Donald Trump to name Georgia lawmaker Tom Price as health secretary pick

The secretary of state search heated up as Trump resumed a busy schedule of transition meetings Monday at Manhattan’s Trump Tower after spending Thanksgiving weekend at his Florida estate.

Petraeus, who led global forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan, was sentenced to two years’ probation and fined $100,000 last year for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified information.

“I’ve been in a position before where a president has turned to me in the Oval Office in a hard moment, without any pleasantries, and said ‘I’m asking you as your president and Commander in Chief to take command of the worldwide security force in Afghanistan,”‘ Petraeus said.

That has not stopped Trump’s interest in the decorated general as Petraeus said the two had a “good conversation”.

The general is one of the most influential military officers of his generation, but ended his government career as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in November 2012 amid revelations that he had an affair with his biographer. He was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine after he admitted to leaking classified information to his mistress.

On the campaign trail, Trump railed against the Federal Bureau of Investigation s decision not to prosecute rival Hillary Clinton over her “extremely careless” handling of classified emails, by saying Petraeus had been punished for less. Crucially, he could also allow for a compromise amid reports of divisions within the Trump team, with some backing Mitt Romney and others supporting Rudy Giuliani. Trump afterward tweeted that he “was very impressed”.

In addition to the public staffing spat, the campaign was forced Monday to defend Trump’s baseless assertions of illegal voting, made in angry response to a recount effort.

Clinton lawyer Marc Elias said the campaign has seen “no actionable evidence” of voting anomalies.

Other top Trump allies, notably Conway, have launched a highly unusual public campaign against a Romney nomination.

The charges come amid a recount of presidential votes in up to three battleground states, an effort joined by Hillary Clinton despite decidedly tamped-down expectations that the election’s outcome will not change. A lot of questions tonight about whether kellyanne Conway said that on her own or if the trump team knew she was going to say that. A person familiar with the decision said Trump has selected Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Retired general David Petraeus, now a contender for secretary of state.

Trump said on the campaign trail that Petraeus” transgressions with classified documents were “a tiny fraction’ of Hillary Clinton’s, although his then-Democratic rival was never proven to have intentionally exposed secret or top secret material to anyone. On Saturday, a day after Wisconsin officials said they would conduct the first presidential recount in the state’s history, Clinton campaign attorney Marc Elias said: “We intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides”.

A top transition official said that many in Trump’s camp support having Petraeus fill the position.

“It’s not about that I don’t care for Mitt personally, but I’m still very unhappy that Mitt did everything he could to derail Donald Trump”.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Romney was a leader of the “Never Trump” movement launched by establishment Republicans who sought in vain to derail Trump’s inroad into the Republican presidential nomination.

Summarily reversing Obama’s policy, Earnest said, “is not just as simple as one tweet might make it seem”.