At his first press conference since July, President-elect Donald Trump addressed questions about his business interests and asserted that, as president, he would be exempt from possible conflicts of interest. The Trump Organization is an umbrella company for his hundreds of investments in real estate, brands and other businesses. But Trump said he would not follow advice from ethics experts to divest or create a completely blind trust, and instead announced he will hand over management of the Trump Organization to his sons. The head of the Office of Government Ethics slammed President-elect Trump’s plan to separate himself from his business, calling it “wholly inadequate.” John Wonderlich, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, offers comments.
Also on today’s show:
Committee to Protect Journalists: Watch Out for “Leak Investigations” Targeting Journos Under Trump
During his press conference on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump lashed out at reporters. He slammed CNN as “fake news,” called BuzzFeed a “failing piece of garbage” and refused to answer questions from CNN’s Jim Acosta after his outlet reported that top intelligence officials had briefed Trump, President Obama and top lawmakers over claims that Trump representatives met repeatedly with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and discussed the hacking of the DNC and the email of Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. BuzzFeed later published a dossier, prepared by British former intelligence officer Christopher Steele, which contains unverified allegations, including a charge that Russian officials have a sex tape from 2013 involving Trump and hired sex workers.
Do Exxon’s Climate Denial & “Trail of Carnage” on Human Rights Make Tillerson Unfit for State Dept?
At the Senate confirmation hearing for secretary of state nominee and former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, he refused to answer questions about the oil giant’s long history of denying the science of climate change, telling Senators that scientific literature on climate change is “inconclusive.”During the hearing, human rights concerns were also raised repeatedly. Tillerson refused to label Saudi Arabia a human rights violator, and avoided condemning Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte over thousands of extrajudicial killings carried out under Duterte’s so-called “war on drugs.”
Investigation: Did Trump’s Defense Secretary Nominee James Mattis Commit War Crimes in Iraq?
Today, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, James “Mad Dog” Mattis, faces his Senate confirmation hearing. Mattis reportedly received his nickname “Mad Dog” after leading U.S. troops during the 2004 battle of Fallujah in Iraq, where he is accused of carrying out war crimes by Aaron Glantz, a senior reporter at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.
In other media:
Five Ways Trump’s “News Conference” Wasn’t a News Conference: Robert Reich
Reich breaks down yesterday’s event, in which Trump continued to lie blatantly while calling the media dishonest. Has he ever heard of irony?
2016 Was the Year of Shrinking Ice: Truthout
Dahr Jamail summarizes a recently released report by the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Sea ice at both poles hit a record low last year.
People Are Saying: Full Frontal
Samantha Bee is back, and sharing her verifiable joy at the latest news.
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