■ He insisted he has nothing to do with the “divided states of America” that Time says he will lead. “When you say divided states of America, I didn’t divide them,” he told NBC. “I’m not president yet, so I didn’t do anything to divide.”

■ He declined to criticize Rodrigo R. Duterte, president of the Philippines, who is leading a bloody campaign in the streets of Manila against drugs, or even to push back on comparisons between Mr. Duterte and the president-elect’s promised crackdown on criminal illegal immigrants.

“Well, hey, look, this is bad stuff,” Mr. Trump told Time. “They slice them up, they carve their initials in the girl’s forehead, O.K.? What are we supposed to do? Be nice about it?”

■ He rejected United States intelligence conclusions that Russia was behind hacks at the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign that boosted his campaign. “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered,” Mr. Trump said of the Russians.

■ And he again said he would press Boeing on an Air Force One upgrade, though his Twitter order to “cancel” the project seems to have faded. “I’m going to negotiate prices, and the planes are too expensive, and we’re going to get the prices down.”

Keith Ellison says he’ll quit the House if elected Democratic chair.

Representative Keith Ellison said Wednesday he would resign his House seat if he is elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, sweeping away an impediment to his bid for the party post while denying his critics a handy argument against his controversial candidacy.

“Whoever wins the D.N.C. chair race faces a lot of work, travel, planning and resource raising. I will be ‘all-in’ to meet the challenge,’” Mr. Ellison said in a statement.