Welcome back to the lead. Im jim sciutto in again for jake tapper. We begin today with breaking news in our politics lead. Sources tell cnn donald trump has tapped former indiana senator dan coats for director of national intelligence. That is, the nations top spy. This as the current director along with his counter parts testified for hours today that there is no doubt that russian leadership was behind the cyber hacks during the 2016 race. And that they are more conif i he dent of that judgment than ever. President obama was briefed on the final report just a short time ago with president elect trumps briefing scheduled for tomorrow. Cnns raju is on capitol hill. U. S. Officials said they will when this becomes public, theyll name more than one motive for the russian hacking. Reporter thats right, next week well or direct camp interfere with our election process than weve seen in this case. In the nearly three hour senate hearing, the officials saying theyre even more confident in their october assessment that russias senior most officials authorized the cyber attack against the Democrat National committee and Hillary Clintons campaign, an assessment president elect donald trump has repeatedly dismissed. We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement that we made on the seventh of october. And they left no doubt over who is to blame. You say you think this was approved at the highest level of government in russia generally speaking. Is that right . Thats what we said. Okay, who is the highest level of government . Well, the highest is president putin. You think a lot happens in russia big that he doesnt know about . Not very many. Yeah, i dont think so. Certainly none that are politically sensitive in another country. Reporter testamented to an implicit rebuke of trump who has rehe petedly slammed the Intelligence Community, praised putin , and downplayed russias role in the elections. Who benefits from a president elect trashing the Intelligence Community . Who benefits from that, director clapper, the American People, them losing confidence in the Intelligence Community and the work of the Intelligence Community . I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policy makers to include policy maker number one, should always have for intelligence, but i think there is a difference between skepticism and disparagement. Reporter and senator john mccain pushing back on trump for relying on the word of wikileaks leader Julian Assange who said russia had no role in his groups public release of thousands of internal democratic emails. The name, mr. Assange, has popped up. And i believe that he is one who is responsible for publishing names of individuals that worked for us that put their lives in direct danger. Is that correct . Yes, he has. And do you think that there is any credibility we should attach to this individual, given his record of not in my view. Not in your view. Admiral rogers . I would second those comments. Reporter after the hearing, mccain saying he hopes trump takes away this lesson. I hope he understands the importance of the role of the Intelligence Community. And its clear that their conclusions, at least so far, have been correct. Reporter now, jim, also john mccain saying he was going to push for stiffer sanctions on russia in the new congress. He does president know where donald trump will come down on that issue, but he said in a sign of potentially good news r donald trump, mccain is feeling a little better about the secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson after they had a conversation about tillersons relationship with russia. All his concerns are not yet alleviated but hes feeling a little better today, jim. Thats one of many confirmation hearings next tuesday. Members of the Republican Party certainly seem to be sending him a message at todays hearing. The question is was he ligsening . Cnns Senior Correspondent accosta is outside trump tower. Plelkt has not responded to the hearing yet, but tim did make a big announcement relevant certainly to the intelligence questions today as well. Reporter absolutely, jim. Thats right. Donald trump has selected the newly retired indiana senator dan coats to be the director of national intelligence. Its an institutional pick that could soothe some of the tensions between the Trump Transition Team and the Intelligence Community and it comes as the plelkt is insisting he is not on the sage page as wikileaks founder Julian Assange when it comes to russian hacking in the american election. Donald trump is doing some hacking backtracking. One day after the president elect cited wikileaks founder Julian Assange that he colluded with russia to interfere in the u. S. Election, rehe tweet retreat. I am in agreement with Julian Assange. Wrong, trump tweeted. I simply state what he states. It is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media likes to make it look like im against intelligence when in fact im a big fan. Thats a departure from the affects trump showed for wikileaks during the campaign when assange was dumping damaging information on Hillary Clinton. This just came out. Wikileaks, i love wikileaks. Reporter contrast, trump shifting on assange from Top Republicans from arizona senator john mccain. This is really a person who has put the lives of americans in danger. He cannot be trusted for anything. Reporter to his old campaign rival, ted cruz. I think assange has done enormous damage to our national security. I would not be praising him under any circumstances. Reporter trump is battling growing consensus that kremlin backed hackers were meddling in the election, though gop support trumps complaint democrat are exploiting the cyber scandal to damage president elect. Russia clearly tried to meddle in our political system no two ways about it. First of all, i think this is what the president elect is legitimately upset about. There are attempts on the elects to try to dee legitimatize this. He won fairly and convincingly. Reporter democrats argue it is about his grasp of reality. This is not healthy skepticism as they would like to portray it. This is very unhealthy, essentially avoidance of the facts because they dont suit the president elects interests. Reporter trumps critics say he harmed his own credibility this week by claiming he would reveal by now new information about Election Hacking then failing to deliver. I also know things that other people dont know. And, so, they cannot be sure of the situation. What you know that other people dont know . Youll find out on tuesday or wednesday. Reporter transition officials insist the president supports the Intelligence Community and pushing back he wants to pair back the office of director of intelligence in the new administration. There is no truth to the idea of restructuring the Intelligence Community infrastructure. It is 100 false. Reporter now, transition officials insist that donald trump is only demonstrating a healthy skepticism of the intelligence decision after the weapons of mass destruction after the iraq war. As one official put it to me, jim, questions are good and getting back to the selection of dan coats to be director of national in tell jensen, one Top Republican backer of senator coats pointed out to me that dan coats was banned from russia, you recall, jim, back in 2014 when the white house and russia were firing back and forth sanctions and counter sanctions over the invasion of cry crimea. Jim. He serves on both the home land security and intelligence committees, senator, thank you for taking the time. Glad to be with you. You heard dni clapper say in those hearings there is no doubt that russia was behind the election interference. As you know, the president elect continues to express doubts very publicly. Youre on the intelligence committee. Do you have any doubt that russia perpetrated these attacks . No, i dont have any doubt that russia a has been engaged in trying to interfere with our election just like theyve done with other countries all around the world, all around their region. They have been very engaged in this. What i would dispute and ive heard a lot of people comment on is that russia was trying to hack into our Voting System and actually trying to change votes. I still hear that rumor and thats been debunked over and over again and i dont know of anyone actually in the Intelligence Community that holds to that. No, they dont. In fact, i should note that director clapper made a point of saying that today, no evidence of hacking the volting systems, but access to emails and affected information. I wonder if i can ask you this, i know this gets into the classified arena. Can you describe in general terms the evidence that exists pointing the finger specifically at russian Senior Leaders . No, i cant actually because that does get into classified things. This is one of the things that president obama brought up three weeks ago that when he said when he asked for this report and for the research around it, the American People are going to be dissatisfied with it because were not going to reveal sources and methods of how we know things because that provides a greater vulnerability in the days ahead. The Administration Spent the last couple of week trying to go through all this to determine what can be declassified in the next week. Theyre going to try to release as much as they possibly can. I know dni clapper said today theyre going to push the envelope on and multiple other individuals. Dan coats will be able to sit down and walk through and is have his circle and actually give that counsel to him. We wont have to do that. Heres the big issue, though. And i think its a difference in a lot of people are missing. We talked about sanctions. We talked about russian engagement. But when donald trump keeps identifying its very hard to track hacking to a individual person. He is correct on that. Thats why the fbi has not filed criminal charges on anyone and has not tried to actually nail it to a person because we cant be that specific. But they have, to be fair, theyve tracked it to a country and that seems to be the important issue here. Thats correct. Your colleague senator graham today, he raised again the idea of more severe sanctions against russia. I know that you supported the president s sanctions and have expressed possible interest in tougher sanctions. The trouble is our president elect doesnt even buy the premise, right, that russia is behind these attacks. If you come with a bill presenting sanctions against russia and President Trump vetoes that bill, will you vote to over viride that veto . Thats speculation. We are going to continue to press for real sanctions. My concern with president obamas sanctions is that they are very small. Hes basically sanctioning the russian intelligence operation and some of the leadership and russian intel organizations. Those arent real sanctions to be able to put in place. Those are already individuals we know mean to do harm to the United States. He also stated that these sanctions were put in place not only for the cyber attacks, but for one of our american diplomats that was assaulted in moscow six months ago. So, we had this long sixmonth delay many of us have tried to say why dont we get a response. I would tell you those of us in the Intel Committee and those of us that are in the Intel Community have for years tried to press this administration to have a cyber doctrine. Eight years later they dont have that. I understand that criticism. Frankly ive heard that from democrats as well. Lets look forward to this new president because what were setting up here for is a conflict with his own party over this key issue of what you and others have called a key issue of national security. How do you go about rectifying that . Well, i would say the first thing is let him become president of the United States and get a full explanation with his own intel team and be able to sit down and do t. We have men and women serving around our world that are in our Intel Community that are very sharp, very smart people that do a terrific job and provide American Safety every single day. They will never be recognized like many other people that serve our government because they are not seen by many americans, but they do an incredible job. Allow those individuals to be able to sit down with President Trump when hes president rather than president elect and well see how this changes. Stars on the wall at cia headquarters for cia agents that have lost their lives in the field. Senator james lang ford, we do appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. You just heard the top members of the Intelligence Community clearly state that russia was behind the election related hacking. Now the kremlin is responding. Well have that next. Saw 90 clearance. Majoriy do not use if you are allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, you should be tested for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. Such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions may occur. See me. See me. See me. On my way. Find clear skin. And a clearer path forward. For a different kind of medicine, ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. Tech at safelite, we know how busy your life can be. Mom oh no. 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Tha put welcome back to the lead and turning now to our world lead, russian president vladimir tut putin is not our friend said senator lindsey graham. This after intelligence officials testified today that there is no doubt that russia was behind election related hacking. Want to bring in Cnn Senior International correspondent frederick from moscow. Fred, i understand you just got new reaction from russias hearing today in washington. Absolutely, jim. Its clear the russians were watching these hearings very, very closely and not liking what they saw obviously. The staterun Sputnik News Network came out just a couple minutes ago actually and came with a, with a statement saying that it was that russia was correct in all of this. Now i also got in touch with the spokesman for Vladimir Putin and heres what he had to say. He had to say, quote, we have suggested cooperation on combatting Cyber Threats numerous times. It was rejected. And were sick and tired of those irresponsibleably blaming everything on our country. There is a need for an enemy, why not try someone else . So, the russians obviously saying that it wasnt them. Just to get back to that sputnik news article, they obviously saying in that nothing new was present ed in this hearing. They called the meeting, quote, a flop in their article. So, certainly a lot of bad blood here with the russian reactions and they are sticking by their line saying it wasnt them and calling everything levied against them absurd, jim. We expect that. Is this standoff, im curious, helping putin at home . A lot of economic problems in russia now. You know what, i think it is, and youre absolutely right. The economy here is in a lot of trouble. Nevertheless, we have seen since the election of donald trump and especially also with some of these tweets from donald trump questioning some of the