Daily Download on PEOTUS: Everything you need to know from a meeting with Paul Ryan to re-negotiation of NAFTA
42 days out from his Inauguration, President-elect continues to hold what so far have been 95 meetings in order to build his cabinet.
One of the biggest point of contention yesterday was an appointment of Scott Pruitt for Environmental Protection Agency. The New York Times has already warned the public that Pruitt is a climate change denialist.
However, WSJ is of the opposite opinion: “Democrats will attack Mr. Pruitt as a climate-change “denier,” but his only offense is disagreeing with them on energy policy. The irony is that Mr. Pruitt will probably do more for the environment than Mr. Obama ever did because he will make sure that rules issued by the EPA are rooted in law and thus won’t be overturned in court.”
Despite mixed responses, Sean Spicer, director of communications has affirmed today the President-elect’s confidence that Pruitt is a powerful choice and will make an excellent advocate for Trump’s energy plan.
Andy Puzder, newly nominated Secretary of Labor, despite the criticism received from Elizabeth Warren, is expected by the President-elect to fight to impose fair occupational standards for workers. It has been suggested that Puzder will be re-negotiating TPP as well as NAFTA – the free trade accord between Canada, Mexico, and the United States that Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993.
General Flynn had a meeting with Henry Kissinger, where they discussed his recent trip to China. When it comes to Japan, the name of Bobby Valentine, the former Mets skipper, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the role of an Ambassador. However, despite the news reports, Transition team could not confirm that information.
In the wake of of the impeachment of South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal, it has been suggested that the President-elect is aware of what is going on, but that is an internal matter for the people of South Korea on which America won’t be weighing in.
President-elect began his meetings today with Paul Ryan, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who addressed the press this morning: “I really enjoyed coming up here and meeting with the president-elect. We had a great meeting. We talked about our transition. We’re very excited about getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017 to put this country back on track,” Ryan stated.
Also, today, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, President-elect will be attending a get out the vote rally for Louisiana Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate John Kennedy.
At 7pm President-elect will be holding a rally as part of the Thank You Tour in Michigan.
On Saturday, President-Elect will be attending an Army-Navy football game in Baltimore. Keeping with the tradition, half game President-elect will be spending at the navy’s side and the other half on the army’s side.
On Monday, President-elect is expected to meet with Carly Fiorina, Idaho congressman Raúl Rafael Labrador and Rick Santorum in Trump tower.
With this we conclude our Daily Download and we’ll resume on Monday, December 12th.