Trump rails at media in news conference

United States President-elect Donald Trump lashed out at the media during a combative news conference in which he clashed with a television reporter on Wednesday.

However, Trump did finally accept the conclusion reached by the US intelligence community that Russia was behind cyberattacks during the election campaign, and pledged to step away from his businesses to avoid a conflict of interest in the White House.

But it was the media that drew most of his fire as he promised to punish online news website Buzzfeed for publishing unsubstantiated reports that Russia had collected a dossier of compromising personal and financial information on him.

He also refused to take questions from Jim Acosta of CNN, which he accused of producing "fake news".

The news conference, originally scheduled for December, was postponed, in Trump's word, "because we were getting quite a bit of inaccurate news".

Facing questions on the hacking allegations in the presidential elections, Trump said "as far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.

"He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) shouldn't be doing it. He won't be doing it.

"Russia will have much greater respect for our country when I'm leading than when other people have led it."

Addressing the concerns on how to avoid a conflict of interest between his public office and past business ventures, Trump said he will hand all his businesses to his sons, but will not liquidate his assets and put them in a blind trust, as his predecessors normally did.

Attorney Sheri Dillon said that liquidation and a blind trust would be unfeasible and ineffective at quelling concerns.

Instead, Trump's investments and business assets have been or will be conveyed to a trust before Jan 20, when he assumes the presidency, she said.

The trust will operate without Trump's influence and dictates that all deals should go through ethics vetting and there will be no foreign deals.

The news conference also touched upon Obamacare, a program US President Barack Obama considered a major part of his legacy.

"Obamacare is a complete and total disaster," Trump said, adding that it will be repealed and replaced.

(China Daily 01/13/2017 page12)