good afternoon, everyone welcome to "power lunch." here is what is on the menu today. nasdaq mihitting a record high,a the tech trade dominates, apple driving the gain is this as good as it gets for growth stocks. and as two vaccines are being rolled out, california shutdowns are rocking the golden state during what's supposed to be the busiest season for retailers

re real estate titan rick caruso will join us to talk >> and a ripple between bitcoin and the security exchange commission could change everything you don't want to miss it. "power lunch" starts right now >> yes, it does. welcome to "power lunch. the dow is down not quite 100in points the nasdaq hitting a record high check out shares of peloton at an all-time high, up 10% as it requires a equipment maker to speed up equipment of its bike but it's really apple that's in the driver's seat, the tech giant up more than 3% and up more than 80% this year and the best performing dow component in 2020 we've got more on this big story.

apple, oracle and first josh lipton on apple's road ahead and phil lebeau on the electric vehicle state. >> is tim cook ready to take the wheel of the auto market new reports suggest that cook and company could introduce a self-driving car in 2024 with its own breakthrough battery technology that would lower cost and increase the vehicle's range. it's easy to understand why cook could be interested in developing a car the auto industry represents a $2 trillion market apple boasts a strong balance sheet, deep pockets, a world class design team and proven ability to seamlessly integrate hardware, software, services perhaps some now think apple could up end and disrupt the auto market just as it did with smart phones and wearables on the other hand, there would be risks, no doubt the auto industry is a low

margin, capital intensive business that's why some analysts covering apple think cook is more likely to openly focus efforts more modestly and narrowly for example, an autonomous driving system >> moving into cars seems like it might bite into profitability for investors. how do you think investors would react to that? >> i've been talking about this project, apple's reported move into cars for as long as almost i've been at cnbc, probably five or six years at this point so i do take these reports mainly with some grain of salt you can certainly understand all the reasons cook would be interested if he's looking for big markets to disrupt, the global auto market would be one of them. and it would be quick to point out he's brought a lot of tech in house that would help users

build a car, think sensors, batteries and di plsplays and if you talk about the auto industry, it's a low margin capital intense business that could be a risk. >> really raising some eyebrows. thank you. >> phil lebeau looking at the auto side of this particular deal hey, phil. >> let's start first off by taking a look at the traditional automakers plus tesla. all of them are lower today. i wouldn't say they're lower because of the report from routes that apple may be considering an autonomous drive vehicle by 2025. ben at baird said he's skeptical of apple's ability to scale and compete with tesla and from morgan stanley, they say apple can disrupt through

vertical integration. internati. if you want to go to somebody to at least begin manufacturing vehicles, magna would be a natural place to stock, that stock moving up by 4% today. and let's look at the ev related stocks, those that are related to luminar and quantum scape, which is a new spac that just started trading publicly within the last month, focused on battery technology all of them are moving higher here, perhaps because investors are saying, hey, look, we're going to be playing in the space at some point, whether apple gets into it or not, this is crucial to the future of electric or autonomous vehicles. >> look at the one-week gains, all up more than 30 portion, one by 92% let's talk about the feasibility of apple getting to a

manufacturing point by 2024 or 2025 to do that, they would either have to build or buy facilities. >> right >> and it might be easier to build. do you a greenfield project, you can control cost easier. there's also plenty of capacity around the world this is one industry that has too much capacity. elon musk has shown if you want to start building, he bought that first plant out in california, which was on the other hand by toyota and general motors back in the 70s and 80s and 90s. he said i'm going to build my own in china, as well as in germany and austin, texas. you can do it either way it depends how much scale you want do you want to be a global manufacturer of autos? you're going to need several plants in several locations. you build where you sell you don't build and then export around the world you can do it initially atultimo add more plants.

>> will apple hit the road and what does it mean for tesla stock and it's seemingly unstoppable run. good to have you with us does apple's presumed entry into this market spell trouble for tesla and its stock price? >> before i start with that, i need to start with a public service announcement i've been famously wrong in predicting apple tv in the past and i learned a valuable lesson. what apple is working on doesn't necessarily mean that product is going to see the light of date and i'm reminded of that lesson over the last 24 hours let's start to that point and then get to your question about the impact on the market do i think that apple eventually will have a car? the answer is i don't know if they'll have a car or some other play in the autonomous space, so a software and licensing model i do believe with the seven works of work they've put in along with this massive

addressable market that josh outlined, this $2 trillion market, i do believe that the company will pursue and eventually have something there. the timing of this is difficult to predict the magnitude is measurable. just one last thought on this, tyler, is that this $2 trillion market, apple's revenue next year is going to probably be $315 billion this is big enough for apple to move the needle. i'm going to go all the way back to your question here, what does it mean for the automotive industry, for tesla and traditional oems it certainly for traditional automake automakers the fundamentals and the stock, i think they'll have two different reactions. >> let me go back to your point you began with not about getting things wrong on apple's products. i've been wrong on them, too i didn't see any reason for the ipad i didn't get it. whatever

you basically lay out two scenarios. one is that apple becomes a manufacturer of always, either with a partner or on its own the other is it becomes a seller of technology and systems and integrated artificial intelligence and other things. which is the smarter way to go the latter seems like the sweet spot and doesn't have all the risks of becoming a full-scale automaker? >> i have a slightly different approach i think the former is controlling the whole experience with the look and feel of a car that has artificial intelligence, hardware services, software and i doing a full stack. that is apple's concerto there's a dynamic to that. we talked about manufacturing a car is pretty easy, assembly is pretty easy.

it's being profitable that's hard they can do that there's a dynamic at play here it's not fun to talk about and i think that is that cars can be dangerous. it is something that the tech companies grab headlines when bad things happen in cars. i think that that may be something to add weight to a licensing model, they do that right now with car play. i've always thought of this as a coin toss. how is apple going to approach automotive will it be through an apple branded car or licensing model maybe that coin lands slightly more on a full-branded car after the most recent validation but, again, i caution what apple is working on doesn't necessarily mean it will see the light of day. >> that's very interesting it's an interesting way to come at it that actually part of what apple stands for is elegance in

design and products that both function well and look good and have an intrinsic aesthetic appeal to them that would argue, as you do, for the idea they would become a fun line manufacturer. you also raised a valuable point here the automobile industry is dangerous. you make a mistake, you have a car that catches fire -- tesla understands this you have a liability problem beyond anything apple has encountered in its lifetime. >> if i may, it's an important topic. and what is tech's roll in the future almost 40,000 people in the u.s. lost their lives in 2019 in auto accidents. and this there is something that doesn't feel right how i think tech companies get i think advice rat

adviser eigc viscerated in the media and the opportunity that tech has to make our cars safer. it is a massive opportunity. i think tech companies are far better positioned than traditional auto to advance that and so i guess it is a -- it's an ask on my part for people to give these companies a little bit of space to help figure out this big problem >> interesting conversation, gene always great to see you. have a great holiday >> gene munster. >> coming up, speaking of apple, the company has shut down all of its stores in california and that's one california of retailers struggling in the golden state ahead of the holiday. >> plus with bitcoin sitting near a record high, the crypto currency trade is explodinbug t the sec could be about to make a move that changing everything. i'll explain when "power lunch" returns. every year, we set out to do one thing:

help the world believe in holiday magic.

and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. santa, santa, you're on mute! just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing.

welcome back the countdown to christmas is on consumers are rushing to finish their holiday shopping this year it was not a super saturday for california retailers. their store traffic down 55% from last year as stores are

limited to 20% capacity and apple closed all 53 low council on foreign relations in the state. our next guess says in-person retail still remains strong. rick caruso is founder of ca caruso, one of the largest privately held real estate companies in the country there was a headline from the "l.a. times" that caught my attention, dire covid warnings ignored as people follow holiday traditions >> i read that also. it's in the 70s and clear skies. it's human nature. we all have a shared

responsibility to follow the rules and protect each other and protect our community. but clearly people are out, clearly people are traveling and people want to continue to celebrate the holidays with family and friends and it appears that the surge we're seeing now from what i've read is tied back to the holiday travel during thanksgiving and also the gatherings during thanksgiving so what i'm worried about is we're going to see that again in a few weeks after the christmas holiday. i know it's tough on people but we can see the end zone at this point, which is great. i would ask everybody to be as disciplined as possible, be as smart as possible. but people are still out shopping they're still out of properties, they are seeking safety and seeking joy, rewarding places where they feel safe as we know, outdoors in the sunlight and fresh air is a safe place to be given the guidelines

by the cdc retail can only operate at 20% indoor capacity under the current rules. how can both things be true? had. >> yeah. so listen, you sort of get into a little bit of a false narrative here in terms of how these percentages work but all of our properties are outdoor properties so technically speaking, there are no capacity limits even though our properties are not feeling overcrowded. the traffic on the properties is down above 30% across our portfolio. the storms are limiting their stores to 20% occupancy, which is under the rules and the right thing to do, we have very strict protocols with masks and social distancing we're seeing the consumer showing up and spending more and the conversion rate is higher. so the retail sales we're seeing on our property, many retailers, are experiencing sales that are as good as pre-covid and some

even better. there's this pent-up demand, this concept that jpmorgan has that maybe others has, too, that i read in one of their recent reports of forced savings of about $1.4 trillion in the united states. now, this is people that have saved money because they're not going out to dinner, the movies, traveling, et cetera, but they are spending when they go out. i think what we're going to see next year, probably middle of the year, once the vaccines come out and restrictions are being lifted more and normal life is a little bit more in sight, i think there's going to be an absolute surge it goi it's going to be like a tight coil of people going out and a huge benefit to main street, retailers and restaurants. we're seeing that today and that's why you're seeing sales as strong as they are on these properties >> rick, i can believe that

because people have been cooped up for so long and they haven't been going out as much, they haven't been dining out as much and haven't been going to entertainment event and movies, so when they do go out and spend, it's like, whoo, i'm going to spend and i want to turn to outdoor dining i wonder and i think you said then and i wonder if you have seen yet any data that shows that outdoors dining, outdoor dining is -- under restrictions of capacity is tied to any higher incidence of covid. have you seen any such data? >> none. zip. and what's frustrating, tyler, is that the restaurant association took los angeles county to court. they won in court because the judge said you have to come in with the data that shows the nexus between the shutdown and the surge. the county could not do that the court said you cannot extend

the closure. now we have what came in from the state. i just read this morning that the restaurant association along with the restauranteur is now suing the state because the head of the health department for the state came out and said there is no connection. he admitted there's no connection so what's aggravating is nobody wants government to use a heavy hand we're expecting government to give us some guidance, to protect our lives, but also to give us a path to have a livelihood and workers, the average worker being shut out and not being able to go to work and forced on the unemployment line without any cause is just not right. we talked about this last time and obviously the closure of the outdoor restaurants and the p patios has not stopped the surge. >> you point back and i think many others have as well and as we look forward to the christmas

gatherings to maybe social gatherings, family gatherings, parties and whatever was going on and it was those smaller, more intimate indoor gatherings that may have ticked the pick up rate the way it has. rick, thank you for your time today. we always appreciate having you around >> me merry christmas. >> same to you >> the chip maker could be a canary in the coal mine. and as bitcoin booms, the sec whips up a lawsuit against another crypt yo currency sayin it is not a currency at all. ripple's ceo is fighting back and he'll join us right after this quick break

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here hi, kate >> ripple says they are going to sue the crypto start up. xrp is much like bitcoin ripple use it is for its clients which are mostly businesses and banks to send instant payments across borders when ripple was founded, they decided to create their own digital currency bitcoin they said was too slow they began selling the new crypto currency over a period of time they still own the majority of the currency and they named cash from peter teel's found. ripple's founders never registered xrp as a security they argue it's more of a ult a -- utility than a currency.

their argument was that xrp was an investment contract people bought it with the expectation that they were getting a piece of ripple, the company. >> stay there has we bring in brad garlinghouse for a first on cnbc interview glad to have you with us this is an interesting story i'm going to pick up where kate just left off, which is the idea that investors may have thought that in buying xrp, they were buying a security that gave them shares or some ownership in ripple why is that wrong on its face? >> well, first of all, tyler, thanks for having me i think this is an important issue and there has been confusion out there. ripple, as a company, we have shareholders we've raised capital from venture capitalists and even banks like standard charter is a

shareholder. xrp is a separate thing altogether, a currency that trades in the marketplace and over $1 trillion in the currency has traded over the last eight years. the sec having watched this for many years taking the position now that is frankly i think incredible to take the position after eight years. >> there are a variety of crypt ycrypto currencies, and xrp and bitcoin and others is it something in the structure of your business that makes the sec concerned that there may be a securities violation of some sort in here what's different about the way you are structured that would cause them to potentially file a suit >> well, about two and a half years ago, a little over two and a half years ago, the sec came out pro actively and said they did not view bitcoin as a security, they viewed it as a

commodity or currency. shortly thereafter they said ether is also not a security they spent the last two and a half years going after kind of enforcement by saying that certain initial coin offerings, were security offerings. i've spoken out in favor of that because i think in many cases though were in fact. xrp, however, is almost undistinguishable from what is ether in terms of its breadth of activity it's traded on a couple hundred exchanges around the world what's amazing to me is not a single other country anywhere has looked at xrp as a security. you've had countries like the u.k. and japan and switzerland and singapore say things that make it clear that xrp is a currency one other -- even here in the u.s. the department of justice has viewed xrp as a currency and the department of treasury has

viewed xrp as a currency sorry, kate. >> it's all right, brad. kate here. good to see you. you mentioned some of those exchanges. i want to ask you about broader expectations what would this mean to some of the global exchanges that hold xrp or facilitate trading of xrp on those exchanges >> about 95% of xrp trading happens outside the united states on exchanges around the world. so that's outside of the united states sec jurisdiction. for exchanges like coin base, one of the reasons i view this as something that's broader than just what does this mean for ripple and xrp, it's what does this mean for the crypto industry in the united states? they say bitcoin and eether and

picking winners in general is not something the u.s. government should be in the business of doing. >> you mentioned before that -- go ahead, kate >> sorry, tyler. >> that xrp could really go on without ripple if you guys sold all of your holdings of xrp, that crypto currency would survive would you divest all of your crypto currency holdings and focus on your business is that something ripple could do >> the point i have made at various times is that if ripple the company didn't exist, xrp would still thrive and the global with a couple of hundred exchanges around the world there's over a hundred different projects, innovative entrepreneurs here in the u.s. and around the world building on top of xrp the reason they're doing that is

because xrp is far more efficient in terms of speed and cost and use it really as a currency the power consumption has been widely recorded as bitcoin transaction is dramatically different and koscosts a lot moe >> we have to leave it there brad garlinghouse, i'm sure this is something we'll be following up on. >> coming up is it as good as it will get for the growth names? we'll discuss. and intel not joining the party. it's down 20% this year, one of thwoe rst dow performers and apple and now microsoft making their own chips. what it means for the other power makers

coming up on the other side of the break. in a land not so far away,

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learn more at xfinitymobile.com. welcome back, everybody. i'm sue herrera. south carolina's government henry mcmaster is set to receive outpatient anti- body treatment for what are being called mild

covid symptoms after becoming the seventh u.s. governor with a confirmed case his wife is asymptomatic after testing positive last week women infected in their their trimester with the virus are unlikely to pass it to their w newborns scientists stress it only applies to women in their third trimester and say more research is needed. >> france is loosening travel restrictions french and eu citizens will be allowed to enter from britain if they have a recent negative test and since washington's enough covid relief package includes payroll support for airlines, american is starting to gradually bring back furloughed workers to their jobs but pay and benefits are being restored immediately a little bit of a positive note to end on. rahel, back to you >> we can use all the positivity

we can get, sue. thank you. >> you got it. >> the oil market is closing for the day. let's go to dominic chu. >> oil prices falling for a second day wti crude futures now $46.92, a hair below 47. world benchmark, futures right on top of $50. it's reports of a new coronavirus putting fresh concerns about fuel demand recovery the next data pointswill be on the inventory front. private data for the u.s., oil stock piles. official energy department data is out tomorrow morning, tyler i'll send things back to you >> thank you very much the vaccine rollout and stimulus bill not doing too much to boost markets this week as shutdowns around the world deepen. there seems to be a growing threat to the idea that the

global economy is in for a big rebound in 2021. at least in sm quartome quartere is more from bob pisani on how it's playing out in the markets >> the market is grappling with a couple of issues let's take a look at the two issues here. the first is the covid winter, which is now coming upon us, three, four months where it's going to be tough. you can see it's starting to weigh in on sentiment. carmax commented on slower business overall we don't know how much of a macro risk it really is. is it more resistant to the vaccine? we just don't know you can see how it's affecting the reopening stocks, the usual airlines, cruise lines and hotels that are on the weak side but even broader than the reopening stocks, what i call the cyclical groups that often

react to slow downs or concern about slow downs you see energy stocks, like apache week, some of the reits, industrials like caterpillar and even the banks which had a great day monday on the news from friday sort of reversing here. this is concern over the covid strain and winter overall. the bull narrative is still in tact, that we're going to go through a covid winter in three to four months, there will be a smooth rollout of vaccines and we'll see a massive stimulus, and a second quarter reopening and improved earnings. i think it's still very much in tact i think people are just a little bit nervous about that new covid strain and what, if anything, it means for the markets. for the moment the bulls are prevailing >> certainly did seem to spook the markets there, bob thank you. one thing of the year has been

growth outperforming value by a huge margin. the growth etf is up over the value etf, which is down more than 2%. michael, thanks for being with us today >> thank you good to see you. >> likewise. is the call for value simply because you think the growth names have just rallied too far, have gotten ahead of themselves or because you think historically value names tend to do better coming out of recessionary periods >> i think it's a little of both for now growth names have done really well in 2020 off the back of better earnings, certainly relative to value. the drop in interest rates we saw this year lifted growth pes pretty extremely and that's why you've seen a record outperformance as you showed, about 38 or 40% versus value looking ahead to 2021, we're going to see earnings pick up,

likely see bond yields growing higher and that's a back drop where cyclicals and value stocks look much more attractive to investors. a lot of the high flyers this year will probably be underperformers in 2021. >> to that point, michael, a lot of the tech names are certainly expensive. i think a lot of people would agree to that. but they have disrupted the way a lot of us live, the software names especially, the way a lot of us work is the premium warranted and, by the way, they've disrupted a lot of the value names. so talk to us a little bit about that >> there's huge spread between growth and that is due to disruption and lower rates keeping a lot value zombie companies alive. investors are paying up for growth names where they can find it we found only 66 names in the

s&p that are actually growing their revenues double digits on average over five years. that compares to about 250 names doing the sale back in 2000. so growth has certainly become scarce and that's why it's done so well in the past few years but earnings should rebound, as we talked about, in 2021 into 2022 so for investors that premium is no longer warranted as much. >> let's talk about some of the sectors you do like. a note came out yesterday saying that energy was the top contrarian pick for next year. tell us why you favor those two sectors. >> yeah. for industrials and consumer s discretionary stocks, we think they'll continue to benefit from the reopening and recovery in the global economy we expect interest rates, we expect them to move slightly higher they're going to remain historically low that means debt service payments for consumers, whether it's

mortgage or credit cards are going to remain extremely low. we don't expect a major move in oil to cause demand reduction for consumers. and jobs are coming back it's not the housing trade that was great this year. that's probably behind us. but it's really about consumer durables and consumption next year for industrials, every signal we have that has any ability to forecast industrial activity like dmis, it's telling us that industrial activity will remain very healthy in 2021 that's a really bullish sign for the industrial sector. for financials and energy, it's obviously a good thing that we're seeing growth recover, but financials, for example, not only need a recovery, they also need higher interest rates while we think rates will go up, we think they'll go up really slowly i'd rather own companies with cyclicals that can benefit without the requirement of higher yields. >> it's a debate we've had a lot

this year. thanks for being with us today >> thank you bye-bye. >> coming up, not one but two mystery stocks both are up around 550% this year. one you have surely heard a lot about. the other might be a name you don't know what they didn't know, both of their products will likely be in demand in 2021 those names will be revealed when we bring along the power movers we'll be right back.

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welcome back time now for power movers. shares of iac interactive higher by nearly 15% today. the company plans to spin off into its own public company. next up, fubotv, storing, up 500% in the past three months. its price targeted was boot p boosted to $60 a share medical, the stock is down more than 9%. it could be a sell on the news event. the stock is up over 500%, 40%

this year. >> to the bond market we go. and rick santelli tracking the action at the cme. hey, rick. >> hi, tyler maybe a two-week chart is best for ten. look at this chart you see how many times we tested that mid 90s, 94, 95 base points, here's what's interesting. if you look at the all-time low yield close, july 2016, right around 1.36%, can you see we've never come close of course to coming up to those old lows. now 1%, we can't even quite make it there i guess perspective is needed as these yields remain so historically low let's look at the investment grade and high yield etf on one chart since march. what's fascinating is how solid it's been. the fed backstop on corporate buyback programs, there's much nervousness about that the dollar index, how strong

it's come out of the box today the reality is on thursday, a fresh 31-month low close and we have moved up just a bit, but all things considered, this is a mostly end of the year adjustment, not the beginning of any serious buying >> thank you very much over the past six months, chich stocks have soared, up 40% but intel down 23% as microsoft, apple and amazon plan to make their own chips. can the big boys move in on their turf that's next on "power lunch.

each other that we have to stay apart just a little bit longer i know it's hard we have a long way to go, but we are grateful that we've got the vaccine. and yesterday n , in an effort instill some confidence in the vaccine i had my shot administers in public and i got a chance to thank all the nurses and docs at christiania hospital

to do what they have been doing for us for so long i signed up for my second shot, i have confidence in the vaccine. we are in short supply taking a vaccine from a vial into arm of millions of americans is one of the biggest operational challenges the united states has ever faced for 300 million people we are going to take many more months for that to happen. in the meantime, this pandemic rages on experts -- experts say things are going to get worse before they get better. notwithstanding the fact that we have a vaccine as you all know, we are averaging a death rate of close to 3,000 people a day. that means we are going to lose tens of thousands of more lives in the months to come. and the vaccine won't be able to stop that. so we will still have to remain vigilant we will need everyone to mask up, stay socially distanced,

avoid large gatherings, particularly inside. we need to work and n -- we nd to work in a bipartisan way. that's the only way we can get through this tough times we have our first hint of bipartisanship, i applaud the congress for the rely package, much needed temporary relief for workers, families, and small businesses in this election, american people made it clear they want us to reach across the aisle and work together on matters of national concern to get something done and i believe that to be the case from the very beginning of my campaign, and i'm happy to see members of congress heeding that message as well from their own constituents leaders in both house and senate, both parties, deserve credit for making the hard compromises to get this done but like all compromises, it is far from perfect but it does provide vital relief

at a critical moment however, as i have said all along, this bill is just the first step, a down payment, in addressing the crisis -- the creasese, more than one, that we are in there is a lot more work to do early next -- the crises, more than one, that we are in early next year i am going to put my plans to the congress what needs to come next. we will need more help to fully distribute the vaccine we are going to need more testing in order to be able to open our schools we are going need more funding to help firefighters and police, many of whom are being laid off as i speak and the same with nurses, risking their lives on the front lines. the same for millions of hurting families, who are unable to put food on the table, pay rent, or the mortgage unemployment is extended for another ten weeks. it is going to take a lot longer than that. but congress did its job this

week i can, and i must, ask them to do it again next year. but even with the changes in approach, i am going to put in place in late january, people are still going to be getting sick and dieing from covid one thing i promise you about my leadership during this crisis, i am going to tell it to you straight i am going to tell you the truth. and here's the simple truth. our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. so we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines. as frustrating as it is to hear, it's going to take patience, persistence, and determination to beat this virus there will be no time to waste in taking the steps we need to turn this crisis around. my administration will start to do its part on our first day in office with masking

requirements, a new strategy for testing, accelerated protection, protective gear. and we are going to challenge congress and the american people to step up immediately as well to do their part the relief bill passed by congress is another challenge my administration will confront on a massive basis a. massive cyber security breach against the u.s. companies, many of them, as well as the federal agencies. and there is still so much we don't know, including the full scope of the breach or the extent of the damage it has caused but we know this much. this attack constitutes a grave risk to our national security and was carefully planned and carefully orchestrated it was carried by using sophisticated cyber tools. the attacker succeeded in

catching the federal government off guard and unprepared foreign actors have been working on this breach since late last year, at least last year setting the landscape to compromise our systems, escaping up sensitive information from our world-class tech sector, and from private businesses, and from united states government agencies the truth is this, the trump administration failed to prioritize cyber security. it did that from eliminating or downgrading cyber coordinators in both the white house and at the state department the firing of director of cyberspace and infrastructure security agency, to president trump's irrational down playing of this cyber security attack. enough is enough in an age when so much of our lives are conducted on line sib cyber attacks must be treated as

a serious threat by our leadership, the highest levels we can't let this go unanswered. that means making clear and publicly who is responsible for the attack and taking meaningful steps to hold them in account. initial indications, including from secretary pompeo, secretary of state, and attorney general william barr suggest that russia, russia is the responsible for this breach. it certainly fits russia's long history of reckless disruptive cyber activities but the trump administration needs to make an official attribution. this assault happened on donald trump's watch. when he wasn't watching. it is still his responsibility as president to defend american interests for the next four weeks. rest assured, that even if he does not take it seriously, i will

while i am disappointed by the response of president trump, i was pleased to see leaders in both parties in the congress speak out loudly and clearly on this attack. again, i want to thank prominent republicans in the senate particularly for speaking out. it is a sign, a sign that with a new administration we can could be front these threats on a bipartisan basis with a united front here at home that should be encouraging to the american people, and a warning to our adversaries. in the meantime, the president's team for the next four weeks need to cooperate fully, which they haven't been doing, to share information that becomes available on both the impact and our response to ensure a smooth transition to protect the american people as administration as change over the next month, i intend to continue