we'll get to jim sciutto in moment. we go straight to phil mattingly. outside of trump tower. phil, good evening to you breaking news on the donald trump pick for secretary of state. what are you learning? >> the president-elect tweeting he will make the announcement tomorrow morning, one thing we know for sure mitt romney will not be the selection. mitt romney take to facebook a few minutes ago saying it was a tremendous honor for him to be considered for secretary of state and also adding that he has very high hopes for this administration, an administration a president-elect who he was a sharp critic of throughout the course of the general election. he was brought into the fold and considered a finalist for the secretary of state position. however, the president-elect has decided to go to a different direction. sources saying all signs pointing to rex tillerson, the exxon ceo. the president elect called mitt romney tonight to let the 2012 nominee know he appreciated his willingness to be a part of the process. he appreciated his counsel, counsel he hoped to be able to draw

jim sciutto also with us. you heard what josh earnest said there. what do you make of this point that he is -- he said it wasn't subtle when he read the report. this is not a subtle point he was making. >> this has been the view of white house administration officials i've talk to. even without the intelligence community saying we know with high confidence putin ordered this attack, it's been their view for weeks. that this would have to be approved at the top levels of the russian government. that means vladimir putin. and the white house view for some time perhaps going a step beyond the intelligence community for an assessment has been, listen, we know how russia operates and as josh earnest was saying there -- he would have gone further to say it's pretty obvious putin would have had to approve this. i really got to true your attention, brianna, to what donald trump just tweeted again about russian hacking. he said if russia or some other entity was being thatting, why did the white house wait so long to act, why did they only complain after hil

for the latest on that, let's get to jim sciutto. >> reporter: it is believed that the intelligence community since they called russia out for this a month before the election, this hacking operation would have required the senior most russian officials approval. it is a top heavy system. that means vladimir putin. since then, confidence has increased. that is because of the sophisticated hacking tools and cyber weapons. the most sophisticated which require vladimir putin to okay the use of the tools. that in addition to other intelligence and human sources leading to that conclusion that putin ordered this attack on the u.s. democratic system. the word they are using it continued unabated since the election on party institutions and party organizations, including and not limited to the democrats. we understand another attempted phishing attack. you click on a link and malware attaches to your computer. this is expected in the u.s. intelligence community. part of the reason being, it worked. they interfered with the u.s. election system whether or not they wanted donald trump to win. it is su

. >> house intel committee member adam shift talked to jim sciutto yesterday. this is what he said. >> did president obama wait too long? >> i think he did. i think this would have been more powerful had it come earlier, had it been in combination with our allies. that would be tough to put together the last couple weeks in office. i don't think this is superficial. i'm hoping what the administration doing covertly is more significant than what's it's doing overtly. >> should it have taken place earlier for the obama administration when we know from the white house they said they didn't do it leading up to the election because it would appear as though it was putting the thumb on the scale for hillary clinton to win? >> i think they were in a bit of a bind before the election. knowing from the intelligence community. at least as far back as october that this was russian state sponsored hacking, that was according to the intelligence community, authorized by putin. they were in a bind because if they acted overtly, which is the only way to deter this kind of act

cnn's jim sciutto has the story for us. jim? >> don, general flynn had a distinguished career in afghanistan and iraq. but he has also spread conspiracy theories, allegedly mishandled classified information and was fired from his last military job. but he will soon serve as president-elect donald trump's closest national security adviser. now activist groups are pressing mr. trump to cut ties. >> donald j. trump to be the next president of the united states. >> reporter: he's tapped to be president-elect trump's closest adviser on the most sensitive threats facing the nation. and tonight there is growing criticism that his inflammatory views make him unfit for the job. more than 50 progressive nonprofits ranging from religious to social justice organizations signed a letter asking trump to dump flynn. >> islam is a political ideology. it definitely hides behind this notion of it being a religion. >> reporter: citing the former defense intelligence chief's numerous islamophobic remarks, including tweeting in february that fear of

i'm jim sciutto. you're in "the situation room." ♪ >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> and our breaking news tonight. vladamir putin's government is vowing to respond in kind to dramatic new punishment by the united states for russian meddling in the

i'm jim sciutto in again tonight for anderson. and we begin with president elect donald trump speaking briefly with reporters a short time ago and contradicting himself on something he wrote just earlier today on twitter with little more than three weeks go until inauguration today. mr. trump has been taking swipe after swipe at president obama on twitter and the president has been jabbing back. today he suggested the transition isn't going so well but then just a short time ago at mar-a-lago he said it is going smoothly and he and the president had a very nice conversation

they expect it to continue. >> jim sciutto, thank you. the white house is taking a more aggressive stance toward donald trump. alarmed by the president-elect's dismissal of u.s. intelligence on russian election meddling. this week, trump called cia warnings ridiculous. he hasn't eased up since. on thursday, he tweeted this, if russia or other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act? why did they complain after hillary lost? that claim is false. the administration first publicly accused russia of hacking back in early october, a month before the election, and privately obama met with putin in september. the new york times reporting that obama warned putin to stop hacking or face consequences. >> this is bringing forward conflict between the obama administration and the incoming trump team. josh earnest spoke out and we have sunlen serfaty with that part of the story. >> reporter: good morning, christine and alison. a transition official tells cnn that donald trump is concerned about the intelligence community's find

jim sciutto based in beijing as a u.s. dploemtd diplomat. covered china for 20 years. this was a stunning development tonight. >> if there was an expressway to cause diplomatic up roar with china this is the way to do it. it is a deep relationship u.s. and taiwan. the u.s. sells arms to taiwan. it's never been simple between the u.s., taiwan and china. however in china it is based on the recognition. recognition of the beijing, as china as china. a one china policy. you recognize china as the seat at the u.n. security council. you recognize china beijing as the seat of government of china and taiwan something different. to have the us head of state call the taiwanese head of state, there is a reason that hasn't happened for 40 years. because those communications between the heads of state should be between the head of the chinese state and the u.s. state. this is not just a disruption of protocol. it is something that has enormous diplomatic and political meaning, certainly to china. i'll tell you tonight it is a 100% certain there are heads spinning in beijing. >> it

with me is jim sciutto. jim, what do you make of this? is this some factions becoming hysterical or do we need to worry? >> it matters. it matters. couple things. one, china's a nuclear power. second largest economy in the world. one of america's biggest trading relationships after canada. you have had a consistent u.s. policy towards china through multiple administrations, republican and democrat, and that is tough but cooperative where they can. neither side wants to antagonize to the point where you lead the conflict. now you have president-elect and as alexandra was saying, chinese diplomats have been used to american presidential candidates going anti-china on the campaign trail. that's a natural message, it appeals to the base, et cetera. but once elected, as president-elect donald trump has been, you are in position to actually change policy. so their ears are perking up to these statements now because in those statements, granted, they are coming out on twitter, they seem to indicate not just a minor tweak in u.s. policy towards c

jim sciutto joins me now. jim, this is just the response we know about. >> reporter: exactly. this line from the president's statement. these actions are not the sum total of our response to russia's aggressive actions. we will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing. not too subtle code there for cyber activity that may have happened already or may still be happening. keep in mind, the administration says that these cyber attacks by russia on u.s. political parties, et cetera, continue, but keep this in mind as well. as this broad-reaching u.s. response happens to this russian hack, it happens as the president-elect continues to deny that the hack happened at all. >> reporter: tonight, president obama ordering strong and far-reaching retaliation against russia, for its unprecedented cyber attack on the u.s. election system. the u.s. is imposing sanctions against nine russian individuals and entities, including the russian spy agency, the fsb, and the russian military intelligence unit, the gru, both believed to be behind the hack. the u.s. is

amanda carpenter and margaret toluv and cnn national security correspondent jim sciutto. jim, your first thoughts on president obama's speech just lou, the last big national security address. what did you make of it? and who do you think the audience was for the speech? >> on the first question, it would be difficult to imagine a sharper disparity between the tone and the substance of this speech we just heard now and the tone and substance of president obama's successor. in the campaign and through the campaign as well in his initial comments and statements as the president-elect. look at the issues to counter terror. on guantanamo, on torture, on the iran deal. these are ones where president-elect trump and president obama differ very sharply. but also on the tone. i mean, just -- i think as a country, as journalists, throw out the idea of any nuanced or complicated discussion of an issue like terror, right? phrases like this. terrorists want us to turn on each other, get the terrorists at the same time as staying true to who we are. don't overstate their power. those k

thank you so much, general marks, jim sciutto, appreciate it. >>> up next, jobs, jobs, jobs. 178,000 of them, to be exact. the november unemployment report is hot off the presses, and is it good enough to finally push the fed to start pushing up interest rates? we'll talk about that. since we started shopping at way bfingerhut.com. first down! that's because with fingerhut.com we can shop over 700,000 items go to fingerhut.com to get low monthly payments and the credit you deserve. that's a touchdown, buttercup! ♪ ♪ oww! >>> even amid an election shocker america kept hiring the new jobs report showing the unemployment rate a record low for the obama administration showing 178,000 jobs were created in november. the unemployment rate dropping to the lowest mark in nine years. just to put this in context, around the time of the 2008 election president obama was inheriting an unemployment rate around 8%. now he seems to be leaving behind a more robust economy. one witnessing decent momentum across the spectrum. check this out. auto sales, home prices, gdp showing signs of growth. dis

i now turn you over to jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer in the "the situation room." happy new year. >>> happening now, breaking news. great move. donald trump praises vladimir putin for putting off any payback for newly imposed u.s. sanction, punishing russia for meddling in the presidential election. putin says his response will depend on what happens after trump is sworn in. >>> spy games. the expulsion of russian spies ratchets up tensions between moscow and washington as russian intelligence operatives pack up to lead the u.s. are more spies hiding here in plain sight? >>> on alert. cities around the world beefing up security ahead of new year's eve. in new york, officials say the security operations around times square will be the

jim sciutto is "outfront." when you read this, it certainly seems to be word for word what trump said. >> well that is the thing. typically these call read outs are played. they seem designed to reveal absolutely nothing. this one reads like a transcript and knowing the way donald trump speaks in public it reads like an accurate transcript. just another quote here. oh i'm being invited to visit pakistan by the prime minister, mr. trump said he would love to come to a fantasy country, a fantasy place of fantastic people. please convey to the pakistani people they are amazing and all pakistanis i have known are exceptional people. said mr. donald trump according to the pakistani prime minister's office. seems based on past statements there might have been some overcompensation there dmoemtically. >> calling pakistanis exceptional fantastic and amazing is polar opposite of what he's called that country before. >> look at some of his tweets during the campaign. even into some of the most critical language he used a

let's bring in our chief national correspondent jim sciutto. jim, what are you learning? >> you're beginning to see patterns in the trump administration based on these early nominations and selections. one is his predilection for generals, general kelly the third general. michael flynn and james mattis have been chosen. and now this. and you have two other former military commanders under consideration for secretary of state. but points of view, not a pattern. many of these selections, including the new ones, have points of view in direct contradictions to the views and positions of donald trump. he toasted to friendship with china's president in 2012. and now iowa governor is donald trump's nominee to be the u.s. ambassador to beijing. the governor and president xi jinping have a long relationship. his iowa exports to china have grown. >> translator: the governor is an old friend of the chinese people. >> reporter: but his friendly approach to beijing contrasts sharply with president trump's view on trade. and national security. trump's nominee to lead the pentagon is re

and jim sciutto. we want to report what president obama told npr we need to take action and we will. your reaction to that? what would be the actions for retaliation? >> you basically have an escalating menu of options. it starts with naming and shaming. in private first which we know the president did first with vladimir putin. in china this past summer and then going out in public saying we know what you did. and they did that in october a month before the election. and then you get to further steps, one you discuss with jack kingston, economic sanctions. the response to russian military action in ukraine. and it's imposed economic action but not to the behavior on the ground. then tough next step, which is to retaliate in cyberspace. and what we know is the u.s. has tremendous capabilities. arguably the best in the world and that ranges from exposing embarrassing information about vladimir putin. you could expose information about his finances, etc. but it also goes to the degree of something like

we want the latest from jim sciutto. jim, you had a chance to speak to a senior u.s. military official about all of this. what's the latest you are hearing about the russian threat? >> at a time when you have the president-elect, other members of his incoming administration questioning the threat from russia, talking about a friendlier relationship, like u.s. intelligence agencies the view of the u.s. military is that russia is very much a threat. this senior u.s. military official putting it at least on a par with violent extremism and spoke specifically about the context of syria, describing an upcoming moment when you will have u.s.-backed syrian rebels face to face to russian backed regime forces there, just one of many places along with ukraine and elsewhere where the u.s. are coming into direct conflict with the potential of military escalation as well. >> just this week, as you know, donald trump told "time" magazine. let me quote. he said, why not get along with russia? they can help us fight isis, which is both costly in lives and costly in money and they're

let's begin with jim sciutto. jim, there's now strong consensus on russia's election cyber attacks. >> reporter: that's right. tonight, the cia director seeking to dismiss accusations from some gop lawmakers that the agency is politicizing the intelligence on russian hacking of the u.s. election. the cia director writing to the entire cia workforce that the u.s. intelligence community and law enforcement are in full agreement on the seriousness and intent of the cyber attacks. >> i told russia to stop it. >> reporter: tonight, president obama for the first time publicly blaming russian president vladamir putin for hacking the 2016 u.s. election. >> the intelligence that i've seen gives me great confidence in their assessment that the russians carried out this hack. the hack of the dnc, and the hack of john podesta. not much happens without vladamir putin. >> reporter: and the cia and fbi agree as to why. director john brennan telling the cia workforce in an internal message that "there is strong consensus among us

. >> jim sciutto, thank you for that reporting. joining me now, cnn chief political analyst gloria borger. cnn's senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny, lynn suite, the washington bureau chief for the chicago "sun-times" and cnn national security analyst juliette kay m kayyem. we'll talk about this and other trump-related topics but juliette, let's start with this breaking news. the nomination of retired marine general john kelly to be homeland security secretary. you have said long time employees of homeland security department are relieved over this pick. why? >> this is a relief. there is the issue that this is another general, another marine, another white male but putting that aside, the other names that were being floated were terrifying senior career members of the department of homeland security, whether it was giuliani, kris kobach, those were men coming in without a clear understanding of what the department does and for sort of ideological reasons. the department does a lot of different things and so i think having

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> jim, thank you so much. >>> i want to bring in cnn's matthew chance from moscow. and ryan maines, thank you for being with us. matthew, i'm going to get to you in a moment. but i do want to start with what has happened in vermont that we've been talking about today. we are just getting a reaction here from governor there in vermont he said vermont and all americans should be outraged that one of the world's leading thugs vladimir putin has been attempting to hack our electric grid which we rely upon to support our quality of life, economy and health and safety. the episode should put an end to the russian meddling. ryan when you heard about what was happening with burlington electric, what was your first thought and what is the thought of danger in the malware being present? >> wiell, this isn't the 30 tha russia has done it. china has done it, too. and i'm pretty sure we've done it as well. it's using a probing kind of exercise to show that they got in. but they wouldn't cross the line and knock our power out. that's something that -- where a red lin

government official tells me colleague, jim sciutto, if this was an isolated incident. they continue with that investigation, there is a few things we do know for sure. this is some of it. we understand that burlington electric, as part of this advisory issued to several of these companies across the country to check their online security vulnerabilities detected grizzly, malicious software on one of the computers, if that sounds familiar that is the software, malware that was reportedly used by russian hackers to attempt to effect or sway the november elections. so that is what is begging a closer look. officials with this electric company say that this laptop computer was not directly hooked into the rest of the network, which means they can speak with a fair degree of confidence in saying that the customer information and also the rest of the system itself, the power grid was not compromised. nonetheless this is provoking a response from several elected officials. you showed one from the governor of vermont a few moments ago, some of the law make makers speaking out,

>> jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> goes to the polls in austria. how norbert hofer may be elected as the first far right head of state. >>> italy is voting in a constitutional referendum a.m. fears that the banks may trigger an economic crisis. you're watching "cnn newsroom." >>> welcome back to our viewers here and in the u.s. you're watching "cnn newsroom" live from atlanta. i'm natalie allen. in oakland, california, at least nine people are dead after a fire gutted a warehouse. the fire began as people arrived for a music event. the building contained artist's studios and the owners were notified last month for violations in trash and debris. >>> hundreds of people gathered to remember fidel castro in santiago saturday night. the leaders of venezuela, colombia, south africa and several countries were there to pay respects. his ashes will be interred in a private ceremony in a few hours. >>> two major votes are going on in europe. italian prime minister matteo renzi will quit if voters don't approve his constitutional reforms in a referendum. mr.

right now i want to bring in our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and phil mud. >> why does this look like an unprecedented act of cyber warfare as some are suggesting? and should we be talking about it in terms of an invasion into the country by a foreign adversary in. >> listen, there are some that have described that it way. and john mccain called it an act of war. folks in the intelligence community referred to it as a successful information op. they also referred to it as criminal activity backed by a foreign state. by any measure it was unprecedented. they have done these operations before. but using cyber means in the u.s. with a presidential election, applying to the u.s., a tactic used in eastern europe and other european countries. in that sense, yes, it is. and the significance of it, listen. the counter terror, the intelligence or even the administration as well. >> so in that context, how significant is that it the president-elect refuses to accept russia's involvement? >> i think it is hugely significant. let's move forward. we came out of a campaign where

i'm jim sciutto. all the best, all the worst, 2016, hosted by tom foreman starts right now. >>> 2016 was all wild west, all the time, filled with events that fought like a bronco. strut like a snake. and roared like a barroom brawl. so saddle up for a look back at our rough riders, nfl hall of fame nominee and sports analyst,

jim sciutto, i think he got it backwards. it's not that they wanted trump. they just did not want the clintons. the clinton clique is seen as creating many of the pressures that plague and trouble russia today. betraying the pledge not to expand nato, revolutions around the country, encouraging revolution in kiev. they really didn't like hillary. trump is an open book. he's like the kid in the hans christian anderson story who finally says the king is naked. why don't we have better relations with russia? it's a really good question. maybe it will turn out we don't have good relations with russia for good geopolitical reasons. but we shouldn't assume in the cold war mentality that's the way it's going to be. >> you think that the preference was -- the preference was just not to have hillary clinton, not a clinton white house rather than to have a trump white house? >> yeah. i mean, the bonus was that trump seems -- trump doesn't care about human rights very much from what he says. trump thinks that everything is a deal that's negotiable. it depends on money.

jim sciutto joins us now with more. jim how has the trump transition team respond to these comments from flynn? >> they have made no comment. flynn has made no comment. the border patrol has made no comment either to. the response from the campaign is we feel lucky to have him. >> and also the security briefings donald trump is supposed to be getting. >> he's not getting that frequently. as the briefing made for the president of the united states and made available for the president elect. it is daily. but president elect trump is only getting it on average about once a week. i am told that he did request a specific briefing regarding the threat from north korea. and also i should say that reince priebus has said closer to election day the frequency will go up. but so far he's outpaced by his vice president who's getting them about five or six days a week. >> and the cyber attacks. >> the white house has been under a enormous amount of pressure. we know our reporting is that there is no intelligence that shows not only

jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> thank you. >>> these accusations of russian hacking are new headlines here in the united states. but in other parts of the world, this is old news. >> officials in former soviet republics allege they've been targeted by russian hackers for years. cnn's ivan watson says they even tried to warn the west but were ignored. >> reporter: the kremlin is vigorously denying accusations that russia hacked and targeted the u.s. presidential election of november. but a number of former soviet republics, leaders, and former leaders from those countries are adding their own criticism and accusations saying that they've been warning the u.s. government for years about similar tactics coming from russia targeting their own democracies. take a listen. >> i almost was like vindicated when the same administration in washington suddenly started to speak about russian involvement in elections. they were the same people telling us, no, it cannot possibly be true. and now it came to their doorsteps. and so -- of course he does all those things. of course he's massive, he cont

i'm jim sciutto. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> breaking news tonight. president-elect trump putting himself front and center on the issue of jobs. a short while ago he announced that sprint is bringing 5,000 positions back to the u.s. he also said a new wecompany, o web, will be hiring 3,000 people. he did reveal that president obama called him today and they had a nice conversation. that in sharp contrast to a tweet that trump said earlier today, accusing the president of creating roadblocks to his transition. also tonight, secretary of state john kerry is warning that hope for middle east peace is slipping away, with a two-state solution in "serious jeopardy." kerry defending president obama's policy, declaring that, in fact, no other administration has done more for israel. he took a tough line against israel's settlement activity but denied that the u.s. was behind a u.n. resolution condemning it. the israeli prime minister is accusing kerry of giving a biased s

>> no question those are a lot of as jim sciutto said, retired generals. they are also very smart, very capable people. and the irony of what he said as we saw on the campaign trail about how he knew. you know i think he met these guys, and he knows they mow more than he does it. and everyone i spoke to today on both sides of the aisle said they think it is actually good for donald trump to have this kind of experience and training. when he went into the interview with general mattis say being for water boarding and came out saying maybe not so fast. >> and donald trump has said things about the general. sciutto gave you a little bit of the taste. here is some more. >> the generals have been reduced to rubble. they have been reduced to a point where it's embarrassing -- >> they don't know much about winning. they haven't done the job. >> the most rebacent of those comments was november 13th. this was very recent. this was november 13th. they haven't done the job. but now he's picking them all to do the job. >> i think he's picking the best ones. >> a coupl

i now turn you over to jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer in the "the situation room." happy new year. >>> happening now, breaking news. great move. donald trump praises vladimir putin for putting off any payback for newly imposed u.s. sanction, punishing russia for meddling in the presidential election. putin says his response will depend on what happens after trump is sworn in. >>> spy games. the expulsion of russian spies ratchets up tensions between moscow and washington as russian intelligence operatives pack up to lead the u.s. are more spies hiding here in plain sight? >>> on alert. cities around the world beefing up security ahead of new year's eve. in new york, officials say the security operations around times square will be the most extensive ever. is it enough to keep trouble away? >>> and conviction reinstated. a judge's order writes a shocking new chapter in the saga of the kennedy family. will michael skakel have to go back to prison for a murder that happened some 41 years ago? wolf blitzer is off today. i'm jim sciutto and you are in "the situation room

i am jim sciutto. and you are in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> and we are following breaking news. the deluge of tributes to actress carrie fisher. barely out of her teens when her iconic role as princess leia in "star wars" transformed her into an international star. she struggled with the celebrity, mental illness, drugs and alcohol. she returned to her role last year. she was flying from london to los angeles last week when she suffered a heart attack. >>> an historic moment of unity between former enemies. standing by for live remarks from president obama and the prime minister of japan. they're visiting the "uss arizona" memorial, the first time a japanese leader has done so, to mark the 75th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor. our correspondents, analysts and guests are standing by to bring you full coverage of the breaking news as well as all of today's top stories. let's begin with the reaction to today's death of "star wars" actress carrie f

discusses with think cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. what does this pick signal to china? >> interesting. you heard donald trump there saying, if anybody can deal with trade with china it's branstad. the reason it's true is because iowa, his state has done an enormous amount of trade with china. statistics, mostly agriculture, u.s. agriculture states sell food, stuff to china. they have a lot of people to feed. right? in the last year, growth in exports to china from iowa, 257%. it's been going up exponentially. so an odd person to pick if you're going start a trade war with china. unless, perhaps, this is as my colleague dana bash was saying, a good cop/bad cop. tough here but can also do business because we know we have common interests and so on. >> is it being well-received by chinese officials? do they think, oh, this is good? a good call? >> too early to say. they haven't said publicly. the two things chinese officials care about in a u.s. ambassador. one, that ambassador is close to the president? when they speak to the ambassado

i'm jim sciutto. all the best, all the worst, 2016, hosted by tom foreman starts right now. >>> 2016 was all wild west, all the time, filled with events th

jim sciutto in for anderson cooper. the talent and intellect that could outshine and cut a light saber. remembering carrie fisher. >>> a pair of leading republican senators lindsey graham and john mccain bumping heads over trump and his infatuation with vladimir putin. they met

jim sciutto, thank you for bringing that up. it's important. >>> coming up next, though, just before midnight the state of alabama put a convicted killer to death but it's what happened to this death row inmate for 13 minutes after the lethal injection was given that have many people talking today. we'll speak with someone was who was there, who witnessed the execution, what could have gone wrong, what needs to happen in the future next. ♪ put some manwich on the table... and give boring weeknight meals, the night off. ♪make tonight a manwich night jack knocked over a candlestick, onto the shag carpeting... ...and his pants ignited into flames, causing him to stop, drop and roll. luckily jack recently had geico help him with renters insurance. because all his belongings went up in flames. jack got full replacement and now has new pants he ordered from banana republic. visit geico.com and see how affordable renters insurance can be. >>> an execution overnight inialal is raising pertinent questions about how the death penalty

first we want to go to cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. you are learning new information from your sources. >> tonight the u.s. intelligence community has growing confidence based on new intelligence that russian president vladimir putin would have had to personally approve of the hacks targeting the election. the advances, the intelligence community publicly announced one month before the election that rausch w russia was behind the hacking, yet president-elect donald trump continues to question the judgment that russia was involved at all. tonight the white house demanding that president-elect trump accept rather than deny. the intelligence community's assessment that russia was responsible for hacking intended to impact the u.s. presidential race. >> mr. trump obviously knew that russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity that was helping him and hurting secretary clinton's campaign. it might be time to not attack the intelligence community but actually be supportive. >> however, trump himself, who sources tell cnn is seeing the int

joining me now cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. jim, there has not been unanimity on what the motivation of russia was. the news that the fbi now agrees with cia director brennan, that seems significant. >> well it is. i think one point to make is that there was less disagreement than some reporting and then some gop lawmakers have been saying, speaking to multiple officials both in the intelligence agencies and in law enforceme enforcement, this is what is new today. cia director john brennan feeling the need to write the entire cia staff an internal message that said the following, "there is strong consensus on the scope, nature and zpent" jake noted it was key of russian hacking. let me add this caveat. you never know intent for sure, that's looking into the minds of president vladimir putin and people working for him. their analysis is there were multiple intents, one undermine the political process, sow doubts here in america about the presidential election. in addition to that weaken hillary clinton through the releases of em

let's go to jim sciutto, in washington. you can see the capitol over his shoulder. why do use first believe putin most likely gave his cyber experts broad direction in the election hacking. >> in the intelligence community since they called russia out for this that the hacking operation would have required the senior most frl's approval. that means vladimir putin. it is a top heavy system. since then their confidence increased. that is because of the sophisticated hacking tools, cyber wes, really, that were used in this attack, really the most sophisticated, which would require putin putt to okay the use of those tools. that in addition to other intelligence, including human sources indicate that vladimir putin ordered this attack on the american election system. >> president obama is vowing a response. what can they do. >> it is a ladder of options. it starts with naming and shaming russia in private, which is something we know president obama did to pugh putin this summer in china. and then naming and shaming in public which is what the u.s. intelligence committee

let's bring in jim sciutto. what more, jim, are you learning? >> reporter: i've spoken to multiple officials who have seen the letter that the cia director sent with the intention of dispelling any reports including as well charges from many gop lawmakers that there's some disagreement between the intelligence community and law enforcement as to what actually happened with these hacks and why they were undertaken. we saw this letter today going to the entire cia workforce come from john brennan saying the following, that the director brennan met recently with the fbi director comey and there is "strong consensus among us on the scope, nature and intent of russian interference in our presidential election." you're aware of reports and aware of the president-elect himself questioning one if russia's behind the hacks and were they trying to help steer the election to donald trump? in fact i'm told by multiple officials there is agreement there are multiple possible motives for russian hacking based on the intelligence assessment. one just to underm

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has been digging on this. what are you learning? >> reporter: the new information is that hackers breached several republican targets. lawmakers, as well as republican party organizations, as part of this broad hack, but one thing that's leading the intelligence community to believe that this hack was intended to primarily target or injure hillary clinton, hurt her chances, is that information from republican sources was not released to the public. a former senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the inquiry tells cnn the investigation discovered russian hacking of republican entities, not just the democratic national committee, and hillary clinton's top aide john podesta. cnn has told that hackers got hold of information from some republican house members, pundits, a third party entity that held data for the republican national committee and nonprofit groups tied to the party. most of the information relating to the republican party was not released by hackers. that, in part, led the intellig

expects them to continue down this path. >> jim, thanks very much. jim sciutto. more on how donald trump may see all of this. jim acosta has that side of the story. he joins us from trump tower. has donald trump responded to the russian hacking news? >> he really hasn't, anderson. he was at that rally tonight in hershey, pennsylvania. he didn't mention the russian hacking. he did go after white house press secretary, josh earnest, during his remarks. he said that josh earnest is somebody who can make good news sound bad. he said that if the u.s. were somehow to take out isis and josh earnest was delivering that news, that he wouldn't do a very effective job of doing it. so it was a shot from the president-elect to the white house press secretary, for the current president. now, we should explain that earlier in the day, josh earnest, at the podium in the white house briefing went after donald trump and said, this is not the time to be going after the intelligence community. obviously, earlier today, donald trump put out that tweet, saying, why didn't the white ho

coverage continues right now with jim sciutto. >>> hello everyone. i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. welcome viewers from around the world. it is 1:00 p.m. here on this very windy day in washington, and we are right outside the u.s. capital where in just 21 days donald trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the united states. our political panel is standing by to talk about the president-elect and we'll get to them in a moment. but we start with the russian saying, no, to retaliation for now. it was expected even feared by some russia would strike back after the white house announced new sanctions yesterday, but even though russia threw out few threats before the announcement they decided to play the waiting game and perhaps wait for a new president to come on january 20th. here is some of the statement from russian president vladimir putin. considering the special responsibility of russia and the u.s. to keep global security, it damages the entire complex of international ties. reserving the right to retaliate, the restoration of russian

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto, and david gergen. i want to get your take on ben carson, trump's pick for housing and urban development. here's what he said about his formal rival during the campaign. this is during the battle. listen to this. >> he said that he's pathological and he's got basically pathological disease. but if you're a child molester, there's no cure. they can't stop you. pathological, there's no cure. >> after he dropped out of the race, he became one of his main advisers, how is this being received in washington? >> well, a couple things, republicans are embracing it, because they're embracing everything that donald trump is doing right now, if you want to think of an out of the box pick, you would consider ben carson an out of the box pick. he's had no experience whatsoever in dealing with housing development or dealing with mortgage companies or dealing with housing stock or dealing -- with low income housing. having said that, he is a product of that, he grew up very poor in detroit, he has seen it firsthand. a

i'm jim sciutto. you're in "the situation room." ♪ >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> and our breaking news tonight. vladamir putin's government is vowing to respond in kind to dramatic new punishment by the united states for russian meddling in the u.s. election. president obama ordering retaliation, including shutting down two russian compounds here in the u.s., and expelling some 35 of moscow's intelligence officers. for the first time, the names of russian officials allegedly involved in the hacks were revealed in public, including two who were already wanted by the fbi. the white house saying the cyber crimes could only have been directed by the highest levels of the russian government. tonight, the kremlin is questioning whether president-elect trump may try to reverse those sanctions. and just last night trump once again brushed off calls to get tough on russian hacking saying "i think we ought to get on with our lives." >>> also tonight, potential break in the hunt for the top terrorist in is

jim sciutto, interviewed senators lindsey graham and john mccain. graham says when it comes to putin and russia's interference with the u.s. election nearly the entire congress disagrees with donald trump. >> accept the assessment, he's doubled and tripled down on talking about a cozier relationship with putin, denying the intelligence community's assessment. what are you going to do, senator graham and senator mccain, if he doesn't change his tune, in effect, on russia? >> there are a hundred united states senators. amy klobuchar is on the trip with us. a democratic in minnesota. 99 of us believe the russians did this, and we're going to do something about it, along with senator mccain after the trip is over, we'll have the hearings and put sanctions together that hit putin as an individual, and his inner circle, for interfering in our election. they're doing it all over the world, not just in the united states. estonia is hit all the time. they're interfering in elections in democratic countries' efforts to self-determination all over the world. j

coverage continues right now with jim sciutto. >>> hello everyone. i'm jim sciutto in for wolf blitzer. welcome viewers from around the world. it is 1:00 p.m. here on this very windy day in washington, and we are right outside the u.s. capital where in just 21 days donald trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the united states. our political panel is standing by to talk about the president-elect and we'll get to them in a

. >> there are reports out this morning, jim sciutto just confirmed this, that donald trump, the president-elect, has been receiving on average one presidential daily briefing, those classified intelligence briefings, a week. far fewer than his predecessors, fewer than the vice president-elect according to a reuters report. is that enough for you? >> well, see, this is the problem with what's going on from the outside of the tower versus inside of the tower. i sit directly across from general flynn and k.t. mcfarland. i was just upstairs with speaker ryan and the president-elect, with general flynn and k.t. mcfarland so the notion he's getting one briefing versus ten briefings, i just really think it's not fair to him. i think he's very plugged into the national security situation of what's going on and he asks phenomenal questions. there's also some other misnomer out there he's not a great listener. i get the opportunity to sit in these meetings. i find the questions he's asking these people are not only demonstrating great intuition but just a real native understanding of complex situations a

more now from our jim sciutto. >> reporter: today, beijing issuing a blistering response to donald trump's increasingly anti-china rhetoric. an editorial in china's state-run's "people daily" said, quote, trump and his transition team should realize that making the trouble for china/u.s. ties is making the trouble for themselves. adding with a poke at the president's make america great again slogan, quote, creating troubles for china won't make the u.s. great. >> good afternoon, everybody. >> reporter: the white house added its own criticism. >> it's unclear exactly what the strategic effort is, what the aim of the strategic effort is. and it's unclear, exactly, what potential benefit could be experienced by the united states. >> reporter: trump doubled and tripled down on his tougher stance over the weekend, tweeting, did china ask us if it was okay to devalue their currency, making it hard for our companies to compete, heavily tax our products going into their country? the u.s. doesn't tax them. or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the south china sea? i don't think so

thanks very much, jim sciutto, nic robertson, michelle kaczynski. appreciate it. >>> a trump transition source, by the way, saying the president-elect is concerned about the russia hacking report, but transition officials think the issue is being used to try and delegitimize his election victory. earlier today the president-elect tweeted this, i'm quoting. "are we talking about the same cyber attack it was revealed the head of the dnc illegally gave hillary clinton the questions to the debate." and meeting with jeh johnson, one of the key agencies responsible for cyber security in the united states. congressman chris collison of new york is a member of the trump presidential transition team. joining us now from lancaster, new york, just outside of buffalo. thanks so much, congressman for joining us. >> always good to be with you, wolf. >> so president obama says it's u.s. will retaliate against russia over the cyber attacks against the u.s. during the election. do you support that? >> well, i have no comment on what president obama is going to do or