Inauguration in sight, Trump continues Twitter assault

NEW YORK / AP

His inauguration days away, President-elect Donald Trump is continuing to lash out at critics in the intelligence community and Democrats in Congress who are vowing to skip his swearing-in ceremony.
The tough-talking Republican questioned whether the CIA director himself was “the leaker of fake news” in a Sunday night tweet.
The extraordinary criticism from the incoming president came hours after CIA chief John Brennan charged that Trump lacks a full understanding of the threat Moscow poses to the United States, delivering a public lecture to the president-elect that further highlighted the bitter state of Trump’s relations with American intelligence agencies.
“Now that he’s going to have an opportunity to do something for our national security as opposed to talking and tweeting, he’s going to have tremendous responsibility to make sure that US and national security interests are protected,” Brennan said on “Fox News on Sunday,” warning that the president-elect’s impulsivity could be dangerous.
The president-elect remained behind closed doors in his Manhattan high rise for the weekend as his team worked to answer questions about his plans at home and abroad once he’s sworn into office on Friday.
Among Trump’s immediate challenges: the United States’ complicated relationship with Russia and crafting an affordable health care alternative that doesn’t strip coverage from millions of Americans.
Without providing details, Trump promised his plan to replace the nation’s health care law would provide universal coverage, according to a Washington Post interview published late Sunday. “We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” he said. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”
Meanwhile, several Democrats in Congress vowed to skip Trump’s inauguration. “There will be many more members who join us in this decision,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., wrote Saturday on his Facebook page.
Trump’s lieutenants pushed back hard, particularly against Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights legend who said Russian interference in Trump’s election delegitimizes his presidency.
“I think it’s incredibly disappointing and I think it’s irresponsible for people like himself to question the legitimacy of the next United States president,” incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said of Lewis on ABC’s “This Week,” insisting that Republicans did not question the legitimacy of President Barack Obama’s victory eight years ago. Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on “Fox News Sunday” that he hopes Lewis will change his mind and attend.
Priebus later acknowledged that conservatives — led by Trump himself — spent years questioning Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, suggesting he was not born in the United States.
Trump has done little to encourage unity in recent days, instead inflaming tensions with his critics through a series of tweets. The incoming president tweeted on Saturday that Lewis should pay more attention to his “crime ridden” Atlanta-area district, adding that the civil rights leader was “all talk.”
Questions about Trump’s relationship with Russia have dominated the days leading up to his inauguration.
Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn, who is set to become Trump’s national security adviser, has been in frequent contact with Russia’s ambassador to the US in recent weeks, including on the day the Obama administration hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for the alleged election hacking, a senior US official said.
After initially denying the contact took place, Trump’s team publicly acknowledged the conversations on Sunday.

Muted reaction in Russia to Trump’s talk of nuclear arms cut 

MOSCOW / AP

Suggestions by President-elect Donald Trump that sanctions against Russia could be lifted in exchange for a nuclear arms cut attracted a frosty reception in Moscow on Monday.
In an interview with the Times of London published on Sunday, Trump indicated that he could end sanctions imposed on Russia in the aftermath of the 2014 annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal.
Russia isn’t so anxious to get the sanctions lifted that it is prepared to “sacrifice something, especially in what concerns security,” said Konstantin Kosachev, the Kremlin-connected chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house of parliament.
Kosachev also told the RIA Novosti news agency that Trump’s comments to the Times should be treated with caution because it wasn’t an official statement, since Trump hasn’t assumed office yet.
Washington, along with the European Union, has imposed several rounds of economic sanctions on Russia and travel bans for individuals following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and interference in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The latest round of U.S. sanctions came at the end of December.