big roles in the white house. >> you'll call me, it doesn't make any difference. we have no formal chain of command around here. >> reporter: donald trump's unconventional white house quickly shaping up to be a family affair. trump's three eldest children, donald jr., eric, and ivanka, and son-in-law jared kushner, all sitting in on a meeting with the nation's top tech executives wednesday. some who openly supported hillary clinton. >> they wouldn't want me to keep going with the incredible innovation, there's nobody like you in the world. there's nobody like the people in this room. and, anything we can do to help this along, and we're going to be there for you. >> kushner helped organize the meeting. which the group says will happen quarterly. sources saying he will likely get an office in the west wing. and an advisory role, similar to the one he held throughout trump's campaign. ivanka's also expected to take on an active role.

including some duties normally assumed by the first lady. and she'll do so from the east wing. with aides planning to overhaul the traditional office of the first lady, turning it into the office of the first family. >> she's so strong, as you know, into the women's issue, and child care and so many things. she'd be so good. nobody could do better than her. >> reporter: as both donald jr. and eric take hands-on roles in their father's transition, cnn has learned donald jr. was heavily involved in vetting candidates for the interior secretary position. while eric was included in at least one meeting with mitt romney about the secretary of state job. the brothers also set to lead trump's businesses. raising red flags over potential conflicts of interest. but trump's camp argues it's all about transparency. >> the reason that you know about the children being involved are two things. one, they're on the website, and they're publicly named as being part of the transition. and two, we brought the press in to show who was at the meeting. so it's not like there's anything nefarious going on or

sneaky. >> reporter: all of this is how democrats call into question trump's lease agreement with the u.s. government for his new hotel just blocks from the white house. >> as soon as he's sworn in on january the 20th, he will have violated the law. >> reporter: citing trump's lease, which says no member of the government can share in any part of the agreement. now donald trump is not in the white house yet, and it's premature to determine whether donald trump will, in fact, want to follow up that lease. we know trump's lawyers and transition aides are working to untangle these conflicts. we were hoping to get more clarity on that today this is when donald trump was supposed to hold a press conference about how he was going to back away from some of his business interests. now they're saying that will be ticked over to january. >> thanks so much, sara. joining us to talk about it is republican congresswoman marsha black burn, also vice chair of mr. trump's transition team. good morning, congresswoman. >> good morning. >> are you curved that the very people who will be running

mr. trump's business empire will be connected and maybe even in the future white house? >> alisyn, everyone is concerned and wants to make certain that all the rules and laws are abided by. and i can tell you i'm certain that mr. trump, and the team around him, are making certain that they do comply with all of these laws. they're going to figure out what is appropriate and set about making certain that they meet with all of those standards of conduct, and that they move forward in the appropriate ethical manner. and i'm confident of that. >> already there have been things that have raised eyebrows in terms of conflicts. let me just put some up on the screen for people. the trump family met with some leaders of india, and indian partners of some of their business enterprises. ivanka was part of a meeting with the japanese prime minister. mr. trump's children of course are on his transition team.

ivanka trump was on a call with an argentinean president. foreign diplomats as you just heard from sara have been courted for mr. trump's hotel. foreign donations have been made to the trump foundation. bahrain held their anniversary party at mr. trump's d.c. hotel and then of course yesterday mr. trump's children and his son-in-law were at this meeting with all of these silicon valley tech leaders. i mean, congresswoman, if chelsea clinton had done all of these things and were in all these meetings and she were leading the clinton foundation, would you be upset? >> as the clinton foundation is a separate matter, and that is something that transpired over a decade, and there was lack of transparency there, alisyn. you know, they didn't file their 990s for an entire decade. >> right, but mr. trump had to file -- >> people had to figure out what was going on. >> and he hasn't revealed his

taxes so people don't know all the entanglements -- >> oh, alisyn you know as well as i do he has done his filing. but here's -- >> no, no, no, he hasn't released them, congresswoman so we really don't know the level. >> alisyn -- alisyn, he filed everything that a candidate is required to file. >> but not what -- >> -- to the federal election commission. and what you're going to see is more transparency with the trump administration and as sean spicer said the reason you know that the children were in involved in the meeting is because the press was invited in. and you saw them sitting there. >> mm-hmm. >> now, as i said earlier, you're going to see, from the trump transition, and from the trump presidency, every -- they know that they're going to have to be more transparent. they're going to have to do more to comply. they're going to have to be above reproach. they know this. >> yeah. >> so they're working diligently

to make certain that they are. >> so -- just so i'm clear you don't see any hypocrisy in the demands the republicans made that, that if hillary clinton were elected, chelsea and bill clinton would immediately have to remove themselves and the idea that this is all still sort of fuzzy between the trump family and the trump organization and the white house? the clinton foundation was set up at a not for profit entity. and even though they had moved beyond the scope of their irs filing and that had never been appropriately amended, what they were doing was accepting contributions from different countries, and then were executing through that foundation -- >> uh-huh. >> -- some projects but a very minimal amount. i think the most they ever gave was 13%. >> well, hold on -- the trump foundation has similar -- a

similar setup -- >> no, that is incorrect. >> 150 -- >> from a powerful ukrainian steel magnate -- >> contracts that are appropriate for the business dealings. they're all legal contracts. and so i think that those are completely -- you're trying to compare apples and oranges there. again, what you have is willingness and transparency that is coming from the trump organization. >> i hear you, congresswoman. i understand. it's just hard to say that they've been completely transparent when mr. trump did not release his tax returns. so we haven't seen a lot of transparency. >> well, you haven't seen tax returns, but as i said, candidates are required to do their fec filings and that is the requirement of the law, and all of that has been met. >> you know, he was supposed to have a press conference today. >> yeah. >> why did he cancel it?

>> i don't know why they chose to not have the press conference today. my assume shun would be that they're still working through the details. and are continuing with arrangements, and they probably received advice from attorneys that they were not fully finished with what they were trying to deliver, the product they're trying to deliver and therefore they felt it was going to be better to wait until they were more fully complete and ready to make an announcement. >> but you believe that there will be a way for the trumps to remain involved and heading the trump organization and to be in the white house. i trust those who were advising mr. trump and saying doesn't jr. and eric are going to be in charge of the business and there is a way to build a wall and to make certain that it complies

with the laws and the standards and the ethics, and i would say also, alisyn, the expectations of the american people. that they're going to be able to do it. i think one of the things we have to remember is this. we are to be a nation that has a citizen legislature and people who come from many different walks of life. >> mm-hmm. >> and then step forward to participate in the governance of this nation, and then return to those private walks of life. that is what our founders wanted. that's what we had gotten away from. and all of a sudden you had to have this career -- >> mm-hmm. >> in politics that would span decades, and that was the treasured experience. to the american people, to many of my constituents, it is incredibly refreshing to see new faces and new ideas -- >> yeah -- >> -- and new approaches being brought to bear on how we go about governing ourselves, as a

people >> yeah. >> we the people. >> and all of this will require a new rule book as we've been discussing congresswoman marsha blackburn thank you very much. >> absolutely. good to see you. thank you. >> chris? >> from politics to reality. we have breaking developments in syria. evacuations finally getting under way in eastern aleppo. a fragile new cease-fire to get civilians out is getting off to a rocky start. activists say regime forces fired on those ambulance convoys. cnn senior international correspondent fred pleitgen has the latest live from beirut. fred, it's hard to know who is doing what on the ground in terms of violence because there's so many different factions fighting one another. you're absolutely right, chris. it seems as though the information that we're getting is that it was possibly an afghan shiite militia fighting on the side of the syrian government that fired on those convoys as they were coming out

because they hadn't gotten the message that the cease-fire and evacuation is actually on. and that just goes to show how many different factions are out there on the ground. they don't necessarily all speak the same language. they don't necessarily know exactly what is going on. they're not listening to the important communication. and we have to also keep in mind a lot of them have been fighting for a long time. they're very friger happy. they're very angry at each other and at least on the opposition side they're also very afraid to now make this journey through government-held territory and hopefully to safety. the conditions in that rebel enclave were absolutely horrifying by the accounts that we're getting. there was some video of an orphanage of orphans in there who were all alone as a lot of these air strikes were going on yesterday of course absolutely terrified. and then there were citizens who were quite frankly afraid to die and some of them even posted good-bye messages, and shared them on social media. let's have a look at some of them. >> to everyone who can hear me, we are here exposed to a

genocide in the besieged city of aleppo. this may be my last video. >> i am going to be killed. that is going to happen. i am going to be killed. >> we didn't want anything else but freedom. i hope you can remember remember us. thank you very much. >> now it seems, chris, that those convoys are rolling and the people who are being evacuated are the most vulnerable. people who are severely ill. people who are wounded. people who need immediate medical attention. that's why some of the convoys that we're seeing are ambulances and then followed by some buses. but again all of this happening within a very fragile environment, in a very volatile situation. so certainly the powers that brokered this cease-fire are going to have to be keeping their eye on it very closely to make sure nothing goes wrong. guys? >> oh, my gosh, fred, those good-bye messages are so heartbreaking.

thank you very much for all of the reporting from there. we'll check back with you. developing this morning, yahoo! suffered another huge data breach and taking out a loan just got moore expensive for millions of americans. cnn's business correspondent alison kosik is here with the latest. >> hi, alisyn. yahoo! is just now discovering what could be the biggest hack in internet history. the company is saying hackers took information from 1 billion user accounts in august of 2013. now this is a separate situation from the 500 million accounts that were compromised back in 2014. and experts say if you have a yahoo! account make sure you have different passwords for different sites. beware of e-mails asking you for information, and freeze your credit report. now this is terrible timing for yahoo! because verizon agreed to buy the company for $4.8 billion in july. yahoo! stock is up 23% this year in anticipation of that deal but after this first hack reports claim that verizon wanted a

billion dollar discount on the deal. we're going to see if that purchase goes through. speaking of big purchases, if you plan on buying a home get ready to pay more for a mortgage, the federal reserve is hiking interest rates for just the second time in almost a decade. and the national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is already climbing now at 4.27%. just a month ago it was down at 4%. earlier this year it was below 3.5%. fed chair janet yellen says the fed is confident that the u.s. economy can handle the increase, and the group plans to fully raise rates three times next year despite harsh criticism from donald trump during the campaign yellen says she will go ahead and finish out her term which ends in february 2018. and alisyn, she also says the fed has been in touch with the trump transition team. actually, chris, back to you. >> i look like alisyn to you? >> not at all. you're much taller. >> that's the only difference. you're right. >> exactly. >> president-elect donald trump's cabinet has made some eyebrow raising picks. all right, so, democratic senator joe manchin was

considered for the cabinet. why did he go? why didn't he take a post? and manchin knows the nominee for secretary of state well. his insights ahead on "new day." and the best deals are on the best network. with no surprise overages, you can use your data worry free and even carry over the data you don't use. and right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only $40 per line. you'll even get the samsung galaxy s7, the pixel phone by google, or the motoz droid for only $10 per month. hurry, these offers end soon. get the best deals and the best network, only on verizon. just checking my free credit score at credit karma. what the? you're welcome. i just helped you dodge a bullet. but i was just checking my... shhhhh... don't you know that checking your credit score lowers it. just be cool. actually, checking your credit score with credit karma doesn't affect it at all. are you sure? positive. huh, so i guess i could just check my credit score then.

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tillerson well. does he have any concerns? let's ask the senator himself, joe manchin from west virginia. senator, pleasure to see you. >> hey, chris, good to be with you. >> so, let's talk about the decision to go in and meet with trump. the heat that you got from harry reid, who said that you were auditioning. why did you do it? and what did you think of the meeting? >> well, it's not the first time harry and i have disagreed. i thought it was an honor to be able to go in there and talk about my state of west virginia, chris. and, also, about the country. you know, no matter who you voted for, and the outcome is very clear, donald trump is our president-elect. he's going to be our president. i want him to do well. i want any president and every president to do well. my job is to work with him, not against him. but also be an honest broker. if i respectfully disagree. then be respectful. try to work through this. whether i'm a democrat and

someone's a republican or vice versa, no matter how, i hope we're all americans first and we've had divisiveness for far too long. people want this country to come together and they want congress to start working. and that's what my job is. so i went up and had a very good interview. i was very pleased to meet with president-elect trump. i met with his staff. i met with steve bannon. reince priebus was there. i met with jared, his son-in-law. very nice. i met his beautiful young daughter ivanka. and we had a great spirited conversation. i think back and forth. and that's what it's all about. and i enjoyed it very much. >> did you think it was real? do you think they had you up there as a prop because you're a democrat? >> no. no i really don't. i think they're looking for a pathway forward. i really felt it was a sincere, honest dialogue for about an hour. and we talked about things that we agreed on. we talked about pathways forward. and chuck schumer -- i'm excited about chuck coming in as our new leader i really am, as far as democrat caucus. i'm going to be working with the

republicans trying to find a pathway to weaken democrats. find a moderate band and find the middle, if you will, that's not been done aggressively enough before. it was always divisiveness and you're supposed to be on one side if you're a "d," on the other side if you're an "r." and chris you know with your family and how you all have done and your dad and how they made things happen, it's not. you just have to work together and it's all about our country, really. and that's my state of west virginia wants us to be successful, and donald trump basically won west virginia extremely, extremely large. and i want him to know that i'll do everything i can to bring light to what we need done in an energy market and how we have energy for our country. and an energy policy. also in consideration of a balance of our environment and the jobs that come with it, all this is extremely important to all of us. and i'm going to do my best to make it work. >> let's talk about some of these concerns going forward. you mention meeting with trump's daughter and his son-in-law, and

you know, as you suggested, i know what it's like to grow up in a political family. i know how important family is. as advisers. but there are obvious conflict issues that are here. what are your concerns about what is a very difficult match here of having any type of division between working in the business, and working for the people? >> right now, everyone's basically is trying to say that they're going to be part of the administration, while still being part of this empire. i don't know that to be. i haven't seen that yet. right now, his family has been extremely involved in this process. extremely involved in him being elected. and i know my -- i'm so proud of my children, as he is of his children, as you are of yours and your dad was of you. in that experience they're part of this experience right now. everyone's estimating that now it's going to transfer in, they're going to be setting up cabinet meetings and this and

that. i don't think that to be true whatsoever and we'll just have to see how it unfolds and i think they'll be able to separate it. you have to have faith to give them an opportunity to do what they believe would be the proper thing to do. and there's a separation of that. that's the government process. and i think they'll do that and do it fine. so i'll wait and see what happens and then you know what? we'll speak about it later. but right now just everyone is throwing stoens at everybody. his children were part of this administration, it was part of him being elected, and not part of the administration, but part of him being elected. it's a tremendous opportunity and experience to see this evolve. >> the question is which opportunity to help their father in government or advance the business. as you said we'll have to see. you know rex tillerson well -- >> we don't have to separate that, chris. >> understood. >> i do know rex tillerson. >> what do you think about him as a secretary of state, and what do you think about these questions of his potential conflict given his role as the ceo of exxon, and his assumed

relationship with putin? >> well let me go here first. i do know rex well. and i've known rex basically through the whole involvement in west virginia of the scout camp that we have. it's a tremendous, tremendous home for the boy scouts of america. and rex is so involved. and rex is involved in basically building leadership and character in young men and women so i've seen that part of rex. he's just a tremendous business person. the bigger question should be asked about rex, is he able to divest himself. and really they say follow the money. is he so intertwined, being so long an exxonmobil person, can he divest himself to where the performance of the company, after he leaves, as our secretary of state, can he divest himself from those interests, in making sure that his interests is going to be all about the security of america, how do we keep america safe, and

what's in the best interests of americans? and that's what the vetting process is going to be about. but people speculating that, hey, he's too close to putin and he knows putin, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. my goodness, at least he can sit down and talk to him. i did a conference with the aspen institute last year for about a week in germany, meeting with russians, trying to find a pathway forward. and after about two or three days, chris, one of the russians we were talking, and he says, joe i says you know the cold war is colder today than it was when it was declared. that means we have very little dialogue going on. something's wrong. and we've got to start that because they do have tremendous amount of weapons that could do harm to america. this is we've got to face that and try to find a pathway forward. and rex would be able to do that, i believe. but, i want to make sure he can separate and he doesn't have his financial interests where it could be a conflict with the interests of our country. >> well you're asking the right

questions. we'll see how the hearings play out. senator joe manchin thank you very much for coming on "new day" as always. >> hey, as always chris, you have a great christmas you and your family. >> you, too. alisyn? >> so as we've been talking about, there are these new questions about just how many trumps will be in the white house. the role of mr. trump's adult children coming under the microscope this morning. so we have a look at any potential land mines, next. >> thank you all so much.

new questions this morning about the role mr. trump's children will be playing in his administration. already, his children have appeared, alongside mr. trump, in major meetings. while they are still running his businesses. sources say ivanka trump and her husband jared kushner will have roles in the white house. so let's discuss with cnn political analyst and "usa today" columnist kirsten tower and "new york times" reporter rachel mcadams. rachel, great to have you here, because you have done a lot of reporting on ivanka trump's business. >> mm-hmm. >> and any possible

entanglements. it's all complicated. so where do you see the biggest problems? >> i think that the biggest problem for ivanka are that she's got a enormous apparel and accessories business, mainly targeted toward women, that has deals all around the world? mainly her businesses licensing her name. the use of her name selling her companies around the globe making handbags and jewelry and accessories and the issue with that is that some of these companies could have government connections and if she's going to have a large role in the white house there could be a potential conflict of interest, even if one has nothing to do with the other. >> so i'll take the other side, which is it's not complex. it's actually very simple. there is an obvious conflict for the president-elect and for his kids. the only question is, what can you do about it? do you think his kids can be part of the government, no matter what title they have, and maintain a role in their business, and if not, how could they do that to your satisfaction? >> well i think the only way that they could do it is there's

a couple different pieces to this. the first is i think they would need to do exactly what the government ethics office has advised president-elect trump should do basically divest of all of their holdings, and you know, everything would have to go into a blind trust. i don't see there's any other way around it other than that. in terms of actually holding a job in the government they're going to run afoul of some nepotism statutes, though it looks like maybe with jared kushner for example, there may be a work-around if he doesn't take a salary. i think it still violates the spirit of the law. but they may be able to do it legally. in terms of ivanka playing a first lady role, i actually think that there's nothing controversial about that. in the sense that woodrow wilson did the same thing with his daughter when his wife passed away. it's a social role for the most part. it gets a little more dicey when you move them into a policy role. in terms of advising people. but, there is going to be a

conflict of interest as long as they have businesses operating outside of the white house. i mean i just don't see any way around that. >> look, part of this spirit of this is actually very touching you know. he's close to his children. they're close to him. this is a family affair. his campaign was a family affair. he's there -- i mean, they are a very interconnected family. but because of that, it's almost like they're saying look, we'll handle this. we'll take care of it. nothing to see here. no worries. but, obviously it does raise questions about what kind of policy dealings they will be doing. >> i think the big issue is that ivanka, more than any of the kids, is really known to have the ear of her dad. all three of the older kids have roles in the trump organization. they all have offices at trump tower here in new york one floor below their father. they've said before they take the first meeting with potential partners and then they bring potential business dealings to their dad. so she's really close to him. it's no secret that she's sort of like the golden child in a

way and i think even though the first lady position is largely ceremonial if she still has the ear of her father on many other potential diplomacy and policy decisions. >> here's the catch, kirsten, is security plans. i lived this. my brother was the closest adviser to my father. my father passed away. my brother is the governor of the state of new york. at one point, in my father's administration, he had to politically disown my brother. wasn't comfortable in the family. wasn't comfortable for andrew. but, the media started going after the relationship of my brother and my father -- >> how does he do that? >> he did it in every obvious way that he could. my brother left the government, even though he wasn't taking any money. he went into private practice. my father told everybody he's my son, i love him, i'm not talking to him about policies, not coming to my meetings. he's not meeting with anybody and then the media still schued on andrew's behind for awhile and eventually left it alone. the concern then becomes is trump setting up his kids for that kind of scrutiny, because of the impossibility of

separation? so is he risking putting them in the white house at their own -- to their own ultimate disadvantage, look can he get around it because of security clearance? >> well, i think he's putting himself in a vulnerable spot. because this could be something that people end up not really liking in the same way that they resisted hillary clinton in the role she was in in the clinton white house. i think frankly the criticism of hillary clinton at the time was a fair criticism and it's why these nepotism statutes exist really, it's because when the president chooses somebody, whether it's his wife, or his daughter, or his son-in-law, and puts him in a position of influence, running policy, it's impossible for the people who work there to complain about them. right? i mean if they're doing something -- >> that hasn't been my personal experience. >> yeah, well -- >> theoretically, yes. >> very few people are going to go to the president and say, i don't think your wife is doing a good job running something. you know. it's just -- it just puts people -- it makes it very

difficult for the people who work there. so, look, the truth is, whether they're in the white house or not, they obviously would be advising him. you know the issue is whether or not they have any influence over other staff and people reporting to them and things like that. but i think that trump is going -- is taking a risk i think at the puts them in official roles. >> kirsten powers, rachel abrams, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> what's your take out there? you can tweet us at "new day" or post your comment on facebook.com/newday. >> another early christmas present for the family whose conjoined twin were recently separated. dr. sanjay gupta tells us what's next for young jaden and anias. next.

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it is a special day for the mcdonald family after two months in the hospital and a gruelling 27-hour surgery. their kids are separated. no longer conjoined twin, jaden and anias are making big strides in their recoveries. cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta has been there every step of the way. here's a look. >> you're going to have to drive the van, and we'll have someone else ride in the other one. >> this is a day the mcdonalds have been waiting for. discharge. >> there's your brother jaden. >> jaden and anias, born connected at the head, were finally separated in a marathon 27-hour operation.

while doctors are pleased with the recovery, they have battled infections, fevers, and seizures, to get here. for the past two months, this has been jaden and anias mcdonald's home. twin who were separated two months ago to the day. they're now going to move on to a rehab facility, and i wanted to say hi to them one last time. >> i love this. look at this. >> people think -- >> they always touch. >> yesterday as soon as they were in the wagon downstairs i looked over and they had their arms locked. and i looked over again they were holding hands. they have a great bond. >> this kid here was born for the cameras. >> show us. >> i'm so happy for you guys. really, really happy. >> you're going to be okay saying good-bye to all these folks, nicole? >> we've all come to an agreement that it's not good-bye. it's just see you later. >> when the boys were first

born, mom and dad, nicole and christian, who wheel them around the hospital in a little red wagon. why? it was the only thing that would fit them top to bottom. well they're now going to be leaving the hospital again in a red wagon. but this time, they're going to be side by side. they spent 174 days in this hospital. thank you, yeah. for the mcdonald twins, it's good-bye. but on to a new beginning. chris and allison a very heart-warming moment. certainly but keep in mind this is a day no one was sure would actually come. very big operation. in fact dr. goodrich told me that on the day the separation occurred it was like another birthday. a rebirth. that's exactly what's going to be happening with these twin at

the rehab facility. they're going to learn all the things they hadn't learned over the first 13 months of life. we'll be keeping an eye on them. chris and alisyn, back to you. >> oh, my gosh. what a milestone. it's so nice to see them leaving the hospital. >> yeah. >> so garagele. a garagele existence for them. but boy you've got to file the story under taking it for granted. you know what i mean? all the things that parents take for granted about our kids and their health they have such a special appreciation. you see the love of the people who helped them for 174 days. that's a unique dedication. that's more than a job it's a calling. >> absolutely they do god's work. gosh our show has been very emotional this morning. we've had a lot of emotional stories. that one has a really nice ending. all right. switching gears. what food should you turn to if you want to reduce your stress level? >> pizza! next story. >> no, cnn's jacquelyn power explains. not pizza in food as fuel.

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all right. so here's what we do here on "new day." yes, the president-elect loves to tweet. no, we're not going to cover all

of them. but when they go to policy and germane discussions and points of fact, then we'll get a taste. in the last few minutes the president-elect has taken a shot at those covering his business conflicts tweeting, quote, the media tries so hard to make my white house as it pertains to my business so complex when actually it isn't! also complaining about russian coverage of the election. quote, remember, if russia and remember the intel agency says there's no if about it. if russia or some other entity was hacking why did the white house wait so long to act? why did they only complain after hillary lost? let's get the bottom line on these. mark preston, the first one is his matter of opinion. is it complex, is it simple? all we know is the conflicts are real. we'll have to see what he does about them. the second tweet, if russia -- what fact basis do you think donald trump could have to deny what the intel agencies came out united about on october 7th before the election?

>> i don't know what his fact basis is. the fact the white house yesterday saying that maybe that he actually knew something during the election -- >> but that's politics. >> it could be politics. i mean who knows. but -- >> if he knew something he's saying why didn't the white house say what they knew? why didn't he say what he knew -- >> why is he still -- he's going to be the leader of the free world. he's president of the united states. why does he care? i've always been perplexed by the way from the very beginning why was he sew defensive of russia. i never really understood. >> was, is, and his people. spicer, down the line, they should focus on, don't say we lost because of this. no proof of that. it's just talk. fine you can have that discussion all day. absent some type of dispositive proof by the intel agencies which they've been very quiet about and that hurts you in terms of the public eye. but in terms of whether or not it was russia i don't get how it helps hem to do this and may even create trouble for tillerson because it makes

russia more resident in his own resume. >> frankly going to put tillerson on the hot seat when he sits in these committee hearings and have to answer tough questions about whatever business dealings he got with russia and specifically with vladimir putin and who was involved. >> that tweet is interesting because what mr. trump is saying hey if the white house is so concerned about this why didn't they raise it earlier? we do have some reporting on why they didn't raise it before the election. they did know that they believed that russia had been behind the dnc hack they had meddled and they say they didn't raise it because mr. trump should like this they didn't want to play their hand to russia. behind the scenes. we're trying to figure out how to retaliate and what the right punishment was -- >> and didn't want to disturb their dialogue with russia on syria and didn't want to give trump something to carp about if hillary clinton -- >> and also about -- >> as did everybody at this table, as did everybody in the trump campaign. >> they didn't have to go public with it because they were betting on hillary clinton winning. >> i think everybody was betting on hillary clinton. again why is donald trump at

this moment in time, why is he even responding? why is he responding? why doesn't he have a surrogate out there responding if he feels the need to do so. the bottom line is that his roles matter. everything that he says whether it's on twitter, or issues a statement could move markets, can start wars. why is he doing this? i don't understand. >> so let's go from conflict to coming to the. >> right. >> let's show the video of one of the ugly moments during the election of this guy sucker punching a protester at one of the trump rallies. remember this? the guy in the hat. boom, sucker punch. guy's defenseless, doesn't see it coming. and then you know he can't even fight back because he's getting locked out of the place. this man in the hat gets brought up on charges because that is a crime. it's called assault. now we get to the hearing. the victim winds up wanting this to go away and be okay. and the man winds up not being charged. they wind up hugging it out. 33 mark preston the bottom line. >> it's a moment.

it's one of the good moments of this campaign which was one of the most ugliest moments of this campaign. >> yeah but we credit the victim here. he is what's giving us -- >> oh, 100%. >> because the perpetrator, who is 79-year-old trump supporter, he said, originally, that the guy deserved it. >> right. >> so he was just being walked out by security. he also said that you bet i liked it when it happened. he said he liked punching him. >> right. >> bus he didn't know if that person was -- >> if you all remember this was during the height of like major violence at, you know, at these things. you know, the bottom line is, going back to the victim actually saying you know what, let's just bury the hatchet and try to move on, you've got to give that guy credit. >> absolutely. that is the beautiful part here. that is the credit mass spirit coming through. >> because he didn't have to. >> because he didn't have to. >> absolutely. he can say he liked it.

it was a stupid thing to do. unless you're defending yourself, hitting someone is a stupid thing to do. >> he sucker punched him. >> a violation of man law as well. but he's an older man. make rakeem saw that and he wanted this to be better. that's what he said was motivating his protest in the first place, a nice end to an ugly incident. >> we all have to ask ourselves would we have done the same thing? i don't know. >> camerota? >> i am scared when someone punches me so i would have run away and i don't know if -- >> nobody's punching you on my watch. >> ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. >> you are so chivalrous. >> because he's the one who is most aggressive. so anyway. okay. thanks, mark. bottom line. late night laughs next. >> that's not what this was? ♪ ♪ hey dad! ♪ wishes do come true. the lincoln wish list sales event is on.

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during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california. comics taking on mr. trump's cabinet picks and russia. here are your late night laughs. >> if you want to know if santa has you on his nice list or naughty list, just ask russia to hack it for you. don't worry, they'll get to it. did you see yesterday "the new york times" published a lengthy article outlines how russia successfully cyber attacked the u.s. and influenced our election. of course, most americans are really upset. the implications for our democracy are, well, look, kanye is at trump tower. >> trump's cabinet is really taking shape.

and it's important it take shape because there's this thing called the line of succession. here is the actual chart for the line of succession which doubles as the chart of hair cuts you can get at the senior center. for those of you out there concerned with diversity don't worry, the secretary of agriculture appears to be a black guy pap. >> executives at exxonmobil are saying that secretary of state nominee rex tillerson has learned to get along with vladimir putin for business reasons but is not fond of him. really? look at this picture. the only thing missing, be the only thing missing from that picture, is mistletoe. >> yesterday the president-elect met with bill gates, jim brown and kanye west. today he met with executives from amazon, tesla, apple, google and facebook. the ceo of twitter, jack dorsey, did not meet with donald trump. i'm guessing for the same reason dr. frankenstein never went out of his way to meet the monster. >> good stuff.

>> they actually say that the twitter guy, different theories about why he didn't make it. >> yeah, why? >> the word from the team is, not a big enough company. >> twitter? >> you know. time for "newsroom" with carol costello. it's market cap, carol. not big enough that way. >> i'm glad you cleared that up for us. thank you so much. "newsroom" starts now. you guys have a good day. >> no love. >> you, too. >> a lump of coal in human form. >> i'm sorry. "newsroom" starts now. and good morning i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. closing arguments set to begin in just a few minutes in the trial of dylann roof. the man accused of carrying out the charleston church massacre. on wednesday jurors got a firsthand account of what unfolded during that night of terror from one of the survivors. holly shepard recalls diving under a table when bullets started