NEW YORK -- Donald Trump held court from high above Manhattan on Monday, receiving a line of former rivals, longtime allies and TV executives while overseeing his presidential transition.
Trump did not immediately announce any appointments after the meetings, which came on the heels of a two-day whirlwind of interviews at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., about 50 miles from Trump Tower.
"His appointments will come out when he's ready and not a moment sooner because these are big decisions and they shouldn't be rushed," Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump's campaign manager, said Monday in New York. She said the Trump team already is "weeks and weeks and weeks ahead" of previous presidential transitions.
The president-elect met with nearly a dozen prospective hires on Monday, all of whom appeared in front of the cameras set up in the Trump Tower lobby.
[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect’s career + list of appointments so far]
Former Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, was first, telling reporters that he was "the best person" to become Veterans Affairs secretary.
Next, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a candidate for interior secretary, said she had "a wonderful discussion" with Trump. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry declined to speak to reporters after his meeting, but he did take time for a photo with the Naked Cowboy, the underwear-sporting, guitar-strumming New York institution.
Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who resigned her post on the Democratic National Committee after endorsing Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, also met with Trump but entered and exited out of sight. She later defended crossing party lines to meet with Trump about U.S. involvement in Syria, saying in a statement that she would never "play politics with American and Syrian lives."
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime Trump ally, also arrived with his wife, Callista, and told reporters that he was interested in being a "senior planner" to coordinate long-term Republican efforts across all three branches of government.
Conway said of the visitors, "Not all of them will be in his Cabinet and his federal government, but they are all incredibly important in offering their points of view, their experience and certainly their vision of the country."
No one would say whether Trump would announce more appointments before heading to Florida for Thanksgiving. He was planning to leave today or Wednesday to spend the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence will spend Thanksgiving in Mississippi, where his Marine son is stationed.
Talks with TV networks
Trump did not address the media directly, instead recording a 2½-minute video in which he pledged to appoint "patriots" to his administration. He reiterated a number of his campaign promises, including plans to renegotiate trade deals, scrap excessive regulations and institute a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists.
But Trump met privately with executives and on-air personalities from TV networks Monday. Among the attendees were NBC anchor Lester Holt and Meet the Press host Chuck Todd; ABC anchor David Muir and This Week host George Stephanopoulos; CBS' Charlie Rose and Face the Nation host John Dickerson; CNN's Wolf Blitzer; and several executives at the networks.
Several people familiar with the gathering said Trump was highly critical of coverage of him, telling the journalists that they failed to provide their viewers with fair and accurate coverage. Trump expressed particular ire at CNN and at several reporters at other cable networks, though he did not mention them by name.
The people said Trump saw no need for a constant press pool covering him, although he did not delve into specifics.
None of the attendees would discuss the meeting, which they agreed beforehand would be off the record. Conway said it was "very cordial, very productive, very congenial."
"It's great to hit the reset button," she added.
Conway said the media share a responsibility to deliver the message that the election is settled and that Americans should accept the results.
Hillary Clinton has told donors that she blames the election results on FBI Director James Comey. He told Congress 11 days before the election that the bureau was reviewing further Clinton emails, then said two days before the vote that the review had not changed his decision against recommending charges against her.
Republicans and Democrats criticized Comey at various times over the FBI's handling of Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
"There hasn't been any official statement with regard to Director Comey," Trump spokesman Jason Miller said during the transition team's daily briefing. Asked whether Trump would keep Comey or seek his resignation, Miller said only: "I would imagine that at some point, the two will meet."
Comey is in the third year of a 10-year term that began in September 2013, and the FBI director typically does not change with a new president in order to preserve the job's independence. But presidents can remove a director, as Bill Clinton did in 1993, when he fired FBI Director William Sessions halfway through his first year in office over allegations of ethical issues.
Officials close to Comey have told The Washington Post that he has no plans to leave.
Trade-deal rejection
Trump's video included a formal statement that he intends to have the U.S. withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that he opposed during the campaign.
"Instead, we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores," Trump said.
Some world leaders said over the weekend that they might try to modify the pact to make it more appealing to Trump, or seek to implement it without the U.S. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday dismissed those ideas.
"TPP is meaningless without the United States," Abe said during an official visit to Argentina.
He also said the pact couldn't be renegotiated. "This would disturb the fundamental balance of benefits," he said.
Trump's announcement came a day after he met with businessmen to discuss trade as well as the nation's debt and taxes.
Trump hosted billionaire investor Wilbur Ross; Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate at Blackstone Group; and David McCormick, president of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. A person familiar with the hiring process said all three are in the running for treasury secretary, though Steven Mnuchin, a member of the transition team's executive committee, is thought to be the front-runner.
The Ross meeting covered "negotiating the best foreign deals, American manufacturing and job creation," as well as "engaging ambassadors to participate in creating more economic opportunities for America," Trump's office said.
The "in-depth" discussion with Gray "included the economy, global capital markets and the world financial situation," as well as "future legislation regarding the tax code and long-term debt," Trump's transition office said in a statement Sunday night.
With McCormick, Trump and Pence talked about "global financial markets, currency and the American economy," and "special emphasis was placed on restoring long-term economic growth rates on an annual basis of 4 to 5 percent," Trump's office said.
Conway described the parade of visitors as a way for Trump to solicit advice and to demonstrate transparency.
"This is what outsiders do," Conway said. "What do we have to hide?"
Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire, Catherine Lucey, Dave Bauder, Julie Bykowicz, Laurie Kellman, Luis Andres Henao and Almudena Calatrava of The Associated Press; by Jennifer Jacobs, Arit John, Jennifer Epstein and Ben Brody of Bloomberg News; and by Karen Tumulty, Jerry Markon, Sari Horwitz, Elise Viebeck, Robert Costa, Philip Rucker, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Amy B. Wang, Kristine Guerra, Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/22/2016