Is it possible the russian dictator has no real idea about the politics of a free country with a free media . Is it possible he thinks our cia is like his intelligence operation that its a Political Tool of the president . Is it possible putin thinks the media in this country are directed by president obama the way rt, russian levision, is his propaganda arm . And on the home front, what are the members of congress who are boycotting saying . Are they agreeing trump is not legitimate . Or are many of them carrying out a protest triggered by lewiss charge against what they condemn and what trump has said, what hes promised to do . At his News Conference this morning, putin accused the Obama Administration of attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the president elect, by leaking that 35page dossier of unsubstantiated allegations against donald trump. Here it is. Translator people who order such false statements that are now being spread to compromise the newly elected president of the usa, fabricate them and use them in their political struggle. Those people are worse than prostitutes. They dont have any moral boundaries. We, russia, deal with such people on a regular basis. But the fact that its been used against a newly elected president , makes it a unique event. This hasnt happened before. It indicates a significant level of deg radation of the political elites in the west, including the u. S. Putins charge echoes the very accusation that trump has made himself against the intelligence community. Most recently trump questioned the cia director john brennan was the leaker of fake news. Responding in the wall street journal brennan denied responsibility for the leak and slammed trump for attacking the patriotism of the agency. Tell the families of the 117 cia officers who are forever memorialized on our wall of honor, that their loved ones who gave their lives were akin to nazis. I find that to be very repugnant and i will forever stand up for the integrity and patriotism of my office. Thats john brennan. Thats coming up in a moment, but first breaking news late today, president obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning who was convicted for wrongfully publicizing intelligence belonging to the United States. It means that mannings 35year sentence will expire this coming may. Joining me now with their reaction, david corn, mbs nbc and levy farc is former secretary of defense. What do you make of it . I was surprised and i wonder if it has anything to do with the tweet that wikileaks put out, saying if he granted clemency to Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange would agree to be extradited to the United States. I dont think thats going to happen. I think what motivated him is the harsh treatment Chelsea Manning has gotten after being held in the brig. I think its an act of mercy. I think shes been cracking up in prison. I think its been a pretty rough go for her there. And i think that hes getting a lot of pressure on the left to do something. I think thats why he did it. Yeah, i think as an act of compassion, i agree with that. But important to note, he didnt pardon here. Tell the difference. Commutation is basically saying, youre not going to have to serve out the rest of your sentence. Youre still guilty, but you dont have to sit in jail. Im letting you go. And why is that important . Why does he want to say that she is guilty . So wikileaks came onto the radar because Chelsea Manning dumped diplomatic cables and information over to wikileaks. It was released to the public. That was the first big, massive leak. That was befor wikileaks got firmly into bed with russia, which we can talk about later. But president obama is saying its not okay to leak information, but i feel badly for this woman and im going to say, shes paid her price to society and now lets move on. But we are not done with wikileaks. Lets get to the big question, which is shattering everybody now. Putin has jumped into our politics again. Now saying that the Obama Administration, which i believe has been incredibly courteous to the incoming president , even as of today with josh earnest saying im rooting for the young men and women who are coming to town looking for jobs with this administration, like were all in this together. But now the dictator of russia is saying that our president , and his administration, are using our intelligence arms, the media and everybody what do you make of this trying to delegitimize mr. Trump. I think its wrong to see this as just a defense of donald trump. I dont think putin wants a strong President Trump. He wants chaos. He wanted trump over hillary. And the whole way we went about it today, hes trying to sew discord against the cia, which is the agency that watches him, and at the same time, he started talking about the allegations against trump, saying they were fake and false and then he starts describing them in detail. Thats not what you do if youre trying to defend somebody. If i were trump, id make the same charge against our intelligence agencies. Distribute information about the gang of eight on the hill, but we dont want it to get out. Id like to agree with you. I think hes trying to cause chaos in the american electorate. Does he want to weaken trump . Of course. He wants to weaken america. Both. I think he wants to do anything he can, which is done in all the border countries around him. Hes sewed this chaos all over the place. Hes a bad dude. We all get that. Well, trump doesnt. Trump does not get that. Thats the big difference. This is the problem. Vladimir putin and the kremlin, the people around him, what they want to do is weaken america. Why . Because we are the only country that can bring together the rest of the world to counter russia, we have the biggest military is he going to be like that character in batman, the Jack Nicholson character who keeps interfering with whats going on . Yes. Is he going to be in our face for the next four years . Yes, unless we stand up to him. Its dangerous for president elect trump. He can get trapped very easily by vladimir putin. President elect trump is going to rely on his intelligence people to warn him [ all speak at once ] youre an expert. How long can trump be if you say hes being duped by mr. Putin i can only assume that. How long can we dupe him, before it becomes clear that its a trap, to trump . How long can we get away with oh, were going to Work Together fighting terrorism, Everything Else is off the table. All were going to do is Work Together fighting terrorism, how long will that last . The minute that putin does something that flies in the face of u. S. National security interests, then trump will be in a bad situation. So that would be Something Like getting involved in the middle east latvia or attacking one of the baltic states. Even with little green men or something more subtle what are little green men . People who are not in classic military uniform. Like in ukraine . Ukraine, crimea. The other thing, the russian government, putin and his kremlin, they think theyre at war already. Its just a war without bullets. Its an information war, its a war to weaken america. We sound like weirdos saying that were at war with russia. But in the eyes of the kremlin, they think theyre at war with us. Let me ask you, madam secretary not anymore. No, its a permanent title. Why are the russians afraid of us having a couple things . They dont want us to have any ballistic missiles, nonNuclear Weapons. What are they afraid of us doing . Do they think nato is going to attack russia . Do they believe that . They do. Do have a paranoid belief at nato is going to attack and encircle russia. And its not rational. But they believe that their war with nato troops in poland right now, the germans is that an act of aggression as they see it . Its absolutely not. Its an act of deterrence. As they see it. [ all speak at once ] as they see it, yes. But remember, you know what theyve done, this is not discussed very much. Theyve broken out of the International Nuclear forces treaty. To ungeek that, what it means is that in the 80s the russians developed a missile to strike our european allies. Reagan got rid of them, so neither the u. S. Nor russia can have those weapons anymore. We cant fight with Nuclear Weapons in europe. So they broke out of that treaty. Now let me ask you, john, about these politics. Trumps going to be president on friday. Its going to happen. Its like the turning of the earth. Its going to happen. Where does this take us . Is he going to meet with putin . Its not going to be in canada. Its going to be moscow. What comes of that . Given whats been going on the last couple of hours. Its all very confusing. The cia under mike pompeo and donald trump can declare peace ask come can come up with a unified plan. I think a reset with russia is not a bad idea. And we have a better relationship with the russians, thats not the worst case scenario. If we do things that are provocative with the russians, theyre going to strike back. And they are sewing chaos. All of us have to understand, these are big stakes and the more we try to undermine our president , the more we undermine our president , the worse off we are as a country. Wait a second. You were probably wuonce a reag republican. And that was during the cold war. She told you the cold war, from their perspective is not over. There are a lot of challenges with russia now. Im not a hawk in saying we have to go to war with russia. John mccain and Lindsey Graham are hawkish on it. But at the same time, you have to recognize the discord that putin is sewing here, not just here, but across democracies in europe. What he did in ukraine, these are bad things. You cant just say were going to have a reset and move on. [ all speak at once ] they laughed at Hillary Clinton for that. So this whole notion now, youre just following Donald Trumps lead because he really has no idea what hes doing. And the idea of saying, we all have to get behind donald trump now, so we have a strong approach to russia. Name me one republican who did that in the last eight years with barack obama. On anything so dont come to me now and say, we have to get behind a guy who kno knows nothing about what hes talking about. Mccain and Lindsey Graham backed him. Okay, you got two. Hes not owed anything. Let him act like a grownup first. But hes still our president. Not until friday. What do you think is going to happen between now and friday . Hes going to be our president. Why dont you start acting like it hes going to be our president. What did he do it barack obama for jeeyears and years . He delegitimized him. Now you come along and say, we have to honor the presidency. This is hypocrisy. You didnt do it for barack obama. Sure we did. I did. Your party did not. [ all speak at once ] whats the smartest move for critics of this president to take . American krit. American critics . Based on the psychology of it, youve got to praise him . Praise who . Praise trump and tell him how youre going to help him. He can try reset. Child psychology, thats great. He should try reset. Thank you all. Coming up, trumps war with the intelligence community. The director of the cia is firing back hard after donald trump likened the agency to nazi germany. Can Trumps Administration rebuild that relationship with the ency he needs to tell him whats going on in the world. This is hardball, the place for politics. Whether it be with customer contracts, agreements to lease a space or protecting your work. Legalzooms network of attorneys can help you, every step of the way. So you can focus on what you do and well handle the legal stuff that comes up along the way. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. Anyone ever have occasional y constipation,diarrhea, gas or bloating . She does. She does. Help defend against those digestive issues. Take Phillips Colon Health probiotic caps daily with three types of good bacteria. 400 likes . Wow try Phillips Colon Health. Like their photo claims tool. It helps settle your claim quickly, which saves time, which saves money. And when they sa, you save. Thats auto and Home Insurance for e modern world. Esurance, an allstate compy. Click or call. Esurance does insurance a smarter way, which saves money. Like bundling home and auto coverage, which reduces red tape, which saves money. And when they save, you save. Thats home and Auto Insurance for the modern world. Esurance, an allstate company. Click or call. Its not a good situation for our country, chris, to have a president of the United States and soon to be commander in chief, having this kind of contentious relationship with the intelligence community. Its just not good for our national security. Its not good for the country. Welcome back to hardball. That was former cia director panetta reacting to the war of words between president elect donald trump and the u. S. Intelligence community. Once hes sworn into office in three days, President Trump will need to rely on these agencies for spy information to execute policies, and that requires both sides to heal the rift. Cia director john brennan explained why hes taken such offense at trumps criticism of the intelligence community. Quote, we dont expect our information and our assessments to be swallowed whole. Its when there are allegations made about leaking, or about dishonesty, or a lack of integrity, thats where i think the line is crossed. But in an interview in this network today, on this network, james wolsy, former adviser to the president elect, said that brennan should tone it down. Well, hes going to be the president of the United States in four days and it would seem to me that a less angry response in public would have been far preferable. I dont think he is doing a service by getting into the pit and getting angry back. I think he needs to speak respectfully to the soon to be president of the United States. Im joined by jeremy bash and shane harris. Lets talk about how whacky this is. Because, fact, whatever the feelings everybody here has, and everybody else in the country has back and forth about trump being president , its gonna happen. Hell need the minute he gets that oath of office, walks off that platform, has lunch with the members of congress, hell need to know whats going on. His only source of information besides the news we have is the cia. So how does he have this relationship develop here . How does it work . And he can get angry at director brennan, but even when director pompeo comes in on friday, the very first day, its the same intelligence professionals providing the same assessment, that russia tried to interfere with our election. His intelligence officials will be watching to see what al qaeda does, what china does, what isis does. If theres a Troop Movement somewhere, mobilization by the russians [ all speak at once ] perhaps the pabaltics, god he that never happens because thats nato. What brennan told me in the interview yesterday, look, we need a president who knows this is credible, apolitical intelligence. What are our allies going to think if the president is openly questioning the integrity of the cia . You dont need the president going out, saying, i think what theyre giving me is garbage. Do you think its possible trump doesnt know what objective truth is . I dont know. I cant get inside his head. But youre laughing. If somebody says, tokyo is the capital of japan, i mean, does he question obvious information . Hes been questioning unassailable facts, like what russia was going to do. Or that president obama was a legitimate president of the United States. Thats right. Every meeting starts with an intelligence laydown, and they established the facts that will govern how the policy decisions will be made. If he wipes that away, theyre going to get the wrong answer. And hes selectively questioning facts. Its only russia that hes questioning it. You think hes on the hook . He has his own views about russia that are impervious to anything the cia tells him. Thats not true about north korea or [ all speak at once ] people are good at only listening to things. I can remember a phone number if i repeat it out loud to myself, better than remembering the numbers myself. And bill clinton liked to get on paper, he didnt want anybody talking to him every morning. He wanted to read it. Thats what he wanted. Some guys like to have it quickly thrown at them. Trump seems to be a guy who doesnt want it any way. How are you supposed to give the morning briefing say trump gets up at 8 00 in the morning, walks down to the oval office and he wants to know whats going on that day. Thank you, jeremy bash and shane harris. When we return, trump watch for this tuesday night. This is hardball, where the action is. Isnt it time to let the real you shine through . Introducing otezla, apremilast. Otezla is not an injection, or a cream. It a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. Someple who took otezla saw 75 clearer skin after 4 months. 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