Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by xq institute. Bnsf railway. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff its opening day of confirmation season for team trump and senator Jeff Sessions, the nominee for attorney general, was leadoff man. He went before colleagues on the Senate Judiciary committee, defending his views on race and civil rights and at times, separating himself from the man who chose him. Lisa desjardins begins our coverage. Reporter alabama senator Jeff Sessions walked into his hearing, to some as a longtime, accomplished senator unfairly accused of prejudice; to others, as an extreme conservative who stokes racial divide. In his opening remarks, the attorney general hopeful laid out his theme to both sides, saying he would put the law above his own views. I have always loved the law. It is the very foundation of our great country, the exceptional founding of america. Reporter but sessions politics and view of the law have sparked furious opposition. In 1986, accusations of racially insensitive remarks and actions led the senate to reject him for a federal judgeship. The committee has received letters of opposition from 400 different civil rights leaders, 1,400 law professors. Reporter today, the ranking democrat, californias dianne feinstein, opened by pointing to fears that sessions would not enforce laws fairly to all. Sessions insisted the accusations were all false. This caricature of me in 1986 is not correct. I have become an u. S. Attorney. I supported major civil rights cases in my districts. chanting and protests reporter the hearing was interrupted regularly by protesters raising an array of concerns, from civil rights to immigration to marijuana policy. Committee democrats like largely withheld fire today, instead focusing on questions about major issues like abortion. You have referred to roe vs. Wade as one of the worst, colossally erroneous decisions of all time. Is that still your view . It is. It is law of the land, it has been established for a long time. I would respect it and follow it. Reporter this was sessions refrain his view hasnt changed; his job would. Similarly, on samesex marriage five justices on the supreme court, the majority, have established the definition of marriage for our country. I will follow that decision. Reporter and on waterboarding. That makes it absolutely improper and illegal to use waterboarding or any form of torture in the u. S. By military and other agencies. Reporter it was on immigration, an issue where sessions will have tremendous power, that he took a staunch stand. I do believe if you continually go through a cycle of amnesty, that you undermine the respect for the law. I believe the america people spoke clearly in this election, and agreed with my view. Reporter one question was asked by both parties how would sessions handle any cases involving president elect trump and his family . Sessions insisted he would resign rather than do something unlawful. Later, democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked about russia. Will the department of justice and the f. B. I. Under you be allowed to continue to investigate any russian connections, even if it leads to the trump camp and interests and associates . Reporter sessions did not answer directly, and brought up another country. If the laws were violated and can be prosecuted, you will have to handle that in an appropriate way. I would say that, the problem may turn out to be, as in chinese hacking of millions of records, it has to be handled at political level. Reporter sessions told the committee he would recuse himself from cases involving Hillary Clintons ail, but asked if hed recuse himself from any trump investigations . I would review it and try to do the right thing, decide if it should fall under the jurisdiction of the attorney general. Reporter tomorrow may bring more drama and strong words as witnesses testify for and against senator sessions. Woodruff lisa, thanks. Along with other nominee confirmations. So lisa, separately today the president elect told the New York Times in an interview that he wants republicans in congress to replace obamacare, the Affordable Care act, at the same time or very shortly after they repeal it. How does that square with what republicans are thinking and planning to do . Thats certainly been the other big headline on capitol hill today. It is at odds with the direction republicans had been going in. Right now the repeal itself seems likely to happen some time perhaps by the end of january at its fastest, and replacement, republicans havent agreed on a time line for that. As i look at maybe even this summer. Now weve had word from the House RepublicanSpeaker Paul Ryan saying he hopes to add in some concurrent elements of the replace as they repeal. I think all in all, judy, this is sort of the longtime republican lead centers congress coming perhaps clashing with to some degree the new republican president. Woodruff so this could mean a delay in the repeal vote . No, i dont think so, i think it means it will be very difficult to meet Donald Trumps timeline of an immediate repeal. The repeal itself is probably weeks away. Woodruff Lisa Desjardins at the capitol, thank you. In the days other news a federal jury sentenced dylann roof to death for killing nine black worshippers at a church in charleston, South Carolina. The white supremacist represented himself in the punishment phase, but he presented no case and did not ask the jury to spare his life. Afterward, one man whose sister was killed, called the verdict a hollow victory. My sister is still gone. I wish that this verdict could have brought her back but it cant. But what it can do is send a message to those who feel way he feels. That this community will not tolerate it. Woodruff roof is the first person sentenced to die for a federal hate crime. He still faces murder charges in state court. President obama is back home tonight in chicago, for his farewell address to the nation. He is expected to reflect on his eight years in office, before an audience of thousands of supporters. In a Facebook Post today, he previewed his message, saying weve reaffirmed the belief that we can make a difference with our own hands, in our own time. Pbs will have special live coverage of the president s speech, later tonight. The man in line to be secretary of Homeland Security says building barriers along the Mexican Border is not enough. Retired marine general john f. Kelly had his Senate Confirmation hearing today. Among the questions what about president elect trumps promise to build a border wall . Certainly as a military person that understands defense and defenses, a physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job. It has to be, really, a layered defense. If you were to build a wall from the pacific to the gulf of mexico, youd still have to back that wall up with patrolling by human beings, by sensors, by observation devices. Woodruff kelly also said that he does not support the idea of a registry for muslims or other religious groups. In afghanistan, nearly 40 people died today in a pair of bombings that rocked kabul. The taliban claimed responsibility. The blasts erupted near the Afghan Parliament complex during evening rush hour. In addition to the dead, more than 70 others were wounded. Thousands of people in Northern California remain under evacuation orders tonight, as heavy rain and snow roll over the region. Even Police Vehicles got stuck in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where up to ten feet of snow was falling, and even ski resorts had to shut down. Elsewhere, the flooding in Sonoma County is now the worst in a decade, forcing officials to open a sacramento dam for the First Time Since 2005. Wall street mostly marked time today. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly 32 points to close at 19,855. The nasdaq rose 20 points, and the s p 500 was unchanged. And, the newly crowned champions of College Football are back home in clemson, South Carolina tonight, after an epic victory over alabama. The tigers scored last night with one second left on the clock, to win 35 to 31. It was a rematch of last years title game, when alabama won. Still to come on the newshour u. S. Intelligence chiefs lay out the case of russian hacking; iran mourns the loss of an influential moderate voice; president obamas efforts to reform the nations criminal Justice System, and much more. Woodruff the nations top intelligence officials appeared before the Senate Intelligence committee today, just days after the release of a report on the alleged role of russian influence during the 2016 election. Margaret warner reports. In any of your careers, have you ever seen this level of russian interference in our political process . And well start with director comey, and just go down the line. No. I have not. No. No. Reporter it was a unified response from americas top intelligence officers, in their first public appearance since releasing an unclassified report describing a coordinated russian effort to disrupt the 2016 president ial election. The report released friday determined, with high confidence, that russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the hack of american political organizations, focused on democrats; that it was designed to aid president elect donald trump and discredit his democratic rival hillary clinton; and that stolen information was then delivered to wikileaks, and other groups, which published it online. The report stopped short of providing the evidence underlying those judgments, and that remained the case today, with director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper saying, to disclose more would jeopardize sources. We are very dependent given the nature of intelligence work to start with you as our overseers, to look at that yourselves on behalf of the electorate. Reporter committee chair, senator richard burr, also said he would investigate leaks to the media about the report in advance of its release. F. B. I. Director james comey declined to say if there is an investigation into whether the russian government communicated with anyone in the trump team. That raised eyebrows with some members. In a public forum, we never confirm or deny a pending investigation. The irony im not saying the irony of you making that statement here, i cannot avoid, but ill move on. Well, we sometimes think differently about closed investigations, but you asked me if i had any pending investigations, and were not going to talk about that. Reporter that was a veiled reference to comeys decision to speak publicly before the election about the f. B. I. s investigation into Hillary Clintons private email server. Also at question whether the hacks altered the outcome of the election. The trump team has characterized the report as saying the hacking had no effect on the election results. In fact, the report explicitly said it made no judgment on that. It did say there is no evidence that voting machinery or counting was affected. C. I. A. Director john brennan also said he had recently discussed the hacking with his russian counterpart. And i told him clearly that if russia was doing this theyre playing with fire. He denied any type of activity along these lines, but i made it very clear to him, basically, that we were onto him. Reporter separately, a group of ten senators from both parties introduced legislation seeking to broaden sanctions on russia. For the pbs newshour, im margaret warner. Woodruff this morning, i sat down with outgoing secretary of state john kerry at the u. S. Institute of peace. He was one of Many Obama Administration officials participating in an event called passing the baton, focused on a smooth transition between administrations. I began by asking him just how smoothly the transition to the trump team is going. Well, its going pretty smoothly because theres not an enormous amount of it. There are some people that have been in the building for a period of time, but, you know, quite candidly i think there has not been a lot of highlevel exchange at this point in time. Im still expecting to meet with my successor at some point in the near term. Woodruff you havent met with him yet . No, i havent met with him yet. Woodruff you expect to in. I do. Woodruff what are the one or two things that you wish you had known in the very beginning that you only learn later and maybe painfully . What troubles me a little bit is that people are not separate ing a remarkable transformation that is taking place globally naturally from things that were really responsible for. Let me give you an example. Arab spring, we didnt start the arab spring. We couldnt have stopped the arab spring, particularly this year. But that had nothing to do with the red line. Lets make that absolutely clear, folks. President obama never retreated from his red line. He never changed his mind about his redness to bomb assad the make it clear you dont use chemical weapons. Never. Theres a mythology thats grown up around this. One of the greatest challenges we all face right now, not just america, but every country in the world, is we are living in a factless political environment. And every country in the world better stop and start worrying about authoritarian populism and the absence of substance in our dialogue, if you could call it that. Woodruff what can the u. S. Do about that in. Well, were going to have to fight for it. I think a lot of people are struggling with what you do about it. If policy is going to be made in 140 characters on twitter and every reasonable measurement of accountability is being bypassed and people dont care about it, we have a problem. And its not just our problem here in the United States. Its all over the world. Woodruff secretary kerry also called for a new Marshall Plan to help countries in critical regions around the world educate their exploding youth populations and prevent them from being radicalized. Woodruff on sunday, one of the founders of the Islamic Revolution in iran died at age 82. Ali Akbar Hashemi rafsanjani helped lead the 1979 uprising, and went on to serve both as the powerful speaker of the parliament and as irans president in the 1980s. He was also a mentor of their current president , hassan rouhani, who will be up for reelection in may. Joining me now to discuss rafsanjani, his influence and iran going forward, is karim sadjadpour. Hes a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Karim, thank you for being back with us. What made rafsanjani the influential figure that he was . Well, to begin, he was a close confidante of the father of the Islamic Revolution, ayatollah khamenei. What was unique is he was always the cleric in iran who was interest in the putting the countrys economic interests before revolutionary ideology, but he ultimately lost that battle against the current supreme leader, who always believed that the rev revolutionary ideology should come first. Woodruff as you wrote, he helped to put the current ayatollah in power but almost immediately tried to get him out of power. Its a fascinating story. It really is. I call it shiite shakespeare, like a shakespearean epic, because he was the king maker. He made khomeini the king leader thinking he would be weak and pliant and rafsanjani could control him. I think he spent the last three decades of his life trying to wrestle power back from khomeini unsuccessfully. Woodruff they were two very different men. Why was one successful and the other one wasnt . I think ultimately what was. What made khomeini successful is i think he understood an important machiavellian rule, which is in authoritarian regimes its much more important to be feared than loved. So khomeini very carefully has cultivated the military, the revolutionary guard, so that was deeply helpful to him. At the same time, whereas khomeini had a reputation for being financially keen, rafsanjani and his family had a terrible reputation of being economically corrupt, which provoked a lot of popular resentment against them. Woodruff resentment, and yet youre telling us his death means a great deal for iran. Well, he was one of the pillars of the 1979 revolution who played a very Important Role as a mentor to this Younger Generation of tech democrats and as you mentioned rouhani. He was a counterweight to more radical forces in iran. I think the obituary writers are very confused about rafsanjani because on one hand he had blood on his hands. He ordered the killing of dissidents and intellectuals within iran. He was implicated in terrorist operations overseas, but at the same time in the context of the islamic public of iran, he was morede moderate than his peers. Woodruff that is my next question how moderate was he truly . In a western liberal context, he was a jeffersonian democrat. He favored putting the countrys economic interests before revolutionary ideology, which meant he was supportive of detente with the United States. He was supportive of a cordial relationship with saudi arabia. And he differed on these issues of revolutionary ideology in contrast to the supreme leader. Woodruff i think we mentioned he was a mentor to the current president , president rouhani. What does it mean now that hes gone from