President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to drain the swamp of Washington D.C., but he admits in a recent interview that he might have to rely on lobbyists to help his transition team.
During an interview with CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl, Trump admitted that he did have lobbyists on his team, but explained that it was the current state of the culture in Washington D.C.
“Everybody’s a lobbyist down there,” he said. “We’re doing a lot of things to clean up the system. But everybody that works for government, they then leave government and they become a lobbyist, essentially. I mean, the whole place is one big lobbyist.”
During Trump’s presidential campaign, he promised to institute a five year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after leaving government service. He also promised to create a lifetime ban of White House officials lobbying for a foreign government.
Trump indicated he would need politically connected people to help him know the system, even if they were lobbyists.
“I’m saying that they know the system right now, but we’re going to phase that out,” he said during the 60 Minutes interview. “You have to phase it out.”
Trump also reaffirmed his belief in term limits for members of Congress.
“We’re going to put on term limits, which a lot of people aren’t happy about, but we’re putting on term limits,” he said.
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