Asserting that Donald Trump won the presidency in an electoral landslide, the incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus today said that it is irresponsible to question the President-elect's legitimacy.
He was responding to questions on legendary human rights champion Congressman John Lewis and several other lawmakers questioning legitimacy of the presidential election.
"I think it's incredibly disappointing and I think it's irresponsible for people like himself to question the legitimacy of the next United States president. I think putting the United States down across the world is not something that a responsible person does," Priebus told ABC News in an interview.
"Putting the United States down across the world is not something that a responsible person does. I think President Obama should step up.
"So I think the administration can do a lot of good by telling folks that are on the Republican side of the aisle, look, we may have lost the election on the Democratic side, but it's time to come together," the incoming White House Chief of Staff said.
"John Lewis stood up in an interview and said that Donald Trump was not a legitimate president. That's insanity. And it's wrong," he said, adding that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said many times, that there is no evidence that any outcome of the election was coined.
President-elect Trump won 30 of 50 states.
"This man won in an electoral landslide. And to question the legitimacy of the next United States president, you know, and you're worried about a Twitter that says, hey, why don't you get back to work instead of questioning my legitimacy? Too bad," he said, expressing his frustration.
Priebus also argued for more press people covering the
White House and thus creating more space for them as and when necessary.
At the same time, he refuted reports that the incoming administration is planning to move out journalists from the White House to other building.
As per a news report in Esquire magazine, the incoming administration is considering evicting press corps from the White House either to the Old Executive Building or to the White House Conference Center near Lafayette Square.
"Let me tell you where this is coming from, and I know that some of the folks in the press are uptight about this, and I understand. The thing that's been discussed is whether or not the initial press conferences are going to be in that small press -- and for the people let's not to this that don't know this, that the press room that people see on TV is very, very tiny. Forty-nine people fit in that press room," Priebus told ABC News in an interview.
"The one thing that we discussed was whether or not we want to move the initial press conferences in the Executive Office Building, which, by the way, is the White House. So no one is moving out of the White House," he asserted.
"That is the White House, where you can fit four times the we must of people in the press conference, allowing more press, more coverage from all over the country to have those press conferences. That's what we're talking about," he said.
