trump is getting cold again as the two spar about their war planes over syria. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> we're following breaking news on an alleged terror plot targeting a tourist attraction over the holidays. the fbi says a former marine was planned to attack pier 39, claims of an isis connection and how feds say they prevented the attack. >>> white house officials say the president was convinced by hi aides not to hold a formal press conference, even though he wanted to tout his accompli accomplishmen accomplishments. the president held a low-key photo op in the oval office to sign the tax reform bill. >>> the investigation is reaching into the inner circle once again with his long time aide, rhona graff. as the russia probe plays out, there are new signs right now of tension between vladimir putin and the trump administration. the russian leader telling his defense officials that the new u.s. national security strategy is, quote, aggressive. >>> this hour, i'll talk with a congres

new ways in 2018 on multiple fronts, from syria to ukraine. meantime, russia is billing itself as a broker of peace, offering to act as mediator between the united states and north korea. russia's foreign minister says he spoke on the phone with secretary of state rex tillerson and encouraged the u.s. to take a first step toward a dialogue with kim jong-un's regime. but tonight, the russia administration is taking new steps to punish north korea. the trump administration, i should say, sanctioning two officials, linked to the country's ballistic missile program. we're covering all of that and more with our guests, including house foreign affairs committee, ed ad adriano and our correspondents all standing by. first, let's go to ryan nobles in florida. >> reporter: the president had no public events on his schedule today, so the only way we can really glean as to what he's thinking about or working on is through his twitter feed. if that's the case, we know the president is thinking about health care, he's thinking about taxes, and he's also continuing to find ways to discredit rober

attempt to be stabilize syria. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: well, you know, this is part of a pattern that we've been seeing from the russians over the past couple of days of being more aggressive towards the united states and america's presence there inside syria. the most recent thing that the russians are saying comes from the chief of staff from the russian military and he accuses the u.s. of training fighters at a small outpost where the u.s. does have a presence, where it is training some forces. it's right on the border between syria, iraq and jordan. and he says some of those people were members of isis. and the russians are saying that they have evidence, according to satellite pictures, that they have some other intelligence as well. didn't really offer any proof, at least publicly, about all of this. the u.s., for its part, is saying, yes, it is training fighters down there. they say the reason they're doing that after isis was ousted from many of these places, they don't want isis to return once again. brianna? >> thank you for clearing that up. frederik pleit

to mid-2014, now into 2017, 2018, isis is becoming an umbrella. i'm angry about iraq or syria or yemen or somalia or northern nigeria. now it's i'm angry about what's happening in palestine. the significance of isis used to be that they could recruit people to train in syria. now it's this idea about whatever motivates me to be angry, isis gives me validation to go out and kill people. i think that's the power of isis in the years to come, especially when people can get access to isis information on the internet. >> the suicide bomb was apparently pretty crude. what does that say to you? >> well, it tells me initially that he didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. sounds like he was an electrician. he ought to be able to wire a device that he probably didn't have individuals who were involved with him. but on the other side, wolf, this is concerns, because if you have a central organization that makes more sophisticated devices. an organization that trains people like this, you can at least target those people with intelligence, communications intelligence, for example. if

military operations. now the close proximity to the western troops. but also what they did in syria and backing the assad regime. russia has done -- what they've done in ukraine in occupying a country, an independent, sovereign country. you also have russian troops in moldova and georgia. this is of great concern, their belligerent international activities. >> we still have not seen president trump actually imposed the sanctions on russia, which were passed by wide margins in both the house and senate in august. he does have until january 29th to do so, but the administration missed a key deadline in october by almost a month. do you have a sense of when those sanctions are going to be implemented and do you have any concerns that all of this time could give russia and other countries a chance to find loopholes to get around? >> well, the president repeatedly says nice things about mr. putin. he's done things that our allies are very concerned about and our relationships with them as far as what he says about mr. putin and mr. putin's activities. we are concerned that he missed that fir

to find a solution to the syria crisis. that's interesting buzz then we later reached out to the kremlin. we got ahold for the spokesman for vladimir putin and he told us as far as the congressmen slin concerned, there are no relations between the u.s. and russia as far as trying to solve the syria crisis and no current efforts to try and come to terms with it. certainly it seems while you've heard the warm words between president trump and vladimir putin over the past couple of weeks, if you look at the policies of these two administrations, it really doesn't look at though much headway is being made. a lot of the language, splabl over the course of the -- especially over the course of the week becoming more confrontational. >> no doubt. thank you so much. and joining me now to talk more all about this is the ranking member of the house arms services committee, adam smith of washington. congressman, thanks for being with us. especially during this holiday week. we do appreciate it. >> no problem, thanks, brianna. >> so in this op-ed in the "new york times" today, secretary of st

jets over syria, firing multiple warning flares. we're covering all of that and much more at this hour with our guests including the top democrat on the house intelligence adam schiff. first, let's go to our cnn correspondent jeff sgrzeleny. what are you learning about this new phone call about trump and vladimir putin. >> reporter: we just learned that president trump and vladimir putin had a phone call earlier today talking about the threat of a north korea and other matters. this is coming on the same day as president putin held his annual end-of-the-year news conference. he called them espionage mania. he credited president trump for the stock market and other successes here so i'm told there will be a readout in more detail of that phone call coming up here in the coming hours. but all of this is coming on a day when the white house is trying to push for tax reform. the president also working behind the scenes on the phone urging republicans to not let their questions about this bill get in the way of a victory. >> one, two, three. >> reporter: president trump grabbed a pair of sc

, both in syria but also during our election process, and my guess is that putin would like to improve on that. we were helpful to them on a case that mattered to them. you know, i guess he did what, you know, most of us who do, which is reach out and thank somebody for that. look, i think you know that i've led the efforts to pass a russia sanctions bill. and i'm no friend of the things that russia has done to our country nor the involvements that they've had, unfortunately, in both ukraine and in syria, but i think it's okay when something good happens between countries for there being an expression of appreciation like that. >> you got the legislation on the russia sanctions because of their interference in the u.s. presidential election passed in the senate 98-2. that was back in august. as far as i know, the president didn't want it, he hated that legislation. he reluctantly signed it into law because he knew you would be able to override his veto. correct me if i'm wrong, mr. chairman, the administration hasn't started to implement those sanctions, have they? >> no, that's not tr

intervention into crimea, into eastern europe. we've had russian intervention into syria two years ago. we had russian -- a year and a half ago. a year ago we had russian intervention in the u.s. election. let's answer a simple question here. if you're vladimir putin, what is the penalty to being aggressive in europe and aggressive in american elections? i think the answer is the penalty is some modest american sanctions and in the case of crimea and the case of syria i think in both cases the response from the europeans and americans has been pretty basic, not very substantial. so i think stepping back if i'm vladimir putin i'm saying going into the 2018, 2020 electoral cycle why wouldn't i do the same thing again, brianna? i think the russians looking at the american response have got to say in context, if i want to disrupt the american electoral cycle, if i want to make america less stable than it was two, three, four years ago, why wouldn't i do the same thing again? the penalty's not that great. >> i want to ask you about north korea as well because you've heard our reporting and admi

talk about fighting isis. they talk about trying to work together to produce a stable syria. a resolution of the syrian civil war and a stable outcome in syria. but the president is also forthright in his statement and defense of american interests. i don't think i would use the word complaining, it's a matter of being bold and of standing up for his own country. as the president likes to say about this country, other countries, he says he's got to be for russia, he'll say that about other leaders, but i'm for america. he's forthrightly for america. >> as he should be. the document, and it's a lengthy document, also says, and i'm reading from the document says we must upgrade our diplomatic capabilities to compete in the current environment and embrace a competitive mooiindset. as you know, that seems to directly contradict the president and the secretary of state's action severely cutting the budget, loving key positions unfilled. how committed is president trump to the policies outlined in this document when it comes to the state department bolstering diplomacy? >> he's compl

about that. we have wars raging in syria, iraq, yemen and not even to mention the threat of terrorism. undoubtedly, this would introduce more instability at a very tense time. also from a timing perspective, we're all very much aware that the state department is under enormous pressure right now. we have personnel cuts, we have hiring freezes, we have budget cuts. and it's no secret that secretary tillerson's credibility is also under fire. now, typically the state department would lead negotiations with arab states if this kind of decision was being taken because they have experienced negotiators, they have years of experience working with countries in the region, and all of this pressure on the state department makes me think that they weren't in the load, that perhaps kushner was in fact leading this discussion. and i don't think that that forebodes a positive outcome if this is announced. >> but why would you need the state department when you have a 36-year-old unsuccessful real estate developer to do -- >> versus years of experience. >> yeah, to do your negotiating abo

. he's already told us in one way what he thinks. when he sent missiles into syria, one of his comments was, i'm par frizing, you know children are dying. children will die if americans don't provide vance with the europeans, the japanese and others to other countries divided by things like civil war and damaged by disease and poverty. are we not going to provide money to that child? i don't think that's going to happen, wolf, and i don't think the president thought through what he was saying. >> you know, ron, the president really meant that threat? say a country like jordan, a close friend of the united states, which getzes hundreds of millions of dollars or egypt. you think the president would really cut that kind of aid to coup t countries like egypt and jordan if they vote for this tomorrow? >> i think it's unlikely that he would go that far, but the direction ally what he said is s reflective of what he said of his view of the world. which is that essentially, the united states relations with other countries are transactional. what can you do for us as opposed to the u.s. playing