Looking Back at the Pool Reports from The Key Days

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Who was with President-Elect Trump on December 29th 2016 at Mar-a-Lago? The pool report from that day helps clarify that.

From Pool #2 of that date …

On the transition call this morning, Sean Spicer confirmed that President-elect Trump is holding meetings today with senior staff to discuss national security, the transition, and the inauguration speech. Participants include Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and Reince Priebus. They will also continue to work on the inauguration speech at a dinner tonight at Mar-a-Lago.

On Russia, Spicer said that politically “A lot of folks on the left that continue to undermine the legitimacy of his win- that’s unfortunate” but “If the US has clear proof of anybody interfering in our elections we should make that known.”

From December 30th …

There was no new comment on today’s developments over Russia. Mr Spicer read out Thursday’s statement from Mr Trump in response to the US decision to expel Russian diplomats. He said “later”, either via the pool or the next scheduled transition call next Tuesday (3rd January), he expected to announce details of a planned meeting with the US intelligence community, including participants. In the later Q & A, Mr Spicer said there was “nothing scheduled at this time” in terms of any talks between Mr Trump, transition staff and Moscow. “The priority right now is the president-elect’s update next week” in the meeting with US intelligence officials.

On December 31st, President-Elect Trump briefly took questions at Mar-a-Lago …

YOU SEEM TO DOUNT AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE ANALYSES REGARDING THE IDEA OF RUSSIANS BEHIND THE HACKING?

Well, I just want them to be sure, because it’s a pretty serious charge, and I want them to be sure. And if you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong. And so I want them to be sure. I think it’s unfair if they don’t know. And I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.”

WHAT DO YOU KNOW THAT OTHER PEOPLE DON’T KNOW?

You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE ISSUE OF CYBER SECURITY IN YOUR ADMINISTRATION?

It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old fashioned way because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe. I don’t care what they say, no computer is safe. I have a boy who’s ten years old, he can do anything with a computer. You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier.

WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING AT THE INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS YOU’RE HAVING ARRANGED FOR NEXT WEEK?

“We’re talking about normal questions but everything’s going to work out very well. Hopefully we’re going to have great relationships with many countries, it includes Russia and it includes China.”

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