TRUMP TRANSITION WATCH: Giuliani’s play for secretary of state
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports that Rudy Giuliani is making a major play to be secretary of state.
From the Wall Street Journal: “During an appearance Monday evening at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council gathering, Mr. Giuliani suggested several times that he would be interested in the post, going into great detail about how he views foreign policy and how his views overlap with Mr. Trump’s. “ISIS, short-term I believe, is the greatest danger and not because ISIS is in Iraq and in Syria, but because ISIS did something al Qaeda never did—ISIS was able to spread itself around the world,” he said.”
From the New York Times: “There has been intense jockeying among several of Mr. Trump’s highest-profile campaign advisers, suggesting a competition to lead the new administration’s foreign policy, national security and crime-fighting agencies. Mr. Trump is also considering naming Mr. Giuliani or Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama as the next attorney general, according to the people familiar with the discussions. But Mr. Giuliani said Monday night at a Wall Street Journal election forum that he would not be going to the Justice Department. And if Mr. Sessions, a relentless critic of illegal immigration, is nominated for attorney general, he can expect opponents to bring up the fact that he was once rejected for a federal judgeship after officials testified that he had made racist comments.”
POLITICO writes that some Trump allies are lobbying against Corey Lewandowski’s inclusion in a major White House role. “Some of Donald Trump’s key loyalists are quietly lining up in opposition to the prospect of tapping the president-elect’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for a key role, according to about a dozen Trump allies and other influential Republicans. They are warning that Lewandowski’s penchant for bitter in-fighting and aggressive behavior — combined with his contentious relationships with Trump’s family and close confidants — could poison Trump’s nascent operation before it even gets off the ground.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell reports on today’s House leadership elections.
And she notes that some Republicans say that Steve Bannon should be given a chance.
The New York Times, with another deep dive into potential conflicts of interest for Trump: “The layers of potential conflicts he faces are in many ways as complex as his far-flung business empire, adding a heightened degree of difficulty for Mr. Trump — one of the wealthiest men to ever occupy the White House — in separating his official duties from his private business affairs. Further complicating matters are Mr. Trump’s decision to name his children to his transition team, and what is likely to be their informal advisory role in his administration. His daughter Ivanka Trump joined an official transition meeting on Thursday, the day before Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey was removed from his post leading the effort.”
TRUMP AGENDA: Chatting with Putin
From NBC’s Perry Bacon Jr. “From the Iran nuclear deal to the Paris climate change agreement to Obamacare, President Obama and his team plan to spend the next two months aggressively defending and implementing these policies, despite President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign promises to end them once he takes office.”
Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone yesterday. The Washington Post reports on the details of the call.
Right-wing members of the Israeli government have been cheered by Trump’s victory, writes the New York Times.
The Wall Street Journal: “U.S. Businesses Bet on Which Trump Will Govern”
From the AP: “Democratic mayors of major U.S. cities that have long had cool relationships with federal immigration officials say they'll do all they can to protect residents from deportation, despite President-elect Donald Trump's vows to withhold potentially millions of dollars in taxpayer money if they don't cooperate.”
DEM WATCH: Greece is the word
From the AP, on the president’s final foreign trip: “President Barack Obama arrived in Greece Tuesday morning on the first stop of his final foreign tour as president, the first visit to Greece by a sitting U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1999…. While anti-American sentiment has been muted over the past few years in Greece, many in the country regard the U.S. with misgivings, a sentiment stemming mostly from America's backing of the military dictatorship that governed the country from 1967 to 1974. Obama's visit comes two days before the Nov. 17 anniversary of the junta's 1973 bloody crackdown on a student uprising, which is marked each year by a protest march to the U.S. Embassy that frequently turns violent.”