WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times local):
9:25 a.m.
President-elect Donald Trump says he is “studying” the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions. But he doesn’t want the agreement to put the U.S. “at a competitive disadvantage with other countries.”
Trump says in an interview with Fox News Sunday that he’s not trying to take a wrecking ball to President Barack Obama’s legacy. He says, “I don’t want to do that at all. I just want what’s right.”
Trump is pointing to lengthy wait times for permit approvals from the Environmental Protection Agency as something hurting job creation.
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9:25 a.m.
Sen. Ben Cardin, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says it’s important for a Trump administration to work closely with the intelligence community and “stop being naive” on Russia.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Democratic Maryland senator says Russia has attacked European institutions. Now, he says, it’s trying to undermine America.
He said whether Russia was purposely trying to get Donald Trump elected is something that lawmakers need to investigate. Cardin says Russia is a bully and is controlled by a “corrupt regime.”
Other senators, from the Senate Armed Services Committee, including GOP Sen. John McCain, said Sunday they too think the allegation should be examined.
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9:12 a.m.
President-elect Donald Trump is pushing back against charges that his businesses create a conflict of interest when he takes control of the White House, saying his “executives will run it with my children.”
Trump tells “Fox News Sunday” that he will “have nothing to do with management.”
Trump has said he will leave his businesses and is planning a news conference on Thursday to outline how he will separate himself. But his transition team has not yet said what the structure would look like.
Trump says in the interview that he turned down “seven deals with one big player” last week because he thought it could be “perceived as a conflict of interest.”
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9:01 a.m.
Donald Trump says the CIA’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the presidential election is “ridiculous” and being used by Democrats as “just another excuse” for his defeat of Hillary Clinton.
The President-elect tells “Fox News Sunday” that he doesn’t necessarily oppose President Barack Obama’s order for a review of campaign-season cyberattacks. But he adds that in any such effort “you should not just say ‘Russia.’ You should say other countries also, and maybe other individuals.”
The Obama administration has said the review is not just about Russia or the election. The White House says the report will look at other election-year incidents, including 2008 and 2012 cyberattacks linked to Chinese hackers.
Trump has long said the culprit could be China or just a random hacker sitting on a couch. The CIA has concluded with “high confidence” that Russia sought to influence the U.S. election on behalf of the Republican.
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8:30 a.m.
The Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are joining with Democrats in calling for an examination of reports that Russia interfered in the presidential election.
Chairman John McCain, incoming Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and others said in a joint statement Sunday that the CIA’s report of Russia’s efforts in the election “should alarm every American.”
The leaders said they will push “to unify our colleagues around the goal of investigating and stopping the grave threats that cyberattacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security.” Russia was the only country mentioned in the statement.
President Barack Obama ordered a full review of campaign-season cyberattacks to be completed before he leaves office. President-elect Donald Trump has dismissed the CIA’s assessment that Russia powered his defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton.