click on the weather tab. you get the forecast for your area. >> back with another local news update in a half hon our. busy days here in the bay area. thank you so much for joining us. ♪ good morning. breaking overnight. a stunning report that the russian government may have gathered potentially salacious information about donald trump. the damaging but unverdict allegations reportedly part of intelligence abbreviation given to the president elect and the president last week. trump quickly calling it fake news and a political witch hunt. this morning reaction from president obama and trump's incoming chief of staff, who joins us live. emotional goodbye. >> yes, we can. yes, we did! >> president obama uses his farewell address to take some veiled swipes at donald trump.

>> for every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back. >> this morning, the president's warning to all americans as he prepares to lead the white house in just nine days. flooding emergency. new evacuations ordered in california overnight. rivers rivers on the brink after days of rain. we're there live. and bizarre robbery. a man accused of forcing an uber driver to rob a bank and stream it live on facebook. the suspect then randomly giving the away away to strangers. now he's behind bars today, wednesday, january 11th, 2017. from nbc news, this is "today" with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1-a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on a wednesday morning. i'm matt lauer alongside meredi

meredith vieira while savannah continues on break. breaking news. potentially explosive yet we caution unverified reports that the russian government has comp. myselfing information about donald trump. the information was included in briefing materials based on separate, longer document, paid for by political operatives and opponents of mr. trump, which included unsubstantiated allegations of sexual activities by him in russia. we're going to talk to mr. trump's chief of staff in a moment. but first, our political team has complete coverage, beginning with nbc's andrea mitchell. andrea, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. just nine days before he takes the oath of office, and only hours before his first news conference in six months, donald trump is grappling with this potential bombshell about russia, which he's calling a political witchhunt. two u.s. officials tell nbc news, briefing materials

prepared for both the president-elect and president obama, included information concerning potentially damaging, but unverified agencies about donald trump's dealings with russian. among donald trump's republican opponents and passed to u.s. intelligence agencies. the officials would not say whether the fbi was dealing with the investigation. president-elect in capital letters, fake news. a political witch hunt. lester holt asked president obama about it. >> before we sat down, there was word from sources that the intel report on russian hacking had information that suggested there might have been an effort by the russians to compromise donald trump. can you confirm that? can you tell us what you know? >> i haven't seen the reports. we were on a plane together and i haven't read the news since then. and as a matter of principle and national security, i don't

comment on classified information. >> the president-elect spokesman, sean spicer, calling the allegation pathetic. top aide, kellyanne conway telling seth meyers that trump was not briefed on the allegations. >> it says they never briefed him on it. they appended two pages to to the bottom. >> i believe it says they did brief him on it. >> he has said he is not aware of that. >> okay. that concerns me. >> earlier tuesday, fbi director, james comey has not said whether they investigated possible contacts between the trump campaign and russian government. >> i would never comment on investigations whether they have one or not. >> surprising one senator, angus king. since comey had prone precedent about the clinton investigation. >> the irony of your making the statement here, i cannot avoid. >> all this, as trump's nominee for secretary of state, takes

center stage on capitol hill today at his senate confirmation hearing where he is sure to face investigations of vladimir putin, and prepared remarks, expected to say, our nato allies are right to be alarmed. but it was in the absence of american leadership that this door was left open, and unintended signals were sent. democrats have questions. >> you know, we understand he is a business person, doing business in russia. but can he now all of a sudden change and be interested in the foreign policy issues, american values, and not be so concerned about making mr. putin happy. >> and a twitter storm about all of this from donald trump today. tweeting that he has nothing to do with russia, no deals, no loans, no nothing. and also a blast at the intelligence agencies he says should never have leaked this fake news to the public. saying one last shot at me, are we living in nazi germany. back to you, matt. >> all right. andrea, thank you very much.

reince priebus will serve as president-elect's trump chief of staff. good morning, good to see you. >> hey, good morning, matt. >> let me ask you, during the intelligence briefing last week at trump tower, the fbi, the cia, dna and nsa, would mr. trump briefed on the contents of this dossier and two-page summary of the allegation? >> i was in the room, matt. the first i heard of any of these wild accusations was when someone printed it off of the buzzfeed website, which, by the way, buzzfeed themselves said it's not credible. what i can tell you, this is not an intelligence document. this is some retired agent somewhere out in the world doing opposition research on donald trump during the campaign. and i looked into a couple of these accusations. so i brought one of the accusations was that michael

cohen, who works in the trump organization, went to practicgu meet with some russian agent. the guy has never been to prague in his life. i told him to give me his passport. i looked through the passport, matt. he's never been to prague. and later, last evening, verified he was actually in california. >> so are you saying the heads of these foreign intelligence agencies would take the time to brief the president and perhaps give a summary of this information to the president-elect if they thought there was a chance this was simply fake news? >> didn't happen. so what i'm -- certain things i can't say and can say. but what i can tell you is that i was there, and these crazy accusations, these -- that i just talked about were never discussed. >> reince, have you read the full report, the full 35 pages? >> i've read most of it.

but what i can tell you is that even a "new york times" last night, refused to publish this document, which is not an intelligence document. keep in mind, this is some retired guy, somewhere out in the world, acting like ian fleming, apparently trying to maybe write a fiction novel. i don't know what he's doing. >> although we have to say in the past he has been a credible source, although in this case he has said to -- he has said to have gotten information from other sources, who cannot be verified within russia. >> okay. so someone in the past that's been a source, somewhere in something that you don't know about, is now somehow attached to this document that not even the "new york times" will publish. which bases its entire report on a meeting in prague that never happened. the guy has never been to prague and here we are on the "today" show, be one of the greatest morning shows in the history of america, talking about stupidity. >> so let's just -- >> and actually, be an offensive crap that we shouldn't even be talking about.

and buzzfeed itself said that it is not credible, the "new york times" said it was done by opposition researchers that wanted to hurt trump during the campaign. this is garbage. >> okay. let me just ask you this, though. >> shameful, is what is it is. >> let me ask you this. have you taken the time to look mr. trump in the eye and say to him, "here's what they're alleging, can you tell me, point blank, none of this ever happened?" >> he said it was total garbage. and i'm keeping it clean. >> so why do you believe that the intelligence committee would hand over this document? if it's total garbage? >> i don't know if they did or didn't. if they did, shame on them. i don't know where this came -- look, this guy is a paid political operative. it's not like he's a guy that's in the intelligence community in the u.k. this is a guy who retired, opened up a shop, gets paid by political operatives to go dig up dirt and create these memos.

this is not an intelligence document. an intelligence document doesn't have hand-written page numbers on the corner. and the other thing i can tell you, if this was actually something our intelligence community believed in, it would have been published for the public and the rest of the report that was available to the public. so obviously, it wasn't credible enough for them to actually put in a document for the public to see. >> the timing of this, reince, comes on the -- came on the eve of this news conference that -- this long-awaited news conference from president-elect trump today. will he address this at the head of the news conference? >> it might come up, but i imagine his answers will be similar to what you just heard me say. honestly, guys, if the thing is based on a meeting in prague, when the guy that was supposed to be meeting was never in prague his entire life. it's verifiable. the news media is going to -- this is going to be decided, whether he was in prague or not. he's never been to prague in his life.

it's been reported he was in california. i don't even know why we're talking about this. >> there is one other side of this. >> this is a document that's been floating around for months. >> let me just, again, because it's important -- this story is going to develop or go nowhere. you're right about that. let me just ask you, for the record, can you say with 100% confidence that mr. trump or any aide or former aide, nor his lawyer, had any contact with russian intelligence officials or the russian government during the campaign. >> here's what i can tell you. i question folks on this matter. i've been a litigator for 12, 14 years before i took this job. i looked at the passport, page by page. it was then verified this person wasn't in prague, he was in california. it didn't happen. and the other salacious garbage in this report didn't happen.

so we're talking about fake news. it's shameful. it isn't a document that came from our intelligence community. it's research that's been floating around for months. >> but reince -- i'm asking, i think he's asking, can you say with 100% confidence that mr. trump or anybody in this campaign had no conversations with anybody in russia during the campaign. >> no. i mean, i'm just telling you, it's all phony bologna garbage. and so i have read this thing on buzzfeed. there's nothing to it. but, look, i know you guys are going to keep talking about it, but i think it's just one of these shameful things that bubbled up at the last second here before the press conference and it's too bad. >> i don't think you could have stated your side of it any more strongly and we appreciate that. >> thank you very much. >> reince, thank you very much. let us turn to jeremy bash, department of defense.

jeremy, good morning to you. you heard reince priebus, agrees with mr. trump's assessment this is fake news. this goes then to the veracity of a source and information, credibility of information. what are your sources telling you. >> well, i do think it makes sense this morning to drive under a caution flag, and not raise ahead of the facts. here's what we know, here's what we think and here's what we don't know. we know that the russian government uses information to try to compromise people and influence our election process. that is what the declassified intelligence report that was published last friday said. it said the russian government was trying to mettle, trying to influence our policies, our political systems. here's what we think. we think intelligence officials thought that the information was important enough to pass on to the president, the president-elect and congressional leaders. now, they're in sort of a catch-22 here, matt. if they don't give their boss a heads up, these allegations are out there, they can be accused

of hiding the ball. if they do put it out there, it risks of leaks and misinformation, and people start talking about it. of course, what we don't know, matt, at this hour, whether any of the underlying allegations are accurate or fair. >> when it came to hacking, the intelligence community had a very high sense of confidence about that information. do you think they feel the same way about this 35-page report? >> oh, i don't know how the intelligence community views the 35-page report. i think in their minds, in the minds of people whose job it is to guard the security of the united states, they're their view is that donald trump is going to be the 45th president of the united states. president obama said last night, he was freely and fairly elected. he's going to take the oath of office. when a foreign intelligence service tries to use information, any information, to try to use leverage over our president, that affects all americans. he's the president of all americans. and if some other government is going to try to use leverage over us, that becomes a national

security threat. >> all right, jeremy bash, thanks for your insight. we appreciate it. >> thanks, matt. as we mentioned, president obama delivered his farewell address to the nation last night. the 50-minute speech covering everything from his achievements to the challenges that lie ahead. nbc's kristen welker is here with more on that speech. kristen, good morning. good to see you. >> hi, matt and meredith, great to see both of you. an emotional night last night in chicago. president obama saying goodbye, while also facing a legacy that's in jeopardy. >> president obama returning to his adopted hometown of chicago. and bidding a final farewell to an electrified crowd and a divided nation. >> you made me a better president. >> a robust speech of his legacy. >> if i had told you we would open up a new chapter with the cuban people, shut down iran's nuclear weapons program without firing a shot.

take out the mastermind of 9/11. we might have said our sights were set a little too high. >> and while the president didn't directly rebuke donald trump, he acknowledged for him this moment marks a setback. >> for every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back. >> the speech was also a call to action, to protect the nation's democracy. >> america is no fragile thing. but the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured. >> and the president warned, the biggest threats hyper partisanship, and discrimination in all its forms. >> that's why i reject discrimination against muslim-americans. who are just as patriotic as we are. >> emotions overflown when the president paid tribute to his family. >> michelle, for the past 25 years, you have not only been my wife, and mother of my children,

you have been my best friend. >> and his vice president. >> you were the first decision i made as a nominee, and it was the best. not just because you have been a great vice president, but because in the bargain, i gained a brother. >> after eight years and with his legacy on the line, america's first african-american president brought his historic journey full circle, returning to his original rallying cry. >> yes, we can. yes, we did. yes, we can. thank you, god bless you. >> so the question everyone was asking last night, where was the president's younger daughter, sasha? well, white house officials say she had an exam, something that parents and kids all across the country can probably relate to. last night also marked one more book end. the president's final trip. >> what was sasha's teacher's name?

can't get out of one exam at that moment? >> very serious student. >> quite a speech. >> an emotional night. >> thank you very much. again, lester holt interviewed the president before his final speech, and you can see more of that on a one-hour special, "barack obama, the reality of hope." that's friday night. >> we're going to continue. portland getting hammered. the forecast was for 1 to 4 inches of snow. some places picking up 12 inches or more. schools throughout the region closed down. portland's airport opened, technically, but there is going to be massive delays as they clear runways and there is more coming, especially from central and southern california up into the north. we're looking at more snow. it's going to just continue to pound, especially this next storm coming in for southern california today, on into tomorrow with more snow into central california. and then what we're looking at,

basically, is a lot of rain. anywhere from 2 to 3 inches, especially to the west -- or i should say to the east of los angeles, could be upwards of 5 inches of rain and anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of snow in the sierra with blizzard warnings. 70-mile-an-hour wind gusts and very difficult travel. we're going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. when you make a pb&j with smucker's, that's the difference between ordinary everyday and exquisitely delicious in an everyday sort of way. because with a name like smucker's, it has to be good. good morning. i'm meteorologist kari hall. we have such wet weather the past 24 hours.

now we're getting a chance to the dry out as the weather system winds down. spotty showers out there. roads may be wet as you head out for the drive. still light rain for marin county and into the east bay. a chance of spotty showers into the this evening. heavy rain later today. weather. guys? >> all right, al. thank you very much. coming up, will president obama pardon chelsea manning? this morning, the never before heard apology from the former military specialist convicted of a massive leak of classified government documents. and the decision now resting with the president. and an uber driver in miami forced to live stream his passenger robbing a bank. you won't believe what that suspect did with the cash before being arrested. first, this is "today" on nbc.

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door to door making sure other people aren't in the homes in that area. we have a lot of farmers and ranchers looking for their animals. it is an agricultural area. one man has 10 cows and three horses and baby chicks that hatched recently. >> thank you very much. let's check the forecast for today. >> laura, that will be the main concern for today. area streets and rivers overtopping the banks and causing flooding even as more rain continues through the bay area. most of those spotty light showers and a little bit of a chance to the dry out. the coastal areas may be flooding today. king tide within the couple of hours. let's see what's happening on the roads with mike. >> overall, wet roads still an issue at vine hill.

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♪ 7:30 on this wednesday morning, the 11th of january, 2017. milder this morning in rockefeller plaza. good news for those nice people hanging out with us this morning. we'll get out there and say hi in a couple of minutes. meanwhile, inside studio 1a, meredith vieira back while she fills in for savannah. >> very busy day. i'm having a great time all week. >> we're glad. oh good to have you here. donald trump and the russian government are strongly denying unverified reports that moscow has gathered compromising information on the president-elect. we spoke about this report earlier with the incoming white house chief of staff, reince

priebus. he described mr. trump's response this way. >> he said it was total garbage. and i'm keeping it clean. >> a spokesperson for russian president, vladimir putin, says the entire story is utter nonsense. this morning, the families of the nine people killed in the south carolina church massacre get a chance to speak directly to the man accused of the shooting. on thursday, dylann roof was sentenced to death. a judge is expected to accept that sentence today. people asked to evacuate as rain threatens their neighborhoods. crews racing to bolster a levee near sacramentsacramento. more on the situation from national correspondent, miguel almaguer. good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning. sonoma county is known as wine country, but today many vineyard attention are actually under water.

even though water levels are dropping. but all across this region, rivers are surging at dangerously high levels. >> overnight, just outside sacramento, high drama. 13-foot levee nearly breached by floodwaters. catastrophic damage avoided. this epic storm system dumping nearly 20 inches of rain in some areas. the surging russian river winding through wine country and the historic town of guerneville, flooding homes. >> you know, houses under water. road closures, slides. >> wild day. >> just a wild day. >> reporter: with water washing out streets, ice-coated roads across the west. while snow buried others. gridlock on i-70 in colorado after multiple avalanches. >> we're stuck. and the conditions are god-awful.

>> reporter: in the sierra mountains, a blizzard with hurricane-force winds. in just seven days, 9 feet of snow dumped in some spots. this morning, falling trees, collapsing roofs, and rock slides remain a serious threat. the most severe comes from this weather has passed, but not the danger it leaves behind. with this region trying to dry out, there is more rain and snow in the forecast. meteorologists say we're expecting another 5 inches of rain, and 5 feet of snow up in the mountains. this area has been blindsided by a severe storm, a weather system that just won't go away. back to you guys. >> miguel almaguer, thanks. >> you're telling us there is bad weather for other parts of the country. >> that's right. the same system is going to be part of what causes what could be a potentially crippling ice storm this weekend for a wide swath of the country. high pressure pushing freezing air south from canada down into the midwest, and the mid plains.

this warm gulf air is going to rise up over this stationary front, and as it does, it cools the precipitation will fall. it's warm enough to start as rain, but because there's freezing cold air, down at the surface, as soon as that rain hits, it will contact with the cold air -- with the cold ground and become freezing rain. so look at this wide swath. we start off friday from oklahoma to st. louis. it will be rain south, but right along there from amarillo to st. louis, we're talking about ice. and then as we move into saturday, it stretches from texas all the way to washington, d.c. we can't give you how much, and it's going to be a timing issue. but we also see this lasting right on into sunday and monday from texas into st. louis. more ice, the accumulations still a little too early to tell you. but i will say this. we have the potential for power lines down, massive problems as far as air and road travel. so we want to put this on your radar. no pun intended. because i think this could be a

very dangerous situation for a good part of the weekend. the heavy rain across the bay area is winding down. but still some spotty showers left over. there may be pockets of heavy rain after going through this afternoon. as of right now, seeing more of a break in parts of the bay area. as we go in the hour by hour outlook, expect chance of rain at any point. light showers. we may even have rain in the forecast late tonight and into the start of the day tomorrow. still wet roads around the bay area. no matter when you need it, check out your weather that you get and you need on the weather channel. >> cool. >> al, thank you very much. now to a bizarre story out of miami. a man accused of forcing an uber driver to help him rob a bank and streaming it live on facebook. the suspect then giving away the money to strangers. here is nbc's kerry sanders. >> reporter: the world is watching as the drama unfolds on

facebook live. >> show the bomb to the people. >> i'll show the money. >> reporter: the fbi says the man in the suit is 35-year-old enrique antonio gomez. in the video, an unidentified uber driver whose face is being obscured by nbc news, says gomez forces him to live stream the pictures, posted with the caption, omg, 911, i need help. the driver says he was threatened with a bomb, and forced to go to a bank. mary anna strada was in the bank, frightened. >> he was there about 45 minutes. one of the girls said the guy had a computer with wires. >> he has a bomb. it's got a timer. >> reporter: they drive to world-famous ocean drive, where shocked vacationers watch him pass out the money. >> so people just ran across the street to start grabbing money. i went over thereful. >> reporter: but by then, authorities had been alerted. they took gomez and the uber

driver into custody and closed off the street, using a robot to check for explosives, they found none. the driver was questioned by the fbi and released without being charged. gomez is still being held in federal custody. his wife and lawyers not commenting. >> no comment. >> kind of crazy. bank robberies and bomb threats. that's the world we live in today, too. >> reporter: for "today," kerry sanders, nbc news, miami. coming up, you ever get criticism from people about your weather forecast? >> my children. >> really? >> yes. >> they are so smart. >> you are going to love the story we have coming up. how one weather man got back at his daughter for challenging his forecast. but first, document leaker chelsea manning, will she be parted by president obama as early as today? first, these messages.

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reassignment surgery. the question for the president is the seven years manning has served punishment enough? >> you see all those people standing down there. >> the case broke in 2010 with all the makings of a spy thriller. >> the prime suspect is 22-year-old army private first class bradley manning. >> i think he should be executed for doing what he did. >> on a forward operating base in eastern iraq ultimately sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified military and diplomatic files to wiki leaks. the day after the stunning verdict another bomb shell when manning announced she was a transgender woman named chelsea. >> was she a spy? >> she was not. she was an individual i think we count on in america. she was a whistle blower. she's somebody that turns to a journalist in order to reveal information that the american

public not only should know, but needs to know. >> reporter: army reserve officer was manning's defense lawyer. he convinced her to plead guilty to numerous counts to trust the military justice system. >> after this case i had to tell chelsea that i represented murdere murderers. i've represented child molesters and none of them received 35 years. none of them. >> he agreed to a rare interview hoping to persuade president obama to commute manning's sentence. administration officials tell nbc news a communation is being actively considered by the president that manning is on the short list. four former and current army intelligence officers tell nbc in hindsight, the manning sentence seems excessive to them. the impact of the manning leaks less damaging than was believed at the time. at her trial, manning apologized for her actions, but that apology was never heard outside

the courtroom until now. the audio tape obtained by nbc news. >> first, your honor, i want to start off with an apology. i'm sorry. i'm sorry that my actions hurt people. i'm sorry that it hurt the united states. >> reporter: among the most explosive of the leaked material, this video. >> come on, fire. >> reporter: a shocking u.s. army apache helicopter attack on a group of people in iraq. 11 were killed including two journalists. manning said how distressed she was by what seemed to her a devaluing of human life. >> reporter: was the government able to point to any specific damage, any loss of life? any -- any compromise of the u.s. intelligence as a result of the releases from chelsea manning? >> no, they were not and we had secret sessions of the court marshal where that would be the place that the government would do that. and the answer was no. what they would be able to show and what they did show was certain diplomats had their

feelings hurt. certain countries were upset. >> again, manning addressing the judge on that never before heard audio tape. audiotape. >> i can only go forward. i want to go forward. before i can do that though, i understand that i must pay a price for my decisions and actions. >> reporter: the judge decided the price was 35 years. now, the question for the president. was that too much? is seven years enough? >> this case certainly took a long time to get over. i've had many acquittals since. none of them have filled the void that i feel with this outcome. personally -- >> this one hurt? >> it did. i would be the happiest person i think alive, next to maybe chelsea, if the president does, in fact, kocommute her sentence >> many officials believe the sentence was driven in part by another leaker, edward snowden,

whose actions came to light as manning's trial was wrapping up. snowden's disclosures, the officials we spoke to agree, were far more damaging to america's interest, but snowden was beyond their reach in russia. manning, they say, paid the price. >> cynthia, thank you so much. >> as you mention, we'll find out within the next nine days. >> we will. >> thank you. coming up, the rough and tumble world of politics on full display during the "today" show's first 65 years. show's first 65 years. weme to reach my goals. i us'e so i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen

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we're awaiting the start of a news conference with president-elect trump any minute now... ==dbox== but our breaking news: rescue operations near hollister .. after flooding good morning. we are awaiting a news conference. we have breaking news locally. flooding inundating the neighborhood. kris sanchez is live with the latest. kris? >> reporter: yeah. we're right on the border between san benito. 34 people have been rescued, most by boat. two people were plucked off the top of their truck because the floodwaters were up so high. several animals were rescued purchase the flooding is starting to recede but very slow going out here. rescuers are still checking some of the other homes to make sure there aren't any people outside. a lot of folks still waiting to hear about the fate of their animals. one 3-year-old colt was out in the pasture by himself. we're waiting to hear about him

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good day. we're coming on the air because president-elect donald trump is about to hold his first formal news conference since winning the election. he's expected to answer questions about resolving potential conflicts involving his business as he prepares to take the oath in nine days. he will also likely face questions about these reports that surfaced yesterday concerning a written addendum to his intelligence broiefing on russian hacking which includes alleged and unverified russian claims they have damaging information on the president-elect. we're joined by chuck todd and cynthia mcfadden. cynthia, you've been working this story. what do we know is true an what's not? >> senior intelligence officials tell us that two-page addendum

was indeed part of the briefing materials used by mr. clapper and others available to them to brief donald trump, but that it was never discussed in the briefing. the briefing was oral. there's no place at trump tower to contain top-secret documents. no documents were turned over. and the intelligence officials go further and say that as far as they are concerned, and i'm going to quote now, intel and law enforcement officials agree that none of the investigations have found any conclusive or direct link between donald trump and the russian government, period. >> hallie jackson is at the news conference. hallie, we've got a preview of this news conference already in tweets from president-elect trump. >> we did, lester. a bit of what you could say was a tweet storm this morning with president-elect donald trump strongly denying this, calling it fake news. even at one point questioning whether we were living in nazi, germany. we expect the president-elect here in the lobby of trump tower any minute. i can tell you about 30 seconds ago staffers came out to put

thick stacks of manila folders filled with paper on the tables that are on display next to where donald trump will be speaking. remember, this is his first press conference as president-elect and his first press conference in about 168 days. so nearly six months. there are a lot of questions facing him, not just about this reporting on russia, as cynthia just explained, but about how he will separate his business interests from his interests in leading the nation. lester. >> chuck todd, this comes hours after president obama delivered his farewell speech in chicago. will this be somewhat of a rebuttal from the president-elect? >> i don't think it will be anymore. i think there's just too many on the president-elect's agenda. look, he's got a real challenge in front of him. because now his credibility and the credibility of the american presidency are intertwined. his credibility is being called into question by, you know, one political party, by people on capitol hill, and his job today is to figure out what is he going to do or say, particularly on this russia story, that sort of starts a process that attempts to restore the credibility of the presidency. he needs to figure out how to

come out and say in some form we need to get to the bottom of all of this, because there is so much in the air. there's so much uncertainty in the air. we're nine days from his inauguration. i think we're in an unprecedented situation where there needs to be a next level of seriousness here and an urgency about getting to the bottom of this russia storey. >> at the same time, of course, we know some of his cabinet picks are up for confirmation hearings. andrea mitchell is at the tillerson confirmation hearing for secretary of state. we understand things are getting quite heated there? >> well, there's some fireworks and from a key senator. republican senator marco rubio taking on rex tillerson on whether he can be tough enough against russia on cyber hacking, whether or not he would advise donald trump to repeal the executive order sanctioning putin and other colleagues in the russian intelligence on the russian hacking and also whether he would say that vladimir putin is a war criminal for what has happened in aleppo. tillerson pushed back saying that he had no proof of that.

also rubio questioning whether vladimir putin is personally responsible for murdering political opponents and journalists. this, of course, because tillerson has this long-standing relationship with russia as the head of exxonmobil. he said that he did believe the intelligence reports on russian hacking, something that donald trump has not been willing to say. that he would hold open the possibility of continuing the sanctions, but he would not get into a discussion about war crimes on vladimir putin. lester. >> andrea mitchell watching that hearing for us. we're told we're about three minutes from the president-elect coming down. again, the first news conference of any kind. he's taken a few questions outside the elevator, but his first formal news conference since the election. chuck, back to these allegations that surfaced yesterday, it helps his argument against the media. >> look, politically he's got buzzfeed, the organization that decided to publicly release this

totally unverified and filled with unsubstantiated claims about the president-elect. did donald trump a political favor because there are specifics he can deny. but the problem we're in now, this is much bigger. you can deny a specific in the public and your supporters can believe you're denying it all and that's the political favor buzzfeed did by releasing all of this. but the bigger picture is we are in a situation where the next president of the united states, what he does on putin and sanctions and crimea and all of those things, whatever action he takes, there is going to be a seed of doubt. was that influenced by a relationship that he may or may not have with vladimir putin? does he owe the russians anything? is he sympathetic -- more sympathetic to the russians? i mean there are too many questions. it's imperative on him and his own presidency. he should want to get to the bottom of this. the smart political thing for him to do is to say, you know what, we need a 9/11 commission. i'm with john mccain. we need a special senate select

committee. we have to get to the bottom of what russia did. end of story. if he did that, it would calm the waters big time. >> cynthia, he'll come out and based on his tweets say he did not rove theceive that informatd he will be correct. >> based on our reporting, yeah. you might wonder why was it part of the addendum if the intelligence committee didn't believe it to be true, says it wasn't verified. it was context. they wanted it available, we are told, so that if they felt they needed to explain to the president-elect the difference between vetted intelligence, i.e. the russians did try to participate and influence our election, and this raw kind of disinformation that's out there, they had it available. they also had information about hillary clinton and the clinton foundation. not verified, not believed, not intelligence. >> so as a way to say, hey, we see that other stuff out there but we understand the difference. >> trying to explain to the president-elect, who has said continually this is just political.

oh, we'll show you just political. this is the kind of political junk that's out there. we don't believe it. they never got there in the briefing. >> but the real consequence is this, though. you know, if a president trump needs to sanction or make the case to strike, say, north korea, okay, let's say we think north korea is on the verge of having an active nuclear weapon and we're basing it on intelligence, this issue of distrust between the president-elect and the intelligence community is a rift that will be cited around the world. this is no longer a political problem in this country. this is a problem for america's credibility around the world. >> obviously with one of the big topics we'll be hearing shortly when the president-elect emerges. hallie jackson, what else is on the plate there? obviously a lot of questions we haven't been able to ask all of these weeks. >> it's a pretty full plate, lester. earlier this week the president-elect came down and answered questions from reporters who have been gathering here to look at the comings and goings of the

transition, which of course is based just upstairs. repeatedly the president-elect pushed off questions until today, saying i will address that on wednesday. we'll talk about it on wednesday. so, no, it's not just russia. his relationship with russia, his relationship with the intelligence community. frankly it's not just about his conflicts of interest, although i expect when the president-elect comes out, you will see that be the headline for him, possibly for his attorneys, perhaps members of his family who will join him. we do expect, for example, that his sons will end up taking over the trump organization business. but in addition to that, listen, look at what is happening in congress. you just heard from andrea mitchell down on capitol hill. the issue of repealing and replacing the affordable care act which is a campaign pledge donald trump made repeatedly is front and center in washington. the president-elect will have to answer some questions about what kind of plan he favors. does he want repeal and replace simultaneously? is that possible? what is his plan to ensure that as house speaker paul ryan and others have said people who are currently covered under the affordable care act, the 20 million americans who have

coverage, will remain covered even if this plan is repealed. in addition to that, i think there's a laundry list of questions that you could ask him on foreign policy, on syria, on iran. in addition, domestic policy too. remember the president-elect came into office essentially leading a very divided nation, so will he speak to that today. a lot of anticipation here, lester. i'm looking out over a crowd of hundreds of journalists who have made the trip here to trump tower to see what the president-elect has to say. >> the news conference was scheduled to get under way at 11:00. to give you a little background of how we normally work. typically in a presidential news conference we get a two-minute warning which generally hems to two minutes and we work to that. we got the two-minute warning but obviously some sort of delay as they prepare for the news conference. chuck, not only affordable care act but let's talk about the wall, another promise. dismantling the iran nuclear deal. so many questions about the candidate and what the reality of governing will be. >> no, and that's right. look, we got to the conflict of

interest thing. this was supposed to be that press conference. remember, this was a postponed press conference from his initial announcement that he was going to do one in december to talk about how he was going to undo his businesses. we should note that the last time he did a news conference, it was the infamous news conference where he called out, russia, if you're listening, go find hillary clinton's missing e-mails. so i expect a lot of fireworks at this press conference because it does seem as if donald trump is not happy this morning. you can tell pby the tone of hi tweets and all that. i think this is going to be a press conference that is dominated by these two topics, russia and his business. i think hallie is right, health care is a big issue, but i think this russia issue is so much bigger now than everything else on the agenda, that i don't know unless he's looking for it as a lifeline. >> let's not minimize the business ties, though, cynthia. untangling those sorts of things. a president has never quite been in this position to have such an

empire going into the white house. >> we are at a whole -- i mean your brain is kind of blowing up here. the whole idea of what's actually happening nine days before the election. imagine the -- >> before the inauguration. >> before the inauguration. imagine in the kremlin today, we talked to some russia experts this morning who said the russians are just sitting back laughing. if their intention is originally to throw shade on the u.s. democracy and our process, man, have they -- they more than achieved their goal. >> they already succeeded. by the way, if this were another country we were looking at and right before its transfer of power we were -- from the outside this is what it could look like, that the intelligence community and the incoming president are at war with each other, we would sit here and say, boy, that country is under a political crisis. that's what the world is seeing right now. that's where it's sort of like -- it feels as if when we're talking about health care or tax reform, it feels so small

given the fact that a huge chunk of the credibility of the next commander in chief has been called into question. >> let's see, jared kushner, we understand, just walked in the room. of course he's one of the new senior advisers to the new administration. let's go back to hallie jackson. who else is now in the room? >> basically all of his top aid vier -- advisers, lester. there's a bank of elevator to my right next to where the podium is set up. it is where we do expect the president-elect. when he comes down, we saw walk out kellyanne conway, jared kushner, ivanka trump's husband, donald trump's son-in-law and somebody taking on a senior advisory role. steve bannon, the incoming white house chief strategist along with other members of the family. i believe behind me here you can see jared kushner. i'm not if our camera can bring that in. i see gary cohen, former new york mayor rudy giuliani as well, an indication that we expect the president-elect any minute out of these elevators. this is significant that his

entire senior staff is here. remember, this is a tumultuous 18-month campaign that saw a lot of leadership changes at the highest levels. now just nine days, eight days out from the inauguration, the president has his top west wing team in place. they have all gathered here in the lobby. there's a blue curtain separating the members of the media from secret service and other personnel further back in the trump tower lobby, but riot now all of his advisers are standing, waiting to see what the president-elect will have to say. again, there have been stacks of manila folders, thick reams of paper that have been placed out on display at a table in front of the podium, so all indications are the president-elect should be coming down really any minute. we are told, of course, by sources that the top staff behind me here has been very involved, of course, in figuring out how the president-elect will separate himself from his business interests. looking over at the elevator because the president-elect is coming out now. >> all right, there you see him waving, president-elect donald trump entering the room now and making his way toward the

microphone, his first formal news conference since his election. there was one scheduled in december -- >> good morning. thank you for being here. we are now nine days away from the inauguration of the next president and vice president of the united states. it's an opportunity to be here today to allow the president-elect to take your questions. after the president-elect makes some remarks, he will introduce miss sherri dillon, a prominent attorney in washington, d.c., with the prestigious firm of morgan lewis, who structured the agreements pursuant to the president's business arrangement and she will give brief remarks. before we start, i want to bring your attention to a few points on the report that was published in buzzfeed last night. it's frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible for a left-wing blog that was openly hostile to the president-elect's campaign to drop highly salacious and flat-out false information on the internet just days before he takes the oath of office. according to buzzfeed's own editor, there are some serious

reasons to doubt the allegations in the report. the executive editor of "the new york times" also dismissed the report by saying it was, quote, totally unsubstantiated, echoing the concerns that many other reporters expressed on the internet. the fact that buzzfeed and cnn made the decision to run with this unsubstantiated claim is a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks. the report is not an intelligence report, plain and simple. one issue that the report talked about was the relationship of three individuals associated with the campaign. these three individuals, paul manafort, michael coe hen and carter page. carter page is an individual who the president-elect does not know and was put on notice months ago by the campaign. paul manafort has adamantly denied any of this involvement and michael cohen who is said to have visited prague did not enter or leave the united states during this time.

we asked him to produce his passport to confirm his whereabouts on the dates in question and there was no doubt that he was not in prague. in fact, mr. cohen has never been in prague. a new report actually suggests that michael cohen was at the university of southern california with his son at a baseball game. one report suggests that it's apparently another michael cohen. for all the talk lately about fake news, this political witch hunt by some in the media is based on some of the most flimsy reporting and it's shameful and disgraceful. with that, it is my honor to introduce the next vice president of the united states, mike pence. >> we are nine days away from the inauguration of the 45th president of the united states

of america. i'm profoundly honored and humbled that i will take the oath of office to serve as vice president of the united states nine days from today, but i'm even more honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with a new president who will make america great again. now, the president-elect's leadership and his energy during the campaign was impressive. but as the chairman of the transition effort, i can assure the american people that his energy and his vision during the course of this transition has been even more inspiring. to see the way he has brought together men and women of extraordinary capability at a historic pace in this cabinet, 19 of the 21 cabinet officials have been announced. nine committee hearings already scheduled, seven more soon to go on the books in the next several

days and it is a compilation of men and women with an unprecedented caliber of leadership and background to help this administration move our nation forward. perhaps that's why there's been such a concerted effort by some in the mainstream media to delegitimatize this election and to demean our incoming administration. you know, i have long been a supporter of a free and independent press and i always will be, but with freedom comes responsibility. and the irresponsible decision of a few news organizations to run with a false and unsubstantiated report when most news organizations resisted the temp takes to propagate this fake news can only be attributed to media bias and attempt to demean the president-elect and our incoming administration and the american people are sick and tired of it.

but today, we'll get back to real news. to real facts. and the real progress our incoming president has already made in reviving the american economy and assembling a team that will make america great again. we'll hear from the president-elect about issues that are of paramount importance to the american people today. so it is my honor to introduce to all of you my friend and the president-elect of the united states of america, donald trump. >> thank you very much. it's very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them on an almost daily basis. i think we probably maybe won the nomination because of new conferences. it's good to be with you. we stopped giving them because we were getting quite a bit of

inaccurate news, but i do have to say that -- and i must say that i want to thank a lot of the news organizations here today because they looked at that nonsense that was released by maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows, but maybe the intelligence agencies, which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they in fact did that. a tremendous blot. because a thing like that should have never been written. it should never have been had and it should certainly never have been released. but i want to thank a lot of the news organizations for -- some of whom 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 i've just gone up a notch as to what i think of you, okay? all right. we've had some great news over the last couple of weeks. i've been quite active. i guess you could say in an economic way for the country. a lot of car companies are going to be moving in. we have other companies, big news is going to be announced over the next couple of weeks about companies that will be building in the midwest. yesterday you saw fiat chrysler, a big company. ford just announced 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. 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 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. a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. there's very little bidding on drugs. we're the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don't bid properly. we're going to start bidding and we're going to save billions of dollars over a period of time. we're going to do that with a lot of other industries. i'm very much involved with the

generals and admirals on the airplane, the f-35, you've been reading about it. and it's way, way behind schedule and many, many billions of dollars over budget. i don't like that and the admirals have been fantastic, the generals have been fantastic. i've really gotten to know them well. we're going to do some big things on the f-35 program and perhaps the f-18 program. we're going to get those costs way down and we're going to get the plane to be even better. and we're going to have some competition and it's going to be a beautiful thing. so we've been very, very much involved, and other things. we had jack mah, we had so many incredible people coming here, mr. arno. they're going to do tremendous things, tremendous things in this country. and they're very excited. i will say if the election didn't turn out the way it turned out, they would not be here, they would not be in my

office, they would not be in anybody else's office, they'd be building and doing things in other countries, so there's a great spirit going on right now. a spirit that many people have told me they have never seen before, ever. we're going to create jobs. i said that i will be the greatest jobs producer that god ever created, and i mean that. i really -- i'm going to work very hard on that. we need certain amounts of other things, including a little bit of luck, but i think we're going to do a real job and i'm very proud of what we've done and we haven't even gotten there yet. i look very much forward to the inauguration. it's going to be a beautiful event. we have great talent, tremendous talent, and we have the -- all of the bands or most of the bands from the different -- from the different segments of the military. i've heard some of these bands over the years, they're incredible. we're going to have a very, very elegant day. the 20th is going to be something that will be very,

very special, very beautiful. and i think we're going to have massive crowds, because we have a movement. it's a movement like the world has never seen before. it's a movement that a lot of people didn't expect. and even the polls, although some of them did get it right, but many of them didn't. that was a beautiful scene on november 8th as those states started to pour in. we focused very hard on those states and they really reciprocated. and those states are going to have a lot of jobs and they're going to have a lot of security, they're going to have a lot of good news for their veterans. by the way, speaking of veterans, i appointed today the head secretary of the veterans administration, david shulkin. we'll tell you about him, he's fantastic. he will do a truly great job. one of the commitments i made is that we're going to straighten

out the whole situation for our veterans. our veterans have been treated horribly, they're waiting in line for 15, 16, 17 days. cases where they go in and they have a minor early stage form of cancer and can't see a doctor. by the time they get to the doctor, they're terminal. it's not going to happen. it's not going to happen. so david is going to do a fantastic job. we're going to be talking to a few people also to help david. we have some of the great hospitals of the world going to align themselves with us on the veterans administration, like the cleveland clinic, like the mayo clinic, a few more that we have. we're going to set up a group. these are hospitals that have been the top of the line, the absolute top of the line. they're going to get together with their great doctors, dr. toby cosgrove, from the cleveland clinic, has been very

involved. ike perlmutter has been very, very involved and we're going to straighten out the va for our veterans. i've been promising that for a long time and something i feel very, very strongly. so you'll get the information on david and i think you'll be very impressed with the job he does. we looked long and hard. we interviewed at least a hundred people. some good, some not so good, but we had a lot of talent. 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 very unfairly. okay. questions. yes, john. >> mr. president-elect, thank you so much, appreciate it. couple of aspects of the intelligence briefing that you received on friday that we're looking for further clarification on. first of all, did the heads of the intelligence agencies provide you with the two-page summary of these unsubstantiated allegations? and secondly to that, on the

broader picture, do you accept their opinion that vladimir putin ordered the hack of the dnc, the attempted hack of the rnc. and if you do, how will that color your attempts to build a relationship with a leader who has been accused of committing an act of espionage against the united states? >> first of all, these meetings as you know are confidential, classified, so i'm 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 it's a disgrace that information would be let out. i saw the information, i read the information outside of that meeting. it's all fake news. it's phony stuff. it didn't happen. and it was gotten by opponents of ours, as you know, because you reported it and so did many of the other people. it was a group of opponents that got together, sick people, and they put that crap together. so i will tell you that not

within the meeting but outside of the meeting somebody released it. it should never have been -- number one, shouldn't have even entered paper but it shouldn't ever have been released. but i read what was released and i think it's a disgrace. i think it's an absolute disgrace. as far as hacking, i think it was russia, but i think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. i can say that, you know, when we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn't make a big deal out of that. that was something that was extraordinary. that was probably china. we have much hacking going on. one of the things we're going to do, we have some of the greatest computer minds anywhere in the world that we've assembled. you saw just a sample of it two weeks ago up here where we had the six top people in the world. they were never in the same room together as a group. we're going to put those minds

together and we're going to 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 reince priebus credit because when reince saw what was happening in the world and with this country, he went out and went to various firms and ordered a very, very strong hacking defense and they tried to hack the republican national committee and were unable to break through. we have to do that for our country, it's very important. >> and just to the last part of that question, when i said how could all of this potentially color your attempts to build a better relationship with president putin? >> well, president putin and russia put out a statement today that this fake news was indeed fake news. they said it totally never happened. now, somebody would say, oh, of course he's going to say that. i respected the fact that he

said that. and i -- i'll be honest, i think if he did have something, they would have released it, they would have been glad to release it. i think frankly had they broken into the republican national committee, i think they would have released it just like they did about hillary and all of the horrible things that her people like mr. podesta said about her. what he said about her was horrible. if somebody said about me what podesta said about hillary, i was the boss, i would have fired him immediately or that person. because what he said about her was horrible. but remember this, we talk about the hacking. hacking is bad. and it shouldn't be done. but look at the things that were hacked. look at what was learned from that hacking, that hillary clinton got the questions to the debate and didn't report it? that's a horrible thing. that's a horrible thing. can you imagine that if donald trump got the questions to the debate, it would 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. it's very terrible thing. >> president-elect trump -- >> thank you, mr. president-elect. on that intelligence report, the second part of their conclusion was that vladimir putin ordered it because he aspired to help you in the election. do you accept that part of the finding and will you undo what president obama did to punish the russians for this or will you keep it in place? >> well, 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 going to 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. >> was it clear during your visits to moscow or st. petersburg that you engage in conduct that you now regret and would a reasonable observer say that you are potentially vulnerable to blackmail by russia or its intelligence agencies. >> let me just say what i do. when i leave our country, i'm a very high-profile person, would you say? i am extremely careful. i'm surrounded by body guards. i'm surrounded by people. and i always tell them anywhere, but i always tell them if i'm leaving this country, be very careful because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go, you're going to probably have cameras. i'm not referring just to russia, but i would certainly put them in that category. and number one, i hope you're

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 can't see them and you won't know. you better be careful or you'll be watching yourself on nightly television. i tell this to people all the time. i was in russia years ago with the miss universe contest, which did very well, the moscow area did very, very well. and i told many people be careful, because you don't want to 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 germophobe, by the way. >> how do you plan to disentangle yourself from your business but i have to follow up on some of these russia remarks. based on your comments here, do

you believe the hacking was justified? does russia have any leverage over you, financial or otherwise? if not, will you release your tax returns to prove it? >> 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 we've stayed away. and i have no loans with russia. as a real estate developer, i have very, very little debt. i have assets that are -- and now people have found out how big the company is. i have very little debt and no loans with russia. i thought that was important to put out. so i have no deals, i have no loans and i have no dealings. we could make deals in russia very easily if we wanted to, i just don't want to because i think that would be a conflict. so i have no loans, no dealings and no current pending deals. now, i have to say one other thing. over the weekend i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai

with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the middle east. hussein demack, a friend of mine, great guy. i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai, number of deals. and i turned it down. i didn't have to turn it down because as you know, i have a no-conflict situation because i'm president. which i didn't know about that until about three months ago, but it's a nice thing to have. but i don't want to take advantage of something. i have something that others don't have, vice president pence also has it. i don't think he'll need it. i have a feeling he's not going to need it. but i have a no conflict of interest provision as president. it was many, many years old. this is for presidents because they don't want presidents -- 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 and run government at the same time. i don't like the way that looks, but i would be able to do that if i wanted to. i'd be the only one that would be able to do that. you can't do that in any other capacity. but as a president, i could run the trump organization, great, great company, and i could run the country. i'd do a very good job. but i don't want to do that. now, all of these papers that you see here -- yes, go ahead. >> do you believe the hacking was justified and will you release your tax returns to prove what you're saying about no deals in russia? >> well, i'm not releasing the tax returns because as you know they're under audit. >> but every president since the '70s has had a required audit and the last -- >> the only ones that care about my tax returns are the reporters. >> you don't think the american public is concerned about that? >> i won. i became president. no, i don't think they care at all. i don't think they care at all.

i think 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 federal elections and take a look at the numbers. actually people have learned a lot about my company and now they realize my company is much bigger, much more powerful than they ever thought. we're in many, many countries and i'm very proud of it. and what i'm going to be doing is my two sons, who are right here, don and eric, are going to be running the company. they are going to be running it in a very professional manner. they're not going to discuss it with me. again, i don't have to do this. they're not going to discuss it with me and with that i'm going to bring up sherri dillon, and she's going to go -- these papers are just some of the many documents that i've signed turning over complete and total control to my sons. >> sir, if we ask you one more question on russia --

>> good morning. it's my honor and privilege to be here today at president-elect trump's request. he's asked me, as you just heard, to speak about the conflicts of interest and the steps he's taking. as you know, the business empire built by president-elect trump over the years is massive. not dissimilar to the fortunes of nelson rockefeller when he became vice president. but at that time, no one was so concerned. president-elect trump wants the american public to rest assured that all of his efforts are directed to pursuing the people's business and not his own. to that end, as he explained a few moments ago, he directed me and my colleagues at the law firm morgan lewis to design a structure for his business empire that would completely isolate him from the management of the company. he further instructed that we build in protections that will assure the american people the decisions he makes and the actions that he takes as

president are for their benefit and not to support his financial interests. as he said, he's voluntarily taking this on. the conflicts of interest laws simply do not apply to the president or the vice president, and they are not required to separate themselves from their financial assets. the primary conflicts of interest statute, since some have questioned this, section 18, usc 208. it's simply inapplicable by its terms. this is not just our interpretation, it's congress itself who made this clear in 1989 when it amended section 18 usc 202 to state that except as otherwise provided, the terms office and employee in section 208 shall not include the president. even so, president-elect trump wants there to be no doubt in the minds of the american public that he is completely isolating himself from his business interests. he instructed us to take all

steps realistically possible to make it clear that he is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit. he also sought the guidance of individuals who are familiar with and have worked extensively in the fields of government ethics and constitutional law. critical to the morgan lewis team is fred fielding, standing here to our side and with us today. many of you have known him. he has served several presidents over the years, including serving as counsel to presidents ronald reagan and george w. bush as well as serving on president george h.w. bush's commission on federal ethics law reform. he also held the position of vice chair of the ethics resource center. mr. fielding has been extensively involved with and approved this plan. he's here today to support the plan and he will continue to provide guidance as the plan is implemented and as eric, don, along with others, take over management of the trump organization.

i'm going to detail some of the extraordinary steps now that the president-elect is taking. first, president-elect trump's investments and business assets, commonly known as the trump organization, comprising hundreds of entities, which again, if you all go and take a look in his financial disclosure statement, the pages and pages and pages of entities have all been or will be conveyed to a trust prior to january 20th. here is just some of the paperwork that's taking care of those actions. second, through the trust agreement, he has relinquished leadership and management of the trump organization to his sons, don and eric, and a long-time trump executive, alan weisselberg. together they'll have the authority to manage the trump organization and make decisions for the duration of the presidency without any involvement whatsoever by president-elect trump. further, at the president-elect's direction, the trust agreement provides that to

ensure the trump organization continues to operate in accordance with the highest and legal ethics standards, an ethics advisor will be appointed to the management team. the written approval of the ethics advisor will be required for new deals, actions and transactions that could potentially raise ethics or conflicts of interest concerns. president-elect trump as well as don, eric and alan, are committed to ensuring that the activities of the trump organization are beyond reproach and cannot be perceived to be exploitive of the office of the presidency. president-elect trump will resign from all officer and other positions he holds with the trump organization entities. further, in addition, his daughter, ivanka, will have no further involvement with or management authority whatsoever with the trump organization. as she and jared move their family to d.c., ivanka will be focused on settling her children into their new homes and their new schools.

the president-elect has also already disposed of all of his investments in publicly traded or easily liquidated investments. as a result, the trust will have two types of assets. first, it will hold liquid assets, cash, cash equivalents and treasuries, and perhaps some positions in a government-approved diversified portfolio, one that is consistent with the regulations from the office of government ethics. second, the trust is going to hold his pre-existing, illiquid but very valuable business assets. trump owned, operated and branded golf clubs, commercial rental property, resorts, hotels, rights to royalties from pre-existing licenses of trump marks productions and goods. things like trump tower, mar-a-lago, all of his other business assets, 40 wall street, will all be in the trust. through instructions in the trust agreement, president-elect trump first ordered that all

pending deals be terminated. this impacted more than 30 deals, many of which were set to close by the end of 2016. as you can well imagine, that caused an immediate financial loss of millions of dollars, not just for president-elect trump but also don, ivanka and eric. the trust agreement, as directed by president trump, imposes severe restrictions on new deals. no new foreign deals will be made whatsoever during the duration of president trump's presidency. new domestic deals will be allowed, but they will go through a vigorous vetting process. the president-elect will have no role in deciding whether the trump organization engages in any new deal and he will only know of a deal if he reads it in the paper or sees it on tv. because any new deal could, and i emphasize could, be perceived as causing a conflict or as exploiting the office of the presidency, new deals must be

vetted with the ethics advisor, whose role will be to analyze any potential transactions for conflicts and ethics issues. the ethics advisor will be a recognized expert in the field of government experts. again, his role will be to scrutinize the new deals and the actions and any new deal must receive written approval. to further reinforce the wall that we are building between president-elect trump and the trump organization, president-elect trump has ordered through his trust agreement to sharply limit his information rights. reports will only be available and reflect profit and loss on the company as a whole. there will be no separate business-by-business accounting. another step that president-elect trump has taken is he created a new position at the trump organization. the position of chief compliance counsel, whose responsibility will be to ensure that the trump businesses, again, are operating at the highest levels of

integrity and not taking any actions that could be perceived as exploiting the office of the presidency. he has also directed that no communications of the trump organization, including social media accounts, will reference or be tied to president-elect trump's role as president of the united states or the office of the presidency. in sum, all of these actions complete relinquishment of management, no foreign deals, ethics advisor approval of deals, sharply limited information rights, will sever president-elect trump's presidency from the trump organization. some have asked questions, why not divest? why not just sell everything? form a blind trust. i'd like to turn to addressing some of those questions now. selling, first and foremost, would not eliminate possibilities of conflicts of interest. in fact, it would exacerbate them. the trump brand is key to the value of the trump organization's assets. if president-elect trump sold

his brand, he would be entitled to royalties for the use of it and this would result in the trust retaining an interest in the brand without the ability to assure that it does not exploit the office of the presidency. further, whatever price was paid would be subject to criticism and scrutiny. was it too high, is there pay for play, was too much paid to curry favor with the president-elect. and selling his assets without the rights to the brand would greatly diminish the value of the assets and create a fire sale. president-elect trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built. this plan offers a suitable alternative to address the concerns of the american people. selling the entire trump organization isn't even feasible. some people have suggested that the president-elect sell the business to his adult children. this would require massive third-party debt sourced with multiple lenders whose motives and willness to participate

would be questioned and undoubtedly investigated. if the president-elect were to finance the sale himself, he would retain the financial interest and the assets that he owns now. some people have suggested that the trump -- that president-elect trump bundle the assets and turn the trump organization into a public company. anyone who's ever gone through this extraordinarily cumbersome and complicated process knows that it is a nonstarter. it is not realistic and it would be inappropriate for the trump organization. some people have suggested a blind trust. you cannot have a totally blind trust with operating businesses. president trump can't unknow he owns trump tower and the press will make sure that any new developments at the trump organization are well publicized. further, it would be impossible to find an institutional trustee that would be competent to run the trump organization. the approach he is taking allows

don and eric to preserve this great company and its iconic assets and this approach is best from a conflicts and ethics perspective. it creates a complete separation from president-elect trump and separates him and prevents him from participating in the business, imposes strict limits on what the trustees can do and requires the ascent of any ethics advisor to a new deal. i'm going to turn to one last topic that has been of interest lately called emoluments. that's a word we have become familiar with and perhaps have not heard before. we'll describe some other actions that president-elect trump is taking to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. emoluments comes from the constitution. it says officials may not accept gifts, titles of know built or emoluments from foreign governments with respect to their office and that no benefit should be derive ed by holding

office. the so-called emoluments 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 emolument. instead, it would have been thought of as a value for value exchange, not a gift, not a title and not an emolument. but since president-elect trump has been elected, some people want to define emoluments to cover routine business transactions like paying for hotel rooms. they suggest that the constitution prohibits the businesses from even arm's-length transactions that the president-elect has absolutely nothing to do with and isn't even aware of. these people are wrong. this is not what the constitution says. paying for a hotel room is not a gift or a present and it has nothing to do with an office. it's not an emolument. the constitution does not require president-elect trump to do anything here.

but just like with conflicts of interest, he wants to do more than what the constitution requires. so president-elect trump has decided and we are announcing today that he is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the united states treasury. this way it is the american people who will profit. in sum, i and president-elect's other advisers at morgan lewis, have determined the approach we've outlined today will avoid potential conflicts of interests or concerns regarding exploitation of the office of the presidency without imposing unnecessary and unreasonable losses on the president-elect and his family. we believe this structure and these steps will serve to accomplish the president-elect's desire to be isolated from his business interests and give the american people confidence that his sole business and interest is in making america great again, bringing back jobs to this country, securing our

borders, and rebuilding our infrastructure. the american people are well aware of president-elect trump's business empire and financial interests when they voted. many people voted for him precisely because of his business success. president-elect trump wants to bring this success to all americans. thank you. >> mr. trump, can we ask you -- mr. trump, can we ask you some policy questions, policy questions, sir? >> mr. trump, thank you. what is your response to your critics that say not only you, but also your cabinet is filled with conflicts of interest? do you plan to set an example in the future to make sure that your cabinet and everyone throughout your administration -- >> good question. i really think that when you watch what's going on with -- what's happening, i was just watching as an example, rex

tillerson, i think it's brilliant what he's doing and what he's saying. i watched yesterday as you know our great senator who is going to be a great attorney general, and he was brilliant. what people don't know is that he was a great prosecutor and attorney general in alabama. he was brilliant yesterday. so i really think that they are -- i think we have one of the great cabinets ever put together. we've been hearing that from so many people. people are so happy. in the case of rex, he ran incredibly exxonmobil. when there was a find, he would get it. when they needed something, he would be there. a friend of mine whose very, very substantial in the oil business, harold hamm, big supporter, he said there's nobody in the business like rex tillerson. and that's what we want. that's what i want to bring to government.

i want to bring the greatest people into government because wee way behind. we don't make good deals anymore. i say it all the time at speeches. we don't 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 don't make good deals anymore. so we need people that are smart, we need people that are successful. they got successful because generally speaking they're smart. and that's what i put. i'm very proud of the cabinet. i think they're doing very well. it's very interesting how it's going but i think they're doing very, very well. >> thank you, mr. president-elect. i wanted to ask a few questions on paobamacare. can you be specific on what guidance you're giving

congressional republicans on a timeline for repeal and replace. >> finally obamacare. >> i also wanted to ask you if you have outlined a plan for what you want the replace package to look like. would it guarantee coverage for those who have gotten health insurance through the current obamacare law? >> you're going to be very, very proud as not only the media and reporters, you're going to be very proud of what we put forth having to do with health care. obamacare is a complete and total disaster. they can say what they want, they can guide you any way they want to guide you. in some cases they guide you incorrectly. in most cases you realize what's happened. it's imploding as we sit. some states have over 100% increase and 17, and i said this two years ago, '17 is going to be the bad year. it's going to be catastrophic. frankly we could sit back, and

it was a thought from a political standpoint but it wouldn't be fair to the people. we could sit back and wait and watch and criticize and we could be a chuck schumer and sit back and criticize it and people would come, they would come begging to us, please, we have to do something about obamacare. we don't want to own it. we don't want to own it politically. they own it right now. so the easiest thing would be to let it implode in '17 and believe me we'd get pretty much whatever we wanted but it would take a long time. we're going to be submitting as soon as our secretary 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 day or the same

week but probably the same day. could be the same hour. so we're going to do repeal and replace. very complicated stuff. and we're going to get a health bill passed. we're 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 can't even be used by them because the deductibles are so high. obamacare is the democrats' problem. we are going to take the problem off the shelves for them. we're doing them a tremendous service by doing it. we could sit back and let them hang with it. we are doing the democrats a great service. so as soon as our secretary is approved and gets into the office, we'll be filing a plan and it was actually pretty

accurately reported today, "the new york times," and the plan will be repeal and replace obamacare. we're going to have a health care that is far less expensive and far better. >> president-elect, can we just ask you -- >> mr. trump -- >> mr. president -- >> which one? >> thank you. >> go ahead. >> president-elect trump, john steinberg from chatter. when you look at all the meetings that you've had with carrier and soft bank and ali baba, do you conceive making this a program sitting inside commerce? how soon will be see the program on capital repatriation and corporate tax cuts? >> if i can save jobs. for instance, i was doing individual companies and people said, well, that's only one company. like we did a good job with carrier and i want to thank united technologies which owns carrier, but we saved close to a thousand jobs. they were gone and mike pence and his staff really helped us a lot. that was a tough one because they announced a year and a half before that they were leaving.

when they're building a plant, it's a little tougher before they start or make an announcement so i want to thank united technologies. but we've been meeting with a lot of companies. but what really is happening is the word is now out that when you want to move your plant to mexico or some other place and you want to fire all of your workers from michigan and ohio and all these places that i won for good reason, it's not going to happen that way anymore. you want to move your plant and you think as an example you're going to build that plant in mexico and you're going to make your air conditioners or your cars or whatever you're making and you're going to sell through what will be a very, very strong border, not a weak border like it is. we don't even have a border, it's an open sieve. but you're going to sell through a very strong border, it's not going to happen. you're going to pay a very large border tax. so if you want to move to another country and if you want to fire all of our great american workers that got you there in the first place, you

can move from michigan to tennessee and to north carolina and south carolina, you can move from south carolina back to michigan, you can do any -- you've got a lot of states at play, a lot of competition, so it's not like oh, gee, i'm taking the competition. you've got a lot of places you can move. i don't care as long as it's within the united states, the borders of the united states. there will be a major border tax on these companies that are leaving and getting away with murder. and if our politicianis had wha it takes, they would have done this years ago and you would have millions more workers right now in the united states that are 96 million really wanting a job and they can't get. you know that story, the real number. that's the real number. so that's the way it is. okay, go ahead. >> president-elect, i have a question about the supreme court and the border security, but i also want to ask you about something you said on twitter this morning. are we living in nazi germany.

what were you driving at there? do you have a problem with the intelligence community? on the supreme court, what's your timeline? you said a while ago you were down to four. have you conducted those interviews yet? what's your timeline for nominating? on the border fence, it now appears clear u.s. taxpayers will have to pay for it up front. what is your plan to get mexico to pay for. >> i've got it. do you have anymore? >> on the fence, it's not a fence, it's a wall. you just misreported it. we're going to build a wall. i could wait about a year and a half until we finish our negotiations with mexico, which will start immediately after we get to office, but i don't want to wait. mike pence is leading an effort to get final approvals through various agencies and through congress for the wall to begin. i don't feel like waiting a year or year and a half, we're going to start building. mexico in some form, and there are many different forms, will reimburse us, and they will reimburse us for the cost of the wall.

that will happen, whether it's a tax or whether it's a payment. probably less likely that it's a payment. but it will happen. so remember this, okay. i would say we are going to build a wall and people would go crazy. i would then say who's going to pay for the wall, and people would all scream out, 25, 30,000 people because nobody has ever had crowds like trump has had. you know that, you don't like to report that, but that's okay. now he agrees, finally he agrees. but i say who's going to pay for the wall and they will scream out mexico. now, reports went out last week, oh, mexico is not going to pay for the wall because of a reimbursement. what's the difference? i want to get the wall started. i don't want to wait a year and a half until i make my deal with mexico. and we probably will have a deal sooner than that. by the way, mexico has been so nice, so nice. i respect the government of mexico, i respect the people of mexico. i love the people of mexico.

i have many people from mexico working for me, they're phenomenal people. the government of mexico is terrific. i don't blame them for what's happened. i don't blame them for taking advantage of the united states. i wish our politicians were so smart. mexico has taken advantage of the united states. i don't blame the representatives and various presidents, et cetera, of mexico. what i say is we shouldn't have allowed that to happen. it's not going to happen anymore. so in order to get the wall started, mexico will pay for the wall, but it will be reimbursed, okay? supreme court judge, so as you know i have a list of 20. i've gone through them. we've met with numerous candidates. they're outstanding in every case. they were largely recommended and highly recommended by federalist society, jim demint was also very much involved in

this group and he's a fantastic guy. so between leo and jim demint and some senators and some congress people, we have a great group of people. i'll be making the decision on who we will put up for justice of the united states supreme court, a replacement for the great, great justice scalia. that will be probably within two weeks of the 20th. so within about two weeks, probably the second week. i consider the first day because we'll also be doing some pretty good signings and i think what we'll do is we'll wait until monday. that will be our really first business day as opposed to doing it on friday, because on friday people are going to have a very good time at the inauguration. saturday, as you know, we're having a big church service and lots of good things are happening. so our first day, and you'll all be invited to the signings, but we'll be doing pretty good signings on monday and tuesday and wednesday and thursday and friday and then also the next

week. and you're all invited. but on the supreme court, i'll be making that decision and it will be a decision which i very strongly believe in. i think it's one of the reasons i got elected. i think the people of this country did not want to see what was happening with the supreme court, so i think it was a very, very big decision as to why i was elected. >> the tweet that you had this morning about are we living in nazi germany, what were you driving at there? >> i think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. i think it's a disgrace. and i say that, and i say that. and that's something that nazi germany would have done and did do. i think it's a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public. as far as buzzfeed, which is a failing pile of garbage writing it, i think they're going to

suffer the consequences. they already are. as far as cnn going out of their way to build it up -- and by the way, we just found out, i was coming down, michael cohen is a very talented lawyer, a good lawyer in my firm, who just reported that it wasn't this michael cohen they were talking about. i said i want to see your passport. he brings his passport to my office. i say, hey, wait a minute, he didn't leave the country. he wasn't out of the country. they had michael cohen of the trump organization was in prague. it turned out to be a different michael cohen. it's a disgrace what took place. it's a disgrace, and i think they ought to apologize to start with, michael cohen. >> since you're attacking us, can you give us a question. mr. president-elect -- >> go ahead. >> since you are attacking our news organization can you give us a chance. you are attacking our news organization. can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir. >> go ahead. >> sir, can you state -- mr. president-elect, can you state categorically, can you give us a question, you're attacking us.

can you give us a question? can you give us a question? >> i'm not going to give you a question. >> can you say categorically -- sir, can you say categorically that nobody -- mr. president-elect, that's not appropriate. >> do you think president obama went too far with the sanctions he put on russia after the hacking? >> no. >> will you role them back and what do you think of lindsey graham's plan to send you a bill for tougher ones. >> plans to send me a bill for what? >> tougher sanctions. >> i hadn't heard lindsey graham is going to do that. lindsey graham. i've been competing with him for a long time. he's going to crack that 1% barrier one day. i didn't realize lindsey graham is still at it. that's all right. i think he's a nice guy actually. i've heard that he's a nice guy and i've been hearing it. go ahead, go ahead, you've been waiting. >> as far as we understand, the

intelligence community -- from bbc news, ian panel from bbc news. >> another beauty. >> thank you. as far as we understand the intelligence community are still looking at these allegations as false news, as you describe it. if they come back with any kind of conclusion that any of it stands up, that any of it is true, will you consider your position? >> there's nothing they could come back with. okay, yes, yes, go ahead. >> can you -- >> go ahead. >> the decision to publish fake news and all the problems we've seen over the course of the election, what reforms do you recommend for this industry here? >> well, i don't recommend reforms, i recommend people that are -- that have some moral compass. you know, i've been hearing more and more about a thing called fake news and they're talking about people that go and say all sorts of things. but i will tell you, some of the media outlets that ideal with are fake news, more so than anybody. i could name them but i won't bother.

but you have a few sitting right in front of us. so they're very, very dishonest people. but i think it's just something we're going to have to live with. i guess the advantage i have is that i can speak back. when it happens to somebody that doesn't have this, doesn't have that kind of a megaphone, they can't speak back. it's a very sad thing. i've seen people destroyed. i've seen people absolutely destroyed, and i think it's very unfair. so all i can ask for is honest reporters. yes. >> i just want to follow up on the questions about the u.s. intelligence community and be very clear about what you're saying. do you trust your u.s. intelligence officials? and what do you say to foreign policy experts who say you're actually weakening national security by waging this war of words against that community? >> intelligence agencies are vital and very, very important. we are going to be putting in, as you know, mr. pompeo and

others, you know the senator, dan coates, we're going to be putting in some outstanding people. within 90 days they're going to be coming back to me with a major report on hacking. i want them to cover this situation. i also want them, however, to cover maybe most importantly, because we're hacked by everybody. you know, the united states, our government, out of a list of 17 in terms of industries is the worst. it's number 17 in terms of protection. if you look at the retail industry, if you look at the banking industry, various industries, out of 17 industries, they put this in the category of an industry, the united states is last in terms of protecting, let's say hacking defense. like we had a great hacking defense at the republican national committee. that's why we weren't hacked. by the way, we were told they were trying to hack us, but they weren't able to hack and i think i get some credit because i told reince and reince did a

phenomenal job. but i said i want strong hacking defense. the democratic national committee didn't do that. maybe that's why the country runs so badly that way. but i will tell you -- wait, wait, let me finish. within 90 days we will be coming up with a major report on hacking defense. how do we stop this new phenomena, fairly new phenomena because the united states is hacked by everybody. that includes russia and china and everybody. everybody. okay. >> president-elect trump, president-elect trump -- >> go ahead, go ahead. >> mr. president-elect, you said just now that you believe that russia indeed was responsible for the hacking of the dnc and john podesta's e-mails, et cetera. >> you know what, it could have been others also. >> why did you spend weeks undermining the u.s. intelligence community before simply getting the facts and then making a public statement? >> i think it's pretty sad when intelligence reports get leaked

out to the press. i think it's pretty sad. first of all, it's illegal. you know, these are classified and certified meetings and reports. i'll tell you what does happen. i have many meetings with intelligence and every time i meet, people are reading about it. somebody is leaking it out. so i said maybe it's my office. maybe my office because i have a lot of people, a lot of great people. maybe it's them. and what i did is i said i won't tell anybody. i'm going to have a meeting and i won't tell anybody about my meeting with intelligence. and what happened is i had my meeting. nobody knew. not even rona, my executive assistant for years. she didn't know, i didn't tell her. nobody knew. the meeting was had, the meeting was over, they left. and immediately the word got out that i had a meeting. so i don't want that. i don't want that. it's very unfair to the country,

it's very unfair to our country what happened. first of all, it should never have been printed and i thank "the new york times" for saying that and thank a lot of different people for saying that, but i will tell you that should never, ever happen. >> mr. president-elect -- thank you, mr. president-elect. can you stand here today once and for all and say that no one connected to you or your campaign had any contact with russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign, and if you indeed do believe that russia was behind the hacking, what is your message to vladimir putin right now? >> he shouldn't be doing it, he won't be doing it. russia will have much greater respect for our country when i'm leading it than when other people have led it. you will see that. russia will respect our country more. he shouldn't have done it. i don't believe he'll be doing it more now. we have to work something out, but it's not just russia. take a look at what's happened.

you don't report it the same way. 22 million accounts were hacked in this country by china. and that's because we have no defense. that's because we're run by people that don't know what they're doing. russia will have far greater respect for our country when i'm leading it. and i believe -- and i hope, maybe it won't happen, it's possible, but i won't be given a little reset button like hillary. here, press this piece of plastic. the guy looked at her like what is she doing? there's no reset button. we're either going to get along or we're not. i hope we get along, but if we don't, that's possible too. but russia and other countries -- and other countries, including china, which has taken total advantage of us economically, totally advantage of us in the south china sea by building their massive fortress, total. russia, china, japan, mexico, all countries will respect us

far more, far more than they do under past administrations. i want to thank everybody. so this is all, just so you understand, these papers, because i'm not sure that was explained properly. but these papers are all just a piece of the many, many companies that are being put into trust to be run by my two sons. i hope at the end of eight years i'll come back and say, oh, you did a great job. otherwise if they did a bad job, i'll say you're fired. good-bye, everybody. good-bye. >> president-elect trump concluding a news conference here in new york, his first formal news conference since being elected the next president of the united states. he covered a wide-ranging number of areas, including the allegations that were reported by a couple of news agencies yesterday regarding an addendum to a u.s. intelligence report about russian hacking that may have suggested an attempt to compromise him here.

cynthia mcfadden is with us again. you had been reporting as we were going into this news conference that this is largely discredited. >> yeah. intelligence officials tell us that this two-page addendum was not added to the intelligence report because they believed it to be credible intelligence. in fact it was never an intelligence report at all. this was an unvetted, unsubstantiated dossier and that we're told the reason it was even part of what mr. clapper and others could brief the president-elect on was simply for context, so that they could say to him if they decided they wanted to, look, we understand there's a lot of political crap out there, like this. what we're here to talk to you about is the vetted intelligence, our conclusion that russia did indeed hack the dnc, hack podesta and tried to influence our election. >> but he still left some things open, for example, the question of whether the russians were actively trying to get him elected. he never answered that specific question nor did he answer the

question at the end there about can he say with certainty that no one from his organization had contact with russia during the campaign. >> look, if i hadn't covered donald trump the last two years i would have said this was a circus. this was a bizarre press conference. it starts, it stops, there's a lawyer in there and all this stuff. but this has been the donald trump -- this is sort of par for the course in covering him, so let me set that aside. but it is notable, he had two opportunities on two very important aspects of the russia story. number one, he was asked if he would support more sanctions and he ignored that question. that last question, he ignored specifically will you say once and for all that no member of your campaign had any contact with the russians before the election. so it was -- he picked -- he got to pick and choose the questions he wanted to ask. it is also notable the ones he avoided. you can't just sit there and say he may have forgotten and may have not. he would give detail on some things that you're like, oh, that wasn't even the question and he would offer some.

so i do think he did nothing to end this russia story today. if anything, it did escalate a few, i think the intelligence community number one. number two, he did nothing to sort of i think make republican skeptics on capitol hill feel better about where he is on putin. >> there was a reporter -- first of all, he's clearly at battle with buzzfeed, which went with this story yesterday. hallie jackson, you were in the room. there was a reporter who wanted to get a question in, said you've attacked us. can i assume that was a reporter from buzzfeed? >> no, it was actually cnn, lester. that was the reporter you had heard. also president-elect trump talk about that particular network and a report that had come out on something similar, a similar topic. that was with that rather fiery exchange. as chuck pointed out, this is not unusual, considering what we've seen from donald trump prior to his election when he was on the campaign trail. but i have to make a note here, both you and chuck referenced that question at the very end from somebody about whether or not anybody from his campaign

had had contact with russians. on his way out of the room, donald trump did answer that question. he left the podium, he was walking into the elevator. obviously the front row of reporters here was continuing to yell that question along with the question on sanctions. on the question of russian involvement or russian interaction the president-elect said no, we are working to try to turn around some of that tape for you so you can see it for yourself, but that was a moment that happened after the president-elect ended his news conference and appeared to walk away. still some real unanswered questions here, particularly as chuck said on sanctions. you heard him talk about his conflicts of interest and how he will separate himself from the trump organization, but there are still questions regarding how that will work, whether that will have teeth, according to ethics experts that we have talked to already about this after the president-elect's announcement. so it was, as you might imagine, a rather wild scene here in the lobby of trump tower with hundreds of journalists trying to get questions to the president-elect. as chuck is well aware, typically there is some sort of

order or maybe a list of journalists that the president-elect might go down. this was kind of a free for all, yelling questions and see what you got essentially. he was joined here by his family members, his sons, donald jr. and eric, daughter ivanka, son-in-law jared kushner along with all members of the president-elect's top team. as well as reince priebus, his incoming chief of staff, who was off to the side during that fiery exchange with the reporter where the president-elect made very clear what he thought of that particular news organization. >> a lot to unpack here. cynthia, let's walk quickly through what was said about untangling these business -- his business empire. essentially putting it in a trust. >> essentially putting it in a trust. not a blind trust, because his family members will run it. of course he can't unknow, as the lawyer said, he can't unknow that he knows trump tower. he can't unknow his assets. >> donald and eric run it and another executive, essentially run the trust. >> correct, correct. i thought one of the most interesting things said is that he's going to take all of the --

any profit from the foreign governments to any of his hotels will be given to the u.s. treasury. having -- that followed on the heel of saying the emoluments clause doesn't really apply. >> exempt it does apparently. >> maybe it does but we're not going to take any chances here. essentially donald trump is saying that his two sons and a business executive will run the company in a trust. i also thought interesting donald trump said there will be no new deals. what we heard today is there's going to be an ethics officer employed by the trump organization who will have to approve any deals. >> only domestic deals. >> the problem with the ethics expert is it's the trump folks doing it. it's not the federal government, it's not a truly neutral third party. you could make a case that it's the office -- the ethics office in the united states government that ought to be the vetter here or ought to be that person and perhaps they're going to go down that road when they realize that does nothing to give -- that doesn't even give the appearance

of a neutral third party. but it is -- look, he has done nothing to -- he has done nothing to prevent a -- somebody wanting to do business with the government from lining his pockets. now, he may not be able to control that lining of the pockets, but he hasn't done that. and that is going to be an issue of concern for a lot of people. >> a couple of other headlines here. repeal and replace obamacare sounds like it's full steam ahead. he didn't give the exact timing only it would start once his team was in place. >> paul ryan wanted months and he basically said no. it's going to be simultaneous. >> we don't know what the new plan is. >> and he said he would submit it. that was a little bit new, that it is the trump administration who will submit the plan, not wait for congress to write it. another thing he promised a supreme court nominee in basically two weeks after he takes office, so in early february. and he promised a bunch of executive orders on day one or within the first few days.

i think he also named a va secretary. like i said, there was a lot of business done here on the normal presidential transition procedures, but of course we also have the enormous unpacking of the ethics decision and his business dealings. never mind russia. >> and the wall. he says he's going to -- >> it's a reimbursement. >> a reimbursement on the assumption, and he clearly has the assumption that there will be a reimbursement deal with russia down the road. >> and that is -- look, the trump campaign had actually floated that idea during the campaign, the idea that they would come up with maybe taxing remittances or things like that. that they would come up with ways to find a way to extract the money from mexico. so this isn't to me a flip, this is something they hinted at during the campaign. >> is this a case of you see what you get? and for that i mean a lot of us wondered what the transition from candidate donald trump to president donald trump, was it just revealed there? it's the same guy.

that's what people voted for. >> yes, but let me also put some caution here because i saw a lot of people say, oh, geez, he's still acting like a candidate. he doesn't know any other difference. by the way, a lot of president-elects are also acting like a had can. it takes a president a few months, sometimes a year to get out of campaign mode, to get out of that. that is a hard -- when you're in that mode and donald trump essentially you could argue since he almost ran in mode, he's been in that mode for six years. that is hard to downshift a little bit here. so i think no doubt he's still the candidate and no doubt it's still in campaign mode and there's a little bit of that. but let's check back in with him in a couple of months. >> cynthia, to be totally fair, he is talking about his promises during the campaign. he's staying loyal to what got him there. >> yeah, and i think it's super important that we also acknowledge he did say something very important about russia today. he acknowledged that the russians did this hacking.

and he said vis-a-vis putin, he shouldn't be doing it, he won't be doing it again. >> but then he back tracked and weirdly threw in -- but maybe it wasn't. i don't understand why he does that. >> i think you have to listen to the music as well as the words. >> such a long time we waited for this news conference. there was a lot of pent-up questions. we heard some of them in that very spirited news conference and there, as i said, will be a lot to unpack. >> politically that was a good press conference for donald trump and his supporters. you have to remember because he was -- he got to beat up the press and his supporters love it. >> we will continue the conversation of course full reporting throughout the day on msnbc and on nbcnews.com and a complete wrap-up tonight on nbc nightly news. for chuck todd, cynthia mcfadden and our entire team, i'm lester holt, nbc news new york. good day, everyone. i'm ... ==

a major water rescue-effort going on near hollister .. after flooding inundates a neighborhood. this has been happening since early this morning near the border of san benito and santa clara county .. on lovers lane near highway 152. we're told by the office of emergency services that crews so far have rescued 34 people. there are no injuries being reported at this time. it all started at about two a-m rescued 34 people. trying to rescue animals now. no reports of injuries reported at this time. it all started at 2:00 a.m. when waters began spilling over, trapping residents. san jose firefighters were called in to help. we're told there are about a dozen homes in that neighborhood. evacuees are being put up in a red cross shelter in hole center.

. good wednesday morning. we are getting a chance to dry out and some sunshine across parts of the bay area. still some lingering light showers, but the breaks will be definitely a lot longer as we go through the day and only seeing a chance of rain here and there

into this afternoon as well as this evening. but don't be surprised as the rain returns later on this evening, especially for the north day. that will be moving into the south with another round of rain possible overnight and into the start of the day tomorrow. we'll continue to track this. and we'll head now back over to laura. >> we'll take it over here. a quick check of the roadways. we have slower spots. b.a.r.t. with 20-minute delays. they are recovering throughout san francisco. this will not reopen until noon. highway 84 through the area and eastbound 580 away from caster valley. very slow. another update in half an hour. join us for our midday news at 11:00 a.m.

let me buckle up because the law is the law. even in a fake car on tv. craig robinson had hilarious roles over the years, from his hot tub machine movies to his role in the small screen as darrell on the hit nbc comedy if the "the office." and sausage grinch. >> now craig is host of a new show, driving around and picking up unsuspecting passengers to compete in karaoke games and show off their dance moves. >> oh. >> anybody know what dance this is? >> what's the name of this dance? >> what's it called? >> gangnam style. >> she got it. >> gangnam style. >> there it is, boom. >> craig, good morning. >> morning.

>> have you ever done an interview while you were driving before? >> yes. i've been interviewing people while driving. for the show. >> tell us how it works. i pick people up and tell them they're on a game show. karaoke in the car. they win prizes as they get to their destination. >> wow. >> yeah. >> cash prizes. >> you're a musician. i'm back here like a little kid. >> i see you. >> see me? you are a musician. how do you deal with the bad karaoke singers because you're about to hear some. >> it is very painful. it turns out that we all laugh at each other and laugh at ourselves. >> okay. >> it turns out to be a lot of un. >> you drive and live in l.a. you have a ka mcamaro, jet blac with red interior. >> yes. >> what does it say about your personality? >> i'm fun. i like to get where i'm going in

a hurry. >> yeah, very nice. >> good point. >> are we there yet? >> we're not there. almost there. >> okay. >> we're going to play. you have songs, and we have to finish the song? >> finish the lyrics. >> okay. >> ready, let's go. ♪ i love rock and roll ♪ put another dime in the jukebox, baby ♪ ♪ i love rock and roll ♪ put another dime and dance with me ♪ >> did we win? >> come and take your time and dance with me. >> you wouldn't have gotten that one. >> close. >> no more songs? >> that's it? >> dance. >> oh, now dance, dance, recognition. you have 15 seconds to dance and they have to guess what dance you're doing. >> i'll start. i have to get out of the car? >> ready? >> yup. >> they told me to do this one.

>> wait, what? >> the whip and the nae nae? >> oh, yeah! you got it, yeah. excellent work. >> here's mine. >> i haven't done it in a couple years. >> this is not going to be pretty. >> uh-oh. >> running man. >> the dab? >> yeah. >> is that a dance? >> lean and dab, yes. >> lean and dab. >> you get credit for that. well done. >> thank you for the sympathy, craig. appreciate it. >> how much money did we get? >> we owe him money. this is bad. >> i think you made $1,000. >> what is your go-to karaoke song? >> late saturday night and the crowd is hot, maybe, "smells like teen spirit." >> hit us with it. ♪ when the lights go out >> huh? >> it is crowd participation. do the high part. ♪ when the lights go out, it's

dangerous ♪ ♪ here we are now, entertainers ♪ ♪ i feel stupid ♪ i don't know the rest ♪ here we are now ♪ on the "today" stage >> i hope your show is better than this. >> it probably is. >> wow. don't make me stop this car. >> daddy will pull this car over. >> still available in bookstores. >> i will come back there. honey, just keep driving. craig, thank you. careoke showdown premieres tomorrow on spike. coming up, mary will talk about jessica biel and justin timberla timberlake. looking fi ♪ with advil, you'll ask what sinus headache? what stiff joints? what time of the month cramps?

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no, i was just showing him how easy it is to save with snapshot from progressive. you just plug it in and it gives you a rate based on your driving. does she have insurance for being boring? [ light laughter ] laugh bigger. [ laughter ] game night is our daughter allie's favorite night. and knowing that her favorite general mills big g cereals are gluten-free, like honey nut cheerios, rice chex and lucky charms, she can enjoy it her way. oscar winning actress mary

ste steenburgen transcends time. >> she plays a mom grieving after the unexpected loss of her daughter and finds that sometimes, she can't hold back. >> nothing listed on the purchase order. >> and, yet, i ordered them specifically. >> i understand, ma'am. >> no. no. i don't think you understand. how could you possibly understand? you didn't just lose your daughter. you didn't just lose everything. you just lost the shrimp. >> mary, good morning. >> i promise not to yell at you. >> thank you. thank you. where did you -- what experience did you draw on to create this character. >> to play her? she is believing and everybody deals with grief in a different way. i've certainly known grief. but i -- we were just saying

that we know that southern woman. i definitely grew up with them. it wasn't my mom or my aunts, but i was around them. i think it was -- sadly, it was people i wasn't too crazy about. but i enjoyed playing her, nonetheless, yes. >> she is the character we know that would say, bless your heart. we know she didn't mean it. >> she did not mean it. meant the opposite. >> meant the opposite of it. you said you didn't draw from people you know personally, but how did you pull this character in and make her real and understandable? >> you know, i guess because when you lose somebody, you have a coping mechanism. her coping mechanism is to fiercely get on with life. she's going to organize the events, and she's going to make her son-in-law move on and get over it. i understand that kind of fierceness in losing somebody. i understand it. it is just not necessarily me. >> so you play jessica biel's mother.

>> yes. >> and it is a star-studded cast. a lot of fun. jessica produced it. >> jessica called me years ago about playing this part. she and justin timberlake are dear friends of mine. actually, it was justin's first score. so it was amazing to go through the process. believe it or not, he was twabl n -- actually nervous about it, which is hard to believe. he did an amazing job. i was honored to be in it with him and hang out in new orleans with those guys. >> the interesting thing, i think, is here is a movie with a lot of comedic actors. it is such a moving drama. >> right. >> to make that transition. >> jason sudeikis and mazie williams are brilliant. it is an unusual, strange, southern story. i'm really proud to be in it. >> you are -- you live half year in nashville and am also a song writer and accordion player. >> i am. >> who knew?

>> i only started doing it a few years ago. they were in the caves music on valentine's and ted hadn't gotten me anything. i said, you can get me that, a green accordion. he said, there is no way. this is going to collect dust. you're never going to do it. of course, if i'm told i can't do something, i have to do it. >> there you go. >> did you go on youtube for a lesson? >> i did go on youtube. i took one or two lessons. the biggest way i've learned it is that on "last man on earth," will forte had me playing unplayable songs on the accordion. "love in an elevator" by aerosmith. i'm the specialist for '80s rock on the accordion. >> pretty good. >> we want her around. >> we understand this year, ted is getting you another instrument. >> nice to see you guys. >> "the book of love" hits

select theaters and is on demand this friday. time for the weather. >> i'm still thinking about mary playing snow's informan. ♪ someone down the lane >> very impressive. wow. >> oh, my gosh. >> looking at unseasonably mild weather through the gulf, bitter cold in the plains and heavy rain and snow out west. nice day in the northeast with showers through the mid mississippi river valley. tomorrow, the bitter cold moves east. a look at the possible record highs in the northeast and mid-atlantic states. more snow out through the rockies and into good morning. i'm meteorologist kari hall. we're still left with some spotty showers moving through the bay area. we try to clean up from the heavy rain we had from yesterday. now we are looking at some wet roads at palo alto and the traffic stacking up.

we're only seeing the rain hit or miss across the bay area. many more breaks today. highs today reaching 55 degrees and cooler tomorrow as the rain winds down. we'll get some dryer weather in time for the weekend. inland areas will be warming up into the lower 60s. >> that is your latest weather. >> ready to sing another hit? >> no. i didn't know we were on camera. up next, a bluetooth glove to pajama warmers. anyone with type 2 diabetes knows how it feels to see your numbers go up, despite your best efforts. but what if you could turn things around? what if you could love your numbers? discover once-daily invokana®. it's the #1 prescribed sglt2 inhibitor that works to lower a1c. invokana® is a pill used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. and in most clinical trials,

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layers. wait until you see the gear we have for you today. >> i have a feeling you're going to put on one of these in a second. we have a celebrity stylist with finds to keep you warm. >> good morning. >> we have great stuff. the best part, everything is under $40. accessible for everybody. obsessed with these. >> these are awesome. >> harlow and sam are mine. this is little griffin. >> so cute. >> these are the cooler kid version of the snuggle. they're soft. use them as a blanket or sleeping bag. great gift for 19 obsessed. >> this is a hit in my home on christmas morning. >> so many different ones. >> next up? >> cozy pajamas. i was against a one ssie until tried it. $27 from kohl's. you'll love these. >> tamron wore one of these to work this morning. >> i live for them.

>> learned something new. >> too much. this is very, very cute. >> super cute. what is better than having warm pajamas is super warm pajamas. this is, over here, a pajama warmer. >> i've never heard of this. >> basically, you put your pajamas in. if you put your hand in, it is super warm. >> like a heating pad. >> like you pull them out of the dryer. they're warm and you don't have to warm up your side of the bed before you go to sleep at night. >> how did we go this long without hearing about this? >> we need a pajama warmer. >> you can put hats, gloves, lingerie. >> i didn't see that coming either. >> anything you want in there. >> i've heard of towel warmers. never this. this is awesome. >> i love it. >> next up on the list? >> so moving on, these are amazing. bluetooth gloves. you can essentially talk on the phone in your glove. we're going to try it. >> in the glove? >> yes. you might look ridiculous and

people will think you're crazy but it is amazing. >> who are you calling? >> oh. >> hello? is anyone home? >> hello? >> it worked. >> hi, al. >> hey you doing? >> look at him. >> do you like the blue footoot gloves? >> this is like this but like this. >> can you hear? >> wow. nobody looks stupid doing this. >> listen, i think you're not going to look cool no matter what if you're walking down the street like this. >> no. >> but they work. >> your freezing hand isn't out. >> don't search in your bag. >> he's on another floor. >> you have earwax on your thumb. >> under $20. bye, al. thank you. >> see ya. >> next, a scarf. >> why not have your scarf do double duty? this is a rain scarf. essentially, a scarf on one side. if it snows to s or rains, flip around and it has a hood. >> a head cover. >> protect the hair. that's great. >> so smart. >> with pockets. >> my grandma used to wear

something like that in the rain. >> i love it. >> socks. >> we have to keep our feet warm. all about socks with sayings. these are from notes to self. >> your grandpa is into socks. >> the kids ones, i am smart. to start the day off on the right foot. >> good one. >> that was good. then these are fun. they have really fun sayings. these are the pg version. on the website, there might be not so pg. this makes me think of kathie lee and hoda. bring your wine to workday. >> moving on. >> cute baby booties. these are from uncommon goods. little taco booties. and we have key socks, basically socks that let you stay warm and go up to the top of your knee. you don't see them so you can wear the ballet flats in the winter. >> so smart. >> hats. we all wear hats in the winter. the pom-pom hat was huge for everyone. this one has interchangeable pom-poms. swap it out to match your

outfit. >> this is a better idea. you can take it off. >> for different occasions. melissa, thank you so much. to shop all the items, today.com/style. we're back in a moment. first, this is "today" on nbc.

♪ out of my league >> ladies. >> hello, mr. al. >> what's coming up? >> we've got drew barrymore with us. >> and the santa clarita diet. >> elvis duran is here. a special guest star you might recognize. and joy's diet. >> you all did a

good morning. as we take a look out there, we're still tracking some spotty rain across parts of the bay area, san mateo bridge, very wet as you cross. some of the showers moving through there. and we've also seen some rain moving through parts of marin

county over towards oakland and parts of the east bay. and we will see at times some spotty showers, but much more of a break, especially this afternoon. there will be another cluster of showers starting to move into the north bay later this evening that may impact the evening commute. then a heavier downpour heading towards early tomorrow morning that could bring in additional rain. let's see what's happening on the roadways with mike. >> back to the san mateo bridge. even if it has rain on the lens, we can see slowing away from us, westbound. over the high rises a vehicle blocking the lanes. the dunbarton bridge which is your although. at steven's creek boulevard, two lanes blocked from a crash on the 101. how about happening now in san benito county, 4 people rescued near holster after the creek flooded and overflowed. we'll have a live report on our midday newscast.

we're posting videos on our website. russian river also expected to crest well above flood stage. can you link to that on our home page. interactive radar on our nbc bay area app.

from nbc news this is "today" with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >> hello, everybody. you made it to hump day. hope you feel good about that. it's wines day wednesday. it's january 11. >> it is. >> that is yours if you want it by one of our favorite groups, rascall flatts. >> love them. >> they're so good. >> by the way, you're looking fine for someone who spent a long day and long night together with me. >> we can't talk about everything where. >> we can't. >> but it was epic. you look very nice also because you did many, many more hours of the "today" show before i started yesterday. >> th