Bureau chief. These are extraordinary statements by Vladimir Putin. They really are, carol. Came up at the end of a rather uninteresting News Conference, and then all of a sudden, a reporter, i believe it was russian, asked about the dossier with compromising material alle allegedly compromising material, and he uttered the word prostitutes, and he went on for several minutes, and this is the just of what he said, and he said its to undermine the legitimacy of trumps victory, and they are trying to and meaning this administration, the Obama Administration, trying to bind the hands and feet of trump, preventing him from doing what he wants to do. He said compromising material is obviously fake, and then he said, i dont know mr. Trump, i never met him, i dont know what hes going to do internationally, and i have no basis to attack or criticize him, and he went on to mock reports that the fsb, the Security Forces were following american millionaires around moscow when they came, and he said thats absolutely ridiculous, insanity, to think that. And finally, it got really personal because the word prostitute came up again, and mr. Putin said trump is a man that organized beauty papblgants and was around the most beautiful women in the world and its hard to imagine he would have to socialize girls of low social responsibility, as he put it, and mr. Putin added, although they are the best in the world, and there was a bit of laughter in the room. Finally, he said people who fabricate false information and use it for political purposes are worse than prostitutes. Finally ending with the hope that relations will improve. He said we will succeed in restoring a normal relationship between russia and the u. S. , and you could see vehemence with which putin was speaking about all of this. Jill, you stick around, because i want to go right to trump tower and jason carroll, because putins presence in the debate is why trump could face a split with the Intelligence Community that will report directly to him. Reporter certainly his comments and some of the things he said about the Intel Community, certainly not helping to ease tensions between himself in the Intelligence Community. We have the outgoing cia director, john brennan, and donald trump has blamed leaks coming out of the intel briefing he received about russia and those Cyber Attacks and he blamed the leaks on the Intel Community. At one point, drawing a comparison between the leaks and nazi germany, and brennan called those comments repugnant, and he said, and i quote, tell the families of those 117 cia officers who are forever memorialized on the wall of honor that their loved ones that gave their lives were akin to nazis. He went on to say, basically, he draws the line when somebody makes dishonest what he called dishonest statements about the Intelligence Community and leaks, and thats where he draws the line and thats why he is making these statements now at this point, and once again, trump is saying what he is saying, and again, not doing much to ease tensions between himself and the Intel Community going forward. Carol . Lets dig into this extraordinary turn of events with our panel, former bureau chief, jill doherty joins me again, and also the former u. S. Ambassador to russia, and actually, hes not with us, and colonel cedric latent is oh, steven, you are here. Sorry, the former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine, and mr. Lewis will join us later is that correct . Thats correct. All right. I want to ask, has Vladimir Putin ever talked like this in your memory . This is pretty specific. We havent heard mr. Putin talk like this in the past, but i think you have to understand its a pretty extraordinary time, although there are lots of questions about the dossier that came out last week, theres no doubt among american intelligence agencies that russia blatantly tried to interfere in the american political election, and now mr. Putin is trying to do everything he can to distance russia from itself and discredit those reports. Jill, its intriguing to me, too, he keeps talking up donald trump through all of this, accusing the democrats, in essence, of delegitimizing trumps presidency. Right, but they have been saying that. I mean, the narrative right now is extraordinary vitubrative towards the barack Obama Administration, and now very specifically coming to the president saying its really a vendetta by the Obama Administration to destroy any chance that mr. Trump can carry out what he wants to carry out. I mean, they are talking about this is a political struggle to undermine the legitimacy of donald trump. So the gloves are off. This is really a goodbye. In fact, the way mr. Putin started out by saying, you know, there are some people who kind of leave and they say goodbye, and there are other people that dont leave, and then he said, and i think this is the latter, in other words, obama couldnt leave soon enough but is leaving things behind that he is going to try and hurt donald trump with. That is what the russian president is saying. So colonel latent, what position does this put them in . We have deployments going on in poland, and we have exercises in the Baltic States and all of it is clearly designed to send russia a message that United States is to stay in europe and the United States is part of nato, and given mr. Trumps pronouncements and the things that have gone on, not only this morning but also, you know, throughout the entire election campaign, we have to call into question exactly what all of the commitments are and whether those commitments mean anything and that means everybody in europe extremely nervous. So what mr. Trump said to the International Press yesterday, that, you know, as far as trusting angela merkel, and Vladimir Putin, its even right now, is that embolding putin to say these things . Angela merkel is the leader of germany, and thats a close ally with america for decades, and she worked closely in a lot of areas where american and european interests coincide, and the sanctions have been applied by the u. Nited states and the European Union against russia, and then separatism in east ukraine has killed a lot of people, and then if you look at the way putin talked about the United States going back the last four or five years, and he sees the United States as our adversary, hes not a our friend, and to put them on the same plain is what has caused concern not only in washington, but elsewhere. What if Vladimir Putin is not a great friend and turns on him . What might happen . Thats entirely possible. We dont, as mr. Putin himself said, we dont know when hes going to do. I think what the russians are doing right now, they are taking an insurance policy, which is as putin said, you know, i never met him and i dont know what hes going to do, and then they oppose him to the Obama Administration, and they paint a very bleak picture of what the Obama Administration has done internationally, and also mr. Putin said, even hurting the United States. So now who comes you know, another person comes in, and mr. Putin is not willing to say, yes, specifically we are hoping that he will followthrough on x, y and z, because they dont know, and they are not prepared and they have no idea, but they can certainly say it will be much, much better than dealing with the previous administration. So he is staking out a position, but hes not locking himself into some type of position. Might that be, because, general mattis, he will serve as part of trumps cabinet, and he has markedly different views on russia than donald trump, so is that giving Vladimir Putin pause or doesnt he listen to our confirmation hearings . Sounds like he is not listening to the confirmation hearings, carol, but i think he is in real life, but he is saying what the top is saying, what mr. Trump is saying and those as the real policy pronouncements are happening, and with that he is in essence disregarding what mattis has said, although what mattis has said may in fact end up becoming u. S. Policy, or at least our allies hope it will be. Where do you see all of this going . I dont think we know. I mean, if you look at american policy towards russia, you have what general mattis said last week during his confirmation hearings, which was very mainstream republican foreign policy, support for nato and ukraine and skepticism about russia, and you look at what trump said about his campaign and continues to say, theres a huge spectrum, and we are going to come down somewhere in the middle and we dont yet know about this. And this may be one thing that although its clear from what you have seen out of moscow in the last couple of months, and they wanted to see mr. Trump as president over secretary clinton, and im not sure thats going to be the best thing for russia or u. S. russia relations, because they now have in three days an american president who prices unpredictability. With secretary clinton, the russians would have known if we do x the american response would likely be y, and now the russians have to say, if we do x, what is the response of mr. Trump . Having that uncertainty and unpredictability between washington and moscow may not be good for either side. I have to leave it there. Thanks to all of you. Coming up in the newsro newsroom, so much for uniting. I have asthma. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. I talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. Breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Breo wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. 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That number really increased significantly after donald trump came out and criticized congressman john lewis saying this was a man that was basically all talk and no action, and you look at history and thats not the case. This is a civil rights leader who is one of the freedom writers, arrested and beaten, and marching for civil rights during that tumultuous period of time, and barbara lee, one of those democratic lawmakers coming out and saying she cannot go to washington to support the president elect, and a number of republican lawmakers, on the flip side, saying this is not about lawmakers following their conscience, they say its more about partisan politics as usual. I dont want to celebrate, you know, a president elect coming in that campaigned on a campaign of bigotry and divisiveness, and he continued that even after he won the campaign on this platform. Democrats loss, and donald trump won, and you may not like his agenda, but show up. Thats your duty as a republican congressman. Be part of the process. What does the president elect have to say about all of this . He is being upbeat about what is to come later this week, and he said people are pouring into washington at record numbers, and bikers for trump coming, and a number of people showing in washington later in the week will be protesters that plan to voice their opposition to the president elect. Carol . Reporting live from trump tower, the partisan divide, well, its now a canyon, like the grand canyon. Theres a reason all the lawmakers are skipping the inauguration. 80 of republicans approve of the transition, and only 8 of democrats feel the same way when asked if trump will do a good job as president , and 93 of republicans say yes, and only 14 of democrats think he will. And here to speak with me, welcome to both of you. Good morning. So this poll suggests trump is shaping up to be one of the most polarizing president elects the nation has had in modern time, and trump tweeted this, for many years our country has been divided and untresing and many say it will not change, the hatred is too deep. It will change. I dont know if putting four exclamation points after it will do it and its deeper than that. The reality, of course, this president elect lets be clear, he is not that much of an exception, and we had a string of president s who ran on polarizing programs and divided the country and took advantage of the country and decided to win and govern with 50 plus one. And donald trump is clearly intending to do that. There are a number of things we could roll back the clock over the last six weeks where he had an opportunity to bring people together and did the opposite, and the fight with john lewis being the most recent and spectacular. We should look at his actions and his words and the reality is, he does not intent to govern as a uniter. He may find advantage there and thats what will move forward, and for a long time what is broken about washington, you do derive political advantage and in this case you win the presidency by being a divider. Our country is so divided. We are split geographically and educational wise. Trumps numbers are 20 points higher among men, and 20 points higher among whites. What do you think this means in terms of governing . What this is about is you can see what the basis of the campaign was, and we had a divisive election, and we had one in which the two sides did not see each others views at all and a great deal of nastiness. The last time we had numbers that were even approximating anywhere approaching this was actually during george w. Bushs, you know, transition time, and in the run up to the inaugural as he was questioned because of the inversion of the popular vote and the electoral college, and bush was in much better shape than in donald trump currently, but its also true that represntative lewis protested and, in fact, boycotted george w. Bushs inaugural back in 2001. So more numbers to throw at you. According to our cnn orc poll, most americans do not believe donald trump will protect the u. S. From hacking and they dont believe he will defeat icsis or build a wall, but a majority believe he will fix jobs and the tax code. They have a realistic sense when the president elect is speaking politically, what is realistic and what is not. The wall, we heard from any number of experts is a fantasy, and its a metaphor. Something will be built, but not what he promised. For that many people, doesnt make that much difference because it will signal he will be tough on the border, and when it comes to the job, this is what people want, his ability to manage the economy and bring growth up towards 4 , and thats the number he promised and thats the number we should be looking at, and his ability to change the trade deal, and i think his presidency will rise or fall more on that than any other single thing. So just i want to touch on disunity one more time, and a lot of people are blaming mr. Trump for that, and a lot of democrats are skipping the inauguration, and doesnt that lend to the disunity, too . It does. No doubt about it, when one commits to politics in america, that actually means you should be committing to the process and not the results, and in fact, i think the democrats are doing themselves a disservice by not showing up and not participating and not acknowledging what is the most signature achievement of the country, which is a peaceful transfer of power for over more than 200 years, and i think theres a problem for democrats in the, if you will, optics surrounding this, and its important to realize that donald trump, his phuhoneymoon seems to be more like one following an arranged marriage, and certainly everybody seems to be somewhat wary about what trumps actions will be going forward. I have to leave it there. Thank you so much. Ill be right back. I am benedict arnold, the infamous traitor. And i know a thing or two about trading. So i trade with e trade, where true traders trade on a trademarked trade platform that has all the. 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