SPICER: Good morning, everyone. Thank you again for joining us.

We are officially 11 days out from Inauguration Day. I want to kick off the call by recognizing that we've added Senator Bob Dole as a vice chair of the presidential transition team. Senator Dole was an -- was unwavering in his support for the president-elect throughout the election and we're honored to have him join us in this capacity.

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It's obviously going to be a big week on Capitol Hill. This week, we've got nine confirmation hearings scheduled with respect to the president-elect's cabinet. Among the nominees, a decorated Navy seal, a businessman who reinvested and reinvigorated once-forgotten corners of American industry, a businesswoman who grew her family's dream into an entertainment empire, military leaders who, through boldness and brains, took the fight to America's enemies and rewrote how to fight the War on Terror.

SPICER: You'll find an entrepreneurial spirit that helps keep jobs here in the U.S. and to create economic growth and stability and bold leaders who took on the status quo that was protecting an education system that in many cases has been failing our children.

Compared to previous transitions, I think this team is going through a far more aggressive and comprehensive effort to prepare them for this process. The Trump Cabinet nominees understand how to lead organizations to success. And I think you can see that's reflected in their approach to the hearings occurring this week. They're listening, they're learning, they're preparing.

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Tomorrow, January 10th, we've got two hearings currently scheduled; one at 9:30 for Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, and then at 3:30 for General John Kelly as the next Secretary of Homeland Security. Senate consideration of Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General and John Kelly to be Homeland Security Secretary are definitely examples of progress towards President-elect Trump's banner issue during his campaign, to curing the southern border.

Senator Sessions has an in-depth understanding of immigration policy that will serve him well in enforcing the immigration laws. And General Kelly, who served as the head of Southern Command, has a unique set of experiences stopping drug traffickers that will serve him well at the Department of Homeland Security.

On Wednesday, the hearings will continue in the morning and the afternoon for Rex Tillerson who is secretary designee of Department of State. At 10:00 A.M. for Congressman Mike Pompeo, the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. At 10:00 A.M. for Ms. Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Secretary of Education, and at 10:15 for Secretary Elaine Chao, the nominee for Secretary of Transportation.

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On Thursday, January 12th, General James Mattis will have a hearing in front of the (inaudible) the Senate Armed Services Committee. And at -- and during the morning at 10:00 A.M. Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce nominee will be -- will be at 10:00 A.M. as will Dr. Ben Carson, the nominee for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

A little background for you all, nominees have now conducted more than 300 meetings with members of the United States Senate. They've met with 87 of the 100 members of Senate, participated in over 30 practice hearings and have answered 200 -- 2,604 questions during the practice sessions, which is about an average of 120 per session. They've spent more than 70 hours participating in mock hearings and answered questions from 189 volunteers who have sat behind the dais and played the role of a senator.

Approval of president-elect's Cabinet nominees is a strong signal to folks around the country that the senators are committed to draining the swamp and enacting real change.

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With that being said, we're very encouraged by the bipartisan welcome mat that has been placed on the Senate's step for Trump Cabinet -- for -- by -- for the Trump Cabinet such as West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin pledging his support for Oklahoma general -- Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be the next administrator of the EPA.

Senate -- Senate consideration of the Cabinet is on the same page or ahead of the page when comparing it to the last terms of both President Bush and President Obama. As you may recall, President Obama had seven members of the Cabinet confirmed on Inauguration Day in 2009 and five more the first week. Senators from both parties have long contended the Senate should act diligently to -- to provide the commander-in-chief the -- the selections for his Cabinet.

Just eight years ago, Democrats led by minority leaders chuck schumer were demanding swift confirmation of Obama's nominees. In -- in -- in fact, in one case, Senator Schumer said that he hopes Secretary of the Treasury nominee Tim Geithner would be confirmed, quote, "As quickly" after after acknowledging, quote, "He had admitted some mistakes."

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I -- I happen to agree more with Senator Jon Cornyn who said, quote, "Holding up confirmation just for delay sake is irresponsible and is dangerous. It becomes an even bigger problem when they intentionally try to keep President Trump from doing the job that the voters have given the responsibility to," end quote.

SPICER: I think Senate Democrats have two choices. They can aimlessly follow Senator Schumer and put the American economy and security at risk because of the uncertainty created by a lack of continuity of government, or they can join the timely and thorough vetting of Cabinet nominees to ensure president -- the president is ready to govern on day one.

Our expectations is this Cabinet will receive broad bipartisan support throughout.

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Today, the president-elect has a series of staff meetings and updates on the inauguration and the transition as well as a series of meetings with respect to the -- the meetings beyond his staff (ph).

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He's meeting -- he should have just wrapped up a meeting with Mr. Jack Ma, the founder and CEO of the e-commerce firm Alibaba, and Mr. Michael Evans, the president of the Alibaba Group. During the meeting, the president-elect, Mr. Ma, and Mr. Evans will be discussing how Alibaba can create one million U.S. jobs by enabling one million U.S. small businesses to sell goods into the China and the Asian marketplace.

The president-elect will then meet with Senator -- Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and then have a meeting with Dr. David Shulkin, that's S-H-U-L-K-I-N, who's the current undersecretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs. As Undersecretary Dr. Shulkin leads the nation's largest integrated health care system, currently serving 8.76 million veterans every year, buyers (ph) serving in that -- this current position, Dr. Shulkin has exemplified strong leadership in various roles throughout his career, including chief executive roles, as a doctor, in academia and in entrepreneur roles.

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Following the meeting, the president-elect will meet with Mr. Randy Falco and Mr. Isaac Lee. Falco is F-A-L-C-O. Lee is L-E-E. Currently, Randy Falco serves as the president and CEO of Univision Communications and Isaac Lee serves as the chief news entertainment and digital officer for Univision Communications where he is responsible for the editorial oversight of Univision news (ph) across all platforms in addition to the company's digital efforts.

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The president-elect will then have a meeting later today with Mr. Howie Kurtz with Fox News.

As far as the vice president (sic) goes, he is attending the inauguration of Governor Eric Holcomb in Indianapolis today. Following this, at 1 o'clock, the vice president-elect and his family will depart from the Indianapolis International Airport for Joint Base Andrews. They will be flying on a 737-700C airline. As tradition holds, the plane was sent to pickup the Pence family as a courtesy by the current vice president.

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Media wishing to cover his departure must arrive at the Indianapolis Airport SBO (ph) by 11 a.m. for the preset (ph) this week. At 2:45 p.m., the vice president-elect and his family are expected to arrive Joint Base Andrews. Media wishing to cover the arrival should contact the Joint Base Andrews public affairs office.

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As a reminder, President-elect Trump will hold a press conference this Wednesday at 11 o'clock in New York. As noted before, if you are looking to cover that event, e-mail credentials@PTT.gov. We expect either later today or early tomorrow further logistical information will be coming out.

With respect to that, as you know, that -- that will start 11 o'clock. We will not hold a press -- this press call on Wednesday because I believe that you will probably be at the 11 o'clock or someone from your representative. Obviously, if you have media inquiries, I continue to stress e-mailing them to media@PTT.gov and we will get back to you on that.

So with that, I would be glad to take some of your questions.

OPERATOR: Thank you.

If anyone has any questions on today's conference, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you are on a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Once again, that is star one for -- for any questions.

And we'll take our first question from Jacob Kornbluh from Jewish Insider.

QUESTION: Hi. Good morning.

My question is two-fold. One, there is rumors in Israel that the transition team has reached out to Prime Minister Netanyahu to invite him to the inauguration and Prime Minister Netanyahu has canceled a trip to (inaudible) around that time. So my question is if such invitation was brought forward to the prime minister?

And my second is any specific reason why the president-elect hasn't commented yet on the terror attack in Jerusalem yesterday?

SPICER: So on -- on -- with -- on the question regarding the prime minister's attendance, I would contact Prime Minister Netanyahu's office to discuss his schedule and his attendance.

Obviously, the president-elect has been monitoring the situation over in Israel and I will have further comment on that later today.

OPERATOR: We'll take our next question from Brian Schwartz from Fox Business.

QUESTION: Hi, there.

I was just wondering if the Trump transition -- transition team had a response from what the Toyota CEO, Jim Lentz, said today. He was responding to what Donald Trump said about levying a big border tax against Toyota and Lentz said that if there was a tax levied down, a big border tax, it's going to raise prices, which will likely shrink the industry. It will lower demand and it will cost jobs.

I was wondering if the Trump transition had a response to what he said earlier today?

SPICER: I think the president-elect has been pretty consistent throughout that his focus is on the American worker and if companies stay in the United States, that it's a non-issue.

I think what he's focused on and what he's continuing to talk about when companies take -- who are based in the United States, who currently have job production in the United States and they move overseas for the express purpose of selling back to the U.S. market with non-U.S. workers, that (inaudible) apply and I think that continues to stand.

OPERATOR: We'll take our next question from Allison Virspro (ph) with Bloomberg BNA.

QUESTION: Hi. Thank you for taking my question.

I was wondering, has the president-elect given any thought to the position of assistant secretary for tax policy, especially given that tax reform is a top priority of this administration?

SPICER: Yeah, thanks for the question.

I think what you -- what -- there's two things going on right now. Obviously, we continue to -- we have a couple slots in the Cabinet left that are very important to him that he has committed to getting right; both the Department of Agriculture in terms of our economy and trade, frankly, is crucial.

And then secondly, the person that will head the Department of Veterans Affairs is something that the president-elect cares deeply about because he understands the need to reform the V.A. to provide the care and services, whether it's lending or health care services, that our veterans not only need but frankly deserve and our entitled to based on their service to our nation.

SPICER: With that being said, we continue to have conversations and meetings at the both deputy undersecretary and assistant secretary level through the departments and the ambassador ranks. So that work is being done, but I would expect to see additional Cabinet-level announcements before we really delve into those, with the exception of a couple here and there. But I think especially at the assistant secretary level, we're gonna have -- we'll see the deputies go first and then obviously the unders.

But that, by no means, doesn't mean that those conversations aren't taking place through the various departments.

OPERATOR: We'll take our next question from Emily Stephenson from Reuters.

QUESTION: Hey. Thank you guys for taking this question.

I wanted to ask you about Boris Johnson. I know that he was in New York yesterday and met with some Trump advisers. And wanted to know if there are additional planed meetings with the transition, he's planning on meeting with the president-elect at all and if you have any readout of the meeting yesterday that you could talk about today?

SPICER: I don't. I believe he has -- he has scheduled several meetings not just in New York. But I think if you contact the -- the British embassy, they can provide additional details as to the minister's visit details. But I think he had several meetings. He did meet with -- with two of the folks -- two of the senior members of the Trump team yesterday.

And just for the -- so you all know for everyone on the call, there is no intention of having not just foreign leaders, but in the -- in the prime minister and presidential rank but other -- other foreign leaders representing other governments meeting with the president-elect. That -- we don't have any plans for that prior to the election.

OPERATOR: And we'll take our next question from Tony Delmichi with Georgia Weekly Post.

QUESTION: Good morning. Thank you for taking my call.

Any names you can release about candidate for the Supreme Court?

SPICER: Well, I would (ph) suggest to you that the president- elect released during the campaign a list of names of people that -- that he would be considering. I would -- I would look to that list first for individuals not just for the Supreme Court, but I think we're gonna have a lot of vacancies at the appellate level as well.

And so that -- that would be a good starting point, and then the president-elect and key members of the team have -- you know, had to -- have probably had some initial -- people have reached out to them sharing additional names that they should share. And I think after the inauguration, you'll see a little bit more of a focus on -- on -- on the position that is vacant on the court.

But we have nothing to report out of that at this time.

OPERATOR: And that does conclude our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Sean Spicer for any additional or closing remarks.

SPICER: Thanks, guys. Really busy week for us up here between the press conference in New York. And just again, I think I mentioned this to a few of you, obviously mediaptt.gov is the easiest way -- transition questions with respect to the week should be directed to -- to Jason Miller, Brian Lanza, Jessica Ditto. I think he's got questions (ph) on the -- on the press conference (inaudible) in New York and just let us know if we can help in any other way.

But we'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.