Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20161213

Of of oops. The lead starts right now. Its official. The exxonmobil ceo with ties to putin is now Donald Trumps pick to be americas top diplomat. Could the Republicanled Senate end up saying nyet . President elect trump vowing Businessman Donald Trump will go into a hibernation for the next four years. Could we still see a crossover episode of the apprentice and the west wing. Breaking news. Ceasefire in syria to stop whats being called a complete melt down of humanity in aleppo. Syrian forces knocking down doors and slaughtering men, women and children. Will the innocents now have a way out . And is this a ceasefire or a surrender . Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Ending weeks of speculation over his secretary of state pick and kicking off weeks of more speculation about whether his pick will pass a Senate Confirmation hearing, president elect donald trump finally made his choice. Exxonmobil ceo Rex Tillerson, a successful businessman with significant experience doing deals with foreign entities. As when he negotiated a multibillion dollar deal with rosneft to drill in three key russian regions. The signing ceremony was attended by Vladimir Putin himself. U. S. Led sanctions against russia for invading and annexing crimea hurt exxonmobils bottom line so tillerson opposed the sanctions. Governor rick perry knows something about oil himself. He also made the Trump Administration cut. He will Senate Confirmation hearing coming up. Will run the department of energy. An agency that perry once vowed to eliminate. In the infamous oops clip, energy was the one governor that perry forgot. Cnn correspondent Phil Mattingly is live outside trump tower. Phil, one assumes that the president elect saw the comments from republican senators expressing concern about tillersons ties to putin. He must know this could be a tough confirmation battle. Reporter in talking to trump advisers, they know theyll have a fight on their hand. They believe if they make the case and they will they can smooth the way to eventual confirmation. This underscores something the president elect has said throughout. Hell pick who he wants to pick and hes willing to defend them, no matter their history. Today president elect trump sticking to his pledge to pick unorthodox, businessminded cabinet secretaries. Even if it sets up a bipartisan confirmation confrontation for his choice to be top diplomat. We just couldnt be more grateful that someone of Rex Tillersons proven leadership and accomplishments has been willing to step forward to serve our nation. Reporter Rex Tillerson, ceo of oil giant exxonmobil, now tapped to be trumps secretary of state. A man with no government experience, but decades of dealmaking and International Business ties. Those ties include extensive relations with russia. And most notably, Vladimir Putin, ties trump and his team see as a net positive. Whether well see with tillerson is someone who is a abou Business Leader on the world stage. He has said no to Vladimir Putin. Reporter allegations from russia was involved in meddling in the election to trumps advantage. An allegation the trump team rejects. Senators quickly firing out statements raising concerns and raising the possibility that tillersons nomination could be an uphill climb. Marco rubio saying, quote, i have serious concerns about the nomination. Tillerson, however, getting an immediate boost from former cabinet secretaries and gop Foreign Policy standardbearers, Condoleezza Rice and robert gates, both did work for tillersons firm and, behind the scenes, sources tell cnn both recommended and endorsed tillerson to trump. Rice calling him an excellent choice and gates touting his vast knowledge, experience and success in dealing with foreign leaders. This coming as sources tell cnn trump will select rick perry as his energy secretary. The former longserving governor of oilrich texas. It elevates a man who once proposed eliminating the department altogether. In trying to lay out this specifically had this epic oops moment. The third one i cant sorry. Oops. Reporter trump, also delaying his own announcement about his plans to separate himself from his business empire. Aides saying trumps focus has been on personnel and cabinet choices and that the final plan simply wasnt ready. Trump, still able to find time to meet with someone decidedly not in contention for a cabinet post today. Hiphop star kanye west. I just wanted to take a picture right now. Reporter jake, we have it on pretty Good Authority Kathryn Steinle kanye west is not in the running for a cabinet position. Rick perry is. At one point he called Donald Trumps candidacy a cancer on conservatism. Now he is in the fold. Weve seen this repeatedly over the last couple of weeks. Despite the bombastic statements and twitter attacks, there is a very real effort inside trump tower behind me to try and unify the party as the president elect prepares to become the president. Jake. Phil mattingly outside trump tower. Thank you so much. Next year tillerson could face a bruising confirmation process. First, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets to consider him. He needs a majority of those support to move forward. If senator marco rubio votes no, tillerson could be rejected. Or republicans could do maneuvering and get the tillerson recommendation to the full senate bypassing the committee. If they all vote no he needs all there but two to vote yes. At least four republicans have expressed concerns about the pick, which would theoretically sink his nomination unless some vulnerable democrats in energyrich states decide to back tillerson. Manu raju joins me now. The Trump Campaign will have to get organized to get this nominee through. No question about it, jake. Especially since democrats by and large are signaling theyll oppose this nomination, particularly the senator Democratic Senators on the Foreign Relations committee. That means that there is virtually no margin for error, particularly if you start to see significant defections within republican ranks. One good piece of news for the Trump Campaign, for those republican senators who have expressed concern is that theyre not saying theyll oppose the pick. They are willing to listen to what mr. Tillersons views are especially on the issue of russia. His views on russia. Whether or not he opposes or supports sanctions on russia and what his relationship really is like with Vladimir Putin. All the senators and sources that i have talked to, they say that they want to hear more about that before making up their minds, which means, jake, this is going to be a rather thorough and potentially bruising confirmation process. Manu, several highprofile conservatives praised the pick. Rice, baker, dick cheney. Does that matter . It does have an impact, i think. Trump critic. Arizona senator jeff flake, who sits on the Foreign Relations committee, he said that carries considerable weight in his view. He thought it was a very good sign. Potentially, if you can win over a jeff flake, potentially you can win others in the more skeptical position and push him through. So those are very significant statements that republicans are taking seriously, jake. All right, manu raju. Thank you so much. The Trump Transition Team has attempted to downplay the relationship between its nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and the president of russia. Noted Kellyanne Conway, quote, its not like hes pounding down vodka with Vladimir Putin. Fact check true. They did not drink vodka together. It was champagne. As we see them here celebrating an oil deal with a champagne toast. That was tillerson as ceo of an oil company representing stockholders, not the american people. Weve not heard from tillerson about how hed approach russia as secretary of state. That hasnt dampened the enthusiasm coming from moscow. Matthew chance joins me now from moscow. The russian government expressed support for tillerson even before he had been officially chosen. Reporter thats right. I dont think his senator confirmation hearing will be as quick to endorse Rex Tillerson as the russian government has been. Youre right. When his name was floated days ago as a potential choice for secretary of state russian officials then whether lavishing praise on Rex Tillerson. The head of the International Affairs Committee Said it was a sensation that Rex Tillerson had been nominated for secretary of state and that it showed the seriousness of donald trump to do a deal with russia, perhaps. The kremlin has made remarks saying that Rex Tillerson is a respectable and professional a person, about as high praise that you get from the kremlin these days. The foreign minister. Sergey lavrov who would be his counterpart here in russia. Lavished praised on the oil man from texas saying him along with trump are pragmatic people and they are not opponents to the development of relations between the two countries. So a resounding thumbs up all around from russian officials when it comes to this nomination of Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. All right, Matthew Chance in moscow. Thank you so much. He was on the trump short list for secretary of state. Now Senate Foreign relations chairman bob corker of tennessee is launches his own investigation into russias hacking. Hell join us next. Stay with us. [burke] at farmers, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a rodent ridealong. [dad] alright, buddy, dont forget anything [kid] i wont, dad. [captain rod] happy Tuesday Morning captain rod here. Its pretty hairy out on the interstate. Traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. Getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. December 14th, 2015. And we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum vo its 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 dont use. And right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only 40 per line. Youll 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. they tell me im wrong to want to stand alongside my, my love whoa, talkin bout my love to want to stand alongside my, my love imy moderate to severeng crohns disease. I didnt think there was anything else to talk about. But then i realized there was. So, i finally broke the silence with my doctor about what i was experiencing. He said humira is for people like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. In clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. If youre still just managing your symptoms, talk with your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Welcome back to the lead. Staying in politics now. A handful of republican senators expressing concern about Donald Trumps secretary of state pick, exxonmobil ceo Rex Tillerson. Because of his long relationship with russian officials. And a handful of republican nay votes are all it would take to sink his chances. Chairman of the senator Foreign Relations committee senator bob corker of tennessee joins me now. Senator corker was also under consideration to be trumps secretary of state. Thank you for joining us, senator. Marco rubio, your colleague, tweeted this before tillersons nomination, quote, being a friend of vladimir is not an attribute i am hoping for from a secretary of state. He has since gone on post nomination to say that he has serious concerns about tillersons moral clarity. About his potential conflicts of interest. Do you share those concerns . I have no reason to have concerns one way or another. Senator rubio called me over the weekend, and when he was hearing that this might be a possibility and shared those. But look, i dont know how any of us necessarily would have any knowledge about what his views are. So were going to have hearings. Look, as you look at somebody like him who is the ceo of exxon, a major Global Enterprise with 70,000 employees. The state department, by the way, has 75,000. This is somebody who comes to the job certainly with a working knowledge of the world. He has dealt with many of these leaders. And so just from the standpoint of vast experience, he has got it. I think president elect trump has done a great job going through this. I was honored to be on the short, short list relative to this, but look, i think he has chosen someone who has got an incredible background for this kind of thing. But what hearings are about, and what confirmation hearings do, is they give you the opportunity to understand those things. And obviously there has been some flirting, if you will, with russia thats been a little different than what were used to. I think folks are a little shaken by that, plus the hacking allegations. So, you know, obviously Rex Tillerson will come to these hearings with that knowledge, and i am sure will i hope will do everything he can to allay any fears that people have. Lets talk about one of the policies where you and senator rubio disagree with Rex Tillerson. You are a strong proponent of sanctions against russia for their seizing of land that is not theirs in ukraine, for crimea, et cetera. Right. Tillerson has been out there saying that he opposes the sanctions. Now, maybe he was saying that as ceo because it hurt exxonmobils bottom line to have those sanctions in place. If he says, well, i was just doing opposing it, using my power as ceo because it hurt my organization, my company financially, regardless of the humanitarian reasons you were in favor of sanctions, is that a good enough excuse . Well, look, i think people perform the roles theyre in in the best way that they can. He was a ceo of a company that had shareholders around the world. We actually had some conversations during that time, and look, i think hell express his views when he comes in relative to what they are as secretary of state. Look, i had lots of calls during that time from global ceos about our sanctions. I do believe that sanctions should be in place on russia relative to what theyre continuing to do in eastern ukraine, what they did in crimea, and i hope that, as a country, were going to hold together with european communities, who have also had some shakiness relative to future sanctions on russia. Look, this will be one of those things that comes up, and i think to prejudge before we have an opportunity to explore it is probably not appropriate. But well see. Well see when he comes forth. I know he knows these issues are going to be front and center. My guess is he is spending time looking at those. Youre planning to have the Foreign Relations committee conduct a review over these russian hacks. What do you think about president elect Donald Trumps response to what the Intelligence Community has said, which is definitively they feel confident that russia was behind the hacks, although the question about what russia was trying to do remains a subject for debate within the Intelligence Community, some say they were trying to sway the election for donald trump. Others say they were just trying to undermine confidence in the american electoral system. When president elect trump comes out and just says that he doesnt believe any of it, does that concern you at all . Well, i can only look, i have my own role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We each have our own roles. I have a lot of respect for the Intelligence Community. There are times when there is disagreement. And apparently between the office of director of National Intelligence and the cia there is a disagreement here. The fbi goes about things in a different a little bit different way. And so there has been some confusion. But i think anytime we have a country that is attempting to discredit our democracy, its an important issue for us to pursue. That inures to his benefit, what hes tried to achieve. How deep it goes and whether they actually tried to tilt it towards a candidate or not is hard for me to discern at present. What i do know is that with our great ranking members and members of the committee, well go through this process in january, like other committees are going to be doing, and well get to the bottom of it. Thats our job, and well do this in earnest. And we certainly dont want another country inappropriately potentially interfering in an election in this way. Senator bob corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Call it the art of the nondeal. Donald trump now says hell have his sons eric and don jr. Run his companies and he will not do any new deals when he is president. Does that really avoid the potential conflicts of interest out there. As humanity melts down in aleppo a ceasefire agreement is reached. Will it stop innocent women and children from being executed . woman one year ago today mom started searching for her words. And my brother ray and i started searching for answers. vo when its time to navigate inhome care, follow that bright star. Because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. And brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with moms changing needs. woman because dad made us promise wed keep mom at home. vo call 8444brightstar for your free home Care Planning guide. Were back with our latest installment of conflict of interest watch. Instead of clearing up the fog, donald trump is drawing even more questions about how he will separate himself from his Global Business empire when he takes office. He is now postponing a press conference on the matter until january, which means that the earliest that would happen, 19 days before mr. Trump becomes president. Lets bring in cnn money correspondent cristina alesci. He is raising many eye brows over all of this, but also about this deal he says he just turned down. Take a listen to this. I turned down seven deals with one big player, great player, last week, because i thought it could be perceived as a conflict of interest. Do we know anything more about this huge deal that he says he turned down . In good Donald Trump Style we do not. What we do know is that he is still taking callings about business deals, which seems odd in the middle of a transition. And it also is a distraction and a way to avoid answering the question about what hes going to do with his current conflicts let alone getting into new ones. So last night trump tweeted that his Adult Children eric and don jr. Will make no new deals while he is president. What does that mean in terms of potential conflicts of interest, and is that possible, to operate without any new deals . Thats an excellent question because this leaves trump in a position where he is going to have to explain what a deal is. What happens when his children have to renegotiate the terms of lets say a lease with a Foreign Government thats renting out of one of their buildings . What is a new deal, jake . At the end of the day, ivanka is in the middle or at the tail end of negotiating a deal to license her clothing line in japan by a company thats owned by partially owned by the state. Is that a new deal . How about the deal to start a hotel brand thats marked towards millennials . Is that a new deal . We dont know. Again, this is another example of donald trump trying to answer the question but only raising more questions at the end of the day. All right, cristina alesci. Thank you so much. We wondered if mr. Trump would take questions on this topic on december 15th when he said he would explain how hed wall off his global empire from the white house. That date has been put off. President elect trump has not held a press conference in 139 days, the day he told russia to hack Hillary Clintons email servers. He said he was saying so jokingly. No modern president has ever gone this long without taking questions from reporters in such a setting after winning a white house. Bringing in Maggie Haberman and phillip baum, political reporter for the washington post. Thank you both for being here. Maggie, do you think its possible that president elect trump, president trump, will never do a press conference . Newt gingrich has suggested that thats what he thinks should happen. I think any assumption that what we know of in the white house will continue is erroneous. Certain traditions will hold i suspect. There will be some form of a daily briefing. Certain titles. Communications director, press secretary. I think its possible that youll see the president , once he is president , just tweet out his thoughts or give oneoff interviews and make his thoughts known that way. His press conferences used to be very contentious. He would shoot down questions or tell people to sit down when he didnt like them. He is very good at controlling the information flow right now but it is disturbing in terms of access to a free press. Because there are questions to ask. Sure. Phillip, one of the things i think that president elect trump doesnt necessarily quite understand is that this whole conflict of interest thing, this actually, if he actually did the responsible thing that the wall street journal and others, conservative media and suggested he need to do, liquidate his assets, put it in a blind trust, it would help him with his presidency. I dont think he thinks that, though. Pretty clearly. This is a guy who is still making the transition, i think, mentally into being a politician. He prides himself on not being a politician. Once youre president elect of the United States its hard not to consider yourself a politician. Fundamentally he is very good, too, at being reactive in the moment to whatever it is he wants to deal with but not good at thinking longer term. He doesnt want to have a press conference in part because a lot of questions are floating at this moment that he probably doesnt want to deal with beyond sending out a tweet or two. Im not sure he gets that where hell be four years from now assuming he serves his full term is a different place than he is in right now and it has significant implications for his business. Something that is a discrepancy for the president elect and his party has to deal with russia. The Intelligence Community saying they have a pretty high degree of confidence that russia was behind the hacking. Listen to Kellyanne Conway talking on this issue last night. It smells like politics, plain and simple. We in the Trump Presidency do not want Foreign Governments interfering in our elections. Thats very clear. We also dont want we dont want intelligence interfering in our politics, but we certainly dont want what we have now, which is politics interfering in our intelligence. Its a Bipartisan Group of senators who are calling for an investigation. Mitch mcconnell, the Senate Republican majority leader, you just heard bob corker saying the Foreign Relations committee will be conducting a review. They take this very seriously. They think its real. It is basically seen as questionable for most republicans and democrats in congress as to why you would say object to an investigation into whether a foreign power was trying some espionage role in an american election. There are two issues. Whether it was russia and what the goal was. Both of the questions can be solved with an investigation. It will be interesting to see if trumps posture on this changes once he is sworn in. Well see. The other thing about this issue, there is a third conclusion, which is did it make a difference. And that is almost you cant really even measure that. I mean, thats just somebodys opinion w opinion. Who knows. It seems to me mr. Trump may be concerned about that, as if that makes it illegitimate. You hear very few democratic politicians actually talking about whether or not it made a difference. Much less the inauguration on january 20th, i think he wants to get past the electoral vote before he starts to worry about the role russia played. 80,000 votes in three states, wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigan. Thats why donald trump will be the next president of the United States. A lot of things could have swung those votes. Any particular thing released by wikileaks or an ad that Hillary Clinton didnt run. All sorts of things could be blamed for that, including this if People Choose to do so. I think thats why the Trump Campaign or Transition Team consistently has tried to argue they have a bigger mandate than they actually have. You could say, sure, maybe russia had some sort of impact, but Hillary Clinton didnt go to wisconsin after the conventions. I mean, there are any number of things that could have made a difference. The times has a big story on this up right now and makes the point that there are several factors that went into this loss. Its pretty hard to isolate and measure any single one. Well never know what the impact is. It doesnt have to be whether there was an impact in the election to be concerned about the fact that this could have happened at all. The Clinton Campaign also has not really, as you noted, talked about this as a major cause, at least not in recent weeks. Theyve focused very much on the letter from james comey about the email server in the final ten days of the election. And theyve been laserfocused on that. There are, as you say, a number of other reasons, a lot of them going back to 2013 when she gave paid speeches at goldman sachs. Add this up. No staff in michigan or wisconsin to enough degree. Not having a focused enough economic message. There are a lot of reasons. Although john podesta, the Clinton Campaign chairman is behind the move to get an intelligence briefing to electors before they vote on making donald trump the 45th president of the United States. That seems odd. What is going on there . Maggie may be able to speak to it better than i can. It seems to me that this is an issue where there is a question about the extent to which a foreign power played a role in an american election. I think that john podesta is someone who would want to have had that sussed out to some extent. Though there is a political trickiness to it that you raise, which i dont think does the clinton team any good, and especially in this moment we there is a lot of attention being paid to what trump is doing. Theyre adversaries. They want to record i think that this was an extraordinary event in the history of this countrys elections and it was to have espionage conducted at this level. John podesta is as high as you can go without Hillary Clinton or barack obama saying it. That would be very risky. Because there is not a lot of chance of it succeeding, that it will overthrow the election and have the electors go against donald trump. I think the tricky thing, too, in the podesta statement that they put out in calling for the declassification of the information is the media not covering this enough. I dont think there was anyone who didnt know about the hacks or the allegations that it was russia. There was a lot of coverage. The morning of convention starting, state of the union. Robby mook, the Campaign Manager for Hillary Clinton, on state of the union, saying it was russia. From then on, all russia all the time. Maggie and phil, thank you so much. The first book from cnn politics, unprecedented, available in stores now. Women and children buried alive or executed. Will it end with the new ceasefire agreement. That story next. Or you could push that button. Sfx rocket launching. Cockpit sounds. Skip the bank, skip the paperwork, and go completely online. Securely share your financial info and confidently get an accurate mortgage solution in minutes. Lift the burden of getting a home loan with Rocket Mortgage by quicken loans. whisper rocket Channel Islands national park. Coronado. Saguaro. Youll see theres one thats an eagle. My number one goal is getting more funds out to parks because some animals and plants are only found in one place in the world, and thats in some national parks. I find thats a great cause, and i want to support it. avo the subaru share the love event has donated over four Million Dollars to help the national parks. Get a new subaru, and well donate two hundred and fifty dollars more. Put a little love in your heart. Wont replace the full value of your totaled new car. The guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong insurance company. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, you wont have to worry about replacing your car because youll get the full value back including depreciation. And if you have more than one Liberty Mutual policy, you qualify for a multipolicy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. We have breaking news for you in our world lead now. A ceasefire in syria to try and stop whats being called a complete meltdown of humanity. Sources telling cnn that rebel fighters have reached an agreement with russia to evacuate civilians and military factions from the besieged and battered city of aleppo. This comes amoid reports amid forces executed 82 innocent civilians, including women and children in the streets and in their homes yesterday. Moments ago i spoke with a man from the Syrian Rescue Group the White Helmets about the carnage hes witnessed in the last 24 hours. This area where all the civilians who were living in the neighborhoods, which were taken by assad forces. Many people were killed and dead bodies on the floor. We couldnt save them because of close to the front lines. They would shoot immediately if they see us. Frederik pleitgen was in syria days ago. He is now in beirut, lebanon. With this agreement, have the rebels effectively surrendered . Theyve certainly surrendered the territory. It looks like theyll loose their last foothold once the agreement is put into place and once the rebel factions and the civilians are evacuated. There will be buses that will take them either to the north of aleppo or to the west of aleppo to areas held by rebel factions there. This is not a fullon surrender. They are not surrendering themselves to the Syrian Governments. Theyll still be free in the rebelheld areas, but certainly this is a major point, a major Pivotal Point in syrias civil war. For the first time in a very long time the Syrian Government will have full control of the most important syrian city in the north of the country, one of the most important syrian cities at all. And certainly, by far, the biggest prize so far in syrias civil war. It was absolutely key to the rebels, is absolutely key to the Syrian Government. And that certainly is something that was also reflected in a lot of the fighting that i have seen there over the past couple of days. Some of the heavy weapons. You could feel that the Syrian Government and the allied forces including the russians were making every effort to win that place back as fast as possible and, of course, leaving a lot of destruction there as well. It was really a huge amount of fire power that was unleashed on that place. Especially over the past couple of days, jake. And fred, at this point is there any sign that kicivilians are being given the safe passage that they need . Well, you know, whats been going on over the past couple of days is that tens of thousands of civilians have already gone out. The vast majority were able to get out. There was fighting still going on. They had to cross a battle line. It was very dangerous, but the vast majority did get out. And we saw a lot of elderly people, we saw children, and we also saw some people who seemed to be in the ages between 30 and 50 who are, of course, the men who would be most at risk. There are those stories coming out of those executions that apparently have taken place. The u. N. Says that the reports that they got came from people who have been credible in the past. The people who told them that the executions took place have been credible in the past. So there is grave concern on the part of the u. N. Of course, also on the part of the u. S. , as to what all these proassad forces are doing there in eastern aleppo. We also have to keep in mind that these are not just Syrian Government troops. These are also hezbollah militias. Iraqi shia militias. Syrian palestinian militias. Some very difficult to control. Certainly thats one of the reasons why the u. S. Says that right now its on the Syrian Government and its on the russians to make sure that no atrocities are committed there, jake. Fred, we have been focusing on aleppo when it comes to the syrian civil war. Obviously this is not only going on in aleppo. If aleppo falls, is that the end of the civil war . Has assad essentially won . You know what, he has taken a big step towards not winning but certainly making clear that the tide is very much going in his direction. It certainly wont end syrias civil war. There will other factions still involved. Whole territories very much under the control of the government. Look around damascus, the countryside, huge territories are still held by rebels. North of homs in central syria. There is no way to easily drive from damascus to aleppo without taking huge detours. You also have isis in places like raqqa, now making advances in pau palmyra. It wont end the civil war by far. But the rebels. The ones who wanted to get rid of assad, hes taken a huge step forward by taking back aleppo. Frederik pleitgen, appreciate it. As the battle for aleppo continues to rage on, the u. S. Led campaign to squeeze isis out of syria is intensifying. The pentagon says three isis leaders with ties to terror plots in europe, including the deadly paris attacks, have been killed in a u. S. Drone strike in raqqa. Cnns Barbara Starr is at the pentagon for us. What can you tell us about how this went down . This is very interesting. A u. S. Military drone firing a he hell fire missile to a vehicle traveling on a road. Three men inside, the three isis operatives that the pentagon says today they said that they killed on sunday. These three were all involved in plotting and facilitating attacks outside of syria and iraq, against western targets. In fact, two of them are said to have been involved in facilitating those deadly at a tacks in paris in november, 2015, involved in facilitating the financing. Another one of the terrorists involved in recruiting foreign operatives. These are people the u. S. Wanted to get. Very interesting the pentagon is acknowledging they struck three men in one car. What is tells us is u. S. Drones overhead are watching raqqa, the declared capital of isis, around the clock to see when and where they can take these strikes. Jake. This would also seem to suggest something about improved intelligence on isis in syria. While were on the subject is the u. S. Closer to tracking down the isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi. Theyre not saying publicly because he is prize number one. What youre talking about, the very much intelligence structure thats now in place. Drones over head, watching. Intercepting communications, talking to people on the ground. All this is public knowledge. We are not disclosing anything. This is basically how the u. S. Military Intelligence Community operates in trying to go after these isis targets. They are unpacking all of this communications, relationship inside of isis, taking people out one by one and hoping to, in fact, get to baghdadi as they make progress against these targets. Barbara starr at the pentagon for us. Thank you so much. Consumer warning now. This item is in kitchens everywhere and now 8 million of these popular Kitchen Gadgets are being recalled because they might cut your mouth. That warning ahead. You wont want to miss it. Then, donald trump says you cant catch a hacker unless you catch the hacker in the act. Is that true . Investigators and how they find cyber fingerprints. vo its 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 dont use. And right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only 40 per line. Youll 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. My budget used toespecially downer. Around the holidays. But thanks to fingerhut. Com, we can shop over 700,000 items from brands like samsung, kitchenaid and lego. All with low monthly payments. Marie knows that a any occasion feel more special. So she makes her pie crust from scratch. And sprinkles on brown sugar streusel. So that you can spend more time making special moments. With your family. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. Welcome back. Just in to cnn, in ohio, republican Governor John Kasich has vetoed what would have been the countrys strictest timebased abortion law, the socalled heart beat bill. If governor kasich signed the bill it would have banned abortions from the moment a heart beat of a fetus could be detected. Around six weeks into a pregnancy. He signed into law a second bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy. The new regulations make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion after 20 weeks unless the procedure is necessary to save the mothers life. More in our politics lead now. Whether russians hacked the dnc in Hillary Clintons Campaign Chair with damaging emails released via wikileaks to bolster donald trump, undermine Hillary Clinton, or sow seeds of doubt about the american electoral system. All that remains a motive or a matter of debate. Regardless of a motive the Intelligence Committee is now saying theyre confident moscow did meddle in the u. S. Elections. How do top security and intelligence analysts come to that conclusion . How do they conduct a cyber autopsy . Before the election when Russian Hackers were first suspected of interfering with the u. S. Elections, candidate donald trump was not convinced. I mean, it could be russia. Also could be somebody sitting on their weigh that weighs 400 pounds, okay . Now that the u. S. Intelligence Community Says its confident Russian Hackers are likely behind the Cyber Security breaches, with some debate within the community over whether the hackers were trying to help trump, the president elect is weighing in again. Quote, unless you catch hackers in the act, he tweeted monday, its very hard to determine who is doing the hacking. Well, one thing about that. We actually did catch him in the act. We watched the adversaries for a number of days and weeks. Security experts say its possible to catch the cyber criminals after the act as well. Most of the time when we respond to an engagement we have a number of elements we can find ranging from ip addresses to user names, the actual tools that the individuals used while theyre breaking into the systems. Hackers often leave behind digital bread crumbs, everything from complex crews to circumstantial evidence. Something as easy as the hours they worked. When we see attackers inside the network, does it happen at certain times of the day that you could line up with shift work in china or russia or the United States. Do the people take holidays . The calling cards, recognizable evidence left behind by known criminals. The code that they use to build their malware samples. We are able to see the same code in other breaches. We always look for them to slip up and use something we may be able to attribute to a handle, a real persona, a real name. Social media account. Sure, it may be easier to nab a hacker mouse in hand but pouncing right away may prevent investigators from getting the information they need to build a case. It may take months and years to build up the evidence needed but its the work we do. Coming up, being called the medical moonshoot, will the law president obama just signed help millions of americans fighting deadly diseases . Stay with us. E. I didnt think there was anything else to talk about. But then i realized there was. So, i finally broke the silence with my doctor about what i was experiencing. He said humira is for people like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. In clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. If youre still just managing your symptoms, talk with your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Welcome back. A potentially dangerous dinner in our money lead. Cuisinart says its recalling 8 million Food Processors because pieces of the blade in the machine can break off and wind up in your food. The Consumer Products Safety Commission sayings its fielded 69 reports from people who have found pieces of the sharp blades in their previously processed food. The recalls covers 22 models of the Food Processors that were made in china and sold anytime between 1996 and last year. Todays health lead. A new tool to battle the epidemic that the cdc says killed more than 33,000 Americans Last year. Now 1 billion will be made available to address the nations Opioid Crisis over the next two years. And thats not the only medical issue getting some major funding. Moments ago with Vice President joe biden by his side president obama signed the 21st century cures act which makes 6. 3 billion available to tackle some of the Biggest Health challenges of our time including the socalled moonshot that could be a giant leap in the fight to cure cancer. Lets bring in cnn chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. This legislation covers a lot of ground and is a big deal for the medical community. No doubt. I mean, this has been something that people have been talking about for quite some time. Frankly, werent sure if it would actually happen, jake. You mentioned one of the big ones, the cancer moonshot. Accelerating therapies, making therapies more widely available. Detecting cancers earlier, making the diagnoses. Thats a lot of what the moonshot is about. They used the word cure once in the entire report. I read the report. The notion of making the cancers more of a chronic disease is a lot of what its about. There is also money in there for the Brain Initiative. There is money for whats known as precision medsoicine. The money for fda drug approval. They want to make the drug approval process go faster. As you mentioned in the beginning, opioids. We cover a lot of that. Drug overdose, number one cause of unintentional death in america today. They want to start addressing that problem. A billion dollars set aside for that. You say the word cure is only in there once. Does it mean this is being sold as a way to cure cancer but thats maybe not the most realistic outcome of this all . People, especially the scientists, will be reluctant to use the word cure. Its sort of the touchdown, the home run that certainly everybody wants, but its not to diminish what is i think incremental progress along the way. Think about someone like jimmy carter, jake, who has metastatic melanoma to his brain. And yet by all accounts is doing well on a new sort of therapy. Is his cancer cured . No. Is it gone . No. Youd see it if you got imaging, but he is not being affected by it. Its more of a disease that he is basically able to successfully battle. So theyre just careful with that. I think cure is still i think what the aspiration is but its not to diminish all the steps in between. Are there any of these diseases that are close to a cure that this funding could really help . One of the big areas is around the Brain Initiative and specifically with alzheimers disease. Youve got about 5 Million People in the United States with alzheimers. Those numbers expected to quadruple over the next 25 years or so. Close is a relative term, jake. I think you have a lot more insight into whats actually causing alzheimers and Surprising New therapies may come about as a result. Thank you so much. The first book from cnn politics, unprecedented, the election that changed everything available in stores now. Follow me on twitter jaketapper or cnn the lead. I turn it over to wolf blitzer in the situation room. Happening now, oil and water. Donald trumps pick of the exxonmobil ceo for secretary of state doesnt mix well with some republicans. Key gop senators are voicing concerns about Rex Tillersons ties to russian president Vladimir Putin. Will he face an uphill battle for confirmation . Nuclear science. Trump taps former Texas Governor and dancing with the stars alumnus rick perry for energy secretary, putting him in charge of a department perry once said he wanted to abolish. With no atomic background is he ready to ensure the integrity and the safety of the Nations Nuclear weapo