Plus, Bernie Sanders on the overnight vote to repeal obamacare. A time Elizabeth Warren and ben carson faced off at a confirmation hearing. Dr. Carson, im trying to ask a more pointed question. And surprising joe biden. I am pleased to award our nations highest civilian honor, the president ial medal of freedom. [ applause ] and exit interview with the Vice President when all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes, we are eight days from donald trump becoming president of the United States of america and once again tonight we are faced with an absolute deluge of major seismic and important news. We begin with a story dominating the National Conversation one in which we are finally perhaps starting to get more clarity. But it remains at this hour a story thaw is maddeningly hard to pin down despite the boundless stakes. I speak of the saga of the decision to include a twopage summariened briefing materials for president obama and the president elect trump of an infamous, dlashs, salacious dost the russian government has compromising material about the incoming president elect and trumps team and the russian government exchanged information during the president ial campaign. Multiple sources tell nbc news those materials wiere not presented to trump during the formal briefing but after ward james comey took trump aside and spoke with him one on one about the existence of the unverified allegations against him and told him a summary of those claims was included in an addendum to the topsecret report. Today Vice President joe biden said intelligence officials told him they felt obliged to inform the president and Vice President of the materials in part because they were concerned they would become public. Was it a mistake for the Intelligence Community to even include that unverified two paged addendum even included in the briefing papers. We asked that question and their argument was that this is something that the press already had. Not just here in the United States but other places. That it would be they would be they didnt use the word derelict but it was their obligation to inform not only us but the president elect that this was out there. So that it didnt come out 206 blue and have any impact on the conduct of our foreign policy. They were clear that they just mentioned it, they made no judgment about it, they did not say any of this was substantiated but they felt it was obliged. We will have much more of that exclusive interview later in the show. We now know the dossier was prepared initially at the behest of antitrump republicans by a former British Intelligence officer Christopher David steel who nbc news partner itv reports was posted to moscow in 1990 and who has now reportedly gone into hiding to avoid attention or possible retribution. Asked by nbc news if russian intelligence agencies on trump, a Vladimir Putin spokesman Dimitry Peskov pleaded ignorance. Have your intelligence agencies got anything on donald trump . Ive never seen the file. With respect, thats not a complete denial. I do not work in intelligence agencies. At his News Conference yesterday, trump said uncategorically the information in the dossier was false. Its a fake news. Its phony stuff. It didnt happen. And it was gotten by opponents of ours as you know because you reported it and so did many of the other people, it was a group of opponents that got together, sick people, and they put that crap together. Does anyone really believe that story . Im also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me. Trump spoke on the phone yesterday with James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence who said he expressed his dismay to trump that the information had been leaked and he didnt believe the leak did not come he believed the leak did not come from the Intelligence Community. Trump tweeted today James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up phony facts. Too bad. But clapper is telling a different story. He is not deeming the information false as trump suggested but rather suggesting the Intelligence Community does not know if it is true or not. According to clapper the Intelligence Community has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions. However, part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security. Included in that dossier was the potentially explosive claim the trump camp coordinated with the russians during the campaign. A claim trump Spokesman Sean Spicer today flatly denied on a phone call with reporters. The Trump Campaign and the russian government and any suggestion otherwise is totally irresponsible. Politics shouldnt play a role in our intelligence efforts and our intelligence efforts shouldnt play a role in our politics. And then there is this potential bombshell. The guardian citing unnamed sources reporting that the fbi applied for a warrant from t seet fisa court in order to monitor four members of the trump team but that the fisa court, which turns down very few applications, turned down the application asking fbi investigators to narrow down their focus. Another report from Election Night claims the fbi sought and was granted a fisa Court Warrant in october after narrowing the scope of its request. Nbc news has not confirmed the fisa court claims if. That is true it means while it was publicly discussing its politically damaging investigation of Hillary Clinton, the fbi was simultaneously investigating trumps team over possible ties to russia while managing to keep that investigation a total secret. Joining me now, New York Times political reporter and msnbc contributor nick confessore. This is such a bizarre story because at the center of it is a document which has now been made public whose charges are wyle you know, theyre massively scandalous, if true, but also whose truth content we have no ability to judge. Right and possibly no way of judging in the the future. So the important thing to realize is this began with a republican donor whos still a mystery, by the way, who wanted some information on trumps business ties in russia and other matters, commissioned as a kind of opposition process . Yeah. And commissioned a Research Firm in washington and theres a little subworld of Research Firms that do this, people have heard of oppo, this is high end oppo. It involves hiring private eyes. To be clear, this is not a 26yearold digging through a courthouse in florida. This is retired intelligence officials . Right. It can be. So that firm subcontracted out this man and assembled what he was told back into this dossier or into these report which is made their way back to the client. At some point, some democrats, people who were proclinton were involved in picking up the baton of either funding or seeing the documents. When the republican donor backed away because of trump being the nominee of the party. So from that point on stop right there. Trump says its a bunch of sick guys that got together. This was one individual that basically hired a firm that then subcontracted. How does that baton get passed . Like, hey, opportunity russian dossier . Its not entirely clear to me at some point the contents began to be circulated among reporters in washington a version of it was reported on by david corn of mother jones in october. Without the most sensational claims. Exactly. Some people had seen or heard about in the late july but as you pointed out, it was hard to verify the contents. To be clear, christopher steel, my sense from the reporting i have seen and people that work in intelligence, this is not how to put this this is not someone considered a kook or a nut or you know, anyone can be an exspy and they could lose their mind or whatever doesnt mean anything in there is true, but he is regarded with a degree of credibility. People regard him as real, but the question is is the intelligence real . Hes as good as his sources. You saw the report going around washington and reporters of various organizations couldnt run it down. So now we stand with is the incoming president a turned foreign asset or is he being libelled in one of the most egregious fashions ever . Shrug. And if its fiction its possible its also russian intelligence. Nikck confessore, thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Joining me now, congressman adam schiff, the Ranking Member of the house Intelligence Committee. The reason i wanted to talk to you is that you are one of only about a dozen people due to your position on that Intelligence Committee who gets to access the most highly classified briefings and you can never talk about what you see but i would love your guidance as we on the outside of this attempt to figure out what is going on, donald trump saying that there is a determination made about the intelligence contained in that dossier, director of National Intelligence saying there was none. What should we think . I would go with the director of National Intelligence. Unfortunately the president elect has demonstrated that you cant rely on what he says in his tweets and you cant rely on what he says in his press statements either and the best illustration of that was when the Intelligence Community released a public report about the russian hacking the Trump Organization put out a statement from the president elect saying that it showed there was no affect on the outcome of the election but, of course, thats not at all what the report said. In fact, that would be well beyond the scope of what the Intelligence Community can assess. Instead it said merely there was no tampering with the votecounting machines but plainly the daily dumping of documents targeting secretary clinton had an affect. We may never know whether it was determinative or not but clearly it had an affect so you couldnt rely on what the president elect said about the report. I dont think you can rely on what the president elect says about his conversation with director clapper and the directors statement made it very clear they have made no judgment on the reliability of those documents from that private security firm. One of the things director clapper did say in the beginning of that statement was expressing his frustration, anger, i believe about the leaks and i have to say, wouldnt you agree that it is fundamentally in some senses unfair to the reputation of the individual about to take the oath of office that theres now this kind of cloud of suspicion that hangs over him due in part to this leak . I think the director was exactly right. Not only to point out in his statement that these leaks are corrosive but to call the president elect and say that he does not believe this is the Intelligence Community that was responsible and that this is very damaging. Its obviously not only damaging in terms of the president elect and his reputation but also its damaging just to the trust between the president elect and Intelligence Community which started out at a low ebb but, you know, what concerns me the most, frankly, beyond reputation and beyond anything else frankly is what are the facts here . And who the going to investigate all of the aspects of russian interference in our Political Affairs . Because i think frankly the investigation ought to follow the facts wherever they lead and the russians have used a whole variety of tactics, everything from blackmail to extortion to the funding of extremist parties to europe to hacking to dumping to dumping of forged documents. I put nothing past the russians and we ought to have a bipartisan nonpartisan Commission Like 9 11 investigate this. Congressman adam schiff, as i said, Ranking Member on the house Intelligence Committee. Thanks for your time, appreciate it. Thank you. Joining me now, chris murphy of connecticut, member of the Senate Foreign relations committee. I want to first get your reaction to the first series of stories, the latest that it was james comey, we have sources saying, told the president elect about to contents of this twopage summary. I think it is appropriate for the fbi or intelligence to tell him about it given the fact it was likely going to be leaked. I agree with congressman schiff that these leaks are damaging. But lets be honest, everyones looking for a why here. Donald trump has invited much of this speculation upon himself because of this bizarre isolationism of his positioning on russia so far outside of 2 american mainstream, this constant apology for Vladimir Putin and his allies and his nominees in these confirmation hears who are basically lining up to withdraw the sanctions that have been put on russia over the last few years. Can i stop you there, though . I want you to respond to this. This sounds dangerously close to saying the following the ideological positions of the person who will be president of the United States are such that they invite questions about his loyalty and invite questions about whether he is a compromised asset of a foreign power. Thats not what im saying. I say they invite questions as to the motive, when someone is this far outside of the mainstream, when theres really no good explanation for why you would be seeking to cozy up to a vicious dictator who wishes us nothing but ill explanation. This is incredibly thinly sourced and theres nothing in it that would give us confidence this is, in fact, is the reason but you can understand why people are searching today because its hard to draw a line from his position on russia to a motive that we see in the open today. It does seem that something must be done in terms of further factfinding and some definitive accounting. At this point the current status quo seems completely untenable this thing is out there and were all just shrugging our shoulders. What can you in the senate do, what can members of congress to provide definitive judgment so the public the know where things stand . I think this is made more difficult by the questions that were asked of director comey earlier in the week. He has not been able to disclose whether he is conducting an investigation. That would certainly give people some confidence the truth to the extent we can know what will be made known but, frankly, congress over the years has been good at doing investigations. We havent done many recently but this would be something the Intelligence Committee, the Foreign Relations committee, a bipartisan multicommittee effort could look into. Somebody has to do this work. We wont know if its the fbi then i would counsel the chairs of the Foreign Relations committee, the Intelligence Committee to convene their own panel. Senator chris murphy, thanks for your time, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Still to come, senator Bernie Sanders joins me tonight. Stick around for that. Next, the huge news today, a new investigation into the actions of the Justice Department, the fbi and comey for their handling of the clinton email probe leading up to the president ial election. Thats after this break. Americans 83 try to eat healthy. Yet up 90 fl short in getting key nutrients from food alone. Lets do more. Add one a day 50 a complete multivitamin with 100 daily value of more than 15 key nutrients. One a day 50 . A bombshell announcement from the u. S. Inspector general from his office, an independent entity, will investigate wideranging allegations of misconduct related to the fbis probe into Hillary Clintons emails. According to the Inspector General, including allegations the Justice Department and fbi employees improperly disclosed nonpublic information perhaps at the center of this investigation are the actions of fbi director james comey, specifically his decision to hold a press conference in july recommending no charges for clinton while castigating at length her conduct, particularly for being extremely careless. Comeys now infamous letter to congress on october 28 saying he was looking into new emails discovered on a laptop shared by clinton aide huma abedin and her husband anthony weiner. Then he sent a letter two days before the election to congress saying nothing new has been found. In a Statement Today comey said i am grateful to the department of justices ig for taking on this review. Everyone will benefit from thoughtful evaluation and transparency regarding this matter. Now this investigation comes on the context of two things. One, the mounting evidence that comeys letter politically damaged clinton quite a bit and did it two weeks before the election. As princeton neuroscienti