By the kremlin, an important point as well in the way donald trump painted his relationship with Intelligence Agencies in this country visavis how it could be taken overseas. Right now is the start of the 1 00 p. M. Hour here in the east. Imagine the role of this man right now. This is a live picture in front of the Senate Foreign relations committee, and that is the ceo of exxonmobil, a Multinational Company so large, while its said they cant change the weather, they can forecast it. They have their own weather bureau, a sprawling organization of 70,000 employees. Rex tillerson is the nominee to be our next Secretary Of State, a job offer that came to him. Its been said in the Public Domain in part because of his relationship with russia, because of his relationship withVladimir Putin. Imagine all of this in light of the News Conference we just witnessed, in light of what donald trump said and didnt say about russia and putin, in light of what donald trump said about u. S. Intelligence agencies, here is a part of what we just witnessed this last hour. The Democratic National committee was totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job. They could have had hacking defense. President putin and russia put out a Statement Today that this fake news indeed fake news. They said it totally never happened. Now somebody would say oh, of course hes going to say that. I respected the fact that he said that. If he did have something they would have released it and glad to release it. If putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks . Thats called an asset, not a liability. Do you honestly believe that hillary would be tougher on putin than me . I think it was disgraceful,
disgraceful that the Intelligence Agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. I think its a disgrace. And i say that and i say that, and thats something that nazi germany would have done and did do. I have no deals. I have no loans, and i have no dealings. We could make deals in russia very easily if. We wanted to. I just dont want to because i think that would be a conflict. Kristen welker was inside the room. She is now outside trump tower, on what can be a perilous stretch of fifth avenue in new york. Andrea mitchell in the equally perilous confines of the u. S. Senate in washington, standing by to talk to us. Kristen, im still going through the quotes on, what, 15 to 20 topics from that News Conference. What couldnt we see from our vantage point, watching on television that perhaps would assist our understanding of what
a High Wire Act and high tension event this was . Reporter well two things, brian. One, of course, this is the first News Conference hes had in 168 days. So you had reporters, were always trying to get our questions in. But the number of questions, the range of questions i think was so expansive because there was souclost time to make up for, and i think that that contributed to some of the tension that you saw unfold there, and then of course you had these developments overnight, this reporting on russia that the President Elect dismissed outright, and that caused him to again attack his intelligence communities right off of the top. And i guess i would make one more point, brian, there are a lot of questions that went unanswered on his Intelligence Community. Does he trust them . Does he trust his intelligence officials . I tried to pin him down on that at the very end of the News Conference and he sort of dodged
exchange that he had with cnns jim acosta, when he attacked cnn for their reporting, and jim said, let me at least get a question in, and he wouldnt allow it. Thats really extraordinary, brian. Ive been to a number of News Conferences and youve been to a number of president ial News Conferences and never really seen that type of tension before. Again i would just underscore, this is the first News Conference hes had since july so theres a lot of questions we didnt get to, like isis, like israel and the middle east, so it all set the stage for fireworks. Kristen welker thanks and thanks to the mta for parking a bus behind you during our conversation. Andrea mitchell is one of the people who has us beat in terms of our combined attendance at president ial News Conference. Andrea, i just cant ask you in enough ways to sum up, if this isnt a President Elect at war with the Intelligence Community, such a vital arm of government
when youre a president , the Intelligence Community which is both vendor and client, to overseas countries, to private organizations, i dont want to see what war is, but try to sum up what the impact, the concussion this is going to cause in washington. Well, concussions a great word because there are concussion bombs. This is a concussion bomb. Brian, he compared the Intelligence Community pretty directly on twitter and at his News Conference used the same analogy to nazi germany. Youre talking about Men And Women, thousands and thousands of them here and overseas who are often covert, and even those who are not have to make considerable sacrifices in their lives, not for great amounts of money. Many of them have died. Their stars are on the wall at langley. Theyve been expanded in the last 15 years since 9 11, big
expansion perhaps too much bureaucracy, that could be addressed. Lot of critics internally and externally think that that is the real focus that he should be looking at once he gets into office but to raise that question, to talk about these leaks i think a lot of people, including myself Last Night On Thir with you, questioned why there was that addendum of what most likely is unverified information that was attached to the classified intelligence brief. So those are the kinds of questions that you can ask but to compare them to nazi, germany, that is really escalating this war. This was the first grudging acknowledgment that russia was behind the hacking but again in the next sentence he compared it to the office of Personnel Management hacking 22 Million People by china. Well that did happen two years ago, there was a lot of attention. I was on the air a lot on nightly news and msnbc on the today show, we covered that story. The difference between what
russia did and what china does, what north korea does, what we do, our country to, you know, foreign countries, allies and adversaries alike, ive covered stories of us hacking the french and the japanese over commercial contracts, and whether airbus and boeing get contracts. All these kinds of things happen every day. The difference here in the russian hacking which was the Consensus Agreement of 17 agencies, it was weaponized. It was drnted. Drnted under order by Our Own Exclusive Reporting by Vladimir Putin and confirmed by the report that was released to wikileaks, Whether Wikileaks was winning or not winning, wikileaks distributed it and distributed this harmful information, a lot of which could have had an impact on voting and donald trump kept refers to wikileaks during the campaign. He did it again today, in fact. Look at the horrible things that john podesta said from wikileaks
about hillary clinton, his characterization, not mine. The point is he keeps pointing to wikileaks the conveyor of stolen information hacked by russia and leaked during the campaign and this is the offense which may even be a criminal offense in some regards. We dont know whats been investigated. There have been hints of an investigation. So its just amazing, and hes going to have to rely, i heard chuck todd say he has to rely on the same Intelligence Agencies and their career people. Doesnt matter who is at the head. Its a big superliner to turn around. Youre going to have to rely on the analysis of those Men And Women. It takes a long time to train them. Youre not going to have them all, you know, leaving immediately. If north korea is close to launching an icbm that can hold a Nuclear Weapon and reach the continental United States, he has to not only persuade the American People but our allies about the veracity of that intelligence and what he is doing now arguably is destroying the credibility of american
intelligence at home and abroad. Thats a serious and important point you make there at the end. The only place youre going to learn abou the moves north korea is makings the very same Intelligence Agencies that were in for such a drubbing today. In our studio here we have ali velshi, we have katy tur, we also have standing by a guy who has been so patient with us, steve clemmons, editor at large for the atlantic. Steve, where to begin . What was your lead story from that event . I think the lead story is two things, is that as you were showing earlier the Rex Tillerson exchange with the members of the Senate Foreign relations committee, many people say the intelligence was seemingly soft on some of the issues. I was struck by how hard he was in comparison to donald trump, so the taking of crimea was a taking. He criticized the Obama Administration for not putting in enough defensive weapons and not putting in enough support. It was a sort of hard edged assessment, and that it was highly unlikely, he said, that the United States would become friends with russia, and that just stands out as an obvious contrast with the tilt and tone of donald trump even with the kinds of things saying maybe we wont be friends with Vladimir Putin and others, but donald trump continues to sort of largely publicly hug that Vladimir Putin and hold that out, so ive got a divide with a Press Conference going on at the same time as the Senate Hearing between the likely Secretary Of State, potential Secretary Of State and the President Elect, and that stood out. The other thing thats gotten almost no attention was that he nominated and talked about david shulke, Veterans AffairsObama Appointee. He will be the first Obama Appointee if confirmed in the trump cabinet. That may not compare to all the other news out there but that is
interesting. Indeed. Hes an d. , and youre right, he will be a holdover from adstration t administration. Also a very tough job to fill among all the cabinet agencies, but steve, imagine this. What youre talking about, the way donald trump treated and handled all things russian, from putin to russia in general, this was all in the context of a News Conference that was designed in part to quash and criticize what they saw as Scurrilous Reporting Tying Donald Trump to russia. I think what David Ignatius said before is that the hostility really between the Intelligence Agencies and donald trump didnt get much help from this exchange. Theres an opportunity with this call that donald trump has made for the first 90 days hell get a report from the dni, the director of national
intelligence, and the cia that strengthens our hand in the hacking arena, but broadly when you look at it, donald trump thus far goes to extraordinary lengths not to put russia on the spot, and that has put him at odds with a lot, not just the Intelligence Community, but a lot of national, Republican National security stalwarts, and if there was going to be a break between the legislative department and the executive over something big, its over these issue, and his dedication to kind of continuing really this crisis, not between democrats and republicans, but between republicans and republicans is i dont know what to call it. Its impressive, Donald Trumps willingness to continue to kind of run on that edge where his own credibility is going to be held in doubt by many of the top intelligence people in the country, but also the lindsey grahams, john mccains, marco rubios and many other that will matter to him on a whole variety of Key Executive Decisions in the world. Steve, finally, as someone to whom the printed word is so important, fake news. Someone spent months making fake news a thing, an entity, fairly vibrant entity and now its a bucket into which stories one doesnt like can be thrown. Reminds me of the old days the founding of the republic. Bill sapphire wrote a clever his Oshlg Torqual Novel called scandal mongers. He talked about the early pamphleteeres who invented stories that defamed leading figures and theyd fight the pages out there. Im reminded of that era in American History weve come back into that as well. Its important we in journalism maintain critical distance and objectivity in what we do and find a way to present that as the alternative to this raif of fake news that seems to be
proliferating on both sides, if there is, are two wils its there. This era may test us all. Steve thank you very much. Always a pleasure to hear from you and talk to you. Were going to whipsaw a bit into the hearing room that had our attention yesterday. Senator Jeff Sessions of alabama nominated to become the nations top Law Enforcement official, the next Attorney General. Were going to hear some extraordinary remarks here, Congressman Lewis from georgia, is about to speak in opposition of Senator Sessions, and senator booker from new jersey. The importance of this, a Senator Speaking in opposition to a fellow sitting senator. There are only 100 people in that community. It is a very, very small world indeed, but this is part of the opposition lined up against Senator Sessions to be attorney
general. Well listen in, in the hearing room. Like caucus. Welcome to the committee, congressman richmond. Finally we will hear from mr. William smith. Mr. Smith worked for Senator Sessions as the first africanamerican general counsel on the Senate Judiciary committee. He has known Senator Sessions for 20 years and we know him because that service as a staffperson here as well. Welcome to all of you, and well start with senator booker. Thank you, airmangrassley. I want to thank Senator Leahy as well, as well as the distinguished members of this committee. I know it is exceptional for a senator to testify against another senator nominated for a Cabinet Position and i appreciate the opportunity youve given me today. Ive worked closely with many of you on this panel on both sides of the dais, on matters related to Criminal Squlus Reform and you know just how deeply
motivated i am by the many issues our next Attorney General will heavily influence, especially the crisis of Mass Incarceration. I know that some of my many colleagues are unhappy that i am breaking with senate protradition to testify on the nomination of one of my colleagues, but i believe like perhaps all of my colleagues in the senate that, in the choice between standing with senate norms or standing up for what my conscience tells me is best for our country, i will always choose conscience and country. Senator sessions and i have consistently disagreed on the issues, he and i have always exercised a collegiality and a Mutual Respect between us. Perhaps the best example of this is the legislation we cosponsored to award the congressional gold medal to those foot soldiers who marched at selma, one of the foot soldiers is sitting next to me now. This was a blessing and an honor
to me, because in 2015, a retired judge who was white told me that it was those brave marchers on the Edmund Pettis bridge who inspired him as a young lawyer in the 1960s to seek justice for all in new jersey and begin r