president-elect donald j. trump met with david h. petraeus on monday as the battle rages to fill the post of secretary of state. meanwhile, the president-elect is on twitter again, threatening the cuba thaw and lobbing voter fraud charges . there<u+2019>s still a secretary of state to name. david h. petraeus, the retired general who led the c.i.a., met monday with president-elect trump, and it appears he really would like to be secretary of state. <u+201c>i was with him for about an hour,<u+201d> mr. petraeus told reporters. <u+201c>he basically walked us around the world, showed a great grasp of a variety of the challenges that are out there and some of the opportunities as well. very good conversation, and we<u+2019>ll see where it goes from here.<u+201d> the president-elect returned the compliment. senator bob corker of tennessee, chairman of the foreign relations committee, is up next with a meeting in trump tower on tuesday. and mitt romney is set to have dinner with the president-elect on tuesday night. mr. romney is the preferred choice of vice president-elect mike pence and some business leaders from whom mr. trump has heard. but contention over him being chosen has led mr. trump<u+2019>s aides to open the process to other names, such as mr. corker. typical of the pushback, l. brent bozell, a conservative media critic, said in a statement: <u+201c>the very idea of mitt romney as secretary of state <u+2014> or any other cabinet position in a trump administration <u+2014> is a slap to his supporters. plenty of people (myself included) opposed the president-elect, but virtually all endorsed him once he was the nominee. not so romney and the dc elites.<u+201d> the pro-romney camp is doing its own pushback. a person briefed on the process, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive conversations, said that mr. romney had not sought consideration for the secretary of state, and was initially contacted by mr. pence. in that first conversation, mr. romney made clear to mr. pence that he would accept the position if the incoming president offered it, the person said, contradicting the claim from others in mr. trump<u+2019>s circle who are opposed to the potential appointment. the debate over mr. romney <u+2014> and before him, rudolph w. giuliani <u+2014> has given an opening to mr. petraeus, despite the cloud of scandal that still hangs over him for sharing classified information during an extramarital affair. trump warns on cuba; white house pushes back. the president-elect has not held his punches in denouncing the predations of fidel castro, the late cuban dictator, but he seemed to be keeping his options open on president obama<u+2019>s diplomatic thaw with the communist caribbean nation. on monday, via twitter, mr. trump lobbed a threat about that. josh earnest, the white house spokesman, isn<u+2019>t mourning mr. obama<u+2019>s initiative just yet though. there will soon be 110 daily flights from the united states to cuba, and cruise, tour and hotel operators have already invested significant sums in infrastructure to support those visits. citizens in cuba and the united states overwhelmingly support the new policy, mr. earnest said. <u+201c>so unrolling all of that is much more complicated than just the stroke of a pen,<u+201d> mr. earnest said, adding, <u+201c>it<u+2019>s just not as simple as one tweet might make it seem.<u+201d> michigan certifies results: trump won. as a recount proceeds in wisconsin, michigan officially certified its results on monday: mr. trump beat hillary clinton by 10,704 votes, or 0.2 percentage points. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s overall popular vote lead stands at 2,241,834. just what are trump and obama talking about? mr. earnest confirmed monday that president obama and president-elect trump had spoken for 45 minutes on saturday after mr. obama returned a call from the man who will succeed him. <u+201c>president obama has been doing this job for eight years, and he<u+2019>s learned a lot about the kind of challenges a person in that job faces,<u+201d> mr. earnest said. but what are they talking about? mr. trump has hinted that mr. obama has told him of one big foreign policy concern: north korea. and for good reason: the autocratic government there is pressing ahead with efforts to develop a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach american soil; a corruption crisis has paralyzed south korea<u+2019>s government ; and washington will soon be led by a new president with no governmental experience. california to trump: forget about it. when president-elect trump claimed on twitter that he was losing the popular vote because of massive voter fraud by millions of voters, one of the states he pointed to was california, where the latest voting returns showed hillary clinton crushing mr. trump. now the state<u+2019>s top election official, alex padilla, has responded. mr. padilla asserted that there was no evidence for the president-elect<u+2019>s claim, and he denounced mr. trump for what he said was unpresidential behavior. this state has historically been slow to count ballots, a reflection of its size and the inefficiencies of many county voting operations. as of saturday, mrs. clinton had received 8.1 million votes in california, compared with 4.2 million for mr. trump, according to mr. padilla<u+2019>s office. it was not clear when the vote count would be concluded. mr. padilla is the highest-ranking latino elected to state office in california. mr. trump<u+2019>s poor showing there, many democrats and republicans said, came in no small part because of his attacks on what he described as the threat of illegal immigration <u+2014> particularly from mexicans. about 40 percent of this state<u+2019>s population is latino. <u+2018>a shocking level of disdain ... <u+2019> citing what they called mr. trump<u+2019>s <u+201c>shocking level of disdain for legitimate bipartisan concerns<u+201d> over conflicts of interest, the democratic members of the house oversight committee on monday formally requested that the committee<u+2019>s chairman open a review of the president-elect<u+2019>s web of global business interests. oh, and they<u+2019>d like copies of the tax returns that mr. trump has refused to release. a japanese restaurant is planned at trump<u+2019>s new hotel. the president-elect<u+2019>s elegant new hotel , built in the old post office building on pennsylvania avenue near the white house, has finally secured its second restaurant. the space at the trump international hotel has been empty since the celebrity chefs jos<u+00e9> andr<u+00e9>s and geoffrey zakarian backed out in protest of mr. trump<u+2019>s incendiary comments about mexican immigrants during the campaign, prompting legal action by the trump organization. now, nakazawa, a japanese omakase bar and dining room, is stepping up with a new restaurant, to be opened by next summer. <u+201c>my decisions are not clouded by political views or what i feel in my heart, right or wrong,<u+201d> alessandro borgognone, nakazawa<u+2019>s owner, told washingtonian magazine . <u+201c>anytime that we decide something on business, it<u+2019>s what<u+2019>s best for the business.<u+201d> congress appears to have a cure. the 114th congress returns to washington this week for one big order of business <u+2014> besides keeping the government<u+2019>s lights on. in one of its final and most significant acts, the house on wednesday is set to pass the 21st century cures act, an ambitious and pricey initiative that would deregulate some forms of drugs and medical devices and would fund president obama<u+2019>s cancer <u+201c>moonshot,<u+201d> alzheimer<u+2019>s research, regenerative medicine and efforts to address opioid addiction. the agreement, reached between house and senate negotiators over the thanksgiving break, should be passed next month by the senate. the legislation<u+2019>s total funding for the national institutes of health is $4.8 billion, a reduction from what the house sought last year. the bill, large as it is, is expected to pass with little debate and lots of lobbying fingerprints <u+2014> and a bipartisan nod to vice president joseph r. biden jr., who wanted the moonshot . but nancy pelosi has a cold. representative nancy pelosi of california, the house minority leader and longtime head of the embattled house democrats, faces something of a reckoning this week. representative tim ryan of ohio, a burly former high school football player from youngstown, has had the temerity to challenge her for the minority leader post, saying the party needs to face the reality that hillary clinton<u+2019>s losses in ohio, wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania show that democrats have lost touch with their working-class roots. even if, as likely, ms. pelosi survives the vote on wednesday, she has shown vulnerability. the leadership slate that she has introduced includes representative cheri bustos of a working-class corner of illinois. in a letter to colleagues, she introduced her as <u+201c>a leader representing the heartland<u+201d> who <u+201c>has fought for manufacturing jobs and the needs of our veterans in rural america.<u+201d> another offering? representative matt cartwright, who <u+201c>knows how to take the concerns of his constituents in working-class pennsylvania and translate them into a message that moves people.<u+201d> the pushback? the congressional black caucus fears its own power is being diluted. get politics and washington news updates via facebook , twitter and in the morning briefing newsletter .
trump meets petraeus as secretary of state sweepstakes heat up
maggie haberman adam nagourney gardiner harris