Donald Trump rejects reports of infighting among his transition team

FILE – then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on national security in his offices in Trump Tower in NY.

Among the top advisers in the purge is former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who abruptly resigned from the transition team after being assigned to lead the national security efforts.

Publicly, however, Rogers attempted to downplay the severity of the situation, saying it was only natural that members of Trump’s campaign team would take over spots on the transition team.

Trump, though, told 60 Minutes that Washington is “one big lobbyist”.

He did not address whether such clearance had been sought for Mr Kushner, his son-in-law, as reported by NBC News. “Sometimes in politics. there are people who are in and people who are out”.

Forthcoming hires during the transition, Fleischer said, will be telling. But, he said, he saw “that went out the window this election cycle”.

That will start with national security. “Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions”, Trump first tweeted Tuesday night as criticism began to bubble. Mr Cohen opposed Mr Trump during the campaign, but in recent days, he said those who feel duty-bound to work in a Trump administration should do so. “No”, Corker said in an interview. Brandt Hershman who describes him as genuine and well-liked. “I would say that’s likely, yes”.

Questions are being raised about Mr. Trump’s top picks for secretary of state – Rudy Giuliani, whose private team reportedly held contracts with the government of Qatar. Even then, they did not think they would win. He has virtually no diplomatic experience or knowledge of the State Department bureaucracy.

John Bolton is also in the running for the position. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, and Flynn.

The Washington Post also posted a report Tuesday night, further detailing the “bloodletting” and growing turbulence within the team. Most of the calls had previously only been confirmed by those leaders’ governments.

Flynn has admitted that he accepted money for appearing at a lavish gala with Putin in Moscow past year. “But the Times’s complete abandonment of its old standards was obvious to anyone who read its coverage”, Gingrich wrote, listing how the publication cranked out stories, opinions and analysis that was hostile to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and any of his supporters.

The shakeup came amid jockeying for key posts, including secretary of state, the treasury, attorney general, defense and national security. One only has to look at the rest of Friday’s press release, in which he announced a series of additions to the team’s Executive Committee, to see that. Pence spent several hours meeting with Trump on Wednesday.

A normal president-elect would not want Bondi’s entanglements anywhere near him when he is trying to get his administration off the ground.

Trump’s team was essentially starting from scratch, scrapping much of the preliminary transition work New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie conducted during the campaign. There was “some shock” within Christie’s circle at their abrupt dismissal from the transition ranks, Kean said.

Jared Kushner, son-in-law of of President-elect Donald Trump walks from Trump Tower, Monday, November 14, 2016, in NY.

Christie also has been beset by scandal of his own making.

Inauguration Day is just over two months away.

However, a well-known Republican moderate was pushed out of transition planning. Kevin O’Connor, a former senior Justice Department official, joined that group.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told reporters at Trump Towers, where the president-elect lives and has his company headquarters, around 6.15pm (2315 GMT) that there would be no more news for the evening.

None responded to repeated efforts to contact them. “I think they’re going to need to do it because as this clock ticks, all of these decisions become more important”, Rogers told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

If the Trump team is truly to “Drain The Swamp” on the Hill, this was clearly the first painful step that they must take to get there.