Seem the president elect could be jeopardizing. Namely resistance to a rival power that the Intelligence Community believes committed ab act of sign ore war against this country. They are traveling in europe right now and spoke with me from estonia earlier today. They hacked into my campaign account. Reince priebus said the president elect would accept the results if all of the intelligence communities on the same sheet of music. And the fbi and the cia and director of National Intelligence all are saying the same things, that the russians tries to influence our elections. Do you have any information for why the president elect still refuses to accept that assessment . Particularly now that hes being briefed presumably on the classified intelligence that led to that assessment . Well jim, i think hell be presented with the overwhelming evidence, change his view and he has said some things like he wants to spend more money on defense. Hes said some favorable things about nato. But on the issue of the russians, there is no doubt about it. And we have to act and we have to have a policy, which this administration does not have, and address this threat to our National Security. If they are able to undermine an election, they are able then to undermine democracy. Let me ask you this jim if i may auddd. I do want you do answer to both before and after election assess that assessment and yet hes doubled and tripled down on talking about the relationship with putin. What are you going to do if he doesnt change his tune in effect on russia . There are a hundred united pp with us. A democrat from minnesota. I would say that 99 of this believe the russians did this. And were going to do something about it. This after senator mccain, after this trip is over. Were going put sanctions together that hit putin as an individual in his inner circle for interfering in our election. And they are doing it all over the world. Senator graham an r on an issue of noouke, you during the campaign have been critical of donald trump and many of iz his positions. Do you worry that trumps Communication Style using twitter could lead to potentially misunderstands, conflicts over the most sensitive issues involving Nuclear Weapons or a north korea or russia or platform or some other stuff about policy. When it comes to the nuclear issue, president elect trump said we need to modernize our Nuclear Force and we do is some of it following is state of disrepair. But ill be honest with you. Im not so sure this is the best way to communicate. It is up to him. He beat me. Hes president of the United States. All i can say that one thing putins done, hes brought democrats and republicans together, to go after him. I think most of us, democrats and republicans really believe that russia is up to no god all over the world. They are trying to break the back of democracies. And if we dont push back against putin, iran and china. They could hack into our systems. Today it is democrats. Tomorrow it could be republicans, with the iranians and the chinese. Trump says hes going to be tough with iran and china. He needs to be. Well, we need to show any nation what happens to them if they try to interfere in our democratic process. To my republican colleagues, it is the democrats today, it could be us tomorrow. Plenty to talk about out of those interviews there. Joining us now our panel. Fm i could begin with you karl. You heard senator mccain and graham saying they are holding out hope that having being presented with further i would imagine overwhelming evidence because i this to think hes seen some of this intelligence already, that donald trump will accept russias involvement in the dnc hacking . Is that plausible . We all need to see this evidence. Before we have a full scale cold war it is important we all know what happened and if this happened then there is appropriate action that ought to be taken but there are two components starting to come together. The other is Donald Trumps history in russia. We need a select committee of the senate, as we had in watergate to look into the Campaign Activities not just of the russians but the concomitant story that is coming together perhaps has do with Donald Trumps holdings, his businesses, his trips to russia. Those of his sons. Whether the rushes try to play donald trump, they are not two separate stories. And i would hope that senator graham and mccain called for a select committee and do both strands of this investigation. David gergen, is that something that you find to be expected with a Republicanled Congress . That there would be an investigation on Donald Trumps ties to russia beyond russian hacking of the u. S. Election . Based on everything we know right now i would say the answer is no. I do believe mccain and graham have issued the first direct challenge to donald trump over the future conduct of his presidency and his policies starting with putin. They are threatening to sanction p putin at the very same time there are people high on the trump command considering lifting sanctions against russia. So we have a direct conflict shaping up. And if that leads somewhere, in there are more threats that carl suggests down road you might see calls for that but i this i it is way too premature to think this congress is going to open by investigating the new president of the United States. I dont think thats this t cards. What i do think is we have conflicts now shaping up and i dont think this is going to be the first. There will be another over china if donald trump tries to get rid of the one china policy, i think hell face a challenge. Even could be threats over israel. Have to see how that plays out. But i think right now the major story tonight is you have two leading voices from congress, you know, which which is a coequal branch of government, we should never forget that, directly challenging the new president elect from their own party. Kayleigh mcenany. Ive asked of many trump supporters. I asked of mccain and graham earlier today and chris collins, a trump supporter earlier. Why . And i cant get a answer to the question. Why is donald trump fighting back so much against the judgment of the u. S. Intelligence agencies and senators graham and mccain republican senators said a hundred members of the senate many have been briefed on the intelligence. Why is he fighting them on this assessment that russia is behind the hacking . Well i think it is important that we give this some context. There were some unusual happenings in the Intelligence Community. Namely the fact that you had certain members of the Intelligence Community convertly leaking parts of this investigation to the new york times, leaking the motive of what russia was after saying russia was after electing donald trump. It ended up being that that was the conclusion of the entirety of the Intelligence Community. On december 16th the fbi came out and said we agree. Now there is complete coalescence of the Intelligence Community, everyone is on board with that. Also another abnormality is the fact that the head of the house Intel Community requested a briefing. It was canceled they were siting the everybody with a security clearance in congress, democrat and republican have gotten repeated briefings on the intelligence between the assessment. The intelligence agencies are not hiding this intelligence from the legislative branch. So i just wonder what you know, what is the reason to dismiss that assessment . Is donald trump in effect saying that the entire u. S. Intelligence community is shilling for the democrats . No i dont think hes saying that. But there were those few days where there were some unusual happenings in the Intelligence Community where the briefing was canceled. There was that briefing as you remember on capitol hill where there was a division between the fbi and cia, the cia was willing to say this was the motive of russia. It has changed. Also as of december 16th donald trump has not made public statements about this. On the first few days of the Donald TrumpsPresidency Press secretary sean 1350irs will be asked about this and i do think it is important the not pivotal that the new administration says, look, a attack on the dnc is attack on the rnc and attack on everyone under one flag. I think it is important to acknowledge that but yornt blame them for taking this time to let everything quiet down. Matt, do you agree that you need that kind of unifying statement from the incoming president . No. Everybody knows this is russia. And i think what cale was jur kh was talking about was recent events. Where it did appear that democrats were trying to maybe delegitimatize the election by blaming Hillary Clintons loss on russias involvement. But the that is a totally different issue for the fact that weve known for six months at least, anywthat russians wer involved here and were hacking. And donald trump maybe the only thing hes been consistent of. Might be a couple but i would say at least, maybe the only thing hes been consistent about this entire election is the fact that he refuses to say anything bad about Vladimir Putin or russia. And im really curious as to why. Hes good when it comes to dealing with china and standing up to them. We saw that after he was elected. Hes good when it comes to standing up to iran . Why not russia . I just county know. One other consistency here with trump and that is his disdain for fact and his contempt for fact and not listening to fact or being open to fact. Now maybe he finally will be when shown this evidence. But we all need to see the evidence. What we are seeing consistently in the tweets, in the campaign, in the transition is a factfree universe in which donald trump floats with weightlessness. And what we need now is to know the facts but i keep coming back to this, it is impossible to look at this to not look at this without looking at russia. However we bring donald trump into this it is part of the story. The fbi was look but carl, the fbi was looking at Donald Trumps connections with russia. We do know that. And we know there were no developments in that investigation. It happened at the urge of the the democrats actually is why that investigation was opened im not talking about a criminal act. Im talking about we need to know about his trips to russia, what businesses he has in russia. We need his tax returns as to how they might reflect on what he does in russia. Weve heard donald trump jr. Talk about what a huge percentage of the trumps assets are in russia. We need to look at this and how it might factor into this. Jim there is david ill give you one more thought. Just before we go to break, daddy, what david what do you want to add. With all due respect to carl bernstein. This vgs of russia undermining our democracy can be done separately and independently from Donald Trumps tax returns. I think putting sanctions on the russians for just trying to undermine our democracy, that is a question that the senate, the house and the white house ought to resolve together and get moving on it because it is important. Ill buy that part absolutely. Two other of Donald Trumps cabinet appointments released their tax returns today. More to discuss, including the president elects latest hire and the notion that hes building a team of rivals in a trump administration. Is that really it . Or is it more like a basket of irreconcilables . More on that next. And later a wave of violence thats turning a trip to the mall into a potentially dangerous encounter. Again so i can lift even the most demanding weight. Take care of all your most important parts with centrum. Now verified non gmo and gluten free. It has long been called storm of tiny bubbles, the champagne of beers. If youve got the time welcome to the high life. Weve got the beer miller beer welcome back. We were talking about the ways donald trump could if he wishes upturn decades of the bipartisan policy, particularly where russia and china are confirmed. Or refirm it. Threshold signs of each. Today was no exception. As cnns dana bash reports. Reporter thomas bossered. A new name added today. One with a crucial portfolio. There is nobody out there that cant be penetrated. If there is. Id like to know about them. Reporter speaking about cyberterrorism was a a deputy Homeland Security advisor under bush and was highly regarded among those in washington. Hes a smart, diligent person who knows the issues about as int i matly as anyoneky think of. And these are kind of hires trump makes that is very reassuring. Skpp his position will be. With Michael Flynn, and bossard. The government in the United States at a federal level needs to do something to address the threat. And flynn on international issues. We must regain our ability to truly crush our enemies. Because all of those Security Issues intersect so often. Obama officials tell cnn they think it could lead to confusion. Lock her up. Reporter but declaring that bossard will be on equal footing to flynn is also intended to be reassuring. Islam is a political ideology. It definitely hides behind this notion of it being a religion. What wont change from the Obama White House is people in both positions will have direct access to the president and seats at the principles table at the president S National Security meetings. Here is how the current Homeland Security and counterterror monitor described the job earlier this month. When i go upstairs, about fifty paces from my cave office in the west wing up to the oval office, the president knows it is because something bad has happened quite frankly. Domestically usually or to u. S. Persons abroad. That is my focus. And he knows it. Got to be one of the highest pressure jobs in washington. What are the Transition Team officials telling you about their concerns about turf battles inside the administration . Once the trump takes over the presidency. Well some of the people in the current administration, Obama Administration snst that part of the reason they combined these two roles is because not just personnel turf but also more importantly and you know this very well jim in the beat you cover, National Security for very hard to separate Cyber Security from Homeland Security from interNational Security many many times depending on the issue. So the concern is that that is what they could run into. Im told however thats been discussed. There is a lot of debate about whether to elevate this post and the decision was do done so because of things i addressed in the piece that the man whose the National Security advisor, Michael Flynn and some others who are working for him dont have probably the most diplomatic way to say it, the most confidence, people in washington and around the country frankly dont have a whole lot of confidence in them, in their experience and in some cases temperament. So having somebody like bossard in there with experience and credentials and maybe even the temperament and the understanding of how washington works from the white house to capitol hill is something that is making people breathe a little bit of a sigh of relief. Back now with the panel and joining the conversation as well. Cnn political analyst jackie kucinich. David, what do you make of this appointments. You have a lot of establishment figures like a bossard. But then you have flynn who makes a lot of people diplomatically uncomfortable. What do you make of this competition in effect in this administration . Well we know that several members of the administration oppose each other on issues such as trade for example a big issue. But i do think whats shaping up, jim in this particular case and bringing bossard in as not only somebody from the establishment. And yes i do think as an offset to flynn. But i dont think that is the reason they separated him out. I think it is a big portfolio. I think the cabinet is going to have a larger voice than what you have seen in the Obama Administration and the Bush Administration in making policy. The Homeland Security is going to be in the hands of the general kelly. Very respected in washington. Hes a heavyweight. And i think his very presence is going to emerge as the critical player in shaping Homeland Security. Just like tillerson at state is going to be you know, hes sort of a four star sitting there with flynn as the one star in the white house. Tillerson will have a big voice. What do you make of the fact that bossards supposition now elevated to be equal with general flynn . Do you see that as a way to temper flynns fluence is this. It could be. But weve seen this in other parts of the administration. With steve bannon and reince priebus. In other places but it is going either two ways. Either both cases presented to the president or it is going to be like street fighter. Well have to see if they can work it out. But particularly on the issue of si cybersecurity we have to see where trump ends up landing. We have an incoming president who doesnt really have a foundation, didnt come into this with a foundation on a lot of these different issues. It would be up to these advisors to make their case and pretty big policy decisions in the process. Carl, it seems like the team of rivals is almost the cliche of president ial administr