President-elect Donald Trump warned congressional Republicans to “be careful” with plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, as President Obama is slated to meet with House and Senate Democrats Wednesday to discuss ways to save the beleaguered legislation.
Trump tweeted out Wednesday morning at 8:55 a.m. Eastern time that: “Republicans should be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases….”
Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Trump repeatedly promised during his presidential campaign to “ repeal and replace ” Obamacare in his first term. Since the election, Trump is hinting that he may keep certain portions of the healthcare law intact, like the pre-existing conditions clause and provisions allowing those under 26 years of age to remain on their parents’ insurance. (RELATED: Repealing Itself? Only Four of 24 Obamacare Co-Ops Remain Open)
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said that the Republican Party’s first priority would be to repeal and replace Obamacare. “Well, the first bill we’re going to be working on is our ObamaCare legislation,” Ryan told “60 Minutes” in December. “I don’t know the answer to that right now. What we know is we have to make good on this promise. We have to bring relief as fast as possible to people who are struggling under ObamaCare,” Ryan said.
Republican leadership is signaling their intent to take things slow enough to ensure that any move to repeal and replace Obamacare is done correctly. “There’s just going to be hearings. The Democrats spent a lot of time screwing up the economy and screwing up healthcare, and it’s going to take us a lot of time trying to rectify it,” a leading House conservative, Representative Raul Labrador, told reporters.
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© Source: http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/04/trump-warns-republicans-to-be-careful-with-obamacare-repeal-and-replace/
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Donald Trump has raised new doubts about his nation’s intelligence community, tweeting fresh criticism at the officials who will help inform his most sensitive decisions once he takes office.
With his inauguration less than three weeks away, the president-elect claimed on Twitter without evidence that the timing of an upcoming intelligence briefing on Russian interference in the 2016 election had been delayed.
He wrote: “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! ”
The jibe, in line with repeated criticism of US intelligence, caused confusion among intelligence officials, who said there was no delay in the briefing schedule.
The fresh clash came as Mr Trump took further steps to fill his Cabinet and key White House positions, with his attention shifting toward the challenges of governing.
Earlier on Tuesday, he chose as US trade representative a former official in Ronald Reagan’s administration who has condemned the Republicans’ commitment to free trade.
Mr Trump indicated that Robert Lighthizer, who is expected to take a hard line against China, would represent “the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first”.
The tycoon also questioned the timing of the House Republican push to gut an independent ethics board just as the new Congress gathered.
He tweeted: “Do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority? ”
The House Republicans later dropped the attempt.
The president-elect has spent much of the last two months huddled privately with advisers and communicating with the public through Twitter. But he has now promised to hold his first formal news conference since winning the election, next week in New York.
The Republican businessman has already waited longer than any other president-elect in the modern era to hold his first news conference. Most have held such events within days of their elections.
It was unclear if the news conference would be the venue for his delayed announcement on how he plans to avoid potential conflicts of interest involving his businesses after taking office.
Mr Trump was supposed to set out the arrangements at a December news conference, but he postponed the announcement.
With his Cabinet nearly full, Mr Trump also picked a handful of new White House aides on Tuesday as he worked to fill several hundred high-level administration posts.
Omarosa Manigault, a contestant from the first season of The Apprentice, is expected to focus on public engagement in the White House.

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© Source: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/north-america/us-election-2016/very-strange-donald-trump-criticises-intelligence-officials-as-he-prepares-to-take-office-35340525.html
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President-elect Donald Trump questioned Wednesday why the Democratic National Committee wasn’t able to stop hacking efforts, and said that the “dishonest” media is looking out for Democrats.
The series of tweets from Trump come a day after he tweeted his doubt in the government’s assessment that Russia was behind a hacking effort to undermine the election. “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!” Trump said.
The president-elect quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Twitter Wednesday. “ Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!” Trump wrote. Assange is currently in asylum living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The Department of Justice has been investigating WikiLeaks since 2010, as the site publishes classified government documents.
Trump went on to quote Assange saying American media coverage is “very dishonest.” The president-elect added, “More dishonest than anyone knows.” He later tweeted, “Somebody hacked the DNC but why did they not have ‘hacking defense’ like the RNC has and why have they not responded to the terrible…..things they did and said (like giving the questions to the debate to H). A total double standard! Media, as usual, gave them a pass.”
The Republican National Committee has maintained that hackers were not able to infiltrate their systems.

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© Source: http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/04/trump-questions-why-dems-werent-able-to-stop-hack-says-media-more-dishonest-than-anyone-knows/
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January 4, 2017
— On Sunday, after North Korea said it was close to testing a nuclear-equipped missile that could reach the United States, president-elect Donald Trump wrote on Twitter, “It won’t happen!”
Maybe it was breezy skepticism, or maybe it was a red line. For many US officials and North Korea experts, the right path for a Trump administration to take in dealing with the country’s rulers seems nearly as murky, even as some say that it could develop the capacity to hit the US mainland over the next four years.
That potential puts the US in a tough spot, highlighting both the risks of pre-emptive action and previous administrations’ unsuccessful maneuvers to push North Korea away from nuclear proliferation.
Since the presidency of Bill Clinton, the US has tried to exchange aid for disarmament. A 1994 deal that would have allowed North Korea to produce nuclear energy and normalized ties with the US failed after it was discovered that Pyongyang had sought to use uranium for weapons. The North also withdrew in 2009 from China’s attempt to broker nuclear negotiations with four other countries, and a 2012 Obama administration food-aid deal that would have frozen North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs was abandoned just weeks into the effort, after the North tried to launch a long-range rocket.
Mr. Trump said on the presidential campaign trail that he was willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He hasn’t outlined any further steps, though a transition team adviser told Reuters that “a period of serious sanctions” would be “a major part of any discussion on the options available here.”
That’s been the main strategy since the North conducted the first of its five nuclear tests, in 2006, though the country’s economic and diplomatic isolation tends to limit the effectiveness of such sanctions. And Trump’s antagonistic view of China might further hinder long unsuccessful US attempts to get North Korea’s closest ally to cut back on trading with its neighbor, for whom it supplies a significant economic lifeline.
US officials who did not want to be identified told Reuters that if the North were to carry out a long-range missile test, the US military would have three options: allow it to proceed, intercept the missile after its launch, or strike before the launch to pre-empt it.
Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in Calif., told Reuters that US missile defenses wouldn’t have an easy time shooting down a test missile. And he underscored the risks of military action, which could provoke retaliation against regional allies.
North Korean nuclear and missile test sites, and the factories that supply them, are scattered across the country, he said.
“There’s a warren of tunnels under the nuclear site. And an ICBM can be launched from anywhere in the country because it’s mobile. You might as well invade the country,” Dr. Lewis said.
This report contains material from the Associated Press and Reuters.

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© Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2017/0104/North-Korea-has-frustrated-three-US-presidents.-What-s-left-for-Trump-to-try
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Finding your feet in a new job can be difficult at the best of times, so spare a thought for Republican US congressman Roger Marshall, whose son decided a photo op at his swearing in was the perfect time to do some dabbing.
As Marshall and family members posed with Paul Ryan, re-elected on Tuesday as House Speaker, the teen, Cal Marshall, can clearly be seen raising his arm into a distinctive dabbing pose.
Dabbing – a dance pose which involves burying your face in the crook of your elbow – gained momentum in 2015 when US musicians popularised the move.
Whilst his dad remains oblivious to his actions, Speaker Ryan is on to him.
“Do you want to put your hand down? ” he says to Cal, who sheepishly apologises and blames the unusual contortions of his arm on needing to sneeze, before smiling for the camera and adopting a more conventional pose.
The video has been widely shared on social media.
Despite his crash course in dabbing, Ryan still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened.
And what now for Cal after upstaging his dad on his big day? Well, according to the elder Marshall he may not be seeing much of his friends for a while.
Produced by Chris Bell, UGC and Social News team

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© Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38506818
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