Donald Trump news conference: US President-elect attacks 'sick people' he blames for Russian dossier
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has rejected reports Moscow has compiled a dossier of compromising information about his activities in and links to the Russian state.
Here are the latest updates:
- Trump says he is a 'germaphobe' in apparent response to dossier sex allegations
- Trump says he is 'completely isolating' himself from business empire
- 'If Putin likes me, it's an asset'
- Trump attacks the 'sick' people who put 'c**p' intelligence dossier together
- Unofficial and unverified report into Trump's alleged Russian links included in official security briefing
- Trump calls allegations fake news and a political witch-hunt
- Scanned copy of former British spy's unverified report published by BuzzFeed
- Trump holds his first new conference as President-elect
With just nine days to go until his inauguration, Donald Trump has again found himself at the centre of a scandal involving alleged links to the Russian state.
A classified briefing on Russian hacking, given to both President Barack Obama and the President-elect, included allegations that Mr Trump or his surrogates had direct contact with the Kremlin before and during the 2016 election campaign.
And the report also details "perverted sexual acts" involving prostitutes alleged to have taken place in a hotel room in Moscow. The suggestion is that the claims could have been used by Russia to compromise the incoming US President.
Mr Trump has strenuously denied the unverified allegations, which came in a two-page synopsis attached to a classified intelligence report into Russian interference in the US election. A declassified version was distributed publicly last week.
Intelligence officials said they could not independently verify the embarrassing claims, compiled by a former British spy who was hired by Mr Trump’s political opponents.
The Kremlin dismissed the report as "fake" and "total bluff" in a statement on Wednesday morning, saying it had no "compromising information" on either Mr Trump or his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday night, Mr Trump's political advisor Kellyanne Conway also dismissed the claims as coming from "unnamed, unspoken sources."
Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey that asks Mr Tillerson if he and Mr Trump agree on issues surrounding Mr Putin and Russia.
Mr Tillerson: "The President-elect and I have not had the opportunity to discuss this specific issue, or the specific area" but have spoken "in a broad construct and in terms of the principals that are going to guide that."
"But not specifically about Russia?" Mr Menendez asks.
"That has not occurred yet," Mr Tillerson says. "Amazing," says the Senator.
Make of that what you will.
Protesters shouting that “oil is dead” interrupt the hearing.
“Senators, be brave. Reject this man! Protect the vulnerable,” a protester says.
Mr Tillerson appears to veering from talking tough on Russia to not being able to offer clear answers.
In the latest example of the former, during an exchange with Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, Mr Tillerson explains that Russia has sought to re-establish its role in the global world order since the fall of the former Soviet Union.
“I think that’s now what we’re witnessing...[the] assertion on their part in order to force a conversation,” Mr Tillerson says
But, Mr Tillerson adds: “We aren’t like to ever be friends...our value systems are starkly different.”
Mr Tillerson says that the US needs to move Russia from being an adversary always to being an adversary at times and a partner at times.
Outside of the confirmation hearing, Donald Trump's press conference is due to begin at Trump Tower in New York. It appears a fair number of mystery folders have appeared next to the podium.
Huge security for Mr Trump's press conference at Trump Tower in New York. Place packed with reporters. Many turned away.
We will be turning our attention to Mr Trump's press conference for now. Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giuliani and Jared Kushner all appear to be on the scene.
Mike Pence now speaking, talking about the "honour" of taking up his new post and standing with a man - Mr Trump - "who will make America great again".
He comes after Sean Spicer - the incoming Press Secretary - who in referring to the latest reports of information on Trump says it is “frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible for a left-wing blog... to drop highly salacious ...information on the internet just days before he takes office.”
He calls the Buzzfeed report “a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks.”
Mr Trump says the dossier "should never have been written or released."
Mr Trump thanks the news organisations who did not publish what he called "that fake news" and "That nonsense".
He says he stopped giving so many news conferences because "we were getting a lot of inaccurate news".
He then, in his usual off-hand style, suggests that the documents may have released by “maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows, maybe the intelligence agencies.”
He says if the intelligence community did release the documents it would be a “tremendous blot” on their legacy.