Wall, paul. And the threats. Hes been terrific. Now if he ever goes against me, i wont say that, okay . When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. In 37 days donald trump will become president of these United States. We have breaking news tonight. Two Senior Intelligence officials tell nbc news that russian president Vladimir Putin was involved in efforts to disrupt the u. S. President ial election. That conclusion is based on intelligence from diplomatic sources and others including spies working for americas allies. That comes on top of growing consensus in the Intelligence Community in the u. S. That russia was behind multiple large scale attacks on Democratic Institutions and operatives producing fodder for countless embarrassing and politically damaging stories at the height of the president ial election. The in the just had amazing reporting on the alleged scope of the russia Cyber Attacks which targeted the Democratic NationalCommittee Chairman podesta and also a dozen house candidates. Regardless of whether russia meant to help elect trump is still among dispute among different agency, his government
succeeded in influencing the outcome of the u. S. Election. President obama has ordered a fuel review of the role in the election. Theres now bipartisan support in the senate for some type of investigation. Joining me National Security reporter ken delany. And i guess my First Response to this story was how could they possibly know this . So it seems, you know, explosive to say that putin was personally supervising this, but this is two Intelligence Officials off the record. Theres some sort of grain of salt i always attach t anything, you know, anonymous from the Intelligence Community. How could they possibly know this . Thats certainly a fair question, chris. Thanks for having me, by the way. The short answer is we dont exactly know. But we know or were told that they are reviewing this information with high confidence. And were told its coming from
liaisons, from other intelligence sources, people presumably with access to putin or the russian regime. Thats all we know. So part of the story here is theres a forensic story about who did this and then theres a kind of whole chain, right, who did it, what was their connection to the russian state, how much were they how closely were they directed, there were some beginning theories that maybe this was just a Rogue Element or a bunch of people that got out over their skis and before you know it theyre inside the dnc. This is all sort of a settling this chain is the work that the intelligence apparatus is doing right now. Exactly. And were sort of looking through an opaque glass trying to figure out through bits and pieces of reporting what exactly they know. And what you describe as the forensic case, which a private firm initially made is that, hey, the malware and the hacks that were seeing into the Democratic National committee can be traced back to these russian entities. That doesnt tell us anything about who was in the russian
fairly general, but were told that he was involved in directing how to use the leaked material, which is fairly specific. That is fascinating. Ken dilanian. Im joined by ed mcmullen, a former cia operations officer. Theres a crazy subtext thats happening here in terms of the Intelligence Agencies and the cia. Donald trumps people seem to think that hes antidonald trump and they have it out for him. What do you say to their people who say that . Well, obviously, theres a natural conflict there. People at the cia understand what a threat Vladimir Putin are to Global Security and to the United States, to our security, to the integrity of our democratic system. And so theyre opposed to what donald trump is trying to impose upon our country, which is a relationship with the very country that is undermining our democracy. I have to say with regard to whether putin would have directed this or not, of course he knew about it and of course
its a big, big deal in the kremlin and theyre celebrating right now. Are you part of the problem, right, is ascertaining the confidence that all these links in the chain are there, right . And again, this is youre shaking your head. You just think its so obvious. Its just so look, i understand i come from this world so i understand how these things work and those of us in the Intelligence Community just know these things because weve seen them play out in other situations. We know that russia does this in europe all the time. This is not a new strategy or a new playbook. This is what russia does to undermine democracies in europe. Now theyre doing it in the United States. Its the russianbacked trolls, its the hacks, its the support for the white nationalist, white supremacist movement. Its finding a country in a
democratic country like ours that is sympathetic to the russian or the putin way of his authoritarianism and his White Nationalism and all of this and promoting them through these other means. I mean, its mr. Playbook. And they did it here in the United States, its clear. If this is the case, if this is what happened, what does this mean . It means that it means that, you know, our fragile democracy and it is fragile and we need to fight hard to keep it. Our founders knew that would be the case. I think were a little Asleep At The Wheel these days or have been as americans. It means that we as americans need to stand up and demand that our elected leaders in congress, and we must do the same, hold our system accountable, our elected representatives accountable and oppose Donald Trumps planned alignment with russia. Theres a reason why we have opposed russia on the global stage. Its not arbitrary. Russia is an adversary, the liberty, freedom and basic rights across the globe and here in the United States. And we have stood up to them with our partners, with our allies, our free allies in europe and its important that we continue to do that for the cause of liberty here and abroad. Do you think that the president of the United States should Say Something on the record about all this . Well, he has said some things and i think certainly at a time when he judges it to be the right time, he should. We need leadership in the country especially on this issue. I imagine that hes dealing with a lot of very sensitive considerations, very classified considerations that its hard for you and i sitting here to make a judgment about what he should say or shouldnt say. Certainly, we need leadership. Certainly the American People need information. Ill say that i think our electors they deserve to be
briefed on what they can be briefed on with regard to what russian has done in the election and in related ways since then. So they need all the information they can get so that they can perform their constitutional duties. Let me ask you this. You know, theres a statement, this sort of extraordinary statement. I dont think ive ever seen anything like it in the time ive been coveri politics. After the reporting had broken that basically late friday night that the cia had come to this conclusion that this was done and not just done to kind of create mischief but explicitly for this electoral outcome to beat Hillary Clinton and the President Elect put out a statement that says these are the people that got iraq wrong and i had this youre grimacing even at that statement. I mea you work for the cia. What is that relationship like now . The President Elect has called war on them, called them out. What is that going to be like . Its going to be a very troubled relationship. But the American People end up being the losers. Im not sure if donald trump had the information that the cia would give him or wants to give him, if that would make him make wise decisions. Im not sure it would. So i dont know. Maybe its a wash. But look, ill tell you, americans need to understand this. The cia gives advice to senior policymakers. The president , of course, included chief among them. And does a variety of assessments every day all day long. Hundreds of them. Thats the reality. And they deal in an uncertain world, the world we live in. And thats why we have them. We have them to connect the dots. Sometimes theyre not right. Most of the time they are. Because theyre very theyre very conscientious and conservative in the assessments they make most of the time. Now, people talk about mistakes that are made and times they were wrong, those are the times when things become well known, but assessments that they make every day tend to be correct. For a president to say i dont
want any of that, is just reckless and just plain stupid. Evan mcmullin. Much more ahead on this and other stuff. Knew today we also got big news from the man who will be running the security apparatus. Retired general Michael Flynn generosity is its own form of power. Get your mind out of the gutter. Mornings are for coffee and contemplation. That was a really profound observation. You got a mean case of the detox blues. Dont start a war you know youre going to lose. Finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. On xfinity x1. Who donald trump has named as his National Security adviser. Thats not a position that requires Senate Confirmation unless Trump Rescinds the offer flynn will be his National Security whisperer in the white house. Todays news puts what flynn said on the campai trail and in the Republican National convention in a different light. When he called on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race because she, quote, put our nations security at extremely high risk. Lock her up. Lock her up. [ Crowd Chanting lock her up. ] you guys are good. Damn right. Exactly right. Theres nothing wrong with that. [ Crowd Chanting lock her up ] and you know why . You know why were saying that . Were saying that because if i, a guy who knows this business, if i did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, i would be in jail today. This was, of course, the trump campaigns main attack on clinton, particularly in the campaigns final days, this idea that she belonged in jail because she used private email servers as Secretary Of State potentially compromising Classified Information and putting National Security at risk. Didnt matter. The fbi investigated the matter, concluded no charges should be filed. Trump threatened to jail her if elected. And those lock her up chants became a staple of the politics. The Washington Post reporting that Michael Flynn who again
helped lead those locker up chants was the subject of a secret u. S. Military information in 2010 that determined that flynn inappropriately shared Classified Information with Foreign Military officers in afghanistan. Flynn was not disciplined because investigators concluded he didnt act knowingly and ultimately didnt damage National Security. But of course, the fbi came to a not dissimilar determination about Hillary Clinton. And flynn, knowing what he knew, still called for her to be thrown in jail. We reached out today to the House Oversight and government reform chair Jason Chaffetz to see if he would investigate flynn for risking Classified Information as vigorously as he did clinton. We did not hear back. This is not the first red flag for flynn that has stated his views. He tweeted about clintons involvement in sex Crimes Involving children. Jeanne shaheen and richard
blumenthal have requested an official review of flynns Security Clearance citing todays report in a separate incident in which he disclosed information to pakistan and that he, and im quoting, had technicians secretly install an Internet Connection in his Pentagon Office even though it was forbidden. Hes become the main funnel for Security Information to a president who youll recall has been skipping his Intelligence Briefings because, as trump said, im like a smart person. Joining me now, michael steele, former chair of the republan national committee. The lock her up thing, i mean, its amazing the parallels, right . Yeah. So Hillary Clinton does this thing that violates protocol. Shes investigating. The finding is, yeah, she violated protocol but she didnt knowingly compromise National Security, shes okay. But the argument was that she knowingly violated that protocol
right. And general flynn did the same thing. No. They said he did not know he had violated this protocol. And thats the difference. You think its perfectly fine that the onetenth rule here that he leads lock her up chants at the rnc for a woman who has been cleared by the fbi. Right. Who says even after being cleared by the fbi the political opponent should be put in prison despite the fact that he did this and he also had a secret Internet Connection installed in his Pentagon Office. Yeah, well, look, i cant speak to all of that in terms of what he did while he was in the office, but i can speak to the politics of being at a National Convention and getting in that firedup space and using that chant. We all know that that chant was not one of the best chants out there because it doesnt speak to who we are as americans. We dont lock people up as political prisoners, per se. Well, who knows, right . And were not. And were not. Come on, stop it. But michael, let me ask you this, if you had to bet after
election day that you would still hear lock her up after trump had won, at a rally in wisconsin, doesnt that surprise you . No, it doesnt. No, it doesnt. Because the carryover from this election goes beyond what weve seen in the past. The voters in this election cycle have been more fervent than weve seen in a generation in terms of their passion to make their decision stick. And they feel and to imprison their political enemies. No, i dont think theyre talking literally at this point. Donald trump himself has said thats not going to happen. Hes not going to do that. So i think that that is sort of rehashing some of that passion and that fervor and that spirit. Now, you know, again, were still waiting. I think a lot of people are. To see how donald trump does message that transition that hes talked about wanting to do with the American People on these subjects. And whether or not he does that at the inauguration, whether he
does that between now and then or immediately afterwards remains to be seen, but thats going to be up to him whether or not that chant has any more legs beyond this moment. Let me ask you about leon panetta because flynns got obviously the guy who seems to have trumps ear on intelligence. Trump saying hes not taking these Intelligence Briefings, hes a smart guy, doesnt want to hear the same thing every day. This is what leon panetta said. If the Intelligence Official had indications or information regarding that attack and the president did not want to listen to that, for whatever reason, the responsibility for that would go on the president. I think thats fair. I think donald trump needs to revisit that line of thinking. No one is questioning your smarts here, sir. No one is questioning your ability to digest the information. Yes, you know what, being president is boring as hell because you got to sit down and do the hard work. I mean, its hard. No one appreciates that unless youve been in that space and understand what those individuals go through. Those briefings are there for a
reason. And i would really hope that the President Elect would take to heart the sincerity and the importance of doing that because stuff happens. Minutia happens. Little things happen in the spate of hours while you rest that make a difference on the decisions you make the next day. And its important that you understand what that minutia is so that you can make the right decisions. Its funny you say this. Its almost like youre saying details matter which is something one of the president ial candidates said. Michael steele. You got it, buddy. Aleppo, syria, has become synonymous with wartorn misery particularly over the last several months. It was once a bustling metropolis. So much so that a travel piece in the New York Times we discovered old homes transformed into small hotels or restaurants with the cuisine some of the most memorable ive tasted in the middle east. These are images of syrias largest city with its open air markets and bustling town squares and ancient landmarks, a mix of east and west, people lived together in relative peace though under the thumb of the assad regime. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. This is what aleppo looks like today. Described by frances u. N. Ambassadors a, quote, the worst humanitarian trgedy of the 21st century. Those loyal to assad and militias have all but crushed antigovernment rebels. The u. N. Human Rights Office has cited accounts of women and children being burned alive and families choosing suicide over surrender. We should note independent var
fick kags of these accounts is impossible at this moment. Rebel fighters were due to leave aleppo as part of a ceasefire agreement. However air strikes continued Trapping Tens Of Thousands of civilians. Late this afternoon several news outlets began reporting the ceasefire agreement was back on. U. S. Ambassador to the United NationsSamantha Power addressed the crisis in aleppo yesterday. To the assad regime, russia and iran, your forces and proxies are carrying out these crimes. Your barrel bombs and mortars anair strikes have allowed the militia in aleppo to encircle Tens Of Thousands of civilians in your evertightening noose. It is your noose. Three Member States of the u. N. Contributing to a noose around civilians. Are you truly incapable of shame . Is there literally nothing that can shame you . Joining me now correspondent for nbc news. Everything that ive seen out of aleppo is just horrifying in the extreme. You have civilians. Its been under siege for a long time. Theyre now trapped. Theres fear there will be retributions that rape will be used as a tool of war they will be burned slaughtered and killed. Is there anything that can be done in the microsense to ensure the safety of those individuals there . Wow, thats a Million Dollar question. I think Samantha Power and others would probably be better suited to answer that question from a diplomatic perspective. Anything short of an International Intervention on humanitarian grounds whether it be from neighboring countries or the United Nations if they can come to some kind of consensus, i dont see anything slowing down the Syrian Government or its russian allies or its proxy fighters through the iranians and others. Theyve made very clear theyre going to continue with this assault until they have, in their eyes, liberated the city from what they describe as terrorists. Obviously the Opposition Groups and the rebel groups are saying this is going to amount to a genocide because the reports
that are coming out of there based on these activists account is what you describe, nothing short of massacres, nothing short of, you know, what theyre saying is genocide. And i have to say that the reporters that i trust in that part of the world who i dont think are propagandists who are closest and approximate to whats happening there, does really seem to be horrendous. They dont just put it out there very quickly. They try to verify it. Ive been in touch with a lot of people at Amnesty International who through their own work on the ground are trying to verify these accounts, speaking to people, a lot are making their way out to turkey. Theyre getting first person accounts of what is happening and what theyre seeing. The assad regime reuniting the kind of spine of the most populated cities in syria. And the war really turned around when russian intervention became more muscular. I think thats a fair thing to say. You can actually make the argument that the war turned around when the United States didnt follow its red line policy. When the United States had drawn the red line and there was that Chemical Attack by the Syrian Government on some of the rebel positions, at that point the russians, backed by hezbollah fighters on the ground, the iranians sending their cash and other resource, it changed overnight, you could see that unfolding on the ground. People are addressing them to putin, to russia. They see themselves as much under siege by russia in fact, it was russia announcing today their ambassador to the u. N. Was saying that essentially we have taken back aleppo. And well be ceasing military operations. This war was won and lost in the air. Theres only one major superpower in the air and thats the russian air force. The americans and all the other countries that fought were bombing isis held territories to the east. The russians and the Syrian Air Force barrel bombed and attacked
rebel held areas. And the russian complicity in what has been described as war crimes and massacres, huge amounts of civilian deaths, young kids are being covered in dust inned or to be presented as victims of bombings. Theyve been waging this Propaganda Campaign that everything you see is the propaganda of antiassad forces. If you monitor syrian state television, which i do. Youll see that theyre presenting a different picture. Theyre showing as the syrian army moves in, theyre greeted by the local as liberators. Thank you, you saved us from this terror. Theres no doubt that propaganda is an element of this war, but what youre seeing, even the images put out by the russian various News Agencies that are working, the Syrian Military footage, it shows complete destruction of the eastern part of the aleppo. It is something apocalyptic. Annihilation. Look at that. Why does russia care so much . I think for two reasons. One, they have the naval base. But i dont think thats enough for them to get involved. I think this is geopolitics, this is russia saying to the americans you cannot just run shot in the middle east. We had a country that was a very close ally to us. That is our proxy. Well intervene and fight in there. Russia has an interest in keeping the presidency of assad, particularly iran, because they want that conduit to get through hezbollah for creating that regional umbrella between them and israel if they were ever to have a confederation of military activities. Thats one of the reasons why iran is invested in preserving the regime of assad. And russia wants to protect him as well. A lot of terrified, desperate, hungry, embattled people in aleppo at this moment. Let me remind all of you the Senate Intelligence committee on which i and the chairman of the Committee Sit are conducting a complete review of this matter. Im joined by dick durban, democrat from illinois. Let me start by asking what you want to see done. What are you calling for in response to what we now know appear to be rusan governmentbacked hackers interfering in the election . Lets not minimize the gravity of this charge. That a Foreign Government tried to influence the election in the United States of america is serious business. If we discovered that some foreign country had spent million of doors secretly in the campaign, yeed be outraged. Turns out what the russians are accused of doing is even worse. Trying to disclose information from emails and other sources and influencing the outcome of the campaign. What we need is a Bipartisan Select Committee that takes this charge as seriously as it
should. Bipartisan select committee, your colleague ben cardin called for something modeled on the 9 11 committee. Theres been resistance from republican colleagues who want to just go through the regular Intelligence Committee in the senate or the house. Why is a regular Committee Investigation of this not sufficient . I can just tell you that that doesnt reach the level of seriousness, and i think the dedication of our government to getting to the bottom of this is critically important. Lets put aside who won the election, how they won the election. Lets understand what happened here. We have credible information from our top Intelligence Agencies that the government of russia tried to influence the outcome of the United States election. That is a serious charge. And it shouldnt be Routine Business in the Intelligence Committees of the senate and the house. Do you think the Intelligence Committees have come to a Consensus Conclusion on the motivation as of now . It seems like the cia believes it was actively trying to help donald trump become elected. Theres some Dissension On Whether that was the motivation. What is your belief . I dont know anything more than reported in the papers, and thats the reason why we need this serious inquiry. I had eight other senators join me in a letter to mr. Clapper the other day asking to disclose as much as possible unClassified Information before january 20th, calling on the Attorney General to initiate an investigation into the Department Of Justice as well with professional longtime employees at the Department Of Justice. I think its reached that level of seriousness, and i hope that the new president as well as the new leaders in congress, both republicans, will take it as seriously themselves. What is the President Elects responsibility on this issue in your mind . You have to understand our
relationship with russia. Its a mixed relationship. When it came to the iran nuclear agreement, russia played a positive role. When it comes to what theyre doing in ukraine, we are resisting them and imposing sanctions. So this is a country and a leader that we have to watch very carefully. And the fact that they would try to interject themselves into an election where mr. Trump during the course of the election was saying positive things about mr. Putin is worrisome to everyone, at least it should be. Lets get to the bottom of it. This kind of cyber warfare in the political realm is unacceptable in a democracy and the United States has to get to the bottom of it. Based on the reporting that youve read and theres that long New York Times piece which is quite revealing, do you think that the current president , president obama did enough to sort of sound the alarms about this while it was happening during the election . Well, you have to take care. With the exception of jim comeys statement 11 days before the election, you really tried to take care of the last month of the election not to tip the balance one way or the other. That isnt fair to the
candidates who were involved in the race here. Im sure what president obama felt is they get to the bottom of this, they bring the information together and a serious information would follow. So i dont know all the moves made by this administration, but i can understand why they didnt want to try to tip the scales on this president ial race. Do you think the alleged russian interference which is the Consensus View that it was russia of the various Intelligence Agencies, there seems to be pretty good evidence of that, do you think that tips the scales, that would be decisive in the outcome of this election . I cant honestly answer that. No one can. But apparently they were selective in the emails they hacked into and disclosed to the public trying to put out as much Bad Information as they could about Hillary Clinton and her campaign. They knew who they wanted to elect and it wasnt Hillary Clinton. So there was an effort under way. How much did it influence in an election decided by 80,000 voters in three stat, who can tell out of the millions of
votes cast . Senator dick durbin of illinois, thank you for joining me and appreciate it. Thank you. Donald trump puts paul ryan on notice. The threat to the speaker in his home state. A sugar shield to protect teeth from sugar found in everyday foods. Crest complete. Shield your teeth from sugar. So sugar may visit, but its not sticking around my hygienist told me to try. A mouthwash. So i tried crest. It does so much more than give me fresh breath. Crest prohealth mouthwash provides all of these benefits to help you get better dental checkups. Go pro with. Crest prohealth mouthwash. Checkup . Nailed it. Why pause a spontaneous moment . Cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension,
as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. To avoid longterm injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis. Last night House Speaker paul ryan was met with boos when he took the stage, a rally with donald trump in front of christmas trees. When trump himself got on stage a few minutes later and mentioned ryan, the crowd booed again. Trump tried to stop it mostly. Speaker paul ryan, ive really come to a oh, no, ive come to appreciate him. Speaker paul ryan. Where is the speaker . Where is he . He has been ill tell you, hes been terrific. And you know, honestly . Hes like a fine wine. Every day goes by, i get to appreciate his genius more and more. Now, if he ever goes against me, im not going to say that, okay . Hes a great guy. And we have some Amazing Things in store. And were going to work on taxes, were going to work on obamacare. Were going to work on things, and hes going to lead the way. So thank you. Were going to work on the wall, paul. Joining me now, former Campaign Manager for mitt romney and an msnbc contributor. That was kind of an amazing moment. It felt like a ritual humiliation. Donald trump, lets just be clear who is calling the shots here. Yeah, it did sort of feel like that. But make no mistake, paul ryan is very, very popular in wisconsin. He might not be particularly popular with the people that show up for a big trump rally, but he wins overwhelmingly in his district and has very high Approval Ratings in the state of wisconsin. Just a strange dynamic that goes on there with the people that attend a trump rally. But he doesnt i totally agree with you, this is a selfselecting crowd. But the broader question is what is the political calculus for republicans if and when they go against donald trump . And this applies to a million Different Things. Whether donald trump does something that flagrantly violates the constitution or just does something that they dont like from a policy perspective, what political price will they pay . Its a very, very high price to pay because trump and his hard core supporters tend to bring a gun to a knife fight. And a lot of politicians arent really prepared for that kind of battle. So theyre going to look at this very, very carefully. Theyre not going to just casually walk into a big battle with donald trump. And it can be a little bit hard to predict what the battles that he decides to wage. So theres going to be a lot of walking on egg shells come 2017. I think thats well said. Interesting he said were working on obamacare. Clearly Mitch Mcconnell is champing at the bit for that as well as paul ryan, some sort of obamacare repeal. Cut taxes, which i think
mcconnell and ryan are excited about as well. Then the wall, paul, were going to work on the wall. Thats where its going to be very interesting to see how these Different Things get ordered and what moves through that Congress First and how much its paul ryan and how much its donald trump. And also and what does that mean . Because even donald trump in some of his officials have walked back a little bit from their comments during the campaign about a wall. Theres been talk about well, maybe its not a physical wall. Maybe its a virtual wall. What weve seen is that there are a lot of issues where donald trump feels very comfortable kind of walking back from the really heated rhetoric of the campaign and saying, well, thats not exactly what i meant. You take me too literally. Well see if what he ultimately proposes is a giant physical structure between the u. S. And mexico. Can you imagine a scenario in which there is actually an out in the open fight . I mean, im really curious about how long this sort of were all on the same team is going to last, for two reasons. One is i think there are different policy preferences. Different political objectives. I wonder at what point the normal rules of political gravity start to apply. Donald trump is the least popular President Elect in the history of recent polling. Hes defied it for the entirety of the campaign. Maybe hell continue to do that forever. Maybe. I dont know. No one knows. But you wonder whether marginal House Members start to worry if that continues. And the challenge that hes going to face come january is that hes used to being a ceo that just calls the shots. And he did that during the campaign. He was able to trust his gut during the campaign. But thats not how our government is set up. Our government is set up to have a system of checks and balances. Hes going to have to win the approval from a majority in the house and the senate. And, you know, its not always going to be easy saing as you mention on all of these issues. The first time like you said, gun to a knife fight. The first time he doesnt get his way hell be on twitter calling whoever blocked him out publicly and thats when, you know, thats when well see how this all shakes out. Well, and as i know somebody that opposed trump in the primaries, his supporters can be very vitriolic and very threatening. There will be stories about that as they rise to his defense. Katie packer, thanks. Thanks. The agency that stood up to the Trump Administration and won. More on that ahead. Plus inauguration planning reaches new levels of desperation. Its tonights thing 1, thing 2. Consideration this year. Also, many school bands in the surrounding counties opted not to apply to participate in trumps inauguration. Local universities also did not apply. And its not just local bands. The Trump Inaugural Committee is also reportedly having trouble finding alist celebrities to perform at any of the inaugural events. As of today theres only one entertainer who is definitely booked to perform. Thats singer Jackie Evancho who rose to popularity on tv. I have recently been asked by the President Elect to perform the National Anthem for the swearingin ceremony at the inauguration. And im so excited. Its going to be awesome. Incredibly exciting. That is so far Jackie Evancho, the only performer who is definitely playing a Trump Inauguration gig. With just 37 days until the inauguration to go, the committee in charge of finding more performers is reportedly getting pretty desperate. Thing 2, according to the rap,
President ElectDonald Trumps team is struggle so hard to book alist performers, it offered ambassadorships to at least two Talent Bookers if they could deliver marquee names. The first insider said he was shocked at the proposal, never in a million years have i heard something so crazy, he said. That was the moment i almost dropped the phone. The second insider said he was offered a government post including an ambassadorship if he could wrangle an artist. Trumps team deny the report. There is no truth to this insinuation, Committee Spokesman boris epstein. First class entertainers are eager to participate in the events. Inauguration will be an exciting uniting celebration of democracy. Also keep an eye on those ambassador announcements. The Trump Transition Team virtually knocking on doors at the Department Of Energy to find out who in the Civil Service did something theyre dutybound to do as part of their jobs, go to meetings and work on it as part of the obama administration. Then something amazing happened. The bureaucrats at the Department Of Energy said no. On the question of providing names, Energy Officials resolutely rejected the request while reassuring workers. And heres the most amazing thing. It looks like they won for now. The Trump Transition Team saying in a statement, the questionnaire was not authorized or part of our standard protocol. The person who sent it has been properly counseled. This is stunning considering the only other Real Backtrack from the Trump Transition Team was firing general Michael Flynns son, michael g. Flynn, for Tweeting Fake News about pizzagate on the day a man with a gun showed up to the pizzeria in question. Now the Transition Team has backed off demanding names of Energy Department employees involved in Climate Change work. Climate science is already so threatened by the Incoming Administration that scientists are literally copying u. S. Climate data fearing it might vanish under president trump. One of those trying to protect vital data is ben houlton, director of the john muir institute. I saw this story today and it struck me. First, what exactly are you doing . Its a great question. I dont think theres any way the sugarcoat it that the Climate Science community is hurt and feeling rejected by the President Elect trumps moves. Its almost as if trump is cooking up this amazing thanksgiving meal and were over at the kid table. We want to be at the adult table. Why do we want to be there . We want to be there to share the good news that Climate Change is a job creator. Responding with Climate Solutions gives rise to all sorts of Economic Opportunities for people in this country. We dont want to miss out on that. As a community were coming together to develop new cooperative ways to get that message out to the public, to make sure that they understand that this is about them, this is about their future, and its about the here and now. Okay. I get the positive message here. But what youre doing, i understand, is copying data that youre afraid that an Incoming Administration would either manipulate or delete . I cant speak to that general issue since i myself am not involved in copying those data, but i am trying to make sure that we protect Climate Science in every way possible. Being in california, we have this tremendous opportunity to work with our local government here, with Governor Brown and the University Of California system were seeing this ground level upswell of Climate Scientists coming together and basically recognizing that we need to be empowered. And this is a call to arms. This is a Call To Action for us to develop new ways to make sure that were protecting Climate Research for people on the planet. Thats what we care most about. How important is the federal
government and people in the Civil Service to the things that we know about the climate . I mean, how much of that is coming from a federal government that will now be run by someone who has said that its all a chinese hoax . Its true that the federal government plays a huge role especially when you look at the Paris Agreement but also in the sort of knowledge of Climate Change thats what i mean, the data. Absolutely. How much are we dependent on different people in the federal government whether its the stuff we have at noaa, whether the obseratory we have at hawaii, what nasa does, how much depends on the federal government . A tremendous amount of it does. Thats under threat right now. So if you look at nasa or noaa or the u. S. Geological survey. Theyre providing all sorts of climate data that can help us provide solutions to grow food without those crops failing because of Climate Change and so on and so forth. It is under threat. We do this as a superimportant message that we hope President Elect trump understands. Climate science is vital to National Security. How under threat it is . I guess we havent been in these
territories before. But how much could it be the case that a new administration would just say to the Department Of Energy or the epa, yeah, were just going to get rid of all of these parts of the government that do all these readings that produce this, what we believe is a hoax . I mean, its certainly hard to quantify exact what that would look like and to the extent that the executive can kind of come in and determine these things, but you know, this Isnt Without Precedent When Bush Two came to ourself, there was an assault on Climate Change at that time. We were able to get through that time period by local, state action. Were hoping we can do the same now. But this is a national treasure. I would hope everyone in your audience understands that
Climate Science is a treasure for our kids, for our planet and for our future. You have colleagues at uc davis who are actually doing this sort of copying of data. To folks that hear that, how under the gun do the people in your community and i know a lot of Climate Scientists who already feel under the gun, frankly, because they spent their life working on this. How under the gun do you feel right now . Look, ive had more conversations with Climate Scientists. And what are Climate Scientists, theyre lawyer, doctors, every member of ow society has a stake. Were all coming together in new ways at uc davis in particular were developing a new initiative to connect people across all disciplines. All right. But Climate Change doesnt know politics. When the sea level rises, it doesnt decide to go to a democrat or republican house. Right. We need to really make sure this is understood by the broader public. All right