bogachev is believed to be in russia. we have no extradition agreement with russia, so it would be tough to get him back in the best of circumstances let alone the circumstances we're now in with our relationship with russia. so this is going to be difficult for either of these two individuals to be brought back to the u.s. to face charges that they've already been charged or indicted with, and obviously now they're implicated in a major hack involvement in the u.s. election. >> i think you're right. good luck getting them back if they are in russia. >>> time now for a quick check of the headlines at the half hour. recapping our top story, the obama administration imposing sanctions on russian officials and that country's intelligence services over its alleged interference in the u.s. election. the u.s. also moving to kick out 35 russian intelligence officers from this country, also shutting down two russian compounds, one in new york, one in maryland. russian president vladimir putin spokesman saying a short time ago mos

against russia. we have full coverage of this. nbc's ron allen at the white house, hans nichols at the pentagon. ron, let me start with you. i know this hasn't been announced yet, but lay out the nuts and bolts of what you think you'll see this afternoon. >> reporter: we think we'll hear sanctions. the question is, who will they be directed at? what exactly will they be? russia is already facing a number of sanctions because of its invasion of ukraine, crimea. the administration, president obama, has said that this hack and leak operation was directed, orchestrated by the most senior members of the russian government. he has all but named vladimir putin himself as being behind this, saying that not much happens in russia without vladimir putin being involved. the question is, will they try to sanction the russian president, his inner circle? will they even rereal exactly what they're doing? also, there's a big question about what proof they will provide without revealing how they discovered this information. revealing -- or compro

look, it is just the fact of doing deals with russia and doing business in russia. you have to know the upper echelons, the power brokers, the leadership in order to get anything done. you know, the ceo of exxon has been very accomplished in doing that. back in 2011, he did a deal with the kremlin, which is estimated to be worth half a trillion dollars. $500 billion, one of the biggest deals ever done. after that, putin, the russian president, personally pinned that medal on his chest. it is called the order of friendship, one of the highest civilian honors russia can give a civilian. so, yes, he really is seen as a friend of russia. he is perhaps the one american who has the closest relationship with the kremlin. >> that is absolutely fascinating. this is also all something that donald trump sees as an asset that could help him in donald trump's view as secretary of state. differing opinions. he'll go through, if he is the nominee, the senate confirmation process. we'll watch. matthew chance in moscow. thank you so much. >>> coming up, beside his ties with russia,

the relationship with russia. the relationship no question is in bad shape, there is nowhere to go but up in this relationship, but we have to do it on the basis of some fundamental principles, based on a unified approach between the united statesa nd unified approach between the united statesand its european allies. the foreign ministry in russia had recommended to vladimir putin that he also eject 35 american diplomats in response to the measures taken by the united states. the prime minister of russia dmitry medvedev, accused the outgoing administration of ending in anti—russian death throes. let's get more from our washington correspondent, laura bicker. i'm sure there hasn't been a response yet about this latest tweet from donald trump, how likely are they to say very much? we're waiting to hear if donald trump's team will say any more. it's certainly a huge contrast, 2a hours ago president 0bama was unveiling sanctions against russia, punishing russia, saying all americans should be alarmed by russia's act

the us must make sure russia pays the price. russia asks the un security council to consider a new resolution to endorse the ceasefire in syria that came into force last night. a post—mortem examination into the cause of george michael's death has proved "inconclusive" — further tests will now be carried out. drivers are told to take care in fog and freezing conditions, as a coach overturns on the mao in oxfordshire injuring seventeen people. good evening and welcome to bbc news. us president—elect donald trump has described president vladimir putin as "very smart" after russia said it would not yet be expelling any american diplomats in a row over cyber espionage. the obama administration has ordered 35 russian diplomats to leave, accusing moscow of interfering in the us presidential election by hacking into democratic party emails. the kremlin has denied any involvement and mr putin said he looked forward to rebuilding links with america when donald trump takes office next month. our moscow correspondent steve rozenberg

that he will coddle russia, ric reach out to russia and do everything he can to keep the united states from understanding what involvement russia had in our elections. it's shameful. >> to speculate that he will placate to russia when we have eight years. >> he already has. >> ladies, ladies, it's a heated conversation. thank you so much for sharing your time with us. >> thank you, boris. >> thank you, boris. >>> next, deadly 0 terror attacks. dozens are dead. details on what happened next. (vo) it's the holidays at verizon, and the best deals are on the best network. with no surprise overages, you can use your data worry free and even carry over the data you don't use. and right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only $40 per line. you'll even get the samsung galaxy s7, the pixel phone by google, or the motoz droid for only $10 per month. hurry, these offers end soon. get the best deals and the best network, only on verizon. asmy family tree,ing i discovered a woman named marianne gaspard... it was her french name. then she came to louisiana as a slave. i became curious where in afric

rebuilding russia. why would he want to destabilize the very people he needs technology, investment and nuclear security from? it makes no sense. >> sir, critics make the case that he is trying to weaken, perhaps, nato, to try to impose his will in, you know, the baltic area, in ukraine, in syria. you don't feel like that's part of his agenda, to try to perhaps enforce his will in these places and weaken anyone that might challenge him? >> all right. ukraine is a separate issue. if we leave that aside for a moment, why would russia, putin, want to take over the baltic countries, those little countries, estonia, latvia and lithuania? putin can barely pay pensions in russia. is he going to pay the pensions in those countries? this is preposterous. what putin does not want, and no russian president would want this, are nato military bases on russia's borders. keep in mind, please, because it's never reported here, that nato, having built up in the baltics, the countries you mentioned, can hit st. petersbu

by russia? >> well, i think it goes back to the report i read today, it was referencing the one from october and it says conjectures. >> i can read it to you. it said confident assessment of the u.s. intelligence community. >> i am telling you, the one i read said conjectures. it didn't have it underlined but i read it several times. i guess, if you look at some of our intelligence reports from the bush era, you know, about weapons of mass destruction, all these weapons that are moving around, we found out that not to be true. there is going to be consequences to the actions that this president is setting up. i think, if russia has done this and if it's conclusive -- 100% conclusive, i think there should be some form of -- i don't want to say retribution, but some form of action. but caution. i want to use extreme caution here because we could look at what president obama did with prime minister netanyahu, when he was funding money through the state department, $350,000 to voice one, that interf

and rex tillerson of his ties to russia and the possible interference by moscow. >> it could be russia -- i don't really think it is but who knows. >> the russians are not our friends. >> this is insane and in the same article. report was inconclusive. it is not as if their intimate friends, i think this is getting blown away out of proportions. >> when he gets his friendship from a buchter, it is an issue that needs to be examined. >> lets dive into this, kristen welker outside of trump tower and katy tur. lets start with this clear divide that we had between republicans on interference on this. why the president-elect trump is so against this u.s. intelligence. >> for one, this intelligence would under mind his credibility and his win and his fitness to be the president. that's why they are going so hard after this. they don't want anything questioning his legitimacy. they are trying to say politics and the media who have sour grapes and they don't like that donald trump won. they are going to make this a political thing to try to stop him from getting inaugurated. they are leaving o

ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. plus, early reaction to donald trump's apparent choice for secretary of state, rex tillerson. the chief executive of exxon mobile who has a particularly close relationship with putin. >> a great advantage is he knows many of the players and he knows them well. >> mike rowe will be here. >> i put our lives at risk. >> at what democrats can learn from donald trump on how to win over working class voters. joining me for insight and analysis are doris keargs goodwin, kimberly strasse whether and rick stengel. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. when "the washington post" story about russian involvement in our election was posted online friday night, it was nothing less than explosive. the cia counsincluded the run s interfered. further, in september, the white house wanted congressional leaders to sign off on a statement supporting efforts to support the integrity of the election. two r

that russia tipped the scales in his favor. you have international newspapers writing maybe we can't redo the election, but we've seen a steady stream of a different story every couple weeks. whether it's fake news. or russia was involved in the election, or fbi director comey is an operative who threw it for donald trump, that's why this is getting so much attention, it's not because we're going to get some security review. >> don, i think that's -- i >> are you saying this is a partisan -- >> i think that's a very unhair fair -- >> go ahead. >> i think that's a very unfair, myopic short lived, in some ways, insulting attitude about what is going on here. take a step back. i'm hillary, i was a hillary supporter, donald trump's going to be my president. i'm not interested in all these other fights. i'm actually interested in a -- as a national security expert and as an american citizen in what happened and why russia, and how they did this, this is relevant. look, the republican senators who know the most about this stuff, also

russia says it's a very destructive move. earlier in moscow, president putin declared a ceasefire deal in syria brokered by russia and turkey. it came into effect an hour ago. and the actress debbie reynolds has died at the age of 84, just a day after the death of her daughter carrie fisher. good evening. president obama has announced a series of measures against russia and said there was evidence of ‘malicious cyberactivity‘ in the recent us presidential election. he's authorised sanctions against anyone responsible for undermining the election process and he's also approved the expulsion of 35 russian diplomats from the us. three weeks before donald trump is sworn in as president, promising to rebuild relations with moscow, mr obama said ‘all americans should be alarmed by russia's actions‘. tonight russia said it would order ‘adequate reprisals‘ as our correspondent laura bicker reports. russia stands accused of trying to help donald trump become president. moscow had been warned but now it is being punished fo

julian assange has said they didn't get this from russia. >> so donald trump is going to believe russia and julian assange and not the fbi and cia? is that what you're saying? >> they have a history of being able to enter and not even leave a footprint. again, several different agencies have not all agreed on all of the facts that have been pointed out. >> no. 17 intelligence agencies in the united states have agreed that russia was tampering with the u.s. elections. the cia came out and said that -- >> not all of them agree on that. >> yes, they have. 17 agencies have agreed. yes, they have. i'm just asking, if that's true and why wouldn't donald trump want to get to the bottom -- if he thinks all of these people are lying, all of our intelligence services are wrong, shouldn't congress get to the bottom of that as well? >> sure. and i said, lindsey graham and john mccain are working on that and that's great. that's where their focus is and they have the committees to investigate that. if he gets sidetracked every time what should be the next issue, he's not going to be able to focus on

trump was involved with russia. i'm simply concerned russia was involved with our election when they shouldn't be. i'm not prepared to make accusations against another u.s. citizen without further evidence. the director of national intelligence can provide us whatever declassified facts he has and we can look at them and go from there. >> do you believe that russia tilted the election towards trump? >> well, i guess that's really the question, isn't it? we don't know. that's why i'm looking for a fact-based intelligence agency. when the report came out i was disappointed that mr. trump's first reaction was to defend russia instead of the cia and fact-based intelligence gathering like i would think any american president would. >> what would you say, mr. trump says this whole thing with russia has become politicized. it's just a push to delegitimize his election. what do you say to that? >> that's not my point. i'm interested in facts and whether or not a foreign government intruded on our elections, undermined our e

the cia and the fbi both believe that russia was behind it. nor does people in russia, but it. nor does people in russia, but it is believed that it was directed at the highest levels of russian government. president obama says he will release a report containing all the information over the next few days, but that is what has led up to this action. president obama warned vladimir putin in october that he would not accept any interference in us democracy and today in the last hour, he has announced his retaliation. he will expel 35 russian officials from washington and san francisco. we understand that those officials, who have been described as diplomats, may also work in the intelligence sphere. the state department has described them as persona non grata. they say they we re as persona non grata. they say they were acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic or consular status. in addition, they are closing two russian compounds, one in new york and one in maryland. these actions are not taken by president obama just because of what he described as malicious cyber

we talk about russia, russia's role in this was so important that it was russia that approached turkey, which is another country in the region that has interest in syria and together russia and turkey were able to establish a cease-fire and set up some kind of framework for a peace moving forward and we know there will be peace talks in a month or so, russia, turkey, iran and syria will be at the table and the kremlin offering specifically president-elect donald trump a seat at the table if donald trump wants it. completely bypassing president obama and that gives you an indication of obama's legacy in syria which, unfortunately, hasn't been all that positive. >> mohammad lila, thank you so much in istanbul. >>> next, two russian compounds on u.s. soil have been effectively shut down in the wake of the obama administration's sanctions against russia. are these buildings essentially spy headquarters in the u.s.? plus, 35 russians being expelled. we will discuss next. ah...still sick, huh? i'll take it from here. i'm good. i just took new mucinex clear and cool. ah! what's this sudden co

diplomats in russia. that's what it seems of the 35 expulsions declaring of the 35 diplomats here in the state from russia. and the back end of it, there is a little bit of a defense and there is a clear csigma phi epsil epsilon -- and helping u.s. cyber security firm protecting america institutions and individuals. it gives you a reminder of ronald reagan and a bear being in the woods. grizzlies' steps what i say they are calling it. >> i won't attempt to pronounce some of these men. what do we know about these four men? >> they are all associated with the g ru. we ha gru. all four of them are involved. o he's the one that we had the fbi poster from. he was involved allegedly in some cyber mouth phases, he was indicted in nebraska and that's where they brought tg case forward and allegations is up to 100 million loss property. he's been in the fbi's list for some time. the reward for him is $3 million. >> to be clear that picture, that's one of the gentlemen named. we did not have pictures of the other t

russia has attacked that process. we are told by the director of national intelligence and by the president. and it seems to me that is an attack on the very core institution of our country. it should have been responded to by obama at the time. no questions asked. and the fact that donald trump now the president-elect doesn't even want to get a briefing from the national director of intelligence admiral clapper on this who is one of the finest public servants i met in washington, d.c. the fact that he doesn't want to sit down and hear the facts and just dismisses them is can deeply disturbing. >> is there any blame here, well, i can't ask it that way. there is blame. how much blame is there to be put on the white house and on the political left for putting trump into a position where acknowledging the kremlin/putin role in these tasks is acknowledging hat they suethat the outcome of the election. no real proof this made a difference in the election. is the politics really overcoming the -- >> i can't answer that ques

says russia breached u.s. e-mail systems. >> reporter: moscow says the hacking allegations against russia are groundless. vladimir putin challenging america to prove them. u.s. officials tell cnn the hacks continue around the clock, fishing attempts targeting private e-mail candidates associated with hillary clinton's campaign as recently as december 6. this man specialized in cyber intelligence with the firm that investigated the russian hacks for the democratic party. he and other experts have new information on operations inside putin's hacking teams which they say are as talented as they come. >> when it comes to espiage they are close to the best in the world. probably right after our own here in the united states. >> reporter: crowd strike discovered that a russian hacking team called cozy bear first penetrated the dnc in the summer of 2015. crowd strike says that team, also known as the dukes or apt 29, for advanced persistent threat, is tied to russian intelligence. in march of this year, crowd strike

yes, even if the source is russia, right, and as you said. >> it is russia. >> all right. most likely that's true, right? >> it is true. >> all right. we take -- okay. so we take that at face value. here is the bottom line. >> thank you. >> that if i'm oa news producer or broadcast news producer or editor, is the information authentic? has it been dismissed by the parties that were injured? john podesta, the dnc? no, it has not. the bottom line is that you could not like the source or where it came from, but it was news worthy stuff. we had information in there that showed that the dnc was trying to destroy the campaign of bernie sanders. we had donna brazile when she was an employee of cnn sharing debate questions in advance. those are serious things that need to be reported on. >> look. it's the information that's embarrassing. fine, great. it's information that's embarrassing, right? >> you are missing a greater point. you are missing a greater point. >> a foreign power is trying to intervene in our election to elect somebody that favors policies that are favorable to t

/russia relations. we start with that breaking news tonight. president obama striking back against russia for interfering with the

the guardian has a story about russia and the usa. russia brokers syria ceasefire. the us is sidelined. 0n opposite sides in this conflict and syria that has been raging for six years but here they are managing to secure a ceasefire. it seems on the face of it incredibly positive. the guardian reports that there seems to be some further confusion over exactly who signed up and which rebel groups have signed up to this and hopefully that will become clearer in time. i think this is the third ceasefire this year when all the others have collapsed. we have hopes that this one won't. it is interesting. russia and turkey on the world stage, us nowhere to be seen in this negotiation. it is quite a strange picture. if this is a stain on the legacy of obama, how he has handled this civil war. he said that the red line would be if a side used chemical weapons on his own people and his deep. the line was crossed and his deep. the line was crossed and america did nothing, partly because the house of commons voted against joining because the house of commons voted againstjoinin

against russia over its atte m pts to measures against russia over its attempts to influence the 2016 election by hacking the democratic national convention. the american president said the activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the russian government. but moscow denies the allegations, saying the sanctions are both unlawful and that they will harm the restoration of ties between the us and russia. the obama called the us and russia. the obama called the tough measures and appropriate response to efforts to harm us interests. 35 russian diplomats will be expelled, or suspected of being intelligence operatives. with their families, they will have 72 hours to leave america. two russian compounds, the white house believes we re compounds, the white house believes were used for intelligence gathering in maryland and new york, will be closed. sanctions are also being levied against russia's two leading intelligence services, the gr eu and fsb. four top russian officers will be targeted for allegedly ordering the attacks. mr obama has said washington will also pro

could his fate be tied to russia and putin? >> he said he doesn't believe those intelligence findings on russian hacking but at what cost? >>> the 45th and future president has put off the announcement about his plans for the family business. "the 11th hour" begins now. >>> and good monday evening from our new york headquarters. tomorrow will put us just 38 days from inauguration day for the new 45th president who tonight said on twitter he will announce his pick for secretary of state tomorrow morning. nbc news then confirmed mitt romney got the call tonight, the call from donald trump telling him he would not be getting the job. he said, quote, it was an honor to be considered as secretary of state of our great country. and breaking just moments ago, two sources now telling nbc news that exxon mobil ceo will get the job of secretary of state. rex tillerson has ties around the world, especially russia, where tillerson once ran companies. he knows many people well, he knows putin well. the press has come in roaring with the new

you have to look next door, the groups fighting in syria that have a gripe with russia because of russia's staunch support for syria's president assad. so the question is who is going to claim responsibility, and who is behind this, and, again, after that, how is russia going to respond? >> muhammad i should tell you we have a statement now from the state department here in the united states. john kirby said on the record we have seen reports the russian ambassador andrei karlov attacked by agunman in ankara. our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. at this art gallery we got a picture speaking before he was shot. see

and russia right now that russia would be upset if you had an office in silicon valley? ashlee: you think of hackers sitting in a basement with their hoodies and their hats. these are the people who hunt them. this is russia's largest cybercrime event. ashlee: ilya started this in college with a few buddies. one of them is the company has had hacker hunter -- the companies had hacker hunter -- the company's head hacker hunter. ashlee: i visited the moscow office to find out more about how dimitri chases cyber criminals. community --acking is that the biggest cybercrime community in the world? ashlee: what's the art of that and the technique? ashlee: what does a russian hacker look like? who are these people? anlee: they know occupy uncomfortable position at the intersection of cold war geopolitics and organized crime, like the mafia from russia's unruly caucuses. ilya learned that one of the targets had ordered mobsters to kill him. ashlee: do you have bodyguards? ashlee: peace on cyber earth may come, but just in case, russia is building a series of startup cities to in

but russia had success here. whether or not they wanted trump to win, certainly causes ripples in the american election process and had success in other countries in western and eastern europe. it's view of u.s. intelligence officials this is going to continue. why wouldn't it? because from russia's perspective, it works. >> thanks jim. bring in the panl. van jones. monica langley. kailee mcenny and dpsh strt with a monica. new reporting on the view of the hacking story. you were at trump tower today. what are you hearing? >> my understanding is that some within the transition team advising him believe he is concerned about it. but late today i spoke to someone else said spending zero time worried about the russian hacking and all his time on choosing best cabinet possible and bringing back good paying american jobs. so they're saying look, whatever will happen with the russian hacking has happened. and that he's not focused on that. what he's focused on is getting the cabinet and jobs. and what he's ticked off a

from russia. that's in response to the new round of u.s. sanctions against russia announced late yesterday by the obama administration from moscow's alleged interference in the u.s. presidential election. >> we've been clear all along. there will be consequences. we will respond at a time and place of our choosing and that's what you're seeing done today. >> donald trump also weighing in this morning saying he will be meeting with intelligence officials about the matter next week. we've got the best team of reporters in the biusiness following all the angles with the late breaking details. we start with pentagon correspondent hans nichols. first, mr. putin saying no american diplomats will be expelled from russia. remember our conversation here on air yesterday afternoon where the predominant thinking was that we would, in fact, see the same number of diplomats expelled. what happened? >> reporter: chris, that's what american officials were expecting. this is standard tit for tat retaliation. one

sanctions against russia, which were levied against russia after it annexed crimea in 2014. so, that is significant. he has been outspoken and saying those sanctions were wrong and, of course, the question now is, would he try in some sense to repeal them? now, today we heard from the kremlin who had something to say about tillerson, which in and of itself is highly unusual. normally the kremlin would not comment on somebody, especially before this person had been officially announced. what the kremlin said was this, they praised tillerson and said he's very professional and then said, quote, as to whether or not he's friendly to russia, there's a huge difference between being a secretary of state and being a ceo of a big corporation. all sympathies must take a backseat. at the same time, the fact the kremlin wrote this statement and came out and voiced its opinion about tillerson is, i think, indicative of the fact that they are cautiously optimistic and, indeed, enthusiastic about the possibility of tillerson as secretary of state, primarily because they want to see those

guest: you know, i could not have told you a year ago that russia would play such a large role in our election and it is still surprising to me. some of it has to do with donald trump and his admiration for vladimir putin and for russia, you know, they have never met, the two leaders, but there is an affinity in terms of leadership style that trump has ordered putin. as for the russian role in the election, our intelligence agencies assessed that these hacks that took place were conducted by two russian intelligence agencies and i think it was very much an effort by the russians, not officially, of course, they have denied they were involved, but i do think that the russians were eager to discredit the american electoral process. this is what they believe the united states is doing to russia, by the way, and if you will remember and putin's last election the protest that surrounded them and he talked about hillary clinton then secretary of state ordering the protesters into the street for revolution and they believe we did that in the arab spring, we have done that in ukraine, in geor

/russia relations. some of that i agree with, but that doesn't mean that one has to look at russia as a benign actor. russia is a mall igyant actor in this case and has gone into the core of our democratic process which ought to be as core national interest as any of our other national interests. i think he's reading it wrong in this case. >> to that point, president obama spoke yesterday about how the u.s. may respond to russia. here's a part of that. >> there are times where the message will go -- will be directly received by the russians and not publicized. >> so what could the u.s. do to respond as president obama suggests? and can the u.s. target something before president obama actually leaves office? >> it's very frustrating. look, i have great respect for president obama. saying that we might, you know, punch the russians or show the russians what our muscle looks like covertly behind the scenes, that's not something that needs to be said. what needed to happen was that signaling to russia of ou

massive deals in russia. nick: the billionaire turned to the selection process into a high-stakes version of "celebrity apprentice." names like rudy giuliani and mitt romney were paraded before the cameras. in the end, he opted for a fellow dealmaker, even though tillerson would be the first secretary of state without government or military experience. there is no shortage of global problems. battling the group calling itself islamic state, the wider tensions in china and perhaps taiwan, the nuclear deal with iran, which donald trump wants to renegotiate. and then there is resetting relations with the longtime adversary. >> i have a close relationship with him. i don't agree with everything he is doing. nick: some senior republicans are asking if the relationship is too cozy, especially after he opposed sanctions on moscow. another choice, rick perry as energy secretary. the one time presidential candidate will take charge of a department he is out to abolish, and once famously forgot. mr. perry: the third ag

close ties to russia? >> this is getting more burdensome for rex tillerson. >> let's play some of what john mccain said about this. the chairman of the senate arms services committee. >> a matter of concern to me he has a close personal relationship with vladimir putin. they have done enormous deals together. that would color his approach to vladimir putin and the russian threat. that is a matter of concern. we will give him his chance. >> john mccain joins marco rubio with his concerns. if three republicans were to flip and all democrats stuck together, it would be enough to defeat the nomination. >> i'm glad you pulled up the mccain byte. on this issue of russia, don't forget, john. the republican party has a long anti-russian tradition. we had the cold war. that's been exacerbated by some of the more aggressive actions that have been coming out of the country lately. there is a wedge here you can drive between trump's views on the topics and those of so many establishment republicans. >> china's one pol

. >> personally, it could be russia. i don't really think it is, but who knows. i don't know either. they don't know and i don't know. >> cnn is covering all of the angles, working our sources in washington. in moscow, ryan is outside trump tower. as you heard us say earlier, one former cia director called these russian hacks on the u.s. system the political equivalent of 9/11. >> reporter: it's a comparison to not take lightly. despite concerns from the intelligence community and now a powerful group of republican senators, the president-elect remains uncon vinced that this alleged russian hack is a serious problem. tonight donald trump is ramping up a showdown over the alleged role russia may have played in the race for president. every major u.s. intelligence agency concluding that russia did in fact interfere with the election. >> i think it's ridiculous. i think it's just another excuse. i don't believe it. >> reporter: on sunday trump flatly told fox news that he does not believe the reports that the cia believes r

russia and turkey have sufficient influence on the parties in that conflict, so russia has troops on the ground, it is participating in air strikes and, most important, russia has huge influence on the syrian president bashar al—assad. turkey is supporting some rebel groups and has huge influence on them. they may try to put pressure on their allies in order to make this deal work. you mention to keep out the united states. it is striking the united states is nowhere in this agreement. yes, i think russia and turkey tried to use this moment to their favour, because obama's administration is leaving so there is a transition period. on the other hand, russia and turkey have some strong and good cards in their hands during those negotiations. it seemed they decided just to make a deal, despite some disagreements they had, and also both erdogan and putin are ambitious leaders and will want to resend the message they can make things work, even without the involvement of the us, and of course this is a worrying sign for the international community. when it comes to president putin and hi

did he say anything to you about russia, his plans for russia, rebooting relations with russia? >> no. i didn't even mention the name of putin to him. but i did talk about precedents. it dawned on me the precedents that donald trump talks about a lot, ronald reagan, who had famous diplomacy with mikhail gorbachev, john f. kennedy, who had the showdown with russia, but also was trying to do the famous nuclear test ban treaty with the soviet union in the early '60s and wanted to go to the moon with russia at one point. but he's somebody looking out of the box for a big breakthrough in the international arena, to change what in donald trump's mind is the gridlock. so i think he can go in any direction. nuclear arms increase or reductions in the coming years. >> doug, trump is coming into office as one of the most unpopular president-elects in recent history. let's look at the poll. his approval rating before taking office, 41%. compare that to obama, george w. bush, slightly higher. clinton and bush in the 60s. he has a short leash with voters, you might say, based on those numbers

to say we need better relations with russia makes better relations with russia the objective of foreign policy, right? the means to that are things like lifting sanctions recogn e recognizing crimea. i want to flip it around exactly. i want to say what are american national security interests and economic interests with respect to russia. and then the means for achieving them are relationships with putin. having a good relationship with russia is meaningless unless it advances our national interests. >> put this in perspective for me. i don't know if you heard me asking andrea mitchell earlier this morning, the challenge in these days and times, things are so polarized, people turn on the news, they don't know whether they're getting a filter, accurate information, balanced, fair, to the best of your ability, how should we react to this choice? also talk about the fact there has been so much buzz, you know, about president-elect trump and his connections with putin and some of his choices and whether they have connections, put this in perspective here whether people should be concerned.

sanctions on russia and says it's time to move on. dagen: happy new year in in for nicole petallides. russia plan to go retaliate, lawmakers including key republicans want to impose even stronger sanctions on the kremlin. lauren: let's see if we have can have a final trading lift and we have one. 20,000 still far away. nasdaq futures gaining 12. dagen: the shanghai composite up about a quarter of 1%. the kospi in south korea closed. lauren: biggest annual gain in 2009, 53.98 a barrel. dagen: 2.49%. a little bit of treasury buying. the reversal of the trump rally. lauren: dozens of garbage trucks as new york time square beef up security for the new year's eve celebration. dagen: in sports virginia tech staging an epic comeback in bowl last night. lauren: welcome to fbn:am, first look at morning markets, breaking news and what to expect for the day ahead. our last show of 2016,. dagen: happy new year. >> president-elect trump is responding to sanctions on russian officials and intelligent services for hacking the u.s. presidential campa

the sanctions russia placed on russia have hurt badly in tandem with lower oil prices. prices. russia needs oil at $8 $ -- ata barrel to make their economy to work. putin wants a big military buildup, but i can't afford it. if we lift sanctions as a gesture of goodwill toward vladimir putin, he will build up his military while continuing to use ours cynically. >> you are talking money and it's exactly right. that's what brought down the old soviet union. he needs the money to build his military. >> in the i am mortal words of cyndi lauper, money changes everything. tom: has president-elect trump publicly buried the hatchet with barack obama? >> we are getting along well except for a few statements. nobody is going to know because we won't be going against each other in that way. other in that way. tom: nice talk, but there is justice is spelled b-o-x.hero, say hello to a powerful tool that gives you options to fit your budget. ♪ oh, i'm tied to this chair! ♪ dun-dun-daaaa! i don't know that an insurance-themed comic book is what we're looking for. did i mention he can save

against russia. he got asked that question. this is how he answered. the best thing to watch for here, the guys who are hearing this in russian have to wait for the translation. there's a little bit of a delay. but as they get the translation and they hear what he's saying, watch for the thumbs up here. watch. >> well, okay, thank you. as to the sanctions questions i'll use the same approach my friend mr. sechin took and that's a question for the government. so if there's a u.s. government official that would like to respond, i'm happy to toss it to them. so let me move to technology. i think one of the most underappreciated aspects of the oil and natural gas business -- >> that's the guy from rosneft. that's putins a best friend. he waits for the translation to come through. oh, the u.s. government. good one, my friend. he's the guy that had sanctions personally levied against him by our government which exxon doesn't care about at all. way to go, buddy. steve coll, the man who wrote the definitive

but this is definitely going to hurt russia. the united states is going to expel 35 russian diplomats and close two russian compounds in new york and very close to washington, maryland, in response to a campaign of harassment against american diplomats in moscow and interference in the u.s. elections. we expected this decision to come today, and the diplomats have to leave the u.s. in 72 hours. that is the time that has been given to diplomats when something like that happens. it feels a little bit like the cold war, doesn't it? we will probably see a tit for tat. i expect russia to expel american diplomats as well. this is going to happen soon. i also expect some kind of action by the nsa but i do not think we will hear a lot about it in the news. i just read an obama statement that this is not going to be everything, these actions, meaning the russians are not the sum total of response to russia's aggressive activities. we will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing. we will maybe see more sa

we see that in russia's a aggression in ukraine and georgia. it's counterproductive role in the ongoing tragedy in syria, its attacks in cyberspace, it's violation of arms control treaties and other international agreements and above all its nuclear -- these actions are not what the world expects. rather each threatens to undermine global security aneroid the principal order that it's been so good not only to the united states but to russia and the rest of the world. let me be clear, the united states does not take a cold let alone hot war with russia. we do not seek an enemy. but make no mistake we will defend her allies in the positive future beef that affords all of us. we will will counter attempts to undermine our collective security. to do so the united states is following a strong imbalance strategy. we are addressing russia's action while pursuing in pursuing bilateral cooperation where u.s. and russian objectives can be aligned. this strategy for deterrence doesn't simply recycle the playbook used to deter syria during the cold war bec

punishing russia for election hacking. white house announcing punitive measures against four individuals and five entities and expelling dozens of diplomats. this is drawing condemnation from the russian government and president-elect. donald trump again downplaying the election hack, but he has a new twist. here is the latest statement. it is time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. nevertheless in the interest of our country and great people, i will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of the administration. the top aide is calling it toothless and limiting the options. here is kellyanne conway on cnn. >> these retaliations and sanctions put forward by president obama and his administration, some seem largely symbolsymbolic. some are saying that part of the reason obama did this today was to quote box in president-elect donald trump. that would be very unfortunate if that were the political motivating factor here. we can't help but think that is

our problem is russia. he speaks for russia. when he says, ukraine matters to us and we will not let it slide away, that is not putin, that is putin, the security sector and all of russia. when he says, crimea is ours, we may view that is com pletely is ours, we may view that is completely illegal and unacceptable, but all of russia said, great, it is ours. let's go back to the harassment of diplomats. is there a particular moment you remember thinking, i wish they would stop this? was there something that triggered a bit of anger in new? lots really. i went out to a sunday afternoon bridge party, it was relaxed and friendly, i came out when i got into the car, and there they are, trailing you, standing outside the house, shouting slogans, and it wears you down. one of them sat beside me on a plane and i was stuck with him for two ours. did he shout or not? ! i emptied cat food down ——i shout or not? ! i emptied cat food down —— i went to buy cat food and they followed me and these bewildering supermarket assistants we r

another argument for why russia wouldn't have hacked. >> russia had nothing to do with it. >> for what purpose? >> to get back at hillary clinton. >> no. no. no. c'mon. >> to cause turmoil in america. >> we hadn't any real possibilities to think about trump like a winner. >> now that donald trump is the president-elect there's a surprising sense of caution coming out of the kremlin. there may be a case of be careful what you wish for because here in russia as in the united states and around the world, a president trump is very much a wild card. martha. >> that's true terry but it almost seems like the russians are trying to wait out the obama has promised to retaliate against that hack. aren't they concerned? >> you know you don't get the sense that the russians are very worried about president obama. there's a sense here that he is a pie in the sky ideal list. somebody said he has too many beautiful ideas in his head. they saw him pull back in syria and they didn't get a strong response according to u.s. intelligence agencies from their initial probes into the dnc. they aren't that wo

a business relationship with russia. three years ago, he was awarded the order of friendship, one of the highest honors russia gives to foreign citizens. that's if trump decides to go through with picking him. we have this drama and will he or will he not be picked. news of another boimt. busy day here. >> as usual. donald trump is at trump hour and it's always a busy time. the president of goldman sachs has been picked as director of national economic policy for the trump administration. this is the third person connected with goldman sachs who has been named by president-elect trump. he is a pick for nominee and along with steve bannon who has been connected with goldman sachs. in terms of rex tillerson. they are just talking about what kellyanne conway it is that it's being blown out of proportion. it's not just democrats who have concern about that position. top name republicans are also concerned including john mccain, lindsay graham who expressed strong concern about the ties that he might have with putin. in addit

they're very confident that it was russia. they know how to see when it's russia. we've talked to people who were involved in the investigation. i don't think we need to muddy those waters absent new information. secondly, you're right. it wasn't about what they did to the election machines and the actual polling places, but part of the reason people think that goes back to the trump campaign because they were advancing theories about the concern of that and about sorros and his ownership of the machines. that was coming from trump's team and the surrogates around him who were spreading that bs in the days leading up to the election. so, they have to own that, too. those chickens are coming home to roost. >> but the irony is the clinton team and moveon.org and this guy clayton or whoever is behind this americans united group or whatever it's called that hired the hollywood actors to try to sway the electors and all the n intimidation that is going on. they are the ones now not accepting the results of the election and putting democracy in a spin. to use their own w

why is he offering these excuses for russia? >> i'm not sure he's offering them for russia. i think what he's recognizing and you and i have talked about this before, i haven't seen the digital footprint that ties this to russia but what we do know is that it could possibly have been china. it could have been iran. the other thing i think that is frustrating to him is what came out in the last number of months is that the cia and the intelligence community was cooking the data that was coming out of middle east and was downplaying the success of isis and i think one of the things that also needs to be investigated here, wolf, if they're going to look at what russia did, they ought to take a look at the plittization of intelligence. we need to make sure that that's not happening because that's very dangerous to our national security. we need intelligence providing us with data and information and staying out of the politics. >> what i hear you saying and you're a former chairman of the house intelligence committee, congressman, is that you think that career intelligence offic

yes, we had a russia reset with george w. bush and, again, that hot mic moment with president obama, but we saw that that is not working and that they're antagonizing our elections right now. this is very serious meddling in our elections, very serious stuff that deserves an appropriate response. and what we've seen here, the president on his way out the door, he's finally doing something. he had, you know, months and years to do something, and he hasn't done any deterrence on cybersecurity. so, yeah, i think that he's taking his chance, it's certainly his right to do it on the way out the door but, again, too little too late here. leland: as we listen to the trump talking points on the other side, pivot towards the dnc, pivot towards the democrats, pivot towards the point you just made about president obama. but at the same time, up until the statement we got late last night, the president-elect has basically flatly rejected anything in terms of the russians being involved, and now he's saying, well, i'll take a briefing on