7 big moments from Donald Trump's news conference at Trump Tower
NEW YORK -- President-elect Donald Trump held his first news conference since late July at Trump Tower Wednesday, and addressed some important issues that have recently come up.
The event lasted more than an hour, and touched on whether Trump has Russia ties, what will happen with Trump's businesses, Obamacare and building a wall between U.S. and Mexico.
We pulled 7 big moments from the news conference. Watch them in the video player above, and see the text of his remarks below.
1. Fake News/Intelligence Dossier
"Thank you very much. It's very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them on an almost daily basis. I think we probably maybe won the nomination because of news conferences. And it's good to be with you. We stopped giving them because we were getting quite a bit of inaccurate news. I do have to say that, and I must say that I want to thank a lot of the news organizations here today because they looked at that nonsense that was released by maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows, but maybe the intelligence agencies, which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they in fact did that, a tremendous blot, because a thing like that should have never been written, it should never been had and it should certainly never have been released. But I want to thank a lot of the news organizations, for -- some of whom have not treated me very well over the years, a couple in particular and they came out so strongly against that fake news and the fact that it was written about by primarily one group and one television station."
2. Veterans Affairs
"They're going to have a lot of good news for their veterans.Speaking of veterans, I appointed today the head secretary of the veterans administration, David Shelkin. We'll do a news release in a little while, I'll tell you about David, he's fantastic. He's fantastic. He will do a truly great job. One of the commitments I've made is that we're going to straighten out the whole situation for our veterans. Our veterans have been treated horribly. We're waiting in line for 15, 16, 17 days. Cases where they go in and they have a minor early stage form of cancer, they can't see a doctor. By the time they get to the doctor, they're terminal. It's not going to happen.Not going to happen."
3. Putin/Russia Relations
"If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability. Because we have a horrible relationship with Russia. Russia can help us fight ISIS, which by the way is number one, tricky."
"He shouldn't be doing it. He won't be doing it. Russia will have much greater respect for our country when I'm leading it than when other people have led it."
4. Business Conflict of Interest
"I didn't have to turn it down, because as you know, I have a no-conflict situation because I'm president, which is -- I didn't know about that until about three months ago, but it's a nice thing to have. But I don't want to take advantage of something. I have something that others don't have. Vice president pence also has it. I don't think he'll need it, I have a feeling he's not going to need it. But I have a no conflict of interest provision as president. It was many, many years old, this is for presidents. I understand, they don't want presidents getting tangled up in a minute, they want a president to run the country. So I could actually run my business, I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. I don't like the way that looks. But I would be able to do that if I wanted to. I would be the only one to be able to do that. You can't do that in any other capacity. But as president, I could run the trump organization, great, great company, and I could run the country. I would do a very good job. But I don't want to do that. Now, all of these papers that you see here -- yes, go ahead."
5. Obamacare
"We don't want to own it. We don't want to own it politically. They own it right now. The easiest thing would be to let it implode in 17 and, believe me, we get pretty much whatever we wanted, but it would take a long time. We're going to be submitting as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan. It will be repeal and replace. It will be essentially simultaneously. It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week, but probably the same day. Could be the same hour. We're going to do repeal and replace. Very complicated stuff. And, we're going to get a health bill passed. We're going to get health care taken care of in this country. You have deductibles that are so high that after people go broke paying their premiums, which are going through the roof, the health care can't even be used by them because deductibles are so high."
6. Building the Wall
"Do you have any more? On the fence -- it's not a fence. It's a wall. You just misreported it. We're going to build a wall. I could wait about a year and a half until we finish our negotiations with Mexico, which we'll start immediately after we get to office, but I don't want to wait. Mike Pence is leading an effort to get final approvals through various agencies and through congress for the wall to begin. I don't feel like waiting a year or year and a half. We're going to start building. Mexico in some form and there are many different forms, will reimburse us and they will reimburse us for the cost of the wall. That will happen. Whether it's a tax or whether it's a payment. Probably less likely that it's a payment."
7. Fight with Reporter
CNN REPORTER: "Since you're attacking us, can you give us a question? Mr. President-elect --"
TRUMP: "Go ahead."
CNN REPORTER: "Since you are attacking our news organization --"
TRUMP: "Not you."
CNN REPORTER: "Can you give us a chance?"
TRUMP: "Your organization is terrible."
CNN REPORTER: "You are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir? Sir, can you --"
TRUMP: "Quiet."
