WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST):
1:50 p.m.
Former Sen. Dan Coats — who’s in line to be national intelligence director — has swung back and forth between government service and lobbying in the type of Washington career that President-elect Donald Trump has mocked.
The Indiana Republican has made four spins through the capital’s revolving door and become wealthy.
Since the early 1980s, Coats either has served in government or earned money as a lobbyist and board director. His most recently available Senate financial disclosure, from 2014, shows he had a net worth of more than $12 million.
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11:45 a.m.
President-elect Donald Trump is renewing his call for warmer relations with Russia.
That’s what he says in a tweet Saturday — a day after intelligence leaders said in a report that Russia meddled in the U.S. election on Trump’s behalf.
Trump says on Twitter that both countries should working together to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Trump has long argued that improving relations with Russia would be a good thing.
He says the U.S. has enough problems around the world and that “Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools” would think improved relations were bad.
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9:30 a.m.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul says President-elect Donald Trump “fully supports” repealing President Barack Obama’s health law only when there’s a viable alternative to replace it.
Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Congress are moving toward a vote on repeal legislation in coming weeks. But they anticipate a transition period of months or years to a replacement.
Some Republicans are expressing reservations about scrapping the law without a near-term replacement.
Paul — a Kentucky lawmaker who sought his party’s 2016 presidential nomination — says in a tweet late Friday that he spoke with Trump, and that the president-elect “fully supports my plan to replace Obamacare the same day we repeal it. The time to act is now.”
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7:20 a.m.
President-elect Donald Trump says he’ll nominate former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats as national intelligence director.
Trump says in a statement that Coats — a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before retiring from Congress last year — will lead the new administration’s “ceaseless vigilance against those who seek to do us harm.”
The post requires Senate confirmation. The office was created after the Sept. 11 attacks to improve coordination among U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies.
Trump’s announcement comes one day after release of a declassified government report on Russian efforts to influence the presidential election. The report predicts Russia isn’t done intruding in U.S. politics and policymaking.
Trump wants to improve relations with Russia and repeatedly has denounced intelligence agencies’ assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the election.
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