MR. HOELSCHER: Good afternoon. Doug Hoelscher from White House Intergovernmental Affairs. We look forward to being good partners on behalf of the President and Vice President to you and your teams.
GOVERNOR-ELECT KEMP: Mr. President, Brian Kemp, governor-elect of Georgia. I want to thank you and the Vice President for your interest in Georgia in response to Hurricane Michael. And we certainly appreciate Sonny Perdue's interest as well. It's going great on the ground. Long recovery, but we appreciate the response and interest that you guys have shown.
THE PRESIDENT: That was a great race. And congratulations. You and I felt very lonely there for a while, right? Had everybody in the world coming down but you ran a great race.
GOVERNOR-ELECT KEMP: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Congratulations, Brian.
SECRETARY CHAO: Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation.
GOVERNOR-ELECT PRITZKER: Mr. President, I'm J.B. Pritzker, the governor-elect of Illinois. And I founded 1871, which is the - well, named this year as the world's best business incubator. And as I've been speaking with your daughter, I've also been a national advocate for early childhood education.
THE PRESIDENT: Very good. Great to see you.
GOVERNOR-ELECT DESANTIS: Ron DeSantis, governor-elect of Florida. Mr. President, thank you for helping out the folks in the Panhandle - your commitment to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base, it's important; those are great folks there - and also for your support of the reservoir that we need to build south of Lake Okeechobee so we can fix some of these water problems.
We'd like to be able to speed some of this up with the Army Corps. I know you'll be supportive of that. And you've been real supportive of Florida. So thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: We are very much involved with Lake Okeechobee. And a lot of problems in Florida can be solved by doing that properly. They've been trying to do it for 30 years. So we'll get it done, okay? Good job.
Thank you all very much. We're going to have a little discussion now about how we can help the various governors, and it's going to be a very good discussion. Thank you all very much.
Q Mr. President, quick question about Michael Flynn. Mr. President -
Q Any update on (inaudible) your next Chief of Staff?
THE PRESIDENT: We're interviewing people now for Chief of Staff, yes.
Q How long is the short list now?
THE PRESIDENT: Five people. Really good ones. Terrific people. Mostly well known, but terrific people.
Q Mr. President, quick question about Michael Flynn. As you know, Judge Emmet Sullivan has asked the Office of Special Counsel and the FBI for the documents related to the interview of Michael Flynn. Do you -
THE PRESIDENT: That's great.
Q - do you believe that the FBI acted improperly in how they handled his interview?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the FBI said Michael Flynn - a general and a great person - they said he didn't lie. And Mueller said, "Well, maybe he did." And now they're all having a big dispute. So I think it's a great thing that the judge is looking into that situation. That's a - that's an honor for a lot of terrific people.
Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.
