Conflict. About face on obama. Trump says hes not going to wipe out the 44 president s legacy. Tonight, the praise of the man he once bashed during the campaign. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Tonight, president elect donald trump is escalating his dispute with the u. S. Intelligence community, rejecting findings that russia tried to help him win the white house as ridiculous. The trump camp now suggesting that intel about russian hacking is part of a partisan conspiracy to delegitimize his presidency. Theres a bipartisan push right now to further investigate claims that moscow tried to influence the u. S. President ial election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell says he backs the idea of a congressional investigation. The clinton camp also weighing in. Former Campaign Chairman john podesta is supporting calls for members of the Electoral College to get an intelligence briefing on russian hacking, some asking for the information before they vote next week presumably to seal Donald Trumps victory. The president elect may be just hours away from revealing his choice of secretary of state. Sources say exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson remains the leader candidate. But there are increasing signs that tillerson may face a confirmation fight in the senate. Some top gop senators are joining with democrats right now in raising red flags about tillersons personal ties to russia. Were also following an unprecedented military move in disputed water where is tensions have boiled over before. China, flying Nuclear Capable bombers over the South China Sea for the first time in an apparent warning to president elect trump. This after trump questioned whether the United States should keep its longstanding policy that taiwan is part of one china. Well get reaction to all of this from a democrat on the House Intelligence Committee andre carson. And our correspondents, analysts and guests are standing by. First, cnns ryan noblestower i. Whats the latest . Reporter its been a busy day for donald trump here on 5th avenue as a parade of potential Administration Officials have made their way into trump tower. As the trump transition continues to take shape, the president elect remains at the center of a fierce debate over the alleged role of russia in an attempt to interfere in the president ial election. Tonight, donald trump refusing to accept cia reports that conclude russia attempted to intervene in the president ial election, tweeting can you imagine if we tried to play the russia cia card . It would be called conspiracy theory. This just hours after telling fox flues t fox news the same thing. I dont believe it. Reporter trump claiming that the accusation never came up during the election, even though it did. And that hackers werent caught in the act, which they were. Of course, a bipartisan senators are calling for a deeper probe. And trump insists its the democrats placing the blame on russia. Im not sure they put it out. I think the democrats are putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics in this country, and i think theyre putting it out and its ridiculous. Reporter which entirely miss the problem of a foreign entity attempting to undermine the integrity of the u. S. Election. It makes any potential investigation challenging. But the senates most powerful republican is also pushing back. Arguing that the intelligence is correct, and an investigation is needed. I agree with senator schumer, chairman mccain, burr, and others, this cannot be a partisan issue. The russians are not our friends. Reporter and now the Clinton Campaign is backing a demand from Electoral College electors for a full intelligence briefing on the matter ahead of their official vote december 19th. This amid questions of trumps likely pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and his close ties to putin and russia. Florida senator marco rubio, who sits on the Senate Foreign relations committee, tweeting being a friend of vladamir is not an attribute im hoping for from a secretary of state. These battles being waged as trump continues to shape his upcoming administration. Making trips to trump tower today really cool stuff in his office. Reporter former president ial candidate carl carl, former congressman alan west, and former Texas Governor rick perry, now considered as the next energy secretary. A department that, as a president ial candidate, he suggested be shut down. And after a day of meetings here in new york city, donald trump will get back on the road. Hell wrap up his thank you tour this week with stops in wisconsin, pennsylvania, florida, and alabama. Wolf . Ryan, thank you very much. Ryan nobles reporting for us. Tonight, were getting new information about the u. S. Intelligence that president elect trump refuses to believe. What clues led u. S. Intelligence officials to conclude that the hackers were trying to help donald trump win the president ial election . Our chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto has been digging on this. What are you learning . Reporter the new information is that hackers breached several republican targets. Lawmakers, as well as Republican Party organizations, as part of this broad hack, but one thing thats leading the Intelligence Community to believe that this hack was intended to primarily target or injure Hillary Clinton, hurt her chances, is that information from republican sources was not released to the public. A former senior Law Enforcement official with direct knowledge of the inquiry tells cnn the investigation discovered russian hacking of republican entities, not just the Democratic National committee, and Hillary Clintons top aide john podesta. Cnn has told that hackers got hold of information from some Republican House members, pundits, a Third Party Entity that held data for the Republican National committee and nonprofit groups tied to the party. Most of the information relating to the Republican Party was not released by hackers. That, in part, led the Intelligence Community to assess that russia could have been acting to impact the election for trump. Though it was not clear whether this was truly for trump or just to weaken clinton. Fbi investigators were not as convinced. Some of the data appears to have been outdated and perhaps of less value to hackers. Tonight, the white house said it believes it is clear who russia was trying to help. These were emails from the dnc, and john podesta, not from the rnc and steve bannon. Reporter this has put president elect donald trump and his team at odds with the u. S. Intelligence committee. The president elect himself is questioning the assessment that russia was involved in any election related hacking at all. Once they hack, if you dont catch them in the act, youre not going to catch them. They have no idea whether its russia, china, or somebody. Reporter trumps Transition Team is disputing a report that the Republican National committee was hacked as well, though no information was made public. The intelligence is wrong, because theyre writing the conclusion they came to was based in part the rnc was hacked. It wasnt hacked. Reporter though investigators do have republican entitie entities, though not the rnc, was hacked. So he can argue that the rnc was not hacked but other republicans were breached. But again, part of the judgment from the Intelligence Community that this was intended to help trump, that information was not released to the public the way we saw was targeting the democratic party. A lot of that information so embarrassing and damaging to the hillary Clinton Campaign. Thank you very much, jim sciutto reporting. Joining dimitri, thank you very much for coming in. You investigated the hacks of the Democratic National committee. Our firm did catch the russians in the act when the dnc hired us back in may. We employed our technology and we watched these adversaries, for a number of days and weeks, as we we prr pairing to kick them out. Who were these adversaries, these people doing the hacking of the dnc . There were two independent working groups we associated with russian intelligence agent sis. One we associated with gru, the military russian agency. Theyre responsible for the takeover of crimea. Putin had admitted these were gru operatives. Where were they based . We cant get that specific, but the headquarters of the gru were in moscow. But the hackers, the major Russian Intelligence Agency. Highly likely these were gru operatives, working out of buildings in moscow, perhaps a headquarters in moscow. But perhaps contractors. You say you caught them in the act of doing this at the Democratic National committee. Talk to us about that, how do you do that . The Democratic National committee suspected something may be wrong. They brought us in and we deployed our Falcon Technology and picked up a trace of these two attackers. We saw them going after email community servers, stealing emails from the dnc for a period of nine months going back to 2013. And then going after sensitive documents that the campaign was preparing on donald trump and other republican candidates that were running for the primary. So the working assumption is the Russian Intelligence Agency then gave these documents, all these emails to wikileaks, and then wikileaks would release them on a daily basis, is that your understanding . We have two other sources, an Organization Called d. C. Leaks and gucifer and gucifer claimed he claim the information to wikileaks. What is your reaction when you hear john bolton, former u. S. Ambassador to the united nations, a man considered possibly a deputy secretary of state in a trump administration, saying this could have been what he calls a false flag . You can never discount that, but the evidence here is overwhelming. We looked at all the forensic evidence, we have the fbi and the Intelligence Community confirm publicly in october, independently that they believe the pollutions were behind the attack. And the thing you have to understand is that weve been tracking these intelligence agencies for years. One of them, the gru, has been active since mid 2000. We have over ten years of history of their campaigns, hundreds of intrusions into different organizations. How high is your confidence that the russian did this . Very high. Is it your understanding that the u. S. Intelligence community agrees with you . Yes. They would not have come out in october with a Public Statement saying the same. What is your reaction as donald trump says it could have been some guy sitting on his bed in new jersey doing this . Well, i think the evidence here is overwhelming. I hope hes getting briefed on the evidence the Intelligence Community has which is much wider than what were looking at. They may have human sources inside russia or signal intelligence that suggests that people may be behind this. So hopefully theyre briefing him on this. Has the Republican National committee asked you to do a similar investigation whether you were hacked . They have not. But we are working on other organizations on the republican side. Have they been hacked similarly . There have been republican operatives have been hacked. When you say operatives, what does that mean . People affiliated with the Republican Party. Thats what mike mccaul told me back in september, originally he said on our show that the he believed the Republican National committee was hacked. He said that was a misstatement. He said, what he intended to say in addition to the dnc hack, republican political operatives have also been hacked. That is correct. That is your understanding . Yes. But that information was not released through wikileaks or anybody else . We saw some releasing. We saw Colin Powells releases getting released, some low level operatives getting released, their emails on d. C. Leaks. But that hasnt gotten much attention. Thanks so much for coming in. Thank you. Well continue this conversation. In the last hour, we spoke with a donald trump ally, chairman pete hook stra. Now lets talk to a current member of the intelligence committee, greg carson. Thank you very much for joining us, congressman. Thank you for having me, wolf. So based on the briefings youve received in the House Intelligence Committee, do you believe the cia, in its conclusion that russia not only wanted to erode trust in the entire democratic process here in the United States, but was actually working to try to get donald trump elected president . My personal opinion is that i trust what weve been hearing from news outlets, that, in fact, there was an honest attempt or an attempt, pardon me, by moscow to disrupt our electoral process. To me thats unacceptable. It brings into question where do we go from here . It could be us reverting back to a system that is nonelectronic as it relates to our elected positions. Why do you believe Russian Hackers potentially could sit on stolen information from republican targets, whether members of congress, republican pundits, an rnc vendor, and not release that information as opposed to releasing information that was embarrassing to the democrats and Hillary Clintons campaign . Well, i think were still gathering Additional Information as we speak. I think that the Senate Intelligence committee, the House Intelligence Committee, we will certainly have hearings related to unearthing these matters going forward, as well as working with house and Senate Leaders in terms of pressing the issue to get to the root causes. But it seems as if mr. Trumps language, his overtures to russia, could have been a motivating factor, that is not to say that mr. Trump gave a directive or was in concert with the russian government, but it is to suggest that his favorable comments throughout the campaign opened the door for the russian government to feel as if they have an ally in the white house. And that is very troubling for our National Security. I want you to stand by, congressman. Were getting breaking news coming into the situation room. Weve got to take a quick break. Well resume this conversation. Share the new information were getting right after this. Whoa, whoa, i got this. Just gotta get the check. Almost there. I cant reach it. If you have alligator arms, you avoid picking up the check. What . Its what you do. I got this. Thanks, dennis if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Growwwlph. Its what you do. Oh that is good crispy duck. vo its the holidays at verizon, and the best deals are on the best network. 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News conference that had been scheduled for this thursday, the sources now tell cnn the president elect will make the announcement on how shes splitting up his business to avoid potential conflicts of interest as much as possible, handing over the business to his adult children. That News Conference will now take place in january. Were getting more information on this. Were back with House Intelligence Committee member andre carson. Are you satisfied that he will be able to make sure that his adult children, his two sons in particular, some others run the business, so that he avoids any potential conflict of interest as president of the United States . Well, mr. Trumps decision to choose whomever he wishes to rub his organizations is a personal one. I just want to make sure we dont have the appearance of impropriety or any impropriety as