Obama Shares Heartfelt Facebook Message to Sasha and Malia

On Thursday morning, POTUS posted
this touching Facebook message about his experience in the Oval Office, and what it's been like to see his daughters grow into "funny, smart, humble, and extraordinary young women." Along
with his heartfelt words, Obama also added in some throwback photos of the family. Eight years ago when the president first took office, Sasha was
7 and Malia was 10.
"Today, my family will join Americans across the country in sitting down together to give thanks for the good in our lives. This will be the last time we
celebrate Thanksgiving in the White House.
For me, this house has served as the backdrop to the tough decisions and trying times that often characterize the Presidency. But it's also been home― it's where Michelle and I have watched our daughters grow into the funny, smart, humble, and extraordinary young women they are today.
And when I look back over the years, what strikes me most about my girls is that, despite the challenges that have come their way, they have remained extraordinarily kind. They treat people
with the respect and understanding that all of us deserve―no matter who we are, where we come from, who we love, or what we believe. It's that bedrock belief in decency that can only come from
an inherent optimism about the road ahead. And it's what I find in all the young people I meet when I travel the country and the world".

Donald Trump Makes False Claims That "Millions of People" Voted Illegally

Donald Trump, the president-elect who sailed into office not on the tides of a democratic process but on the back of the Electoral College, is now falsely
claiming that he won the popular vote, too. But only if you "deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
Unlike CBS, which struggled to formulate a coherent headline in these difficult times, let's be very clear: This is a lie. Hillary Clinton is currently up in the popular vote by over two million votes.
There is no evidence of the kind of widespread voter fraud that Trump is referring to.
As ProPublica, a non-profit news organization, rehashed on Twitter over the weekend, it dispatched over 1,000 people to monitor the vote on Election
Day. "We saw no evidence the election was 'rigged' no matter what Stein or Trump say," it tweeted .
ProPublica said it solicited tips from 400
journalists and 120,000 citizens nationwide. It had 600 people watch social media for reports of voter fraud and had experts on hand to analyze the
endless stream of results. Based on all that, "[w]e saw plenty of problems: Long lines, broken voting machines, incorrect poll books, confusion [about] voter ID laws." But, it added, "we saw no reason to doubt the results."

Trump was 'awed' when Obama told him what he would have to handle as president

The Wall Street Journal previously cited sources saying that during Trump's private meeting with Obama last week, the president-elect was surprised
by the wide range of the president's job.
New Yorker editor David Remnick described some of the topics the two covered, as explained to him by
some of Obama's staff members:
"Obama told staff members that he had talked Trump through the rudiments of forming a cabinet and policies, including the Iran nuclear deal, counter-terrorism policy, health care — and that the
President-elect's grasp of such matters was, as the debates had made plain, modest at best. Trump, despite his habitual bluster, seemed awed by what
he was being told and about to encounter."
Despite Trump's apparent "loose grasp of policy," Remnick wrote, Obama and his team made sure to respect the traditional etiquette displayed during a
presidential transition — in part to preserve a shot at influencing Trump in the future, Remnick said.
Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, also painted a less-than-rosy picture of the Trump transition effort. On the day after Election Day, he
reportedly chatted with the person Trump sent to learn how to staff and run the White House — Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"Everything's great!" McDonough told The New Yorker, evidently with a struggle.

Trump settles Trump University lawsuits for $25 million

President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to pay $25 million to former students of his for-profit Trump University as part of a settlement that
resolves three outstanding lawsuits against him, including one in which he was set to testify in a trial that was due to begin in San Diego later this month.
As part of the agreement, Trump will pay $1 million in penalties to the state of New York for violating state education laws by labeling his nonaccredited
school a “university” without registering as an educational institution with New York state officials, according to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who announced the
settlement Friday afternoon. The deal includes no admission of wrongdoing.
“In 2013, my office sued Donald Trump for swindling thousands of innocent Americans out of millions of dollars through a scheme known as Trump University,” Schneiderman said in a
statement. “Donald Trump fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest
amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university. Today, that all changes. Today’s $25 million settlement agreement is a stunning
reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”
The announcement came after days of frantic negotiations among the parties that began last week, after Trump was elected president and U.S. Judge Gonzalo Curiel — the U.S.-born judge whom Trump repeatedly attacked during the campaign as biased due to his “Mexican” heritage — began prodding the parties to resolve the cases. The first
of three lawsuits was scheduled to start in Curiel’s courtroom Nov. 28. Trump’s lawyers had filed motions urging that the trial date be postponed, arguing that their client was too busy assembling
his new administration to testify in a civil trial.
Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli said Friday that Trump was determined to resolve the controversy.
“There’s an old saying that we lawyers have that nobody is happy in a settlement. But I don’t think this is true, this is a settlement we can all be happy
about and look forward to putting this behind us and moving forward. President-elect Trump is keenly interested in tackling the problems of our country and moving forward.”
The negotiations were a three-sided affair, involving Trump’s lawyers in Los Angeles, plaintiff’s lawyers in San Diego and Schneiderman’s office in New York, according to a source familiar with the talks. During the negotiations, Trump — who vowed during the campaign to never settle the cases — balked at the
wording of the proposed agreement and refused to accept that he was paying “penalties” for violating state laws, according to the source. Friday’s
announcement by Schneiderman used the word “penalties” for Trump’s alleged violation of state education laws. The final terms of the agreement, however, were presented to Curiel on Friday
afternoon. Curiel must still approve the settlement for it to take effect. Preliminary approval could
come in as few as 30 days, though final approval may take 30 to 60 days beyond that.