White House: 75 Percent of ISIS Fighters Dead; Source: Trump Concerned about Russian Hack; Trump Breaks Many White House Precedents
BLITZER: Today was supposed to be the day the President- elect Donald Trump put to rest all the talk about supposed conflicts of interest between his businesses, his family, and his presidency. Instead of holding his first formal news conference as president-elect and talking about how he's stepping away from the Trump empire, we're being told to wait, wait a little bit more, until next month, that's when he'll do it. He hasn't held a news conference, a full-scale news conference, by the way, since July. Just one of the many ways the president-elect is fulfilling his promise to be, shall we say, unconventional. Joining us, CNN political analysts, Jackie Kucinich and David Gregory. Also with us, Jeff Mason, the White House correspondent with Reuters, and also the president of the White House Correspondents Association. Guys, thanks very much. So yesterday, we saw meeting with the tech leaders. Three of Donald Trump's adult children were all there. Listen to how some of his advisers are explaining that, because some are saying there's a potential conflict.</s>KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP: So Ivanka and Jared will make their own decision and announcement in due course. I think we would benefit tremendously by having them inside the administration. In fact, that could happen. Ivanka's incredibly committed to women in the workplace, women in the economy, women entrepreneurs.</s>SEAN SPICER, CHIEF STRATEGIST & COMMUNICAGTIONS DIRECTOR, RNC: Number one, the president, by law, can't have a conflict of interest. Number two is the reason you know about the children being involved are two things. One, they're on the website and they were publicly named as being part of the transition. And two, we brought the press in to show who was at the meeting. So, it's not like there's anything nefarious going on or sneaky or not transparent. We've been very clear about the role of his family.</s>BLITZER: So what do you think?</s>JACKIE KUCNICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that we don't -- we haven't seen his tax returns, so we don't know where his -- where his money is. We don't know how much control. We know so much about Donald Trump. We don't know. Yes, thank you so much for the photo spread, but just by virtue of having his adult children in the room sends a message. Even if they step back after the fact, the message has been sent this is a conduit to Donald Trump, whether they like it or not.</s>BLITZER: He says, as president, he's not subject to conflict of interest rules by law. For example, he's exempt.</s>DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: There are nepotism laws and there are questions about what the business interests are of the Trump family and what the business of the country is as president of the United States. That's what he needs to take great pains to resolve. I'm concerned that he doesn't -- is not yet showing enough respect for the institution of the presidency to make sure there's a real separation there. I think Kellyanne Conway is probably right. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are probably very valuable advisers to a President Trump, would add a lot of value, but there's also conflicts. I'm sorry, this was a candidate who spent all of his time bashing Hillary Clinton because of the Clinton Foundation and the proximity of former President Clinton to that foundation and, thus, to the White House. He has an obligation to deal with these conflicts and not brush them aside that, well, as long as we're transparent. There's so much we don't know. It's not all transparent. We don't know about his business holdings. We don't know about his financial entanglements because we haven't seen his tax returns.</s>BLITZER: I was very intrigued yesterday -- I'm sure, Jeff, you were. All of us were -- when Reince Priebus, chairman of the National Committee, said get ready, they're going to be big changes, maybe no daily briefings, maybe not assigned seats. You're the president of the White House Correspondents Association. Have you been in touch about this?</s>JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS & PRESIDENT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS ASSOCIATION: We're definitely in touch. One thing I wanted to do is correct some factual errors. Mr. Priebus mentioned or suggested it was the Obama White House that had assigned seats in the briefing room, and that's just not the case. People who worked at the White House know those seats have been assigned, in fact, since 1981, when they were first installed.</s>BLITZER: 1993, when I was CNN's White House correspondents, I had an assigned seat there ---</s>MASON: Sure. Of course.</s>BLITZER: -- during the Clinton administration. David Gregory, you had an assigned seat as well.</s>GREGORY: Yes.</s>MASON: So that's been White House tradition for years, many decades. And there are other traditions. Yes, the Trump administration has the right to make some changes if it wants to. Every administration that comes in makes a few changes here or there. But there are reasons for a lot of the press corps' traditions. The idea of a daily briefing is not just for the press. It's an opportunity for the White House to get out its message and it's our opportunity to ask questions about the news of the day. I suspect they'll have a lot of news coming on January 20th.</s>GREGORY: Look, the reality is you have to expect someone who's unconventional in dealing with the media and dealing with the public directly, as Donald Trump is, is going to want to shake things up. I think in the role you're in and those of us who covered the White House, you want to impress upon Reince Priebus and others in the administration, look, it's important to have a well-informed White House press corps doing its job. It's good for the public, it's good for the president and the presidency. I think, you know, you want to continue to advocate for that, so that people who are covering the presidency know as much about his thinking and about the administration's policies. As you all know, not every day is news made at these briefings, but it still keeps us in the rhythm of the decision making and some of the thinking.</s>BLITZER: Yeah, they can make changes and I'm sure they presumably will. Remember when those daily briefings, there were no cameras allowed. Then they changed it so cameras could show the American public and the world, for that matter, what the press secretary was saying. Speaking of the press secretary, Jackie, listen to what Josh Earnest said about this today.</s>JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOSUE PRESSS SECREARY: As an American, I'm concerned about that. I do think this -- the interaction that takes place in here on a daily basis is one that's good for our democracy. It is valuable. It's instrumental to holding people in power accountable for their actions, accountable for their statements, and accountable for their promises.</s>BLITZER: Brian Stelter interviewed him yesterday, our media correspondent, and that's what he said. So, go ahead, what's your reaction.</s>KUCNICH: Accountable for their "no comments" a lot. But that said, I agree, it is important. We've seen Candidate Trump chafe, even coming into this, remember, the press pool, they initially were ditching their protective pool, the reporters who are there to record history, to record if the president is alive essentially, is how it started. It will be interesting to see if they tweak around the edges --</s>BLITZER: Have you worked that out with the press pool? Hopefully, you have, right?</s>MASON: We've spent a lot of time on that issue. There's been a lot of progress. You're referring to a couple of times the president- elect either went out to dinner or to Washington without bringing a pool along, and that has been largely rectified. We're not on his plane. They've said that's not going to happen during the transition. But that issue should be solved on January 20th when we have Air Force One.</s>GREGORY: Can I just say, a little bit of a soap box here. Changes are fine. You have to respect that. You're advocating for the things that the press corps want. But let's remember, the White House is the people's house. Abraham Lincoln, when he began there, a member the public could just walk into the House and press their case to get a job if they wanted to get a job at the post office in their hometown. Obviously, things change, things evolve. It's important for the press corps, whether you like us or not, to be able to be a disruptive influence in the people's house where the president does business. We should be able to ask questions. We should be able to interrupt meetings at a time when we're brought in to say, we have a question about the news of the day. That is the function of the White House press corps. [11:50:5r7]</s>BLITZER: I think we all agree on that.