WASHINGTON (AP) — Coverage of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition to the White House (All times EST)
Donald Trump, Kayne West talk ‘life’
Updated 10:04 a.m.: President-elect Donald Trump says he and musician Kanye West talked “life” in Trump Tower.
The two posed for photos after their meeting Tuesday.
Asked why the musician was visiting, Trump said the two were “just friends” and called West a “good man.”
The two did not answer questions on whether West would perform at Trump’s inauguration in January.
West stood silently next to Trump. Asked why he wasn’t speaking, West said: “I just want to take a picture right now.”
Trump picks Rick Perry as energy secretary
Updated 9:32 a.m.: President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to lead the Energy Department.
That’s according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
The two-time presidential candidate had been a harsh critic of Trump during the 2016 race, calling him a “cancer to conservatism.” He later endorsed the Republican nominee and said he’d be willing to work in a Trump administration.
One of Perry’s best-remembered moments from his first White House run was when he couldn’t remember in a debate the third of three federal agencies he promised to eliminate if elected. The one he forgot was the Energy Department.
The two people with knowledge of Trump’s pick insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the decision ahead of the official announcement.
— By Ken Thomas and Julie Pace
WATCH: @KanyeWest at Trump Tower #elevatorcam pic.twitter.com/I4FpM57S1x
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 13, 2016
Kayne West visits Trump Tower
Updated 9:25 a.m.: Kanye West is visiting Trump Tower this morning.
The musician entered the building shortly after 9 a.m. with a large entourage. West was not accompanied by wife Kim Kardashian West.
The 39-year-old recently spent over a week in Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for stress and exhaustion.
West did not stop to talk to reporters gathered in the lobby.
Obama says Trump needs daily intelligence briefings
Updated 4:00 a.m.: President Barack Obama is criticizing Trump for saying he’ll shun daily intelligence briefings when he takes office.
Appearing Monday evening on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Obama said that a president who isn’t getting the benefit of such regular briefings from the intelligence community is likely “flying blind” in managing national security issues for the country.
Trump said in a television interview Sunday that he wasn’t interested in getting daily intelligence briefings, a practice that’s been a fixture for chief executives of both parties for several years.
Obama also said the reason he’s ordered a wide-ranging probe into purported Russian hacking against the U.S. election process is to “really just gather all of the threads of the investigation.” He says notions of meddling in the campaign “was not a secret” before Election Day, Nov. 8, in the United States.
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