Will the Lapdog Media accept anything as a "press conference"?
Apparently so.
Donald Trump appeared on the garish front stoop of his Palm Beach estate with former fight promoter convicted-of-manslaughter Don King. Or is that President Camacho? (Video below is NOT work safe.)
Yep, we're now in full Idiocracy mode and it's only December 29.
[TRANSCRIPT]
CHRIS HAYES: Moments ago Donald Trump emerged from Mar-A-Lago and it turned into the closest thing to a press conference that we've seen from the President-elect in months. Here it is in full.
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Hello, everybody. Everybody okay? You all know Don King? Who doesn't know Don King?
DON KING: Great to be an American. Now with our leader, we're going to make new days, make America great again.
REPORTER: Is your Israeli flag a message for the President?
DON KING: It's about peace, peace in the Middle East and Shimon Peres and so what we want - everyone to come together. He's the leader that can make it happen.
I'm sure at some point someone will tell Don King that Shimon Peres hasn't been Prime Minister of Israel since 2014, nor on this earthly plane of existence since September. But Jay Caspian Kang of Vice News Tonight tweeted today that Don King "talks about Peres, Hugo Chavez and Mobute constantly. ....It's part of his ramble -- goes from Peres to Willy Lynch to Chavez and ends it all with 'I bring people together.' ...'My magic lies in my people ties.'
One of the great disadvantages liberals have is that we have been raised not to make fun of confused old people. Moving on...
TRUMP: Are you guys okay? Everything fine?
REPORTER: Yes, sir.
It wouldn't be 'fine' if this reporter had any journalistic integrity. I have to assume his outlet is paying for a room at the Mar-A-Lago Resort, hence Trump's concierge-style question. Make sure you fill out a comment card and leave a gratuity for housekeeping.
TRUMP: Go ahead.
REPORTER: We wondered do you have any further comments about [Secretary of State John] Kerry's speech?
TRUMP: Yeah, it speaks for itself.
Because Trump didn't read it and didn't watch it, obviously. How do I know that? Because there would be Tweets! Keep up people!
REPORTER: But he said that friends need to like set friends straight and that's one of the things --
TRUMP: We have different views and we have to have peace. We'll see what happens after January 20th, right? I think you're going to be very impressed.
Trump appreciates cribbing your notes. He has no plan, but it's going to be terrific and impressive and the best. (It's gonna be four years of pretending he studied for the test.)
REPORTER: Mr. President-elect -- the 5,000 jobs that you announced today were part of the 50,000 --
TRUMP: Sprint will give you -- I just spoke with the head person. He said because of me they're doing 5,000 jobs in this country. They just put a release out. Hope has it. You'll see it. That's that. And they're also doing -- asa is doing 3,000ons with, as you know, one web.
REPORTER: So those 5,000 jobs.
TRUMP: 5,000 to Sprint. no, no.
REPORTER: Are they not part of the 50,000?
TRUMP: I'll give you their statement.
And Sprint and every other company Trump talks about will say whatever it takes to stay out of Trump's twitter anger and avoid a stock collapse, however temporary.
REPORTER: Mr. President-elect, there's a lawsuit where journalists are trying to get the records that Congress saw for an alleged Russian intervention in the election. Do you think any records --
TRUMP: I think they should do the best they can, figure it all out.
The most important question in the whole night and it bores the President-elect. Someone is going to hack his Twitter, is my prediction, and then we'll see the bombs fall.
REPORTER: Sir, do you think there should be a public option for veterans to get health care in the United States?
TRUMP: I had three of the greatest in the world today, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, the three top people from the best in the world, and they were amazing and they have really good ideas. We have to get it...I've been saying we're going to take care of our vets and we're going to take care of our vets. I had the three greatest people in the world. if you look at those institutions, I think you'd all agree. They were all in a room together with myself and some others, and we're working on something to make it great for the veterans because the veterans have been treated very, very unfairly. I don't want to see veterans waiting in line for two weeks and in many cases they have a minor illness and it takes so long to see a doctor it turns the out to be a major illness and beyond that. If you look at my website, we'll see what happens. Pretty much called it. But they want to see fast service. the doctors were explaining to me today things that can be taken care of quickly when you wait too long, it's life threatening. That's what's been happening. People are dying. We'll fix it properly not like it's been done over the past.
Please. Those best people came in and begged you not to fk up Obamacare. Vets? They'll take them if they are insured by the Federal Government. So yeah Public Option for Vets until Ryan and Pence laugh in your face. Then we find out who is President. It's going to be an exciting episode of Celebrity Apprentice White House, I can tell you!
REPORTER: How close are you able -- you said that you wanted to resolve the New York [Foundation case. The] AG's office says you cannot do that until they finish their investigation.
TRUMP: Well, I have a foundation that has given millions and millions of dollars to people over the years. and it's been very well thought of. We'll see what happens. but it's given millions and millions of dollars. Zero expense. Zero. Nobody has that that I know of. But zero expense. So that's working out very nicely.
REPORTER: How close are you to showing off the plans for your business? And are we going to hear from you?
TRUMP: That's very routine. honestly, It's a very routine thing. not a big deal. You people are making that a big deal, the business because, look, number one, when I won, they all knew I had a big business all over the place. In fact, I reported it with the, as you know, with the federal elections. It's a much bigger business than anybody thought. It's a great business, but I'm going to have nothing to do with it. I don't have to. because, as you know, I wouldn't have to do that by law. i want to tt because I want to focus on the country. when I ran, people know I have a very big business. they elected me I guess partially for that reason. so I guess that's going to work out very easily. It's actually a very simple situation. it's not a big deal and we'll be having a press conference sometime in early January.
The over/under on that press conference being cancelled is negative odds.
REPORTER: A little bit more of your conversation with Obama today. Is the transition of power going as smoothly as you would have hoped?
TRUMP: Yeah, he called me. He called me. we had a very, very good talk about generally about things. He was in Hawaii. and it was a very, very nice call. And I actually thought we covered a lot of territory, a lot of good territory.
REPORTER: Are you satisfied with the transition thus far?
TRUMP: Well, our staffs are getting along very well. and I'm getting along very well with him. other than a couple of statements. And I responded to. and we talked about it and smiled about it. And nobody's ever going to know because we're never going to be going against each other in that way. So but he -- it was a great conversation.
Unless you FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER. Then you'll know all about it. Bigly.
REPORTER: Mr. President-elect, Senator Graham today said that they're putting together a sanction to go after Putin personally. will you back that?
TRUMP: I don't know what he's doing. I haven't spoken to Senator Graham. as you know, he ran against me. and I haven't spoken to him.
DON KING: You have to admit he shocked the world. nothing else to say, he shocked the world!
TRUMP: Senator Graham ran against me. I haven't spoken to him.
REPORTER: What do you think about sanctions?
TRUMP: I think we'll get on with our lives. The whole age of computers has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I'm not sure you have the kind of security that you need. But I have not spoken with the Senator, and I certainly will be over a period of time.
REPORTER: Sir, do you believe -- (inaudible question about Israel)
TRUMP: I think you know what i believe. I'm very, very strong on Israel. I think Israel's been treated very, very unfairly by a lot of different people. You look at resolutions in the United Nations, you take a look at what's happened, they're up for 20 reprimands and other nations that are horrible places, horrible places that treat people horribly, haven't even been reprimanded. So there's something going on and I think it's very unfair to Israel.
You know what else is unfair to Israel? One: You don't know where any of those "horrible" places are on a map, and couldn't name three of them. And Two: You're standing next to a guy who is holding a flag for dead Shimon Peres.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you.
CHRIS HAYES: All right. That was President-elect Donald Trump with Don King holding a US., Israeli and I think a few other flags in his sort of signature denim coat. A man who was going to speak to the RNC until reporting indicates that having a convicted murderer who had stomped a man to death at the RNC meant -- manslaughter -- would be sort of a weird look. But there he was, the President-elect down at Mar-A-Lago with the famous Don King. and taking more questions than he's taken since the election.
And then he went all Phaedra.
Because if he stood up to fix it, MSNBC suits would fire him immediately, the end.
