Were sanctioned, as was the head of one of those Intel Services and three of his deputies. Three companies were also sanctioned. They allegedly provided support to russias cyberoperations. In addition, two facilities in the u. S. Owned by the russian government are being shut down. In a statement, the president said all americans should be alarmed by russias actions. In october, my administration publicized our assessment that russia took actions, intended to interfere with the u. S. Election process. These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the russian government. And he said, there could be additional moves made against russia. These actions, the president s statement saying, are not the sum total of our response to russias aggressive activities. We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized. Late today, president elect donald trump released his own statement. He said, its time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, i will meet with leaders of the Intelligence Community next week, in order to be updated on the facts of this situation. For more now, aisle joined by nbcs ron allen. He is at the white house. Ron, just in terms of what the administration did today, there are a couple of different fronts that they are proceeding on when it comes to these sanctions, what exactly did they do and what effect, practically speaking, what effect will all of this have on russia . Any . Reporter i think, some. They certainly hope so here at the white house. And whats most important, i think, steve, is that these sanctions, which basically freeze assets and restrict business dealings with americans go to the highest levels of the russian government and name names in the intelligence service. And those individuals may not have a lot of intelligence that they have access to, but this is meant to be a deterrent. And i think its important that the allegations were not just about hacking into the election, but also about harassing diplomats abroad and about russian spying here in the United States, which is why those 35 socalled operatives are being expelled and why those two russianowned compounds are being shut down. Theyre allegedly involved in espionage. And there were a number of russians who were named to our allegedly wellknown cyberthieves, who have been accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets from the United States, from financial institutions, and from ecommerce companies. So this was sweeping and it was beyond the election. And also, i just want to point out that apparently, there was no involvement by the Incoming Trump administration in this. Lisa monaco, the director of Homeland Security and counterterrorism here, made a point of saying that they were notified this morning, the Trump Administration was, that something was going to happen and presumably what was going to happen, but they were not consulted. They were not brought into the loop and into the decisionmaking process about what the United States would do. Also, the administration the Obama Administration has hinted strongly that the public portion of this is only a small part of what theyre going to do. Theyve hinted strongly for weeks now, for months, that a, were not even going to tell the public anything that happened, so its significant they did reveal all of this, but i think its pretty safe to assume and based on president obamas statement that there is much more that they are going to do or are doing thats covert, that the Administration Says the targets of this action will know something has happened, but the public will not. And ive heard a number of analysts say, that might be more punishing and bet the attention of Vladimir Putin perhaps more directly, because this is the kind of stuff he does. Or hes been known to do, covert activities, when he was back in the spy community, in the kbg. So a very sweeping set of actions taken here by the administration, undering mounting pressure to do something, of course. And it remains to be seen how president elect trump will react to this, what he will do, but clearly the Obama Administration has tried to lay out a set of steps that they ve ten that to some extent, president elect trump has to respond to. He has to either continue these sanctions or stop them. And by doing s he takes a position, and obviously, theres a lot of pressure in congress, bipartisan pressure, to take very strong action against the russians, because the election, because of a number of other things, as well. Steve . Ron allen at the white house. The white house also saying, russias cyberactivities were intended to influence tlex, erode faith in the u. S. Democratic institutions, sew doubt in the integrity of our electoral process and undermine confidence in the constitution of the u. S. Government. Im joined by James Woolsey, a former director of the cia. He was an adviser to Trumps Campaign on National Security and intelligence issues. And jeremy bash was chief of staff to former defense secretary, leon panetta. So donald trump has a big decision to make. Hes coming into office 22 days from now. The president whos leaving office just put these brandnew sanctions in place. If Donald Trumps asking you for advice, does he keep those sanctions in place or get rid of them, what would you say . Well, rather than forecast what i would advise him, let me just say what i think, myself. I think that the Obama Administration missed a bet on this by not taking legal action. Now, for anybody who is overseas and was hacking into us, were probably not going to get them extradited from russia to the United States. But for people in this country and for people who have done something that there is evidence of, theres a crime, i dont see why not to proceed under the criminal law with some of these individuals. I think that puts us more in a position of having made a judgment that have enough evidence for it to be an indictable offense. And i think that then the russians are in the position of having to explain or defend themselves. And rather than being in this curious situation that the Obama Administration has gotten us into, which is does that mean you do you think just politics. Do you think the sanctions then are not a good idea . Well, i think some of them are. And i think they would have more teeth, the ones that can be utilized this way, if they were brought in to our legal system. I dont see a reason in this case not to do that. Jeremy, you hear James Woolsey mention the word politics there. This is interesting. In 22 days, a new president is coming into office. There was nothing compelling president obama to take this step today, as opposed to collecting all the information, collecting all the evidence, and apparently, theyre telling us they think theyve got more coming in the next 22 days, and handing it off to the next president , saying, heres what weve got. Youre the president , you have to live with as president whatever sanctions you decide to impose or not to impose, and let the next president make a decision. There was an affirmative decision to do this now and to take this out of the purview of the next president. Does that demonstrate, do you think, on the Obama Administrations part, a judgment they didnt think donald trump was going to make the decision they wanted . Well, the most interesting document that the white house released today was an assessment by the fbi and by the department of Homeland Security. Its called a joint analysis report. And this lays the factual predicate, the unassailable factual predicate that Russian Intelligence Services were in fact behind the effort to put a thumb on the scale of the u. S. Election, which is an astounding statement in and of itself. And what this document does is it actually gives the basic information, which actors within the russian government, what were their internet protocol addresses, what was the malicious code that they used to try to infiltrate our democratic process. And i want to mention one line from this document that is so revelatory. I want says, this activity by russia was directed at the u. S. Government and its citizens. And i think the point is that the next administration, when they come in, they will find that russian hacking and russian cyberactivity will be directed at the whole government, not just the obama government, it will be directed also at the Trump Administration and government under donald trump. And so theyre going to have to deal with this, one way or another. This is not something they can turn a blind eye to. This is nothing to sweep away. Just to update your question here. Are we just discovering this now . I mean, there are some specifics here, obviously, in terms of what came out through this wikileaks, from the emails, through the Democratic Party and everything. But the idea of russia, the idea of an adversary, the idea of a country that has the ability to potentially hack, at least, would be trying to get into a political party, into the government, into an educational institution. I mean, thats one of the things this report seems to say, that this has been happening for a long time before now. Its been known since the summer and it was revealed publicly in october and now here we are post the election by a few weeks and the full complement of information can now being released. To come close to quoting president clinton in a different context, it all depends on what the this is. The russians have a program called disinformation. They doctor photographs, they rewrite things, they forge they have a lot of people, thousands of people involved in doing it and theyve been doing it since the 1930s anyway. And they use it to go against constitutions in the west that they believe damage them. They go against Democratic Political parties in europe, go against the catholic church, go against jews. They believe that anybody that might resist their views and the power they want to have, they would like to undermine their credibility. And so, russians have been doing this for nearly three quarters of a century. Whats new is cyber, which has this characteristic of being able to be masked much better than the other methods of moving militarily. So Obama Administration today saying that they have unmasked it yet the man you advise still given no public indication that theyve persuaded. Russias made Public Comments saying you cant prove anybody did it. You advised he may well be thinking and consulting his senior people, which i would suggest is what you want him to do. Is he taking it seriously enough, though. Youve been around him. Is he taking it seriously enough, in your judgment . Im sure hell take it seriously. That may not mean make a decision in one day. Let me also add, because director woolsey led the Central Intelligence agency and knows how important it is when there is strong trust between an agency and a president and also when there isnt strong trust, how damaging that can be, in both directions. I personally believe that having served at the cia and i believe director woolsey would agree with this, that it is going to be very important for this white house and this administration to listen to the Intelligence Briefings and, to receive those Intelligence Briefings and hear from the nonprofessional analytic cadre at the agency and across other intelligence agencies and to take them into consideration and put it into the policy mix. They may come out with a policy view that some will agree or disagree, but at least to have that factual basis of the intelligence picture has got to be a critical part of president ial decision making. And they dont need to talk about it. Teddy roosevelt had it right, speak softly and carry a big stick. And sometimes the softly is so soft, you arent heard at all. They would be far more effective, i think, by using their cyber and other tools in such a way as to brace russia substantially. And instead of issuing awful statements and insulting and getting into this crazy kind of spin that theyre starting to get into, it looks like, what about saying something thats friendly and helpful, because theyve just lost 90 people, military people, and the red army corists. A big constitution in russia. Why not offer sympathy for that. I want to be clear what youre talking about, you say, getting this crazy kind of spin. Where are you seeing the crazy kind of spin . I was thinking of the Obama Administration and im thinking particularly of their trying to make the overall situation back with the situation with israel look as if israel is the problem and its settlements. And i think that is very far from true. I think the heart of the matter is that the problem is that the palestinians want to kill i just wanted to be clear, you werent talking about todays announcement today in the report that was put out today . One needs to Pay Attention to what has happened and led up to it. Very quickly . A different frame, of course well express sympathy for the plane crash that took down 90 members of the russian vocal chorus, but russia today is doing a number of nefarious things around the world. They are allowing the liquidation of aleppo and the assault on a civilian population. They are confronting nato and nato allies all across europe. They have annexed crimea and control krooung. Theyre doing things that are not helpful. I think thats got to be the frame, the mode. I agree with senator mccain and senator graham. This has to be job number one for the next administration. And the irony, boy, if anybody remembers four years ago, it was mitt romney, president obamas opponent who said, russia, putin is our number one geopolitical foe. He was ridiculed and this is ow the Obama Administration ends. There is definitely some irony there. James woolsey and jeremy bash, thank you both for joining us. Coming up, the first big fight of 2017 will be about obamacare. Thats ahead. Plus, call it a rockette revolt. Several members of the famed dance troupe dont want to perform at Donald Trumps inauguration tonight. Were going to meet a former rockette who says they shouldnt perform at trumps big day at all. And a specl endoftheyear edition of hardball roundtable. Well pick the biggest game change moments from the politics year of 2016 and something to expect in the year 2017. Thiss hardball, the place for politics. All right, tomorrow on hardball, join Chris Matthews for a special look back at some of his hardest hitting moments from the president ial campaign. Hell have highlights from his college tours, from town halls with donald trump donald trump, Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, even gary johnson. That is tomorrow, 7 00 eastern, well be right back. And welcome back to hardball. Democrats are preparing for battle in the next few weeks as republicans in congress and president elect donald trump have repeatedly said their first order of business in the new year will be to repeal president obamas Landmark Health care bill, obamacare. They are all calling for a national day of action on sunday, january 15th. Thats just a few days before trump will be sworn in. And in their first stand against republican efforts to roll back health care reform, democrats are pushing for organized rallies across the country to oppose any changes to medicare and the Affordable Care act. The democrats say, quote, it is important to bring the American People together to fight this radical proposal. Millions of americans voted for donald trump after he promised not to cut social security, medicare, and medicaid. Must be held to those promises and should veto any legislation that cuts these vital and Necessary Health programs. Earlier this month, when pressed by reporters, Republican SenateMajority Leader Mitch Mcconnell failed to describe the gops replacement for the millions of americans receiving health care through obamacare. We will move right after the first of the year on an obamacare replacement resolution, and we will work expeditiously to come up with a better proposal than current law, because current law is simply unacceptable and not sustainable. Will there be any framework established before you do a repeal, in terms of replacement well let you know. Were going to move forward first with the obamacare replacement resolutions. What comes next is what comes next. Does that mean that means as i said earlier, well move first with the obamacare replacement resolution and then we will come with what the replacement actually will be. I dont know how many times i have to say the same thing. Paul singer is a White House Correspondent with usa today. Katherine rampel is an opinion writer with the washington post. So what will this look like . Practically speaking, obamacare was passed in 2010. Every republican running for office since then has been running on repeal and replace. Youll now have a republican president , a republican house, a Republican Senate. Theyve got