a major threat facing our great nation, russia. before getting to the core threat posed by russia, i want to stress from the bottom of my heart that the most, some of the most rewarding and impactful work i have done at the united nations has come in the times when my russian counterpart and i have been able to cooperate. back in 2013 together we initiated a resolution to get the most dangerous chemical weapons out of syria. russia, as you all recall, was a key pillar and imposing sanctions on iran for its illicit nuclear programs. sanctions that were essential in bringing iran to the table so that we could forge an agreement that cut off iran's pathways to a nuclear bomb. russia worked really constructively with the rest of the security council to select the best candidate for a new un secretary-general. a leader with tremendous experience and vision. while people tend to look to the cold war as a paradigm for understanding the nature of us/russia relations, the reality is that for pivotal parts of our shared history, us and russi

the little green men, as russia denied any-- russia ties to them, rammed into ukraine like a barrel of a gun, which putin used to justify his sham in crimea. we saw it months later, in where russiane, armed, trained and fought alongside separatists. again russia denied any role in , the conflict it manufactured. we saw it also in russia's support for bashar al-assad's brutal war in syria. support it maintained even as the assad regime kept food and medicine from civilians in occupied areas. civilians who were so desperate, that they resorted to eating leave. even as photographs emerged of countless prisoners tortured to death in assad's prisons, their bodies tagged with serial numbers. even as the assad regime used chemical weapons to kill its own people. we saw it in 2015 when russia went further by joining the assault on the syrian people, its own troops and planes in a campaign that had hospitals, schools and the brave syrian first responders who were trying to dig innocent civilians out of the rubble. with each transgression, the -- not only were more civilians killed, but the rule

we must also be clear-eyed about our relationship with russia. russia today poses a danger. but it is not unpredictable in advancing its own interests. it has invaded the ukraine, including the taking of crimea, and supported syrian forces that brutally violates the laws of war. our nato allies are right to be alarmed at a resurgent russia. but it was in the absence of american leadership that this door was left open and unintended signals were sent. we backtracked on commitments we made to allies. we sent weak or mixed signals with red lines that turned into green lights. we did not recognize that russians do not think like we do. words alone do not sweep away an uneven and at times contentious history between our two nations. but we need an open and frank dialogue with russia regarding its ambitions to we know how to chart our own course. where cooperation with russia based on common interest is possible, such as reducing the global threat of terrorism, we ought to explore these options. were important differences remain, we should be steadfast in defending the interests o

and russia. most recently in the last few months and specially in the last few weeks, i've been alarnled by the way the american media seems to be taking on a tone for people who specialize in eastern europe is sort of all too familiar. this absolute hysterical witch-hunting tone, the endless promotion of narrative, we have fake news problems but americans are great at making their own fake news. we have loads of it and it has a very, very damaging influence on politics. it's very important not to follow russia given in this thinking, everything is the plot of our foreign enemies and sort of jumping to conclusions without any evidence. i think we should look at the russian media and try to be unlike them as possible. [laughter] >> you mentioned the outset of your book that you were 7 years old when the berlin wall fell and that you were -- not really aware of living memories of communism and so forth, you really are a scholar and observer in the era and what you do in the book is recount the tens

russia knows it. well, i will tell you what, quickly, russia seems to want, as best as we can understand from what officials have said, is they want a much more federal system, assad to still be president, much more autonomy to the regions of syria, which would recognise the rights of the different ethnic groupings in the country, a looser, looser system, but one which still has assad at its federal centre. could you imagine excepting that? —— could you imagine accepting that? i think the russians will themselves realise that that is not going to work with assad. we want decentralisation, we want a loose control from the centre, we want, obviously, a democratic party system, so we are on the side of the community on this, is assad on the side of the community? that is a question to ask. —— from the centre, we want, obviously, a democratic participative system. that is a question to ask. is he willing to fightjihadi groups? the shia groups are as jihadi as as al—nusra or daesh group. so that

they're saying russia, russia, russia. it could be someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. >> they have no idea if it's russia, china or somebody. it could be somebody sitting on a bed some place. >> our country has no idea. >> he'd rather believe -- >> i doubt it. >> as mr. trump was being briefed i sat down with two republican senators who have been critical of president-elect trump. john mccain and lindsay graham. i began by asking the both of them about mr. trump's claim friday morning that what we're seeing is nothing more than a political witch hunt. >> i believe our intelligence leaders, general clapper and admiral rogers who testified before the arms services committee are credible people and well respected. general clapper, i think, has 53 years of experience in the intelligence business and yes, intelligence authorities have made mistakes in the past that have been wrong in the past, but what they're saying is there is a long history of russian attempts to affect the outcome of our election. >> you k

russia relations. at that time, i have to say if there was american democracy promotion in russia, not russian interference in the united states but it provides you with a certain perspective. george beebe is truly one of the most insightful and serious american experts of russia. george was a foreign service officer, stationed in moscow, became a member, i think it is called senior intelligence service; right? was also director of russian analysis of the cia and before that was special advisor to vice president cheney who has many of you know was not suspected of particular ways as par as russia was concerned. and george published a very powerful piece several weeks ago where he was raising some questions about how reliable was our involvement in russian interference and not so much if the russian interference existed and what level it was trying to accomplish. most of our speakers will speak for ten minutes. >> thanks, dimitri and to the center for the invitation. i would like to keep my remarks brie

sanctions, russia is going to be isolated, russia has no internationalfuture. and yet trump's message is very different. well, i don't like it and i could say honestly that i am irritated by this, annoyed by this, but i don't feel betrayed, and i can tell you about moments when i feel betrayed — when putin's oligarch in the top of the british list of their most wealthy people, when government officials from russia buy an apartment costing £11 million in london, when they are freely travelling all over europe and all over the world despite you have a lot of regulations like, you know, you have a so—called bribery act in russia, in britain, and you can, without any problems, prosecute these people on your own laws for the money—laundering, for the bribery, but they are feeling completely free. i feel a bit betrayed but it doesn't have something with donald trump so far. isn't one of your big problems that vladimir putin has very successfully wrapped himself in the russian flag? he's used nationalism as a potent political force and he's done it in recent ye

/russia relationship. a senate foreign relations committee as rex tillerson has the first of his two-day confirmation hearing before that committee. wide-ranging talk of some hawkish talk about russia. tillerson saying the taking of crimea was, in fact, illegal, that any hacking would have been done with putin's knowledge, some indictment of the current form of american sanctions regarding iran, arguing that russia wants to re-establish its role in the global order. markets have been taking all this interest n stride, in fact, building on their gains. dow's up 82. we have a nasdaq record high. but in the next few moments, we are going to get the president-elect, donald trump, holding his first news conference since july, scheduled to begin any moment. we're getting some indications the president-elect will be on time. we'll be on alert to see if there's any market-moving information there. john harwood is live inside trump tower standing by on the phone. robert frank is outside. john, let's begin with you.

>> we will be urging increases on sanctions on russia. it is a threat to the fundamentals of democracy. >> with three weeks to go, what will the new president do on day one? incoming trump press secretary sean spicer is here. plus -- >> make america great again. >> new year's revolution. 2016 broke all the rules. our powerhouse round table looks ahead to 2017. and predictions from a pair of high powered insiders. >> when you look mr. speaker, at the trump presidency, what do you fear the most? >> from abc news, it's "this week." here now chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. >> good morning. and welcome to the new year. breaking overnight. a nightclub massacre in turkey. a gunman opened fire inside add crowded nightclub in istanbul killing at least 39 people. in this surveillance footage you can see gunfire. police are searching for the shooter. no claim of responsibility. turkey's president is calling it an act of terror. we'll talk to are the top democratic on the house intelligence committee on what we know about who is respon

to talk to russia about syria. and i think he will look at that as saying of course they were celebrating, they knew they could potentially deal with me for a safer world and they didn't want to deal with hillary clinton. i do think, though, that if i were going into that room with donald trump and i were an intelligence official, i would put on my political hat a little bit. and my political hat would be to say to him, as clapper did today, in the hearing, that it is not our job nor can we say that they had a huge influence on the election. but what we can say is that it was their intent because i think if you separate those issues for the president-elect, you'll potentially have a lot more impact with him. >> are the russians worried about more u.s. retalretaliatio u.s. cyber attack of its own? >> the russians obviously responded that they were above responding to the sanctions that president obama announced last week. of course, that was followed by that tweet from donald trump saying i always knew vladimir puti

with the situation in russia. they seem to think things were deteriorating and difficulties are coming, so it was not a terrible surprise when 1991 came on the trail. i stress as sam did the importance of what occurred than politicals in part apart from being technical. the dilemma itself we faced, and sam has described, is there were a great number of senators, many in my party, who said not a dime for the russians, not a dime. that is ridiculous even considering such a thing. this is a very strongly felt sentiment by many of their constituents. that sentiment did not go away altogether. after nunn-lugar passed, we had struggled in the first few years to get things going. we had an appropriation bill to face every year, every year to come up with the $500 million or thereabouts to be required. as i have stated, the two years, million, but$500 only about $50 million spent on implementation. it was very difficult. i mention this because this went on for 20 years. it was not a one-year situation. for all of the warh

russia and egypt. russia and iran. is tryingt how russia to go bit by bit, country by country, and trying to undermine our relationships. , ouralled to question credibility as a partner. trying tos russia undermine our set of relationships across europe and divide europe from the united states, i would say watch the middle east because we have seen signs in the last year or so of some very interesting visit and relationships unfolding that are either unprecedented, or we have not seen that type of engagement for many, many decades. oni would add to that julie's point, what that means trump's viewdent that perhaps america is too engaged in the world, in a drawback or quasi-isolationism represents an enormous threat to our future position in the world and our current position in the world, and in particular with respect to the middle east, we cannot allow that to happen in terms of our relationship with our middle eastern allies. and to go back to where we started, each one of those countries is equally vulnerable to cyb

you said that russia is not unpredictable. russia does not think like we do. can you further expand on both of those comments. >> [indiscernible] that will ruin the climate and destroy the future for our children and grandchildren. please don't put exxon in charge of the state department. protect our children and grandchildren. please don't put exxon in charge of the state department. if we can stop: the clock when these kinds of interferences take late, that would be appreciated. senator johnson? senator senator johnson: if you could expand your comments that russia does not think like we do. mr. tillerson: in my experience dealing with russia, and representative of russian entities, and the length of time that i have spent in russia as an observer, my experience with the russians are that they are very calculating. they are very strategic in their thinking. they develop a plan. >> you view the world's most vulnerable communities as expendable. in her home state of texas, people are resisting pipelines. whether or not you become secretary of state, people wil

what is russia doing meddling? i wonder if trump sees that shift. >> his party leaders and comr e comrades are hoping so. we saw lindsey graham speaking clearly. if the u.s. government does not respond to the russia involvement in the election, we could see maybe china or iran get involved in future elections and including hacking the republican party's e-mails. this is not just about clinton and trump. this is bigger. >> you used the right word. comrade. i saw you jump a little bit. >> tal, i want to play sound from the vice president on pbs. his thoughts and his ideas on what mr. trump should do. >> grow up, donald. grow up. time to being an adult. you're president. you got to do something. show us what you have. >> he was talking about the various tweets that president-elect donald trump has been sending out and clearly saying grow up. i take it this is not going to be welcome advice for the president-elect. >> i can't imagine given the long track record we have now with how trump has dealt with criticism that h

we need the us, we need russia. your message to donald trump then, donald trump — the man who says vladimir putin is very smart, and who also says that when it comes to analysing the syria situation, his objective and his overriding concern is smashing the jihadists in so—called islamic state. it doesn't seem to be in getting rid of assad whatsoever. so your message to trump? the message to trump is get the foreign fighters out of syria. shia militias, pro—iranian — they are iraqis, they are afghanis, they are iranians, they are not syrians, and on the other side, there are jihadis who are foreigners and we want them out of the country. this is what the international community needs to help the reasonable syrians in order to achieve the coming weeks and months. that's when we can have the ground for a political settlement. we don't have much time left, and i just want you now to reflect on the six years that have brought us here. you have been actively involved with the opposition throughout pretty much that

you said that russia is not unpredictable. it's another way of saying russia is not predicable. russia does not think like we do. can you further expand on both of those comments. mr. tillerson: in terms of their -- >> [indiscernible] burn.ant to drill and that will ruin the climate and destroy the future for our children and grandchildren. please don't put exxon in charge of the state department. protect our children and grandchildren. please don't put exxon in charge of the state department. chairman corker, if we can stop the clock when these kinds of interferences take place, that would be appreciated. senator johnson? senator johnson: the question was explained your comments that russia is predicable and russia does not think like we do. expand on that. mr. tillerson: in my experience of both dealing with russia and representatives of russian government and russian entities, and then as my -- the length of time i have spent in russia as a name server, my experience with russia and the russians are that they are very calculating. they are very strategic in their thinking. th

up first, russia did it. u.s. intelligence leaders say they are more convinced than ever that russia was behind the hacking during the 2016 election here in the united states. and that sets the stage for a clash with president-elect donald trump who has repeatedly raised doubts that russia was responsible. at a senate armed services committee hearing today, intel leaders again pointed the finger directly at moscow. >> director clapper, how would you describe your confidence in atributing these attacks to the russian government as opposed to someone in their basement? >> it's very high. >> you say you think this was approved at the highest level of government in russia, generally speaking. is that right? >> that's what we said. >> okay. who is the highest level of government? >> well, the highest is president putin. >> intelligence officials also were asked about what russia was trying to accomplish with the hacking. >> you stated that the report soon to be released will discuss the motive. would you care to give a

we need the us, we need russia. your message to donald trump then, donald trump the man who says vladimir putin is very smart and who also says that when it comes to analysing the serious situation, his objective and his overriding concern is smashing the jihadists in so—called islamic state. it doesn't seem to be in getting rid of assad whatsoever. so your message to trump? the message to trump is get the foreign fighters out of syria. shia militias, pro—iranian, they are iraqis, they are afghans, they are iranians, they are not syrians and on the other side, there are jihadis who are foreigners and we want them out of the country. this is what the international community needs to help the reasonable syrians in order to achieve the coming weeks and months. that's when we can have the ground for a political settlement. we don't have much time left and i just want you now to reflect on the six years that have brought us here. you have been actively involved with the opposition throughout that six—year period an

she's saying russia, russia, russia, but i don't -- maybe it was. i mean, it could be russia but it could also be china. it the could also be lots of other people. it could also be somebody signature on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay. you don't know who broke into dnc. >> now that president-elect trump has been formally briefed, has he been persuaded that russia did carry out a comprehensive cyber campaign against hillary clinton and what is he prepared to do about it? >> jake, if you read his entire statement that followed the briefing on friday he makes very clear that russia, china and others have attempted to attack different government institutions and businesses and individuals and organizations over a series of time. he specifically mention the the democratic national committee because that's why we're having this conversation can. i don't want any of your viewers to be misled into thinking how the kremlin and the republican party, that they had -- that the kremlin was dealing with any of the hackers and bringing that information back

even if a guy like tillerson has great history with russia and really does understand russia they think that obama was so weak that putin will respect a tougher line but one of the things that was revealed yesterday is that tillerson and trump haven't talked about russian policies. they don't know what they're going to do other than be tougher than obama and they think that's enough and presumably that putin hasn't thought this through. and he is always gaming this out. >> he was so careful to not give away things that would hurt him. why would he acknowledge on the stand in effect -- yeah, we haven't discussed this area at all. >> that was his way of saying i don't want to speak for what donald trump believes on russia. tillerson's whole problem in terms of confirmation is that if he is viewed as having donald trump's views on russia and putin he'll have a problem with confirmation. gregory makes a really good point in that trump and some of his team have talked about getting tougher with vladimir putin than president obama has been and yet everything we have seen from donald trump sin

this was russia's 9/11. russian historian yuri felshtinsky has written a book on the apartment bombings. >> we have to understand that the whole country is very nervous. the feeling is that every several days or, like, once a week, a building is going to be blown up. >> narrator: all of a sudden, a prime minister few russians had heard about was everywhere, swearing revenge. >> narrator: putin would point to rebels in chechnya, where a separatist movement was holding ground. >> the russian officials said that there was a chechen trail in the apartment bombings. not proof of chechen involvement; a chechen trail. it wasn't clear what that meant. but it was used in order to justify a new invasion of chechnya. (explosions) >> narrator: and putin's invasion would be brutal. (people crying) >> narrator: the man who waged it was a new national hero. >> he quickly became the most popular politician in russia, even though before the apartment bombings, he was believed to have had no chance to succeed yeltsin as presi

but this dramatic thing that happened in russia, it's dramatic for russia, it may also be important for what's going on in our country right now. and i am fully aware there's a lot going on in our country. there's a lot to see, a lot to follow, a lot to absorb, we just got this vague non-specific order of some kind from our new president saying he's going to build a wall between us and mexico. today that resulted in the mexican president cancelling his planned visit to washington then our new president tried to say the mexican president didn't cancel on him, it was a mutual agreement. then the white house announced the way they were going to pay for this wall was big tax on all mexican imports into this country. they announced that then within a couple hours they dropped that and walked that back and said no, no, of course we're not going to do that even though we just announced we're doing to do that. we were told we should expect an order from the president, maybe today, maybe tomorrow initiating some sort of federal review into his bananas absolutely unsupported contention that there

>> so i tweeted out that i have no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia, because we've stayed away. and i have no loans with russia. as a real estate developer i have very, very little debt. i have assets that are -- and now people have found out how big the company is, i have very low debt. but i have no loans with russia at all. and i thought that was important to put out. i certified that. so i have no deals. i have no loans. and i have no dealings. we could make deals in russia very easily if we wanted to. i just don't want to because i think that would be a conflict. so i have no loans, no dealings, and no current pending deals. now, i have to say one other thing. over the weekend, i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the middle east, hussein damack, a friend of mine, great guy. i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai, a number of deals. and i turned it down. i didn't have to turn it down, because as you know, i have a no-co

. >> we must also be clear-eyed about our relationship with russia. russia today poses a danger. our nato allies are right to be alarmed at a resurgent russia. >> reporter: so will there be a new relationship? >> i think the important conversation that we have to have with them is, does russia want to now and forever be an adversary of the united states? we're not likely to ever be friends. we need to move russia from being an adversary always to a partner at times. >> reporter: he says he believes russia was behind the campaign hacking, but wouldn't say whether he supports the obama administration's new sanctions. >> i ask based on your views, of russian politics and your experience, is it possible for something like this to involving the united states elections to have happened without vladimir putin knowing about it, and authorizing it? >> i think that's a fair assumption. >> that he would have? >> yes. >> reporter: but republican senator, marco rubio, pushed further, citing russia's role in the killing of thousands of civilians in aleppo, syria. >> is vladimir putin a war cri

i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia. because we have stayed away. and i have no loa ns we have stayed away. and i have no loans with russia. as a real estate developer, i have very little debt, i have very low debt. but i have no loa ns i have very low debt. but i have no loans with russia. at all. and i thought that was important to put out. i certified that. i have no deals. i have no loans. and i have no dealings. we could make deals in russia very easily if we wanted to. ijust don‘t russia very easily if we wanted to. i just don‘t want to, because think they that would be a conflict. i have no loans s, no dealings and no pending deals. i have to say over the weekend i was offered $2 billion to do the weekend i was offered $2 billion todoa the weekend i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai with a very, very, very... amazing man. a great developer. from the middle east. hussein demak. a friend of mine. i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai. a number of deals. and i turned it down. i didn‘t have,

we know that russia is already in georgia. russia is already in moldova. russia is in ukraine. and do they have their sights now for lithuania or latvia or hestonia or poe landed land -- r poland, where there's large russian-speaking populations? well, interesting were made, if russia doesn't use that resolve. russia a few years ago had very little influence in the middle east. now it has a growing influence in the middle east, not only in syria but in other countries in that region where you see russia's active engagement. so this is not theoretical. and russia's interests are different than our interests, make no mistake about that. they don't share our values. they're not our friends. they're trying to compromise our democratic institutions. we've seen that over and over again, not only on the attack on our election system here in the united states, not only the attack on the system in montenegro in the parliamentary elections and their concern now in western europe as they're entering into the election season, but we see it over and over again what russia has done in denyin

russia and turkey is driving the talks to take place not in geneva of vienna or paris, but in russia. it's extraordinary. even british diplomats will concede that vladimir putin went from zero influence in the middle east in 2015 to now being the major player with the military force and the political will to back it up. gulf states are saying we wish our ally was president putin. saudi arabia, the gulf states and also iran, the impact of russia putting its weight about and being successful. has that changed things? it's always been asked if russia and iran see eye to eye in syria, but they don't. they have a shared interest in seeing president assad, or at least his regime, remaining, but they have different strategic interests. russia wants its military base, iran wants to maintain its corridor to lebanon and hezbollah, it wants its access to forces. the question will be once president trump enters the mix. he seems to want to work with president putin, but he also wants to undermine iran's influence. if you're going to work in syria, it's hard to square that circle. how do you see p

charlie: russia did intervene militarily. and it looks like their intervention made a significant difference. does that hurt our standing in the world? susan: what i think would hurt our standing far more than russia deciding to commit itself militarily -- charlie: we didn't go in, russia went in -- susan: they are taking the losses, they are very the cost of what we think is a misguided policy to back side. what are our interests? is it in the united states interest to get caught in another hot war in the middle east? i don't think so. we got an hour. let me finish. in ourer thing that is interests is dealing with the terrorist threat that has arisen in iraq and syria. and doing so in an effective and sustainable way. we have been involved, we were involved militarily in syria. to try and defeat isil in a coalition with others, and iraq the same way, working with the iraqi government. we have rolled back the gains isil has made in iraq and syria. we've taken out many of the senior leaders. as we are seeing in mosul and we th

donald trump and his relationship to russia. that's the underlying story here. follow the money. i want to give you a quote from donald trump jr. in 2008. russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets. we see a lot of money pouring in from russia, 2008. we need to know where donald trump's investments, debts, who he owes in russia, what his trips have been. this is the underlying story that we need to pursue. >> you're insinuating some conflict of interest between -- >> no question, conflict of interest. but if it's fine and above board and transparent, let donald trump tell us what his investments and debts are, what he has done in terms of his relationship with russian oligarchs. >> by denying the hacking happened, going against the intelligence, how much is he e isolating himself? >> i think not just isolating himself, think there's real terror on the part of members of the congress, of the senate of the united states, about what some of the underlying facts are here. and that is -- has inadv

and what now for russia—us relations? well, i'm going to the kremlin to meet vladimir putin's spokesman, dmitry peskov. is he triumphant or cautious? dmitry peskov, welcome to hardtalk. do you care that a host of western intelligence agencies have accused your government of sophisticated, covert operations, dirty tricks, meddling in their internal politics, do you care? you mean cyber attacks? cyber attacks, not just that, but cyber attacks have been one very big part of it. let's talk about the united states first of all. yes. we have to be very precise in wording. you're speaking about secret services and special services of the major states. no. we're speaking about only the united states of america and some retired gentlemen who used to work in mi6 or mi5, i don't know exactly, from great britain. the rest of special services in european countries, they have never accused russia of interfering into somewhere, they have just started to feel uncomfortable, at the same front of allegations... that's not strictly true. wh

is russia really that dangerous? >> i think russia is dangerous, not a superpower. i know what the president is trying to say. i worked for him for five years, not just two. he doesn't want us to overreact. he doesn't want to go back to the cold war and some superpower competition, but my own view, and i think general mattis stated something similar today, russia is a challenge for the united states. it is a threat to some of our allies. and what means they have, they're prepared to use them. that's the big difference. take cyber capability. we have way more cyber capability than they do. we could intervene in their elections easily. we choose not to do so because we're a different country. that's what obama was trying to say. the means that mr. putin has, he's not afraid to use them. >> inskeep: i'm remembering the word "asymmetric," which we all had to learn about 9/11 when we heard about ais symmetric threats. al qaeda was not that large, not conventionally powerful, didn't control territory, but they found new ways to project power that were extraordinarily dang

trump still plans to rebuild relations with russia . president-elect trump: if putin likes donald trump, that is an asset. russia can help us fight isis, which, by the way, is number one tricky. since you are attacking us, can you give us a question? president-elect trump: go ahead. not to you. your organization is terrible. your organization is terrible. go ahead. client. -- quiet. don't be rude. >> can you give us a question? president-elect trump: i am not going to give you a question. you are fake news. reporter: this was to be about business empire. he is handing over control to his sons, not that he feels he has to. president-elect trump: i could run the company and the country. but, i do not want to do that. the president-elect has left trump tower. be the days time he will 45th president of the united states. this was a cumulative performance. doubts and questions will linger about his business practices, minds, associations that may or may not have existed in russia. he repeated pledges to build a wall on the border with mexico

against russia. then you have rex tillerson, secretary of state nominee who has ties as a president of exxon to russia and donald j. trump was elected because he was bold, he takes on everyone. but the person he never takes on is vladimir putin. >> i need time to respond to that. your quick response that the president-elect be more critical of john lewis than vladimir putin? >> i think for anyone to think that donald trump will be a puppet to putin is sadly mistaken. he's making it clear we don't want to have bad relations with russia, good relationship with russia is in america's best interest but at the same time, he will be tough if putin pushes back on us and i think there is a great point made by mattis this week. we can't have history be a straitjacket and the historic relations need to change and change the way we deal with them, remains to see how but we have a good cop/bad cop with some of the national security team and mattis and pompeo were clear and firm with russia and then in concert wi

i will stand up to russia. i will either keep in place or accelerate, strengthen the president obama sanctions, nothing. >> what's worse is the statement that the trump transition put out came out just a couple of minutes after the doors closed on that meeting with intelligence officials, and that statement did not acknowledge what the report says pretty strongly which is that russia and only russia was responsible for this. it said, as trump has been saying for months, it could be russia. it could have been china. it could have been someone else, and just the inability to acknowledge that one aspect of this, putting aside the impact of the election, putting aside a lot of these other more inflammatory issues but just the question was russia slowly responsible for them. the trump transition and trump himself is still unwilling to say that even after this report and that's really, really remarkable. >> because it's still about donald trump. it's not about the country. it's not about going forward, how these, a s

and with russia. look, we have some common interests that would be well served if we were able to improve our relationship with russia, most notably the battle to defeat radical islamic terrorism and to defeat isis at its source, but i think the president elect also made it clear this week, john, that while a better relationship with russia would be a good thing, that i think he is realistic about the possibility of that and i think when you see the cabinet that he assembled, general mattis and general coates and -- we are coming at this with realistic expectations. but the president elect is determined to reengage the world, put america first and see if we can make progress for the security and peace of the world. >> dickerson: let me ask you about that, because the picture that donald trump puts forward about his view of russia seems quite different than the gentleman you mentioned, incoming secretary of defense mattis and then also secretary of state tillerson, mr. tillerson russia pose as danger,

i have no business links with russia, no deals in russia, no deals that could happen in russia, because we have stayed away. i have no loans with russia. as a real estate developer i have very, very little debt, i have assets and people have now found out how big the company is, i have very low debt, i have no bones with russia at all. i thought that was imported to put out, i certify that. i have no deals, no loa ns certify that. i have no deals, no loans and no dealings. we could make deals in russia there are easily if we wa nted deals in russia there are easily if we wanted to, i don't want to because i feel it could be a conflict. the issue of his tax return came out again. >> reporter—macro: would you release your tax returns to prove what you say about no dealings in russia? they are under ordered. >> reporter—macro: at the —— every president since the 70s... the only ones who care are the reporters. i have won, i became president. i don't think they care at all. i think you care. joining us via a webcam from rochester, new york is writer and columnist david cayjohnston â

don't invade russia. don't try and provoke russia. russia is so vast that armies can be swallowed up in it. essentially, the thing to do is to try and contain russia. suggest to russia that we are serious about western defence, and we need to start thinking again... put brexit to one side. the much bigger european question is the integrity of the west and western security. and we have got out of the habit of having to think about this in the last 25 years or so, and it is now back front and centre. part of that is that at the end of the cold war, to put it in simple terms, the west won the cold war. nato won the cold war, and there was no big conference or congress of vienna, there was no versailles treaty. the russians have reasons to believe they were discounted because they were weak. that was perhaps, looking at it, a long—term mistake. it was, and one that people have not learned from in the past. i know that it is tedious when people hark back to nazi germany, but it is the same mistake people made with germany in world war i.

saying, while russia has every right to respond, he's going to wait to work to restore russia/u.s. relations based on trump's policies, not obama's. trump's response, great move on delay by putin. i always knew he was very smart. we are joined by sean spicer, the incoming white house communication director and press secretary in his first sunday show interview since being tapped for the job by president-elect donald trump. congratulations and thank you for being here. >> you bet. good morning. happy new year. >> the big news from president obama imposing those sanctions on russia, expelling those diplomats. does president-elect trump agree with the moves or will he reverse them? >> as he said he's going to sit down with with intelligence committee heads next week, get a full briefing. i think one of the questions we have is why the magnitude of this. when you look at 35 people being expelled, two sites being closed down, the question is is that response in proportion to the actions taken? maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. that's nothing we haven't seen in modern history. when we look

russia instead of the soviet union, the first president of russia was boris yeltsin, he served from 1991 to 1999 then famously on y 2k, on december 31, 1999, the last night of the year, last night of the century, last night of the millennium, surprise, boris yeltsin quit. dramatic surprise resignation that night as russia's first-ever president. but he was the first one and he quit and that's when this guy took over and this guy has been in power ever since. from 2000 to 2008 he served as president, russia's second president. legally in 2008 he had to step down from being president, didn't want to leave power, though, he became prime minister and kept acting like he was president. in 2008, somebody else nominally got to take over the president's job, even though putin kept his hands on power. but you know what? starting in 2008 when he no longer had the title, those four years obviously still running the country but not having people call him "president," that bothered him. he didn't like necessarily not being president of russia, even though he was still running the country. it was

and, we are going to look at russia but we'll look at russia because russia is a bad actor. they're a bad actor in iran and bad actor in syria, all the way back in 2003, they may have influenced turkey not letting our troops go in into iraq. i look forward to senate counterparts investigating russia's, if you will, meddling around the world. not just here and ukraine and georgia, so many places they are expanding their influence and even their territory. uma: on the subject of russia, talk for a moment about this week's confirmation hearings for rex tillerson for secretary of state. i know you support his nomination. at the moment three gop senators expressing concern over tillerson including senator marco rubio who clashed with tillerson on subject of vladmir putin. let's listen for a moment. >> is vladmir putin a war criminal? >> i would not use that term. those are very serious charges to make and i would want to have much more information before reaching a conclusion. >> it should not be hard to say that vladmir putin's military has conducted war crimes in aleppo because

with russia going

we definitely heard that on the issue of russia where he continues to not point blame at russia and to reserve judgment saying that the intelligence community's assessment may not be the end word on this and that is notable because the obama administration has taken such strong action and republicans in congress as well are very clear that they believe that the evidence is ther that russia was attempting to interact and influence andffect the election season, not the voting on the election day, but the environment in this election. so it is notable that donald trump says he still is not certain about that. we heard his reluctance to engage on computers as well. not sure that will be trump administration policy. but it give u.s you a sense of perspective on state of the electronic world we live in. >> kelly, very quickly, what can we expect as far as what donald trump will say about his talks with the president, current president? how are they handling the transition? >> reporter: well, what we know is that in interactions, a couple of times in the past week he has told reporters that h

in russia it's rosnaft, it's the state run oil company of russia. it's not run by a random ceo who worked his way up through the company. it's controlled by the kremlin, it's controlled by vladimir putin so he put his former deputy prime minister in charge of it. somebody he goes way back with. he and vladimir putin served in the kgb together. so, yeah, putin put him in charge of the state oil company. i mean, here in the united states we tend to think of oil companies differently. i mean, in part we think about our everyday lives like where we get our gas from. we think of the big oil companies as, like, shell and bp, chevron. but globally if you look global ly all of the biggest companies are government owned country. saudia ramco, petrobras, pemex. that comes in very handy for those companies. it's particularly handy for corruption -- i mean efficiency. i mean, think about it, you need policy decision made to clear the way for you to, i don't know, buy an asset somewhere or make some sort of deal? you don't have to bother lobbying for it. if you

he needs to take on russia as russia is, and that means that president-elect trump is going to have to look at all this information and make an independent decision, not one that i would give him and not one that john mccain would give him. >> speaking of john mccain, let's listen to what he just said. he is visiting ukraine, about russia. >> when you attack a country, it's an act of war. and so we have to make sure that there is a price to pay so that we can perhaps persuade the russians to stop this kind of attacks on our very fundamentals of democracy. >> he is also talking about the russian annexation of crimea, which he said was an act of war against ukraine. he is clearly convinced the russians did engage in the cyberattack against the united states. >> he is sitting in ukraine, a country that we promised to defend and then, when it came time to defend them, we didn't. there were cyberattacks that shut down their eyes and ears as so-called little green men came in, who were really russian soldiers. it's appropriate to be there talking about having to provide a tit for tat check o