Trump to Hold First Press Conference Since Election
CUOMO: In just a few hours, Donald Trump is going to hold his first press conference since winning the election. In fact, the last one was nearly six months ago and, boy, are there some big issues on the table -- this reporting about Russia, his actually conflicts of interests that he said he would secure before he took office. Let's bring back our panel -- Monica Langley, Errol Louis, David Drucker. This is one of the problems with when you delay addressing the press. He's got big things to deal with today. What do you think he comes out of the box saying? Do you think he wants to take the Russia allegations head on? And what is he saying?</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he's -- there is a gigantic backlog, you're right. I think he then gets the ability to maneuver and steer things down this black hole of these unconfirmed reports. My great fear is that a lot of time will be wasted on that, without any real light being shed on what happens, and then all kinds of other promises from the past about releasing his taxes, about disclosing his conflicts of interest and the resolution of them, about, you know, suing his accusers from back in the campaign. He has said a lot of different things. And if the press is diligent and official it may be able to get through a lot of that stuff but it's not in Donald Trump's interest to get through a lot of that. So, I think, unfortunately, we're going to see a lot of fuzz today.</s>CAMEROTA: So, Monica, let's try to take it one by one.</s>MONICA LANGLEY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: OK.</s>CAMEROTA: What does he say? What does he have to say to mollify nervous lawmakers about any possible ties to Russia? Can he just dismiss as fake news?</s>LANGLEY: I think that's what he's going to do. I mean, we know Kellyanne Conway did that. We know he tweeted that. I mean, this is typical Donald Trump. It's not true, end of question. I mean, he may say that 20 different times today if you look at pounding, pounding, pounding, and then of course, all his followers, all of the people who voted for him will say this just shows the liberal media, they're pounding on him with the allegations have not been proven. So, I expect that. It is interesting that Donald Trump picked today and his people picked today for the press conference. One, because Obama spoke last night, and he wanted to change the new cycle to him, but also because he knew his cabinet nominees were going to be on the Hill and wanted to take heat off of them. Little did he know it was going to be this much heat.</s>CUOMO: Well, let's stay with you for a second, because in a way, it's easier to deal with the Russian allegations because by definition, an allegation is an unproven suggestion. It's not fake news because these documents either exist or they don't.</s>LANGLEY: That's right.</s>CUOMO: And in all likelihood, they do exist. It was not fake. It's about the implication. What is very real is more troubling I would suggest right now, which is his conflicts. He said he would come out and say how he's going to separate from the business.</s>LANGLEY: Right.</s>CUOMO: It didn't happen. He said he put out his taxes when the audit was over. We don't even know if he is under audit. Those are big problems. Do you think he can fix them and will he suggest in a press conference?</s>LANGLEY: Well, I don't think they'll ever think he can fix them but he's planning to say he is going to remove himself from the business, as we know, and let his two sons run it. There was some suggestion for many months that he would put his assets in a blind trust. That was much maligned because how can you put assets --</s>CUOMO: It doesn't work.</s>LANGLEY: Yes. So that's out.</s>CUOMO: -- information about his business now because of these Russian allegations. Do people have to know more now?</s>LANGLEY: I think that's a really good question. I don't think that he's going to give that much detail about the real estate assets in his empire.</s>CAMEROTA: Hey, David, you know, obviously, his critics won't like what he says. His supporters will like what he says. What about the middle of the road Republicans, the lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are trying to figure out how to navigate this new president? What does he need to say for them?</s>DAVID DRUCKER, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Well, look, I think they would probably like a clue as to how he wants this agenda to unfold on Capitol Hill. You know, we have been talking a lot about repeal and replacing Obamacare and we still don't know what Donald Trump wants from Republicans on the Hill. What will he sign or what won't he sign? I think it will probably make a lot of Republicans feel better if he would come out once and for all to say that he thinks Vladimir Putin is not the nicest guy in the world and under his administration, we'll finally do something about cyber warfare and stop all of this hacking and take this stuff seriously. I think that would put his critics at bay. I think it would make Republicans on the Hill feel like he is starting to function as a president and not as a candidate. And I think that's what they're going to be looking for today. I mean, most of his nominees are going to sail through without the problems a lot of us thought they would. And it is in part, as we saw from CNN's reporting, because they're all saying the right things. And so, I think the issue is what is he going to accomplish with this news conference? There is so much information. When that happens, journalists ended breathing out of a -- it's like we're breathing out of a fire hose coming at us, and we can't hone in and focus on one thing. And so, I think it's going to be easier for Donald Trump in a sense to flood the zone and get away without having us drill down on some of these real important issues, whether it's ethics or Russia or anything else.</s>CUOMO: Right. Except now, Errol, what he doesn't want to talk about goes to the heart of the most troubling questions, right? He's not revealing his business information and not revealing his taxes now goes to the heart of these concerns and the Russian reporting. Rex Tillerson gets in the chair today. Do you think his biggest problem is the Russian ties in light of his reporting? And also, have an answer for the fact that his business did transactions with countries that were under terror watch lists and they were banned from commerce --</s>LOUIS: Well, there's a couple of those things. We can't know about the Russian ties except under questioning. So, hopefully, the senators will do a good job of getting to the bottom of that. Rex Tillerson, for whatever reason, the polls suggested he is more unpopular than any of the other nominees, even Sessions, as far as the general public are concerned. I don't know if that's because people don't like the people involved in the oil and gas business, they have to pay at the pump and so forth, or if there is something deeper there. What we do have to get from Tillerson, though, is some sort of vision of the world. I mean, he's seen it from a very interesting angle. But how do -- how do all the pieces fit together? That we haven't heard from him in any kind of comprehensive way. Today is the day we have to find out.</s>CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much. It's going to be a very interesting day.</s>DRUCKER: Thank you.</s>CUOMO: All right. A little bit of a weird story going on in sports. Knicks point guard Derrick Rose is missing from a game. He is now explaining his bizarre behavior. The question is obvious: why was he a no show at his team's game last night? He knows, in the "Bleacher Report", next.