomfortable with the president elects relationship ms terms of what he says. Right, and why he seems to be so comfortable with Vladimir Putin. Thank you very much. Well see you at the press conference. No, hell be here with us. Major garrett will be at the press conference. Well bring you live coverage of at press conference at 8 00 pacific right here on cbs. A. M. Resident obama challenges republicans who want to repeal obamacare. , a new winter storm hits Northern California with damaging floods, mudslides and heavy snow. How extreme weather is shutting down major highways and forcing thousands from their homes. Youre watching cbs this morning. Announcer this portion of cbs this morning sponsored by toyota. Lets go places. 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In the Sonoma County community of guerneville. This is a live pictur good morning, its 26. Im michelle griego. 7 26. A Flood Warning is under way this morning in the Sonoma County community of guerneville. This is a live picture from the pee wee miniature golf course which is under water. 1700 people are under evacuation orders with the Russian River expected to crest later this morning. East of gilroy 29 people had to be evacuated from homes this morning near highway 152 and lovers lane. About 10 homes had about 3 feet of water inside after Pacheco Creek overflowed its banks. President elect donald trump is set to hold a News Conference at 8 a. M. Pacific time and can be seen live right here on kpix 5. Stay with us, traffic and weather in just a moment. ,,,, good morning. Its 7 28. Your morning commute will be a rough one. You got slow traffic all throughout the area so lets start with mass transit. I suggest you go ahead and consider this today. Bart is on time. Ace train 3 is delayed 14 minutes. But 5 and 7 are on time and the f market from muni is back on time after an earlier problem. Ill send it to you. All right, roqui. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. We remain on storm watch due to the fact that we have another area of low pressure that will push into the bay area later tonight. We do have some scattered rain showers right now around the santa cruz mountains. Urban flood advisory Coastal Flood Advisory is in effect. In addition to a flash Flood Warning in effect for the Santa Clara Valley at least parts of it due to the saturated soil. Meanwhile, we have temperatures currently in the 40s and 50s. Later today most of the day will be dry but lingering showers in the 50s. ,,, president obama gave his Farewell Speech. It is the obama speech that republicans have been looking forward to. Obama said while he was preparing this speech, he said, im thinking about this as a chance to say thank you for an amazing journey, which sounds li has oo he g the bachelor to me, but the Farewell Speech is a dition started by george washington. His speech was largely written by alexander hamilton, which means in todays terms it would be almost impossible to get tickets for. Still impossible to get tickets. Something like 5,000. I saw that. I saw that. Its a good play, though. No, im talking about last night to go to oh, i thought you were talking about hamilton. And youre right, they were scalping those, too. Oh, really . Yeah. It was a good speech, they say. Coming up in this half hour, president obamas call to action. How he used his emotional farewell address to urge americans to get more involved in democracy. Plus, his tearful and emotional salute to the first lady. Also the extreme weather in california with blizzards and flooding rain, storms and forced thousands to evacuate. The avalanche that blew open the front door of one familys home. Look at that. My goodness. Time to show you some of this mornings headlines. Political reports on confi confirmation hearings continue today. They announced Jeff Sessions would remove himself from any investigation involving Hillary Clinton. With regard to secretary clinton and some of the comments i made, i do believe that that could place my objectivity in question. Ive given that thought. I believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from my questions involving those kind of investigations. Sessions is expected to easily win confirmation in the republicancontrolled senate. The Washington Post reports on Robert Kennedy jr. Saying donald trump asked him to lead a new commission on vaccines. Kennedy is a vocal supporter of the theory that vaccines cause autism. That theory has been widely discredited several times. Mr. Trump would like to create a commission on autism, but no final decision has been made. The post courier of South Carolina reports dylann roof was sentenced to death for the Charleston Church massacre. The selfdescribed white supremeisist killed nine africanamericans. Walmart plans more layoffs. Nearly 1,000 corporate jobs are expected to be cut later this smooth and peaceful transition to his successor. In his farewell message i cant do that. President obama said its every citizens responsibility to be guardians of americas democracy. Democracy can buckle. When it gives in to fear. Thats why i reject discrimination against muslim americans. Who are just as patriotic as we are. His remarks on income inequality seem to reflect on the themes of the last election. If every Economic Mission is framed as a struggle between a hard working white middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades are going to be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves. The president offered a challenge to republicans trying to dismantle the Affordable Care act. If anyone can put together a plan that is demonstratively better, i will publicly support it. After two terms in the spotlight, mr. Obama issued a tearful tribute to his daughters and the first lady. Michelle levon robinson, girl of the south side, you made the white house a place that belongs to everybody. Malia and sasha, of all that i have done in my life, i am most proud to be your dad. Last night, the nations 44th president closed with a promise. My fellow americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you. I wont stop. I am asking you to believe not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours. Yes, we can. Yes, we did. Nora. Yeah. Thank you. I bet she was still watching at home from the white house. Just think about that, what we heard from the chief of staff of the president , a president who is up at 3 00 studying. Listen, a big exam. Hope she gets an a today. Come on, sasha, we want you to get an a. What a message that sends, though, that her parents said, no, you have to sit and study. Or she said it. Youre right. The president talking about the importance of democracy and questioning and a peaceful transition of power. His tribute to Michelle Obama was very touching, very, very touching. Very lovely. Dean, thank you so much for that report. Thousands of people in flood ravaged california are being encourage encouraged to evacuate. The river is still rising in gurnville. Meanwhi meanwhile, blizzard condition bs shut off interstate 80 shutting off the town of truckee near the nevada state, its rain. And Officials Say the worst might still be the to come. The Russian River in guerneville, california, is rising and it isnt expected to crest until later today. Officials say it will reach the 40 foot range, eight feet above flood level. Some 3,000 people in Sonoma County are under evacuation orders. Our biggest concern is possible traes come down, power outages. Police ordered people out of the downtown area of san anselmo, telling people to evacuate or move to higher floors. A mudslide pushed a tree into a house in the town of fairfax, california, trapping four people, including two children. These trees came down and mudslides and smashed the car port and pushed all the mud out and the car port is buried. You cant even see that it was there. Mudslides created dangerous conditions on the roads across santa cruz county, closing one highay completely and at higher, colder elevations, the snow is making driver dangerous or impossible. This is interstate 80, the usually busy highway over the mountains between california and nevada with blizzard conditions and zero visibility, its closed to everything but emergency vehicles and essential services. A controlled avalanche was intended to relieve pressure on a mountainside, but it had this out of control result. Todays avalanche ran fast and hard, hit us, blew the front door open and went up and over our house. Meanwhile, the rain and snow added 33 billion gallons of water to lake tahoe and its not over yet. Farther north, unusually heavy snow falno word on when the major highway out of here might reopen. Gayle. All right, john, thank you. Iphone comes through again. Thanks a lot. One of the worlds large ft classified ad websites has shut down its adult section after a scathing investigation. Why Law Enforcement may have lost a critical tool to go aft. Youre watching conditiocbs th morning. Well be right back. 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Just put on a breathe right strip. It instantly opens your nose up to 38 more than Cold Medicine alone. Shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. Breathe right. Give extra. Get extra. One of the Worlds Largest classified ad websites is being accused of knowingly facilitating prostitution and child sex trafficking. Backpage is the name of the place. This week, it shut down its adult section after a Senate Report accused the website of editing ads to, quote, conceal the underlying nature of the transaction. Backpage now calls itself a victim of censorship. Jan has more on thp the. Backpage makes its money from users who pay the site to advertise a range of services. But the Senate Report not only accuses backpage of teaching users to use clean ads but say they failed to report underage activity. After consultation with counsel, i decline to answer your question. During a Senate Hearing tuesday, backpage executives pled the fifth after a scathing report taking aim at the website. The 53 pages of document alleged that by late 2010, backpage altered up to 80 of its ads before posting them online by deleting words, phrases and images indicative of criminality, including child sex trafficking. It was clear they were trying to clean up these ads. Claire was on the Senate Committee conducting the investigation. We found the emails where they were saying take out words like cheerleader, daddys girl, amber alert. According to the National Center for missing and exploited child, backpage is the subject of 73 of the child trafficking tips that they receive. It was one of the most painful experiences ive ever had in her life. Kimiki and her daughter will appear in a documentary i am jane doe. She found her missing teenage daughters pictures on backpage. Shes still very much broken. She was trafficked for nine months. She was raped, she was physically abused. Pride says she unsuccessfully sued backpage, which according to the Senate Report claims its a mere host of content created by others. Not only were they changing content, they were coaching their customers on how to write the ads so that they could avoid being labeled as a child sex trafficker. This is just so misdirected to a resource thats really helping Law Enforcement, helping the children directly. Dr. Lois lee is the founder of children of the night, a Group Fighting child sex trafficking. She supports backpage which she says has become a tool for Law Enforcement looking for child sex predators. They can call backpage and get the name of the person running the ad. Backpage has doe noted close to 1 million to her organization. And in a statement the site called the Senate Investigation an attack on its First Amendment rights. It also says censoring the site will do nothing to change the problem of Human Trafficking. Nora. Jan, thank you. 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And rewards points on all prescriptions, walgreens has you covered. So drop by and seize the savings walgreens. At the corner of happy and healthy. Fortified. Tored. Replenished. Emerge everyday with emergenc packed with b vitamins, antioxidants, electrolytes plus more vitamin c than 10 oranges. Why not feel this good everyday . Emerge and see. East of gilroy, crews had to evacuate 29 people from homes this morning, after Pacheco Creek overflowed its banks. Th its 7 56. Im kenny choi. East of gilroy, crews had to evacuate 29 people from homes this morning after Pacheco Creek overflowed its banks. The evacuation happened near highway 152 an lovers lane. About 10 homes have about 3 feet of water inside. Santa cruz county has been so hard hit by mudslides and fallen trees, that officials have now declared a state of emergency. They are hoping money from the state will pay for the repairs. And in just a few minutes, president elect donald trump is set to hold a News Conference. Its scheduled to start at 8 a. M. Pacific time. You can see it live right here on kpix 5. Traffic and weather in just a moment. ,,, good morning, you guys. It is 7 56. Lets take a look at the Scotts Valley area where we have been talking about highway 17 for a couple of days now. Between vine hill road and the again wood cutoff thats still down to one lane in both directions between vine hill and glenwood road, 3 Miles Per Hour northbound side. Northbound you have 17 after the cats, caltrans is filling a pothole and southbound after the cats we have a mudslide blocking the right lane. If you are moving into the sunol fremont commute here niles canyon road is crossed between 680 and mission boulevard causing southbound 680 to be slow, as well. Ill send it to you. All right, roqui. Thank you. You were mentioning Scotts Valley and thats where we have light rain showers. Good morning, everybody. We remain on storm watch due to the fact that we have some few lingering rain showers today. Most of the available dry. More rain coming tonight. Urban and coastal flood advisories in effect for today. Meanwhile, we are in the 40s and 50s and later today just grab that umbrella. Temperatures into the 50s. Rain tonight through thursday. Dry through monday. , but hes also likely to be asked about claims that russia has potentially damaging personal and Financial Information about him. Sources confirmed to cbs news that mr. Trump and president obama were given a twopage appendix to last weeks Intelligence Report on Russian Election hacking. It includes information obtained from russian sources from a former British Intelligence officer who is considered a credible source. But u. S. Officials have not confirmed any of those claims. Major garrett is in the room at trump tower right now where the president elect is about to speak. Good morning. Breaking overnight was the idea that the russians mielt have had some compromising on president elect trump and that might influence the way he deals with that county. There are certainly other issues about how he plans to devest or plans to devest himself from his own businesses. A great number of questions about governing the country, deal with the Affordable Care act, tax reform, his orientation to the presidency itself. All of those issues live here in trump tower. The first chance reporters have had to ask this and many other questions since his victory on november 8th. The president elect is due to be here at the podium any second. Major John Dickerson joins us here. Hes dismissed the allegations. What does that tell you about what well see in the upcoming conference . Hes not going to play on the questions. He will shut them down. He called it fake news already. And then the question is where will that stalemate go. So well have to see, will that be a stalemate and people will move on. I think before we begin the press conference its an important distinction to make, there is a dossier that has been unconfirmed out on the internet with unsubstantiated allegations. That is different and separate from what is alleged to be a summary that was delivered to president elect trump by the top Law Enforcement intelligence officials of this country which cbs news confirms did detail information about russian involvement and information they have about him. Theres the whole set of information about russians efforts to meddle in the election. And we havent heard from him about that. But the question is did he read it, whats his reaction. He has questioned resolutely that the quality of the material the intelligence agencies have given him. Even if hes not ready, his officials and his aides have read it, we assume they have read it and we know that the russians have denied any of this happening. They have denied that and denied that they ever collected information for the purposes of blackmailing people which would go against the facts of the case in not this particular case but in russian history. Those are some of the headlines in the paper that theres the possibility that hes the subject of a blackmail. Thats the allegation. The key thing to focus on here, in addition to getting the facts straight, is how does the president elect take in inconvenient information that is highly sensitive on an issue that he has and will have has president a lot of control over. National security is one that the president has a lot of control over. And how does he respect and look at the intelligence presented to him. Thats right. Lets go to Major Garrett in the room at the press conference. You said theyve just brought something into the room . Yes, if you can see to my right, a couple of tables were put together a couple of moments ago before the press conference was scheduled to begin. And on top of it you can see several manila folders with papers of which we dont know the contents of. We dont know what the show and tell is about. But there is, as always when youre around the Trump Organization, donald trump and now president elect trump soon to be president trump, a bit of theater. We dont know what this is about. It may make reference to the conversations you were just having about this breaking story overnight about the suggestion the russians might have had something compromising on president elect trump and that might influence his policy on russia. We simply dont know. All we know is it was rolled out here just a couple of moments ago and is certainly going to be a part of if not the opening remarks exclusively, maybe an ongoing discussion that president elect trump will refer to. But as always around donald trump there is the unexpected and th. What is the key question at stake in terms of his Business Empire . Will he announce a total devest chur from his financial interest . That is what we have been led to believe. But until it is spoken and the evidence is presented with all of the signed documents, the country doesnt know. The advice given to president elect trump by bipartisan ethics experts has been you must divest yourself, distancing yourself or having a arms length relationship to your many business entangleme s entanglements, not good. Federal law does not require him to do that but he will do it nonetheless. The proof is in the underlying documents. That might be what these documents are about. These might be documents of signed signed signed signed divestitures. But that is the key word. Not distancing yourself, not arms length, not letting your children in the family dealing with it. Those issues. Part of it is i assume will happen to the children, will there be a continuing role for his children. Will there be a continuing role for his children and how will it affect Jarod Kushner his son is law who is going to have a position in the white house. How does he divest himself and how it relates to his wife, ivanka, daughter of president elect trump. All of these things have yet to be resolved. And that might be a part of the presentation today. And as you pointed out, that was the original concept of the press conference from the beginning. It was scheduled for med december and then because the deal entanglements were so difficult to resolve, they wanted to take more time. I was told last night by a senior trump transition official it had not been fully lawyered even as late as 11 30 last night. They were still working out the final details and they may have in fact been worked out and the product of that working out might be there. But i do know and can report authoritatively, this was these were efforts going on all the way up into late last night. How long do we expect the press conference to go on . Is it going to be open ended or have they set limits on it . We have received no information and no limits, no suggestion of how many questions will be taken, how many followups will be granted, what the president elect is willing to talk about, what he is overall comportment of length of the press kochconference is goio be. I can tell you having done a lot of the press conferences during the campaign, they were wide ranging, cover 30, 35, 40 minutes and he would take a lot of questions. Some reporters that he would call on again and again. I was fortunate to be in that situation. We dont know how hes going to approach that as president elect. If hes going to be any different. It is interesting how that press conference has changed. It was supposed to be about business and within the last 24 hours the tone and the tenor has changed. What is the main question in the room right now given these latest developments . The early questions will be what do you want to tell the country about these allegations. What is your orientation to what you were told, do you believe it, do you not believe it. And what are you willing to say on your behalf about what you have done and what you will do with russia and can you persuasively explain to the American Public why this issue ought not to cloud interpretations of whatever your policy is with russia and can you make a clean break from your own past. Do you need to make a clean break from your own past. I think those are issues that are going to come right out the front of the press conference. But there are a great number of questions about governing. Weve had no opportunity to ask the president elect about anything regarding his domestic policy agenda, what are his time lines for the repeal of the Affordable Care act, tax reforms, Supreme Court nominee, cabinet appointments. All of these things are fresh terrain. If this is a long Running Press conference, hell get a chance to take questions on all of those things. What do you think are some of the central questions for the president elect . Well, lets go back to the financial dealings. He can declare a lot of things but whats the proof. Is he going to provide his tax returns so people can check the math. Secondarily, we had a Big Conversation in the campaign about the fuzzdy wall between Hillary Clinton of secretary of state and the clinton foundation. Whats donald trump going to do about that. Hes still got a family that has control over all of those things. What kind of wall is he going to build. What kind of disclosures is he going to have to make automatic when those countries have business with the United States or when people do business with the trump dpaecompanies as a wa influence the government of the United States. Donald trump has promised to change the way things work in washington. You would expect he might have something to say about that. And the campaign promises, in terms of what is the wall going to be like, what will be the immigration policy. Im fascinated by the question, his reluctance to talk about putin and his relationship and whatever these disclosures may be and whether they have any substance. Theres that and hes never condemned the russians for meddling in the u. S. Election. Rin if thats the case, what does that mean, that russians are ongoing in their reports to destabilize american institutions. What is he going to do to stop them. He hasnt condemned them yet. And not just american institutions, the german governments, other governments. What would be the disadvantage when youre about to walk into the oval office to sending a strong message to russia who has a number of Foreign Policy experts, who is not our friend. If you channel donald trump for a moment, the disadvantage or the advantage you keep them guessing, create a better relationship. Counter balance against china. Those would be some. At the same time the press conference is going on, on capitol hill there are confirmation hearings for his nominee to be secretary of state. And hes answered them, rex tiller sorn has been strong on russia, strong on nato. Saying the kinds of things that people in republican circles have wanted donald trump to say. Clearly laying out the threat from russia as he sees it . It is a real threat. That russia is not a country with which russia can be pals. Donald trumps advisers have just entered the room. We just saw Jarod Kushner. Scheduled to be senior adviser. Hes just entered the room and gone to the front row. Steve bannon has entered the room. Major garrett, what can you tell us about what youre seeing . This is standing room only as trump towers lobby can accommoda accommodate. There is not room for one other human being in the lobby. If you have any kind of issues with clast phob claustrophobia,t where you want to be. Steve bannon, Kelly Anne Conway and Jarod Kushner, rudy giuliani. All of those were talked asbout during the transition and none of them worked out. Rudy giuliani was on the outs but he is very much back in the inner circle, an adviser, part of an emerging Kitchen Cabinet that will inclund current new Jersey Governor Chris Christie who had a falling out during the transition with president elect trump. These falling outs are temporary and they can be reevaluated and im told authoritatively both have. Christie and giuliani are back in the inner circle advising president elect trump on an informal basis. And ruby giulianis presence here is significant of that moving back into the trump world and in a significant way. Any talk of a specific appointment . Not that im aware of right now, charlie. And im just told president elect trump is in the elevator, the doors are opening and i believe he is heading toward the podium now. Let me ask you quickly, then, john as we see him, what do we expect to be, other than obamacare, his first big legislative push . Hes got the wall. That can be part of the budget. But thats a key part of his good morning. You can see the president standing with his son waiting to go to the podium. Two sons and i voon ka. Its an opportunity to be here today. After the president elect makes some remarks hes introduce ms. Sherry dillon, a prominent attorney in d. C. Who structured the agreements pursuant to the president s business arrangements and shell give bree remarks. I want to bring your attention to a report that was published in buzzfeed last night. Its frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible for a left wing bomb to drop highly salacious and flat out false information on the internet just days before he takes the oath of office. Accord to buzzfeeds own editor, there are some serious reasons to doubt the allegations in the report. The executive editor of the 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 intern internet. The fact that buzz fooed and cnn made the decision to run with this claim is a sad pathetic attempt to get clicks. The report is not an Intelligence Report, plain and simple. One issue that the report talked about was the report of three individuals associated with the ca come pain. These three individuals, carter paige is on individual who the president elect does not know and was put on notice months ago by the campaign. Pal manafort has denied any of this involvement and Michael Cohen who has 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 suggests that Michael Cohen was at the university of Southern California with his son at a baseball game. One report now suggested apparently its another Michael Cohen. For all of the talk lately aboutface news, this political witch hunt is based on some of the most flimsy reporting and its frankly and shameful and disgraceful. It is my honor to announce the next Vice President of the United States, mike pence. [ applause ] we are nine days away from the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States of america. 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 im even more honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with a new president who will make America Great again. Now, the president elects 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 occurring t during the course of the transition has been inspirinspi. To see how he has brought together men and women of historic capability at a historic pace. 19 of the 21 cabinet officials have been announced, Nine Committee hearings scheduled, seven more to go on the books in the next several days. Its a compilation of men opand women with unprecedented caliber of leadership and background to help this administration move our nation forward. Perhaps thats why theres been such a concerted effort by some in the Mainstream Media to delegitimize this election. 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 Organization 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 an attempt to demean the president elect and our Incoming Administration and the American People are sick and tired of it. But today well get walk to real news. To real facts. And the Real Progress or incoming president has already made in reviving the American Economy and assembly a team that will make America Great again. And well hear from the president elect about issues that are of paramount importance to the American People today. It is my honor to introduce to all of you, my friend and the president elect of the United States of america, donald trump. Thank you very much. Its 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 its good to be with you. We stopped giving them because 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 have been released. But i want to thank a lot of the News Organizations for some of who 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 ive just gone up a notch as to what i think of you. Okay . All right. Weve had some great news over the last couple of weeks. Ive 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 going to be building in the midwest. You saw yesterday fiat chrysler, big big factory going to be built in this country. Ford Just Announced they stopped plans for a billion dollar plant in mexico and theyre going to be moving into michigan and expanding 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 have to get our drug industry coming back. Our drug industry is disastrous. Theyve been leaving left and right. And we have to create new bidding procedures for the drug industry because theyre getting away with murder. Pharma has a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. There very little bidding on drugs. Were the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we dont bid properly. Were going to start bidding and were going to save billions of dollars over a period of time. And were going to do that with aare the of other industries. Im very much involved with the generals and admirals on the airplane, the f35, youve been reading about it. Its way way behind skenl and many many billions of dollars overbudget. I dont like that. And the admirals have been fantastic, the generals have been fantastic. Ive gotten to know them well and were going to do some big things on the f35 program and perhaps the f18 program and were going to get those costs way down and were going to get the plane to be even better and were going to have some competition and its going to be a beautiful thing. So weve been very very much involved. And other things. We had so many incredible people coming here. Theyre going to do tremendous things, tremendous things in this country. And theyre very excited. And i will say if the election didnt turn out the way it turned out, they would not be here, they would not be any my office, they would not be in anybody elses office. They would be building and doing things in other countries. Theres a great spirit going on right now. A spirit many people have told me theyve never seen before. Ever. Were going to create jobs. Ive said that i will be the greatest jobs producer that god ever created and i mean that. Im going to work very hard on that. We need certain amounts of other things, including a little bit of luck. But i think were going to do a real job and im very proud of what weve done and we havent even gotten there yet. I look very much guard to the inauguration. Its going to be a beautiful event. We have great talent, tremendous talent and all of the bands or most of the bands from the different, from the different segments of the military. And ive heard some of these bands over the years, theyre incredible. Were going to have a very elegant day. The 20th is going to be something that will be very special, very beautiful and i think were going to have massive crowds because we have a movement. A Movement Like the world has never seen before. Its a movement that a lot of people didnt expect. And even the polls, although some of them did get it right, but many of them didnt. 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 going to have a lot of jobs and theyre going to have a lot of security, 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 shellkin and will do a news release in a little while and tell you about david. Hes fantastic. He will do a truly great job. One of the commitments i made is that were going to straighten out the whole situation for our veterans. Our veterans have been treated horribly. Theyre 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 cant see a doctor. By the time they get to the doctor theyre terminal. Not going to happen. Its not going to happen. David is going to cdo a fantastc job. Were going to be talking to a few people to help david. And we have some of the great hospitals in the world that are going to align themselves with the veterans administration, like the cleveland clinic, like the mayo clinic, a few more that we have and were going to set up a group. These are hospitals that have been the top of the line. The absolute top of the line. And theyre going to get together with their great doctors, dr. Toby cozgrove have been very involved. And were going to straighten out the va for our veterans. Ive been promising that for a long time and its something i feel very very strongly. Youll get the information on david and i think youll 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 selection will be something that will, with time, with time, straighten it out and straighten it out for good. Because our veterans have been treated unfairly. Questions, yes. John. Reporter thank you very much. Appreciate it. A couple aspects of the intelligence briefing that you received on friday that were looking for further clarification. Did the heads of the intelligence agencies provide you with a twopage summary of the unsubstantiated allegations . And secondly, do you accept their opinion that Vladimir Putin ordered the hack of the dnc and 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. These meetings as you know are confidential, classified. Im not allowed to talk about what went on in a meeting. But we had many witnesses in that meeting. Many of them with us. And i will say again, i think its a disgrace that information would be let out. I saw the information, i read the information outside of that meeting. Its all fake news. Its phony stuff. It didnt 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 never have been number one, it shouldnt have even entered paper. But it should never have been released. But i read what was released and i think its a disgrace. I think its 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 can say that, you know, when we lost 22 million names and Everything Else that was hacked recently, they didnt make a big deal out of that. That was something that was extraordinary. That was probably china. We have much hacking going on. And one of the things were going to do, we have some of the greatest computer minds anywhere in the world that weve 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 were going to put those minds together and form a defense. 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 have had hacking defense which we had. And i will give rens priebus credit. When he saw what was going on with the country, he went out and went to various firms and ordered a 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 your country. Its very important. Reporter the last part of the question, how could all of this poll cocolor your attempts build a better relationship with mr. Putin . Russia put out a Statement Today saying the fake news was fake news. Say it totally never happened. I respected the fact that he said that. Ill be honest. I think if he had something, they would have released it. Frankly had they broken into the republican National Committee, they would have released it, just like hillary and all of the horrible things like podesta said about her. If somebody said about me what podesta said about hillary, if i was the boss, i would have fired him immediately, or that american. What he said about her was horrible. But remember this. We talk about the hacking. Hacking is bad and it shouldnt 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 didnt report it. Thats a horrible thing. Thats a horrible thing. Can you imagine if donald trump got the questions to the debate . It would have been the biggest story in the history of stories and they would have said immediately you have to get out of the race. Nobody even talked about it. Its a very terrible thing. Yeah. Reporter thank you, mr. President elect. On that Intelligence Report, the second part of the conclusion was 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 russia . S if putin likes donald trump, i consider that an asset, not a liability. We have a horrible relationship with russia. Russia can help us fight isis. 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, thats called an asset, not a liability. Now i dont know that im going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope i do. But theres a good chance i wont. And if i dont do you honestly believe that hillary would be tougher on putin than me . Does anybody in this room believe that . Give me a break. Reporter make clear during your visit to moscow or st. Petersburg did you engage in conduct that you would not regret and would a reasonable observer say you are potentially vulnerable to blackmail . When i leave our country, im a very high profile person. Would you say . Im extremely careful. Im surrounded by bodyguards, surrounded by people. And i always tell them if im leaving this country be very careful because in your hotel rooms, and no matter where you go, youre probably going to have cameras. Im not refers just to russia but i would certainly put them in that category. And number one, i hope youre going to be good anyway. But in those rooms you have cameras in the strangest places. Cameras that are so small with modern technology you cant see them and you wont know. You better be careful or youll 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 well. And i told many people be careful. Because you dont want to see yourself on television. Cameras all over the place. And again, not just russia. All over. Does anybody really believe that story . Im also a germaphobe by the way. Believe me. Reporter how you plan to disentangle yourself from your business. But first, the russian remarks. Based on your comments mere 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 . So i tweeted out that i have no dealings with russia. I have no deals in russia. I have no deals that could happen in russia because weve stayed away. And i have no loans with russia. As a real estate developer, i have very very lit debt. I have assets that are now people have found out how big the country is. I have very low debt. But vi i have no loans with rus at all. That was important to put out. I certified that. I have no deals, no loans and i have no dealings. We could make deals in russia if i wanted to but i just dont want to because that would be a conflict. 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 demack, a friend of mine, great guy. And was offered 2 billion to do a deal in dubai. Number of deals. And i turned it down. I didnt have to turn it down because as you know, i have a no conflict situation because im president. I didnt know about that until three months ago but its nice to have. I dont want to take advantage of something. I have something others dont have. Vice president pence has it. I have a feeling hes not going to need it. But vi a noconflict of interest provision as president. It was many many years old because they dont want president s i understand. They dont want president s 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 dont like the way that looks but i would be able to do that if i want to. I would be the only one that would be able to do that. You cant do that in any other capaci capacity. But as president i could run the Trump Organization, great Great Company and i could run the country. I would do a very good job but i dont want to do that. All of these papers that you see here go ahead. Reporter do you believe the hacking was justified and will you release your tax returns to prove what youre saying about no deals in russia . Im not releasing tax returns because theyre under audit. Ive never heard that. The only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters. Reporter you dont think the no. I dont think so. I won. I became president. I dont think they care at all. I this i you care. I think you care. First of all you learn very little from a tax return. What you should do is go down to the federal elections and look at the numbers. People have locked at the company and now they realize that any company is much more powerful than they thought. Were in many countries and im proud of it. What im 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. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. Again, i dont have to do this. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. And with that im going to bring up Sherry Dillon and shes going to go these papers are just some of the many documents that ive signed turning over complete and total control to my sons. Good morning. Its my honor and privilege to be here today as president elect trumps request. Hes asked me as you just heard to speak about the conflicts of interest and the steps hes 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 at pursuing the peoples 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 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 ensure the American People that the decisions he makes and the actions that he takes as president are for their benefit and not to support his financial interests. As he said, hes 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 some have questioned this section 18 usc 208 is inapplicable by its terms. This is not just our interpretation. It is congress itself who made it clear when they amended the exception 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 in doubt in the minds of the American Public that hes completely isolating himself from his business interest. He instructed us to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that hes not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit. He sought the guidance of individuals who have familiar with and worked extensively in the field of government ethics and constitutional a law. Fred fielding standing here today, many of you have known him. Hes served several president s over the years, including serving as counsel to president S Ronald Reagan and george w. Bush wells serving on president george h. W. Bushs commission on federal ethics law reform and he held the position of vice chairman of the ethics resource center. Mr. Feielding has approved the plan. Hes here to support the plan and he will continue to provide guidance as the plan is implemented as eric and don take over the details of the management of the Trump Organization. Im going to detail some of the steps that the president elect is taking. First president elect trump investment and business assets commonly known 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 of entities have all been or will be conveyed to a trust prior to january 20th. Here is just some of the paperwork thats 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 long time trump executive, alan wise lburg. Together, don, eric and alan will make decisions for the sur ration of the presidency without any involvement whatsoever by president elect trump. Further, at the president elects direction, the trust agreement provides that to ensure the Trump Organization continue 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 ethicsed a vuzer will be required for new deals, and transactions that could potentially raise ethics concerns. President elect trump, as well as don, eric and alan are committed to ensuring that the activities of the Trump Organization are beyond reproach. 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 jarod move their family to d. C. , ivanka will be focused onset ling their children into their new homes and new schools. The president elect has also already disposed of all of his investments and publicly traded or easily liquidated investments. As a result, the trust will have two types of assets. First, liquid assets, cash, Cash Equivalents and treasuries and perhaps a government approved diverse portfolio. 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, resorts, hotels, right to royalties of trumps production and goods. Things like trump tower, all of his other business assets will be in the trust. Through instructions in the trust agreement, 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 manual, that caused an immediate financial loss of millions of dollars not just for president elect trump but also for don, ivanka and eric. The trust agreement as directedly plump imposes severe restrictions on new deals. No new foreign deals will be made whatsoever during the duration of plumps presidency. New domestic deals will be allowed but theyll go through a rigorous vetting process. The president elect will have no role in deciding whether or not the Trump Organization enganl g i gau engages in the deal and hell only know about the deal if he reads about it in the paper or see it on tv. Any deal could be perceived as causing a conflict or exploiting the office of the presidency. New deals must be vetted with the ethics adviser. The ethics adviser will be a recognized expert in the field of government experts. His role will be to scrutinize the new deals and 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 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 trumps role as president of the United States or the office of the presidency. In sum, all of these actions completely relingishment of management, no new deals, sharply limited information rights will sever president elect trumps presidency from the Trump Organization. Some have asked questions. Why not divest, why not sell anything, form a blind trust and i would like to turn to addre addressing those questions now. Selling first and foremost would not eliminate conflicts of interest. It was kpser bait them. The trump brand is key to the value of the Trump Organizations 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 ensure that it does not exploit the office of the presidency. Further, whatever price was paid would be subject to criticism and krut anscrutiny. Was it too high, was there pay to play. And selling his assets without the right 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 sell the entire Trump Organization isnt 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 who 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 interest in the assets that he owns now. Some people have suggested that president elect trump would 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 its a nonstarter. Its not realistic and would be inappropriate for the Trump Organization. Some people suggested a blind trust. But you cannot have a totally blind trust with operating businesses. President trump cant unknow he owns trump tower and the press will make sure that any new developments at the Trump Organization are well publicized. Further it would be impossible to find a trustee who would be competent to run the organization. The approach hes taking allows don and eric to preserve this Great Company. It creates a complete situation from president elect trump, 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. Im going to turn to one last topic today that has been of interest lately call e mollments. Thats a word that were all familiar with and perhaps have not heard of before. Were going to zwrieb sodescrib other actions that president elect trump is taking. This comes from the constitution. The constitution says officials may not accept gifts, titles of nobility from Foreign Governments with respect to their office. And that no benefit should be derived by holding an office. This socalled clause has never been interpreted 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 e mollment. It would have been thought of as a value for value exchange. But since president elect trump has been elected, some people want to define it to cover routine business transactions like paying for hotel rooms. They suggest that the constitution prohibits the businesses from arms length transactions that the president elect has absolutely nothing to do with and isnt 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 president and it has nothing to do with an office. The constitution does not require president elect trump to do anything here. But just like with conflicts of interest, he wants to do more than what the constitution requires. The president elect trump has decided and were announcing today that hes going to voluntarily donate all profits from Foreign Government payments made to his hotels to the United States treasury. This way it is the American People who will profit. In sum, i and president elects other advisers have determined the approach weve outlined today will avoid potential conflicts of interest or concerns regarding exploitation of the presidency without imposing unreasonable losses on the president elect and his family. We believe this structure and steps will serve to establish president elects desire to be isolated from his businesses 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 aware of president elects Business Empire and financial interest when they voted. Many people voted for him because of his business success. President elect trump wants to bring the success to all americans. Thank you. Reporter what is your response to your critics that say not only you but also your abinnocent is filled with conflicts of interest and do you plan to set an example in the future to make sure that your cabinet and everyone throughout your administration thats a good question. I really think when you watch whats going on i was just watching as an example, rex tillerson, its brilliant what hes doing and 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 dont 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 weve been hearing that from so many people. People are so happy. The case of rex, he ran incredibly exxonmobil. When there was a fine, he would get it. When they needed something, he would be there. A friend of mine who is very substantial in the oil business, harold hamm, he said, theres nobody in the business like rex tillerson. Thats what we want. Thats what i want to bring to government. I want to bring the greatest people into government because were way behind. We dont make good deals anymore. We make bad deals. Our trade deals are a disaster. 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 dont make good deals anymore. So we need people that are smart, we need people that are successful, and they got successful because, generally speaking, theyre smart, and thats what i put. Im proud of the cabinet. I think theyre doing very well. Its interesting how its going but i think theyre doing very very well. Reporter i want to ask a few questions on obamacare. Can you be specific on what guide tans youre giving Congressional Republicans on the time line for repeal and replace, whether it needs to be simultaneous finally obamacare. I thought it was never going to be asked. Reporter i also want to ask if youve outlined a plan for the replacement, will it guarantee conch for those who have gotten coverage youre going to be very 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 any way they want to guide you. In some cases they guide you incorrectly. In most cases you realize whats happening. Its imploding, as we said. Some states have over 100 increase and 17 and i said this two years ago. 17 is going to be the bad year. Its going to be catastrophic. Frankly we could sit back and it was a thought from a political standpoint but it wouldnt 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 dont want to own it. We dont want to own it politically. They own it right now. So the easiest thing would be to rhett it implode in 17 and believe me we would get whatever we wanted but it would take a long time. Were going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan. It will be repeal and replace. It will be essentially simultaneously. It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same kay day or the s week, could be the same hour. Were going to do repeal and replace. Very complicated stuff. And were going to get a health bill passed, were going to 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 cant even be used by them because the deductibles are so high. Obamacare is the democrats problem. Were going to take the problem off of the shelves for them. Were 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 sooas soon as secretary is approved and gets into the office, well be filing a plan. And it was actually pretty accurately reported today, the the New York Times, and the plan will be repeal and replace obamacare. Were going to have a health care that is far less expensive and far better. Okay. Reporter president elect trump, when you look at all of the meetings that youve had with carrier, an alibaba, do you conceive making this a Program Inside of commerce and then how soon will we see the program on capital repatriation and Corporate Tax cuts. If i can save jobs i was doing individual companies. Administrati and people said, thats just one county. We saved close to 1,000 jobs. They were gone and mike pence and his staff really helped ausa lot. They announced a year and a half ago they were leaving. Its always a little tougher when they announce theyre building a plant. So i want to thank united technologies. Weve been meeting with a lot of companies. 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, its not going to happen that way anymore. You want to move your plant, and you think, as an example, youre going to build that plant in mexico, and youre going to make your air conditioners or your cars or whatever youre making, and youre going to sell it through what will be a very, very strong border, not a weak border we dont even have a border. Its an open sieve. But you will sell through a strong border, not going to happen. Youre going to pay a very large border tax. So if you want to move to another country and fire all our Great American workers that got you there in the first place, you can move from michigan to tennessee and to north carolina