Kanye West Meets With President-Elect At Trump Tower
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Kanye West met with Donald Trump at Trump Tower Tuesday morning, where the president-elect said the two talked about "life."
Asked why the musician was visiting, Trump said they were "just friends'' and called West a "good man.''
PHOTOS: Kanye West Meets With Trump
The two posed for photos after their meeting. West stood silently next to Trump. Asked why he wasn't speaking, West said: "I just want to take a picture right now.''
The two did not answer questions on whether West would perform at Trump's inauguration in January.
At a concert in San Jose, California in November, West told the crowd that he didn't vote in the presidential election, but if he had, he would have voted for Trump.
West told fans that "sometimes you might have to not get your way in order to really understand what to do in the future to be able to get your way."
The announcement was mostly met with boos from the crowd.
As CBS2's Dick Brennan reported, the meeting between West and the president-elect provided some distraction on the day when Trump's pick for secretary of state drew sharp criticism.
Trump announced Tuesday he has settled on ExxonMobil chief executive officer Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state, saying that he's "among the most accomplished business leaders and international deal makers in the world.''
"Rex Tillerson's career is the embodiment of the American dream. Through hard work, dedication and smart deal making, Rex rose through the ranks to become CEO of ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest and most respected companies,'' the billionaire real estate mogul said in a predawn news release from Trump Tower in New York.
"Rex knows how to manage a global enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department,'' Trump said of his latest -- and much-discussed -- Cabinet pick.
Also Tuesday, two former football giants, Jim Brown and Ray Lewis, spoke with Trump about job creation in urban communities.
"He's wide open to change," Lewis said.
Bill Gates also visited to talk tech. He said he and Trump had "a wide ranging conversation about the power of innovation."
Trump on Tuesday also picked former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for energy secretary. In a 2011 debate, Perry said he wanted to do away with the Department of Energy, but also could not seem to remember it.
Trump has three more cabinet positions to fill -- Veteran's Affairs, Interior agriculture. He has postponed a news conference that had been scheduled for Thursday to talk about how to handle his business affairs going forward.
That news conference his moved to early January.
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