skblienchs hello. welcome to the cnn newsroom. thank you for being here with us, and happy new year. i'm pamela brown. well, 18 days and counting until president-elect donald trump becomes president trump, but the process of turning his most urgent plans and priorities and talking points into action starts just 24 hours from now. that's day one of the 115th congress. republican majorities in both houses, eager in most cases, to confirm the cabinet of the president-elect and to begin unwinding obama care. the fr

the program's namesake is planning a trip to talk about ways to defend it. donald trump still doesn't buy the russians did it. >> i know a lot about hacking, and hacking is a very hard thing to prove, so it could be somebody else. i also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation. >> what things do you know that other people don't know? >> you'll find out on tuesday or wednesday. >> joining me now to discuss all of this are cnn chief political reporter dana bash, and from new york national politics reporter mj lee. great to have you with us, ladies. dana, i'm going to start with you with the confirmations. as we know, dems don't have the numbers to block, but they can drag this out, right? >> they can, and senate democrats are saying today that they are going to focus in on eight nominees.

as you said, not that there's threatening to outright block mostly because they can't. they don't have the numbers to do so even if they wanted to. but that these are people that they say that they simply don't have enough information on yet to allow republicans to fast track. they're going to do the opposite of that. they're going to try to slow walk them a little bit. i want to focus in on three of the ones who i think could pose the most problems for donald trump because of that, and they are rex tillerson, the ceo of exxon, and i'm not saying he will be a problem ultimately in terms of the substance of who he is and what he will do, but democrats say, look, they really do need to see all of his paperwork, his taxes. they need him to file with the government of ethics offense and so forth because he, just like the other two on the screen here, betsy devoss, education secretary and steve mmanuchin.

they have a lot of money and a lot of business interests. historically speaking, one democrat this morning said to me, remember penny who comes from a wealthy family. he said that before she was nominated, before, she took six months to unravel herself, and that the good news is for the trump campaign, the trump transition, they have been pretty fast in picking his cabinet. the bad news is they put that cart before the horse of getting all of the information that they need to the government of ethics and also the fbi where. >> then do you expect people like jeff sessions who, as we know, has already been vetted for that to move along more quickly then in that case? >> well, people like jeff sessions who, of course, is one of their own. a senate colleague has different issues because he is somebody who -- different issues for democrats. not necessarily republicans. he is somebody who has the baggage of being somebody that they know, but i think that because, as you said, he is sort of a public figure, you would

think that he would have fewer potential problems. having said that, remember, tom daschle was the senate majority leader, and after, you know -- when we finally got his information, it turned out that he had some tax issues, and he had to withdraw his nomination. you never know. that's why this information, this paperwork, is so critical for them to get. >> we heard donald trump speaking there sort of saying offhandedly that he has information that most people don't have, and he is going to reveal more about that on tuesday or wednesday. do we know what he is planning exactly and what that information might be? >> no, we don't at all. we do know that trump is going to get an intel briefing at some point midweek, likely in new york city, but about this charge that he made on new year's eve night to reporters that he knows more things and that he would reveal them at some point, and he specifically said i'll reveal them tuesday or wednesday, which is notable, it we don't know. it's very unclear of what he is talking about, and he is not specifying yet what he has

talked about. it was very notable, though, that his incoming white house press secretary sean spicer this morning tried to clean this up a little bit. he said, you know, he is not going to be making this big reveal of big information. rather, it's just going to be him talking broadly about the conclusion, so trying to down play the big, you know, thing that trump said on saturday. >> what we do know is that he continues to cast doubt that russia is, in fact, to blame. how are republicans responding to this reluctance about russia? >> we have seen a lot of republicans responding full force. senator mccain, senator graham. a lot of republicans don't believe what he believes. they believe the intel community's conclusions as well, and being very vocal about it. you have senators pushing for hearings coming in the final days, but if you listen top donald trump during the campaign trail in the last few days, it's very clear he is doubling down on the doubts, really trying to, you know, not play into these conclusions. a lot of skepticism still coming

from him on this. >> before we wrap up, i want torg to m. j. lee in new york. walk us through, if you would, m. j., the republicans legislative priorities that we know of, particularly when we get obama care? >> the repeal and replace obama care, this has been the republican party's rallying cry ever since obama care became law in 2010, and essentially that moment has finally come and that is because the republican party is about to control the house and the senate as well as the white house, but it is hard to sort of overstate how extremely complicated and messy this political battle is about to be and to walk through just what we're going to see happen on capitol hill this week. lawmakers return to congress tomorrow, and essentially republicans are going to get started right away to put the wheels in motion, to repeal major parts of obama care. they are going to do this through a budget reconciliation process, which is essentially a

fast track process. now, here's why repeal and replace is actually very misleading. republicans are not actually going to propose a plan right away to replace obama care. they're actually just doing the repeal if they do what we expect them to do and what has been, you know, discussed by republican leader so far. away that means is that the replace would not actually happen for some time, and this is why this is such a politically tricky issue for republicans because if you talk to health care experts they say that even if the repeal does not actually go into effect for a while, this is something that could cause a lot of uncertainty and essentially chaos in the insurance market because insurance companies will feel like they don't have the incentive essentially to stay in

the marketplace. this is why republicans are sort of buying themselves some time by proposing sort of this replace -- repeal, rather, and delay path rather than actually doing repeal and replace right away. >> so just to put this in perspective, remind us, again, how many americans have a stake in obama care's fate, and do we know anything at all about what republicans plan to replace it with? any clues? i know you said they're going to delay that, but do we know anything? >> right. i mean, that's the big billion dollar question, i think, is how exactly they're going to do this, and actually if you talk to some senate republicans right now and house republicans as well, they're sort of getting this idea out there that the replace part might be a piecemeal effect. that this isn't going to be one big law that we shouldn't necessarily expect there to be a big bill that actually does all of the replacing and to your question of just how many

americans are affected, i mean, this is a massive, massive law. it is a law that overhaul the country's health care system. >> there's obama care making significant changes to medicare. also reform medicaid, and also if obama care is repealed, the employer mandate could go away. we are talking about many, many people sort of across the spectrum who were indirectly or directly affected by obama care and, again, this is why republicans are trying to buy themselves time to really figure out how they're going to go through with the very complicated task.

>> just the why. why is donald trump breaking from the intelligence community and his fellow republicans by continuing to cast doubt on russia's role in the election hacking? what's the end goal there? >> well, i think, pamela, part of it is that it's been pointed as a reason of why he won, and he rejects that and anything that takes away from his election's stunning victory on november 8th, he has been very defensive and saying, look, it's not that. he knows stuff that we all don't know because he is getting intelligence briefings, but as he gets his team in there, his cia boss, his people at the head of the other intelligence agencies, i think he might -- he might pivot a little bit and have a different tone on this, but it is striking. i mean, you have john mccain,

lindsey graham all believing that russia was at fault here, and donald trump saying no, it's very difficult to prove. i think the american people have to see the proof. >> abby, i want to play the latest pushback from team trump on the hacking controversy. here's what sean spicer said on cnn this morning talking about what trump and the u.s. intelligence community claim to know. >> as president-elect, he is privy to information that most people aren't, and he is able to understand what the intelligence is and draw conclusions from that. one thing i think is missing from this discussion, allison, is this report that everyone keeps talking about is not final. the president -- the president of the united states has not seen a final report. the intelligence community has talked about wrapping it up later this week, so for anybody to be going out and talking about what's in the report, it's not final yet, and i think that the idea that we're jumping to conclusions before we have a final report is, frankly, irresponsible.

>> the report that spells out what happens. grizzly steps. let me read two sentences in this report. it says the u.s. government confirms that two different russian intelligence service actors participated in the intrusion into a u.s. political party. both groups have historically targeted government organizations, think tanks, universities, and corporations around the world. sounds pretty definitive to me, abby. >> right. i think sean is right on some level that the president-elect has access to information that not everybody has, but there are other people who would have the same information that the president-elect does have, and you don't see very many people coming out and denying the very involvement of the russian government in cyber attacks throughout the election. i mean, i think that's the sort of basic premise of the conversation here that the

president-elect has repeatedly denied is even a part of the conversation. you know, i mean, says this whole talk about trump and russia and putin is part of a process, i think, of this incoming administration, wanting to change the nature of the relationship between these two countries that has been growing colder over the last, you know, year or year -- several years, in fact, and so i think trump is very hesitant to come out and be critical of putin when he wants to come in and reset that relationship, but he has to be very careful that he is not doing that in defiance of the facts and in defiance of his own party and the political support that he needs to have flord to pursue foreign policy goals. >> they are pretty certain that what we saw in this last election was russia delving into our election, and for trump to sort of go against that would

require a lot of political capital in addition to the many other things that he wants to do in his first, you know, 100 or so days in office. >> and, bob, what does all of this mean in your view for rex tillerson's nomination for secretary of state? >> i think democrats as you were talking about earlier, it's been very difficult to torpedo any one of his candidates because he just needs republicans to stick together to get a majority. i think they're going to be asking a lot of questions about russia. tillerson obviously has a relationship with putin. business relationship. bl where do you stand on immigration or deportation? where do you stand on

regulations? what are you going to do about medicare and social security? those are the policy questions that i think democrats are going to go after. what can democrats and obama's visit to the hill do to impact the outcome. as we know republicans have made it a legislative priority to repeal and replace it. >> the real issue is what happens when you start to roll back a law that is weaved into the fabric of the american insurance industry, and the problem with delaying implementing a replacement of obama care is that you basically destabilize the entire system. republicans are going to have to reassure insurance companies, and those reassurances might have to take a financial form,

which causes a whole set of other problems, including how you pay for that. i think democrats, president obama, are probably going to be spending ai lot of time talking about those unintended consequences and pointing out the degree to which a repeal and delay plan is simply untenable and could cause more problems, could end up being more expensive for the country in the long-term. a picture of the gunman still on the run. what isis is saying about the new year's eve mass shooting. stay with us. we'll be right back. when you've got an uncontrollable cough, take delsym, the #1 12-hour cough medicine. it helps control the impulse to cough for 12 hours. which means, you're controlling your cough on your morning commute. and later when you're joking with beth... even when most cough medicines stop,

delsym is still working. ♪ and when your days' over, your cough is still under control. thanks to the #1 12-hour cough medicine. delsym. the cough controller. won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

(becky) i've seen such a change in einstein since he started eating the new beneful recipe. the number one ingredient in it is beef. (einstein) the beef is fantastic! (becky) he's a very active dog. he never stops moving. he has enough energy to believe that he can jump high enough to catch a bird. it has real beef, grains, vegetables, and he loves it. well, we were coming for an interview... so he wanted to wear his tie. (einstein) it's my power tie. it gives me power. (vo) try new beneful originals with beef. now with real beef as the number one ingredient, healthful. flavorful. beneful. i'm raph. my name is anne. i'm one of the real live attorneys you can talk to through legalzoom. don't let unanswered legal questions hold you up, because we're here, we're here, and we've got your back. legalzoom. legal help is here. legal help is here. see me. see me. don't stare at me. see me. see me. see me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. i'm not contagious. see me to know that... ...i won't stop until i find what works. discover cosentyx, a different kind of medicine for moderate

to severe plaque psoriasis. proven to help the majority of people find clear or almost clear skin. 8 out of 10 people saw 75% skin clearance at 3 months. while the majority saw 90% clearance. do not use if you are allergic to cosentyx. before starting, you should be tested for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur... ...tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms... ...such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. if you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. see me. see me. see me. on my way. find clear skin... and a clearer path forward. for a different kind of medicine, ask your dermatologist about cosentyx.

zbliefrmt breaking news this hour in the mass nightclub shooting in turkey. a new photo showing the men turkish police are looking for in the wake of sunday's attack that killed 39 people celebrating the new year in istanbul. we cannot independently verify the authenticity of this image you see right here, but this release follows a reported claim of responsibility from isis. a statement said to be from the terror group suggested the attack was aimed at christians celebrating the holiday. at last check 46 people were still being treated for injuries, including one american. he has been identified as william jacob rock. cnn's ian lee is with us now from istanbul. ian, any progress on finding the gunman? >> tear interrogating them to find out what part, if any, they played in this attack. also we're hearing from the

deputy prime minister that they have an image of him. they also -- they have his fingerprint. they're hoping that this not only helps find where he is hiding right now in turkey, but also if he had any help and what the power structure is behind it. now, we know isis claimed responsibility for this attack saying that they're targeting this club specifically because, as you pointed out earlier, they're targeting christians celebrating the new year. most of the people killed and injured are musliming celebrating the new year. turkey has come under criticism for not having enough security even though the night of new year's eve there was a lot of security around istanbul. it was noticeably higher, but the turkish authorities did say that they stopped 248 attacks before they happen. they're defending their security services, but, again, this man was able to go into that nightclub, kill 39 people, and

escape and still hasn't been caught. ian lee, reporting from istanbul. let's go deeper into the latest attack in turkey. two of our experts are with us now. cnn senior law enforcement analyst tom fuentes joins us. he is a former assistant fbi director. we are joined by security analyst bob behr, a cia operative. bob, i want to start with you. we are just two days into 2017. we've seen another attack claimed by isis besides the one in istanbul. it says it's also responsible for a bombing in baby that killed at least 35 people today. what kind of a statement do you think isis is trying to make here? >> they had hoped that turkey would sense -- now that turkey has an agreement with iran and russia, it's joined the enemy

ranks, and, frankly, the turks were not surprised by this attack. they have been anticipating it. they've been trying to close these networks down, but that border is so porous. weapons, explosives, people coming across it and keeping track of all the syrian-iraqi refugees is virtually impossible for the turkish police. >> and, tom, as we know, we heard in ian ae report there that the turks have detained a number of people in the wake of this attack. in your view are they likely to find their man in this case? >> i think, pam, there's a good chance that they won't find their man. you know, you're talking about a city of 14 million people, and on the border with syria, so even though they have fingerprints and they have a photo of the face of the shooter, that's still maybe difficult for them to actually find the right person.

>> bob, in your view what are the challenges facing intelligence services right now when it comes to finding this one person who could be anywhere at this point? >> well, pamela, the big question is did he get help? we don't know that yet. did he have an exit route that he had planned? did somebody on the other side meet him, pick him up in a car? remember, this occurred next to a police station. the turks were deployed all over the city. it seems to me he had an escape route. if he did, as tom said, they get him out of the country, but the longer this goes on, the more worrisome the problems are in turkey. i mean, they're fighting a two-front war against the kurdish workers party and against the islamic state, and you just have a coup.

turkey is on the edge. >> you look at what isis is capable of accomplishing. it has shown it does not need sophisticated methods to cause serious damage. the gunman got through tight security before killing dozens at the nightclub. what can law enforcement do? >> not much. you know, apparently he encountered a security guard outside the might nightclub and shot them dead and went about his business of shooting other people. that's pretty difficult. also, you don't have explosives apparently involved in this, so one guy with handguns or semiautomatic rifles doesn't need a safehouse to manufacture explosive devices where they could identify that through neighbors or assistance in the community. don't forget, isis has had a huge transportation network in turkey now since 2014 so that europeans, americans, asians wanting to join the callaphate would transfer through turkey, and turkey was very tolerant until recently. now turkey clamps down, but it's

a little bit too late. you already have this large network of isis and isis supporters in turkey assisting people still. be very easy to get this person out into syria where he may have been from syria in the first place. this could go unsolved. >> and, bob, earlier you touched on the politics in the region. why should people in the united states be paying attention, close attention, and care about what is playing out in turkey? >> exactly. our first reaction, pamela, is say, well, it's a foreign country. there are conflicts we don't understand. remember, have you to look at the sheer number of refugees that turkey has taken in. turkey will take in as the conflicts in the middle east go on, and if they should lose control of their borders or they should be forced to push these people north into europe, that will threaten europe's stability. turkey is the soft underbelly of europe. it's a member of nato. if it goes down, i'm not saying

it is, it would be an enormous catastrophe for the entire world, including the united states. >> tom, how do you view it? >> you have the issue of a copycat. here in the united states we have over 300 million guns at large in our population, so we're talking about one person getting ahold of one of those guns and launching an attack and could do it on his own without telling any of his friends or neighbors and we could have another shooting like the orlando nightclub shooting so it's almost impossible to stop if that's what we end up with. a lone wolf who wants to get a gun and guns are a dime a dozen here for anybody to get ahold of. >> i asked you this earlier. what can law enforcement do when we're talking about turkey, but in the united states the challenge that the fbi faces, what can the fbi do to prevent further attack like you just talked about? >> well, the fbi is very good,

but, unfortunately, their training has not enabled them to read people's minds, so if you have an individual who becomes radicalized somehow, becomes sympathetic to the cause of isis or any other terror group and they don't tell anybody else, they don't share it, they don't ask for help, you know, they just get the weapon and go to work and start shooting people, there's not much law enforcement can do if someone doesn't get into one of the social media systems, tell friends or neighbors, issue some kind of a warning. there has to be something that comes into public information and then that gets relayed to law enforcement and if we don't have that, you know, in the orlando shooting, there's a question of whether the wife knew he was going to go to the club and shoot people in the club, but nobody else really knows. that's the problem. they cannot read people's minds, and you don't want a law enforcement system where they could. >> tom fuentez, bob bare, thank you. >> ewe welcome. >> up next, donald trump says he

knows a lot about hacking, so what does he know that others in washington don't. ?

[ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide.

well, president-elect donald trump says he still has doubts the russians behind the hacking. he says he knows things that others in washington don't know. in a few days we could find out as well. >> i know a lot about hacking, and hacking is a very hard thing to prove, so it could be somebody else. i also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.

>> terrorism officer jeff beatty. jeff, i'm going to start with you. if trump has inside information, where could he be getting it from? >> well, i think it's information that he gets the same as president obama gets, but what i think might be happening and i hope that what is happening -- i hope that president-elect trump is setting up a fig leaf scenario. in other words, when you deal with somebody like vladimir putin, you can either deal with him with a carrot or a stick or a variant of that, and president obama is doing the right thing. he is hitting russia with a stick right now, but we're about to have a transition, and vladimir putin has an ego, and i know bob, who has been involved in recruiting people, as have i, understand that you have to appreciate who you are dealing with, and sometimes you have to get them a fig leaf.

if trump is setting up a fig leaf scenario where he is not going to directly accuse putin of the hacking, but, rather, give him an opportunity to get some plausible denial so that putin might be able to step forward and say, well, i am going to out of the goodness of my heart work with the americans to make sure that no future hacking incidents eminate from russian territory or use russian code, and if reporters who stick microphones in trump's mouth force him to say stick-like things, then we don't have a good cop-bad cop. all we have is two bad cops. i think that, you know, we have an opportunity to get the desired outcome. is the desired outcome to just say bad things about putin, or is the desired outcome to change russian behavior visa vi hacking? i think we have the stick going on with president doing a great job with that. needs to be done. let's look at a vrariant, and se if we can get --

>> bob, then you have congressman adam ship who says trump could be damaging his credibility. here's what he said. >> he needs to stop talking this way. if he is going to have any credibility as president, he needs to stop talking this way. he needs to stop denigrating the intelligence community. he is going to rely on them. >> it is true. he is going to be relying on the intelligence community that he is publicly disagreeing with right now. >> that's a big problem, pamela. he is going to get into the white house. he is going to be faced with the cia and fbi he clearly doesn't like. he said it. he doesn't trust. i find it extraordinary that he just dismissed the fbi's version that the russians got hacking or dhs's. this is going to be a tough one for him. i know where he is coming from. i talked to people around him, and he doesn't trust the intelligence community, and when he keeps on bringing up iraq and the weapons of mass destruction,

he knows -- you know, he has his reasons. in a lot of sense the intelligence community has been hollowed out. i think on the russian hacking thing, the intelligence community is 100% right. this is evidence that the fbi has brought forward, so this is going to be a real surface because he is going to have to rely on the intelligence community as one crisis after another. >> it's actually not that hard.

>> the united states has confirmed what -- that russia was involved with the hacking. that is because cyber attacks leave footprints or fingerprints or something that can be traced back. the idea that we never know who is doing the harm is a really dangerous way to go forward when you think that cyber warfare is going to be a conflict in the future. we have ways of knowing that it was north korea, with sony, ways of knowing it's china with some of the cyber attacks they've done on the private sector and financial institutions. we certainly should have confidence that the entire, the entire -- let's put this clear -- the entire intelligence community says it's russia, and if it's not russia, right, this is the other thing that trump is going to have to determine. if it's not russia, right, and we all know it happened, who was it? was it the 400 pound guy? was it the filipinos? who was it? i think we should just sort of

step back and say, you know, trump's statement that we can never determine who has hacked is just factually incorrect. there are thousands of people who know how to do this and have clearly done it. >> what do you think about that, jeff? do you agree? >> i think we're missing the point. you know, trump can say behind closed doors and can acknowledge and i would stipulate late to you here today that let's assume russia is responsible for it. great. well, now, what do you want to do? do you want to pile on and play the blame game and use the stick, or do you really -- becau because. >> that was my point about, you know, trying to do a fig leaf type scenario.

i just don't see the value in having trump be the second guy to be using this stick in public. you know, i say let's find a way to get the russians to behave in the way we want to, and i think that allows putin to save a little bit of face going forward, and i wouldn't disagree with the importance of us knowing within government who is responsible for these things and letting them know by various means we have at our ability that we have tremendous capability in this realm. i wouldn't disagree with that at all. >> we don't want to see this continue in the future. there might be just a way to be more effective in making that outcome a reality. >> all right. jeff beatty, juliet, bob bare,

thank you for sharing your perspectives. >> thank you. >> and up next, the charleston church shooter plans to defend himself against the death penalty tomorrow, but could what's happening in court today change that? stay with us. you knmegared omega-3s... but did you know your eyes, your brain, and your joints really love them too? introducing megared advanced 4in1... just one softgel delivers mega support. on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. and if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24/7. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

a second competency hearing is underway right now for the admitted gunman of a church massacre in charleston. at any moment a judge could decide if dylan roof is fit to proceed to the penalty phase. as you'll recall, roof was convicted of killing nine african-american church goers in june of 2015 and is facing the death penalty. martin savage is live outside the courthouse. also joining me is cnn legal analyst and former federal

prosecutor laura coats. martin, to you first. what's happening inside the courtroom right now as we speak? >> on thissish auto of competency, as you point out, it's the second time that this has been brought up in the trial of dylan roof, but because you're moving into what's considered to be the absolute critical phase of this trial -- he has already been convicted, found guilty. now it's literally life and death. his defense attorneys whom he has now been shunning are trying to say he is not in a mental state of mind to be capable of carrying out a defense. in other words, who argue for his own life. because of psychological issues. that's the reason that the evaluation that was done over the weekend and the judge in court this morning seemed to allude something dramatic was revealed during this sort of second evaluation. something about the strategy of

dylan roof. he wouldn't go into any kind of detail. he used a dramatic phrase. if you only knew what i know now, you would narnd, meaning why he is closing down the proceedings to the public. he is afraid that whatever is learned would be reported today and that the jurors somehow may be inadvertently would be told outside of court and that it could actually impact their decision. kind of an 11th hour drama going on here. we don't know what it means. >> yeah, that is very intriguing, martin. do we know what to expect from tomorrow's death penalty phase? i know it's tough to say because we don't know what that piece of information is. >> right. well, we have already known that dylan roof has said that he is going to defend himself, which in a case, a death penalty karks not to mention a federal death penalty case, is just hard to even imagine. on top of that, he has said also that he is not going to present any evidence on his behalf. this is a time you would expect sort of mitigating factors where

you would try to argue look like, well, i may be guilty, but i could be put to death. he will make an opening statement, and he will make some kind of closing statement. meanwhile, the prosecution has dozens of witnesses they will call. family members and also even survivors. it will be quite a painful littany of people giving their family's experience. >> very emotional. dylan roof, laura, has told the judge that he will not be calling on mental health experts or presenting mental health evidence. how might that affect his sentencing? is he going to have to be soapboxy in this. it takes only one juror to be able to have him not get the death penalty in this case, right?

your visceral reaction to what happened in that church that i did, that i did something wrong, please don't put me to death even though i did deserve guilt. i did not deny that i did it, but i don't zesh death. that's going to be a very, very hard road to ho, though. his defense attorneys planted very, very good seeds. during their closing arguments in the guilt phase. they used phrases that alluded to him not being mentally stable, to him not having control over his emotions, control over his actions, in an attempt to try to make that jury say something is wrong with this person who should not put this person to death. i think here we have a person whose goal is to continue what he talked about in his manifesto. used it as an opportunity to do just that. it's a huge stage he wouldn't have otherwise had. unfortunately, he will exploit the emotion of the family.

>> laura, martin, thank you so much. >> thank you. up next, what a former trump biographer claims trump did to him for something he wrote years ago. we'll be right back. ♪living well come on up, grandpa don't let joint discomfort keep you down. come play with us! i'm coming. upgrade to move free ultra's triple action joint support for improved mobility, and flexibility. it also provides 20% better comfort than glucosamine chondroitin, all from one tiny mighty pill.... get in there with move free ultra, and enjoy living well. ♪living well and her new mobile wedding business.tte at first, getting paid was tough... until she got quickbooks. now she sends invoices, sees when they've been viewed and ta-da, paid twice as fast! see how at quickbooks-dot-com.

wheyou wantve somto protect it.e, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. legal help is here. i won this 55 inch tv for less than $30 on dealdash.com. visit dealdash.com for great deals. and start bidding today!

skblienchts many are wondering whether president-elect trump will scale back his use of twitter in 2017 now that he is just days prosecute taking office. perhaps true to form he closed out 2016 with a tweet that raised a few eyebrows. he said, "happy new year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly. they just don't know what to do. love." incidentally, a trump biographer is telling quite a tale about something he says happened to him last friday. harry says the president-ele president-elect -- >> i went up to him and, you

know, in the spirit of the united states of america, i said congratulations, sir. then he launched into a diatribe that i had been rough on him. he used an expletive to describe the content of my book. i looked him in the eye, and i said it's all true. he said not in the way you said it. >> all right. i want to bring in cnn senior media correspondent brian selter. he joins us now. so, brian, apparently that biographer was part of a well to do foursome that picked up and left after that happened. what can you tell us? >> all four of them ended up leaving the club. donald trump, of course, was there playing golf on saturday. you know, this story by harry hert, it does speak to donald trump's grudges. he holds grudges. we've known that for a long time, and he has held them for a long time. i think this one is interesting because harry het's biography came out in the 1990s, and now here he is having this interaction with donald trump. now donald trump having a good

memory, that's a good thing. that he never forgets. in this case it also seems pretty petty. you know, his new year's eve tweet is getting a lot of attention. trump referring to everyone having a happy new year, and everyone including his enemies. he is essentially referring to some americans being his enemies. the people who didn't vote for him, perhaps. it strikes me as interesting, pamela, that when hillary clinton called some trump voters deplorables, there was a lot of criticism of that. not so much criticism of trump saying some people are his enemies. >> you look at this tweet that he sent out at the end of 2016, it seems he is still partly at least focused on what happened during the campaign.

>> there's a newport rat of trump on the cover of the book. that was just taken after election day. it turns out on election night, trump wouldn't let any photographers behind the scene. there's actually no photos for history except what people took on their iphones. maybe that's because trump was not expecting to win on election night. now, david kennerly says he was able to take a portrait a couple of weeks later, have this beautiful shot for history of the president-elect, but it does speak to donald trump's uncertainty on election night. it's understandable now why weeks later, months later he wants to look back and remember those campaign days. >> in this book -- this is a book that cnn -- leading up to election day. it went to the printing presses right after trump was elected. it's a fascinating look at sort of history as it was happening

with photographs from, i mentioned this photographer and from others who were there along the ride, along the way. i have gone back and interviewed journalists about covering election night to experience it through their eyes, and have a story going up today about that. it is amazing to think back to the beginning of election night and how almost everybody was confident clinton was going to win. even a lot of trump supporters and trump aides who believed clinton was going to win and how the battleship turned as the night went on. the book captures all of that. this book unprecedented. >> and i just have to ask, big picture, during the campaign it was clear that trump and the media had at times an adversarial relationship. as we look ahead to him being in the white house, what do you anticipate? how will it play out that relationship, brian? >> i think a lot of journalists are bracing for worst case scenarios from the trump administration, meaning very intelligence, very nasty adversarial relationships at white house briefings, the potential for reporters to be

even investigated or subpoenaed. there's a lot of things the government can do and chooses not to do when it comes to interactions with the press. >> just quickly, you had mentioned that donald trump didn't think possibly he was going to win. what was the turning point during the election night that we learned about in the book, unprecedented? >> going back it's really the 9:00 p.m. hour when it turns, when you can feel trump gaining momentum. you know, it wasn't until 2:45 in the morning that he went out and spoke to the crowd and gave his speech to the country, but really from 9:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. onward you can feel the winds really shift. it makes for a fascinating kind of blow by blow. >> i think people at home remember that feeling as well. brian, thank you so much. >> thanks. >> you can get your copy of

cnn's "unprecedented" the election that changed everything, available now on-line, and now bookstores. >> thank you for being here with us. hope rceveryone has a wonderful new year. the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

why are you checking your credit score? you don't want to drive old blue forever, do you? [brakes squeak] credit karma, huh? yep, it's free. credit karma. give yourself some credit.

i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington, 9:00 p.m. in istanbul, 2:30 a.m. in pyongyang, north korea. wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks very much. they are following developments on several major stories. >> the president-elect sits down this week for an intelligence briefing on russia's medicinaling during the election, but he is once again raising doubts about whether russia was responsible. >> i know a lot