U. S. Officials said Vladmir Putin personally directed the hacking plans to impact the u. S. Election. Now tonight we can report virtually every political reader leader who responded to the story has criticized russia because, obviously, an attack on u. S. Democracy is bigger than any political party. Well, every leader except donald trump. He may be the only person in the u. S. Government who ordered a bad headline about putin and responded by attacking president obama. Well show you the tweet. If russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act. Why did they only complain after hillary lost . He tweeted. Now we want to be fair. Two Anonymous Sources in washington doesnt make an entire allegation automatically true. And some are disputing parts of this story. Russian government officials call it ridiculous. And, quote, laughable nonsense. U. S. Officials say, however, that the outlies of this entire plot are not exactly new. Homeland security pointing to russia in october saying they were confident the russian government directed recent comprises of emails from u. S. Political organizations. And what is new, they say, are the u. S. Intelligence assessments about details and motive. What started is what theyre calling a vendetta over clinton after she questioned russian elections. We want to be clear. Theres much here about this story that we do not know. A declassified presentation of the evidence by the intelligence agencies could help americans all americans try to work from a common set of facts. But it is notable that right now the Trump Transition Team appears either unsure or downright evasive about how to respond to propaganda attacks on the United States by an adversary. The kind of attacks that one former bush intelligence official likened to the political equivalent of 9 11. Today trump aids were ducking questions from nbc about this on their daily call. A certain point got to realize the election from last month is going to stand. No one is questioning whether the election stands. Which is what makes that statement so odd. But dont take our word for it. Here is a senior Foreign Policy republican, senator Lindsey Graham saying trumps disbelief about russias apparent intervention is troubling. Im 100 certain that the russians hacked into podestas emails, the dnc, and other political organizations. Most of the information released was unfavorable to clinton not trump. And here is president trumps dill limb ma. What are you going to do . If you dont believe that the russians were involved in interfering in our election, then im troubled by that. Because ive been briefed. I dont think anybody who has heard the briefings doubt that the rush chance were interfering in our election. Whatever their motives were. I dont care. Grahams emphasizing saying he doesnt care is that the motives dont matter that much. And donald trump is so caught up on how it could affect his political standing he, so far, has barely addressed how it affects the United States security standing. The broader significance here is not about delegitimizing who won the election. It is, according to all the information we have thus far about putin trying to delegitimize american democracy itself. Joining us now malcolm nans nbc and the author of the plot to america. Ambassador mcfall, is this significant story, in your view, and what, if anything, concerns you about trumps apparent lack of belief in it . Well, it is the story significant . Absolutely its significant. Its unprecedented in our history that a Foreign Government intervened, stole information, publicized it and had a definite impacts on the election, i dont think it caused the outcome. There are many variables. There are at play. It is a huge story about National Security. Not partisan politics. What people have said are undenial facts. Hes privvy to the facts, by the way. He can ask for a deep dive president ial Daily Briefing and theyll bring in the people who know the most about it and explain it to him. I would hope we take the facts seriously so we can prepare for our National Security and not keep fighting about the legitimacy or not of the election, which i, for one, am not concerned about. Im concerned about the National Security implications. Yeah, ambassador, is it your view that this is clear, at least at the broadest jot line that russia was seeking to intervene their motives and donald trump is wrong about a public fact and something of a russia truther . Or do you think there is genuine disagreement about the facts . I dont think theres any agreement about the facts of the hacking. By the way, i wrote about it many times before the election. And as youve recorded that the u. S. Government came out with a definitive statement in october before the election, i dont think theres any doubt about the facts. Ill tell you, honestly, what i worry about for the president elect. If he keeps denying intelligence that everybody else sees as facts, thats going to start to look like a cover up. Thats not good for his own Foreign Policy. That will make people wonder about why hes doing certain things with the in terms of the bilateral relationship with russia that may be good things to do in terms of cooperation. Eventually i hope hell see we all, the American People, have an interest in knowing the basic facts. I continue to believe a bipartisan, independent Commission Like the 9 11 commission is the right way to go so we can get the facts straight first and then work on the prescriptions so we dont repeat this again in 2020. Malcolm . Mike mcfall is absolutely right. The ambassador hit the nail on the head. You know, my book came out one month before the election. My analysis was written four months before. Im not, you know, the Central Intelligence agency and other analysts have been watching this for some time. The ambassador and myself were on television several times in august a warning about the hack. And its very true. Donald trump right now risks the possibility of not just looking like he is apologizing for moscow. From a Counter Intelligence perspective, i can tell you i speak to many people in the Intelligence Community every day. And right now people are saying Donald Trumps invisible strings to moscow, which may have been part of a fsb intelligence operation are starting to look very visible. The question that we want to know fundamentally is what did he know about this hack . When did he know about this hack . On july 27th, he actually requested for russia to conduct the hack as if he had known there was an operation going on. Which means he believed in it that time. But at this time, hes in full diagonal mode. And the question is is he come police it in these hacks . And if so, then he does and may have a legitimacy question. Youre right. Yeah youre raising some serious issues there of ones he hasnt cleared up. Youre referencing a press conference where he referred to maybe the russians can help find the missing emails. They later tried to defend it by saying it was a different comment. Second, i want to put on the screen the august briefing which he was entitled. Prove briefings from u. S. Intel. Nbc news previously reported classified materials prepared for the briefing and showed u. S. Officials had drawn direct links between putins government and the recent hacks and email leaks. So, you know, malcolm unpack that for people at home. We heard about putin has a big break in the story yesterday. But the implication there being that what was new to us may have been old for the nominees based on the briefings they got in the summer well, thats new information to me, too. And outstanding job by nbc investigative. You know, so he was he was given in his first intelligence briefing information that showed the United StatesIntelligence Community had high confidence. And we killed people with high confidence with drones, by the way, almost 100 of the time. So high confidence that this hack was directly linked to moscow and it was the cia who took it a step further doing a proper analysis exactly as i had done with my book, and showed there had to have been a benefit to someone it wasnt just a chaos operation. Putin endorsed trump as far back as december 2015 and they were inside the dncs computers for almost six months before that. And so as he went through the nomination process, russia seemed confident in him. And then started the systemic leaks. He was clearly aware from u. S. Intelligence but his denial, his flat out denial right now is nothing less than suspicious. And im sure ambassador mcfall will speak more on that. Ambassador, lets broaden to the Foreign Policy implications here. Which is there is room for agreement about how to approach these countries. People have rightly pointed out that barack obama ran on warming relations with certain controversial countries like iran and cuba. Certainly another nominee has the right, in this case the president elect to advocate relations with various countries based on an assessment of u. S. National interest. What seems to be the problem here is the idea not that donald trump is doing it independently. In a way that might have his interest. But it seems like putin time and time again is getting the better of the u. S. In these interactions. Right now to a lot of people it looks like the u. S. Is getting played and the incoming president saying nothing to see here. What is your view of where our relationship with russia goes from here . Well, let me make two pnts about that. A very important question. The first thing is president elect trump keeps saying is Foreign Policy objective is to get along with russia. And i disagree with that. I dont think getting along with any country should be the objective, the outcome of Foreign Policy. Instead he needs to define what National Security interest he wants to pursue and then choose the means to to do it. Whether it means getting along or confrontation. I think hes confused on basic strategy in that regard. I worry if the objective is to get along then the means for achieving it is lifting sanctions, endorsing what russia is doing and you rain and syria. I would be nervous about that. But the second piece, youre absolutely right. He is the president. He will soon be the president. He gets to choose his team. And pursue his Foreign Policy toward russia. I think what he doesnt understand is that this lingering scandal that he is just adding fuel to the fire by denying that it exists will just continue to raise suspiciouses about his ulterior motives for embracing president putin. I think its in his own interest to say we want the facts. We want to get to the bottom of this. And then distinguish it and disaggregate that from his Foreign Policy. If he doesnt do that, well be talking about hacking and nefarious fies ties around different people and the kremlin for the entire next four years. Yeah. There has to be a full accounting journalistically and security perspective. This segment was interesting for me. All though at times profoundly depressing. I appreciate your insights. Thank you. Good evening to you. Coming up after the break. Hillary clinton wasnt the only democrat or politician targeted by russian hackers. We have a new report today that is suggesting a lot more fall out, which is pretty important. Well bring it to you. Later in the show from fast money to americas future. Our good friend Dylan Ratigan is here to tell us what hes been up to since it happened. The american taxpayer finds himself stuck with a trillion bill and the trillions lost in the stock market. It doesnt make you feel good, does it . 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The down ballot races were in competitive districts where they were perceived to have a shot. Annette patio ran in floridas primary and lost after internal party documents were given by russianlinked hackers to florida bloggers, including among them russian actors stole information from you and linked it. Bottom line, do you think it cost you the race . Well, well never know that answer, but i do know this. I know that it was very suspicious that two weeks before our primary election when a poll had just come out showing we had moved from 24 points down to being virtually tied with my opponent. This information comes out. So the timing is suspect. Certainly my primary opponent used it against us, and it was very troubling. But more importantly, i think its really, really troubling that we are in a little house race being targeted by the russians in a primary. Yeah. I mean, let me put up for folks trying to make heads or tails of this. We heard about the clinton side of the story. People may be less familiar with yours. Here is is a little more of a tweet from the russianlinked hacker saying ill send the major drove of dcc materials and emails to wikileaks. Keep following. These are internal memos and other information. Shortly after there was a Twitter Exchange between the russian Hacking Group and the florida blogger backing republicans. The New York Times obtained this and said the blogger said i dont think you realize what you gave me. Its probably worth millions of dollars. Guccifer replying you owe me millions. Its like if youre on a Football Team and your entire playbook is out there for everybody to see. You worked so hard to have internal polling, targeting memos, what is your play . You know, your playbook. And thats what came out. Also, all of our research we did on our opponents, on ourselves. All of the communication it was out there for everybody to be seen. I told the New York Times i felt like i was naked out there because all of a sudden everything was in the open. And no longer was our strategy or path to winning. Which clearly showed we had a path not just in the primary but in the general that we were the candidate that could actually win as a democrat. Right. That was very troubling. That the russians got that information and put it out exactly two weeks before our primary election. As you know, though. It a big controversy what to do about this. Most news organizations, including us here at msnbc did report on the illegally obtained emails. We made judgment calls about what to report, but we reported on them while telling our viewers some of the sourcing. Do you think the press was wrong to do it . What do you think is the solution here . Im for freedom of the press, however, i think it is a fine line when its stolen information. So i think we need to get to the bottom of this. I think its important. This is not a democrat or republican issue. Its a National Security issue. So Everyone Needs to come together and say we can have this. This is a direct hit to our democracy. When we have the russians or any Foreign Government getting involved in our elections. So i think its something that the press definitely needs to look at and say what are we doing in the future with stolen information when it comes from a Foreign Government that has, obviously, stolen it and going to affect elections. Right. I think you put it well. What is our responsibility if the underlying information may be true and news worthy but on the other hand if its from an adversary, as you say, trying to disrupt, dem grade, or confuse our process, how do we do it in a way that is responsible to our viewers . I think as we learn more, i think a lot of us struggling with that. Thank you very much for your time tonight. My pleasure. I wish it was under different circumstances.