had been trained by someone. that's what the evidence suggests. brian todd, thanks. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett out front" starts right now. donald trump scores a major victory against his own party. plus he shares the stage with a guy whose mick name is joey no socks. what's trump's relationship to the convicted felon? does vladimir putin see himself in donald trump? a former tom putin adviser speaks out front. let's go up. good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front, trump's power play, cnn learning that the president-elect donald trump spoke with house speaker paul ryan after trump slammed house republicans on twitter and trump's slam worked. he wanted his party to back down

from gutting the office of congressional ethics. that's the office that investigates members of congress. republicans abruptly dropped the plan hours after trump shamed them on twitter with this -- "with all the congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the independent ethics watchdog as unfair as it is their number-one act in priority? focus on tax reform, health care, and so many other things of importance." an aide tells trump and ryan spoke this afternoon after the republicans reversed course. the aide suggesting that the stunning republican backdown one all thanks to trump. this aide said early this morning it became clear we would have a vote problem on the floor with this amendment. it's safe to say trump's tweets probably added to that pressure, but it was already being heavily covered in the press. interesting they don't seem to want to give him the credit. the controversial plan was a slap in the face to trump ice campaign promise to drain the swamp in washington. it also comes on the same day

that new members of the house were sworn in, both parties bracing for a major fight over the big policy issue, the first one, the repeal of obamacare. manu raju was out on capitol hill tonight. republicans are reversing course on one of their own proposals. this was a self-inflicted wound on day one. >> reporter: no question, erin. house and senate republican leaders and the trump transition team spent hours trying to lay out their plans to make sure they did not run into roadblocks in the opening days of the new congress. as we know on capitol hill, plans could quickly become unraveled. tonight house republicans abruptly reversing course. scrapping a plan to gut a key et ibs watchdog. after an outpouring of criticism from voters and trump, the president-elect expressing opposition on twitter, writing,

"with all that congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the independent ethics watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number-one act of priority? focus on tax reform, health care, and so many other things of far greater importance. #drain the swamp." less than two hours later house speaker paul ryan convening an emergency neating where his conference changed course, unanimously voting to keep the ethics office intact. republicans in top districts were concerned by the proposal. >> this was the wrong message to send at the start of the session, and i agree. >> optically how concerned are you about the way this makes the republican congress look? >> very concerned. i think it's a terrible mistake. >> reporter: the surprise move began monday night when congressman bob goodlatte

proposed a change to house rules behind closed doors to rein in the office of congressional ethics which was created nearly a decade ago in the aftermath of the jack abramov lobbying scandal. the proposal would have given the very house members who might be investigated greater control over the office of congressional ethics. critics of the panel say it has overreached in the pursuit of headlines and the gop conference voted 119-74 to make the changes. >> i support it because first of all i think it's dupe ka tif but at the least in my view it requires greater oversight than it has. >> reporter: yet the proposal put republicans in an awkward spot with some refusing to say if they wanted to weaken the panel. did you vote for that? >> that was a voice vote. it was not a recorded vote. but frankly i sat there and observed. >> reporter: now, erin, i asked that congressman three times how

he voted monday night on that proposal. he would not say. the reason why he is able to not say is that was a private vote. the question moving forward to a public vote today, how would members vote that and they could endure backlash especially after the outcry that occurred when this issue became public. >> of course his seeming shame in wanting to tell you that says a lot about the perception of this in the public eye. thank you. jeff, the president is going there tomorrow trying to defend obamacare. the vice president elect is there to find a way to get rid of obamacare. of course they wasted no time today trying to get to repeal obamacare despite this other ethic s imbroglio. >> reporter: the ethics situation is easier than obamacare. of course it didn't go so well. obamacare obviously is the most

sacred piece of the obama legacy that many republicans want to dismantle immediately here. the reality here is that this point you'll be taking things away from people. so there is not yet a consistent approach, a unified approach to what republicans should do. republican leaders are leaning toward repealing it and then instituting a bit of a time lag so people have time to sort of get their plans in order, delay, but rand paul and others think that is not such a good idea because they believe that would create a vacuum. tomorrow here on capitol hill, mike pence is going to be presenting the republican plan to republicans behind closed doors, giving them a way forward. president obama will be trying to defend his plan. the reality is his meeting is essentially for show. just 17 days, not even, left in office here. few things democrats can do. republicans want to take it away. difficult to figure out how that will be done. >> that is the crucial question.

jeff zeleny, thank you. out front, let's go to republican congressman tom cole, on the rules budget and appropriation committee, a deputy whip. republican leadership, including paul ryan, were against gutting the ethics committee in the way that was efforted today. trump came out and tweeted within hours, gop rank and file backed off, switched that reversal. do you give donald trump the credit for turning this around? >> i think he deserves a lot of the credit. there's bipartisan concern that the outside ethics committee has not worked very well. and has incorrectly accused a lot of members of wrongdoing who were later exonerated. but probably wasn't the right time to do it. president-elect donald trump trump reinforced that today and had a big impact. >> now, from where you stand, you know, how kid you go on

this? did you support gutting the ethics committee the way they suggested? >> it doesn't gut the ethics committee. it reforms it and keeps it in place but it lets you know who your accuser is and says you can't go public until the official ethics committee is going to make charges against you. those are needed reforms and i support those. >> you would support? >> i would support changing it and will continue to support changing it. more appropriate time frame, more appropriate way. that's what the congress wanted to do. focus on repeal of obamacare, tax reform, regulatory relief. those are the big issues. >> josh earnest came out. there was an outcry over this and why to do it now.

the appearance of gutting the committee, the appearance of that did not play well. josh had this to say about the proposal today. >> it is revealing the first step taken by congressional republicans in the new congress was to vote in secret to gut et ins regulations. >> if the ethics commit see is dire, why do it in secret. why only among republicans? >> it wasn't just republicans. this has been going on for six years. when this was created it was created by a single vote when democrats had overwhelming majority because many of their members were opposed to it. having watched it operate, it simply is not fair. we had member after member get

up who had been wrongly accused, covered in the press, an had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, then they get a lit note from the outside ethics committee that says you're exonerated, you're right, and nobody covers that. all they're asking for is due process, know who's accusing you. they're under all the ethics rules, under legal obligation. members have gone to jail. i'm not saying this isn't something that needs to be done, but it needs to be done fairly. >> why not bipartisan? it appeared to be in secret. >> it wasn't in secret. almost all of the reforms were from a bipartisan commission that had recommended them in the last congress. this isn't something that's covered every day and people overreacted to that. members were wise enough to see that and listened to leadership. good point, we'll pull back and focus on these other things.

not to get rid of it, but to reform it. >> i want to ask you about the big policy issue of the day. >> health care is the central issue here. you want to repeal and replace obamacare. the senate took the first official step towards repealing it today. is there a clear plan that you have with president-elect trump on what to replace it with? >> we haven't heard all of his steps. house member head of health and human services. he's laid out his own set of lesion on this. i think repealing it will be a republicans only exercise. you won't get a lot of democrats to help you in that. when it comes time to replace it, you'll have to work together

across the line particularly in the united states senate. we've certainly got a common set of ideas that will take some time to get it done, so i think what the senate did today was the right and important first step. >> and before we go, though, when you say when it gets to the replacing, the republican senator lamar alexander, chairman of the health committee, said it would be a mistake to repeal obamacare before there is a replacement. senator rand paul seconded that. do you share that point of view? >> it's a fair point in the sense this is a collapsing system. it has 9 million people fewer than it was supposed to. 7.5 million people paid fines rather than go into it last year. it's collapsing. >> i'm talking about replacing the appeal. >> the repeal will come with the time delay so the process will take a considerable period of time. it won't happen all in one fell

swoop. you won't repeal and replace on exactly the same day. i don't think that's possible. >> all right. probably repeal and delay. thank you very much. congressman cole, appreciate your time tonight. up next, bracing for north korea's response to donald trump's threat. what's kim jong-un's next move. plus, trump side by side with a new year's guest who goes by the name joey no socks. who is he? and a toddler saves his twin brother after a dresser falls on top of him. [ crowd noise ]

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the white house is downplaying an attack by pyongyang after donald trump's tweet -- the white house is trying to dispute that claim saying there's no evidence north korea's nuclear capabilities have changed. of course the estimate would still be for them to have a weapon of that sort in a couple years. jim sciutto is with us. a lot of concern tonight about north korea's nuclear capability and how quickly they are moving. >> no question. and no question they're making progress. u.s. intelligence view is that they have to assume that china

has what they call an untested ability to put out a nuke on a warhead and shoot it possibly as far as the u.s. not to assume that because they don't know for sure and north korea hasn't tested it. but that is definitely north korea's ambition. the trouble is that short of that there's a lot of things that north korea can do to threaten the u.s. and its allies, further missile tests, some aimed at south korea. other ways to cause trouble, firing artillery at south korean islands close to north korea. this is the concern now, something in that category. a north korean defector recently said north korea will try to take advantage of uncertainty during the transition between obama and trump. do they do that? if so, how?

>> in his tweet as president-elect, china, you're not doing it. full stop. what's the reaction to this direct criticism from trump? >> the foreign ministry was asked about this today and they said in their words, i'm paraphrasing a little, they say we don't pay attention to the features of foreign leaders communications. we pay attention to their policies, saying we don't watch the tweets. we look to see what they do rather than what they say or tweet. what's interesting about that criticism is that criticism of china is not continue fiped to donald trump. he's not alone in that. there's a lot of frustration that china didn't exert enough pressure on north korea to stop its nuclear program, the read being china would rather have a nuclear north korea than a collapsed or unified korean peninsula.

>> thank you. john kirby, spokesman for the state department. good to have you with me. when you see the president-elect's tweet, does trump's threat more likely that kim jong-un will try to strike america? >> i think this is a regime in pyongyang that it's proven it's willing to continue to pursue these kinds of capabilities in the face of growing and galvanizing international community pressure. so, look, we've seen no indication that they aren't serious about developing these programs despite what is already a lot of pressure on them not to do that. that doesn't mean, however, that we can turn our blind eye to it or turn away and we'll continue to watch it closely. i would say that the sanctions regime that's in place are the most aggressive that we've had in nearly two decades.

the international community continues to work to implement those and we'll see, sanctions tyke time. we'll see what effect they have. >> one of the big questions is what happens if north korea does perfect this missile and what we've seen estimates out there, they could make progress this year, certainly within the four years of the trump administration, that they would have a nuclear weapon that would be capable of hitting the west coast of the mainland united states. those are the forecasts. obviously that's the sort of thing that would change the world and the game here. tens of thousands of people on a city like seattle. when i was in korea with the defense secretary, the argument was there's a missile defense shield along the western coast of the united states. and that that would protect us. are we really prepared? do we know that would work? >> well, there are multiple layers of missile defense capabilities that we have in that part of the world and so, yes, there are some that are based in the continental states but we also have great missile defense capabilities at sea

through u.s. navy assetings as well. so there are multiple layers and levels here we would use to defend against a continental ballistic missile that might be launched at the united states. doesn't mean, however, that we can just rely on defense and not continue to try to pressure pyongyang to do the right thing. sanctions take time. i understand that. and i understand that the calendar is challenging here as he continues to -- >> do you think sanction will work after all these years? i feel like we hear about sanctions after sanctions, whether george w. bush or barack obama. yet the one thing that's been constant is that north korea has made more and more progress towards a nuclear weapon that could strike america. >> hard to predict. obviously, sanctions have not had the desired effect to date. but the latest are the tough nest 20 years. sanctions take time. i think we have to work this out and watch how they are implemented. that's the key. we have seen commitments, public

commitments out of china that they will implement these sanctions. that will be the real key. these are tough sanctions and they can have a bite. whether they'll change his mind and his calculus, we have to watch and see. >> trump also tweeted about this. china has been taking out massive amounts of money and wealth from the u.s. in one-sided trade but won't help with north korea. nice. during the campaign of course here's a brief clip. >> china should solve that problem for us. china should go into north korea. china is totally powerful as it relates to north korea. china has total control, believe me. they shay they don't. they have total control over north korea. and china should solve that problem. china has control, absolute control of north korea. they don't say it, but they do.

i would make it disappear. >> how? >> heard worse things, frankly. >> what do you say there? is the obama administration partly to blame for not getting china to act? >> china has been acting and china has been supporting sanctions regime particularly this last one that had been in place. they voted for it. they said publicly that they would implement that. it is true, erin, that in the past there has not been uniform enforcement of sanctions going forward. and some of that has fallen on to china. we know that. we have said they will implement it, they will enforce that, and they have incredible influence in pyongyang, more than probably any other country. i think to say they can control pyongyang is not supported by the facts. the fact is that china itself

has been and has said this themselves, that they have been frustrated by some of the actions of the north korean dictator. >> thank you so much, john kirby. appreciate your time tonight. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> next, a billion-dollar plant in mexico promising to keep jobs in america. ford's ceo speaks out tonight. and donald trump sharing the stage at mar-a-lago with a convicted felon. the man known as joey no socks. >> i'd especially like to congratulate and thank joe, the head of the academy, for the unbelievable job that he does. ♪ eyes open? good. because it's here. cue the confetti.

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new tonight, president-elect donald trump facing questions after sharing the stage on new year's eve with a convicted felon. joseph chinke was right next to trump as trump addressed guests at mar-a-lago. how long did trump and the man also known as joey no socks go back? miguel marquez is out front. >> joseph chinque, aka joey no socks, convicted in 1989 for art theft, celebrating next to the president-elect on new year's eve. >> thank you very much. it's a great honor. >> his current lawyer insists the art was legally owned by him, but the new york supreme court says joey no socks pled guilty in his and his conviction still stands. he was give an conditional discharge and served no jail time. they go way back. in 2008 they shared a stage at the miss universe contest, trump calling him joe. >> by the way, joe is probably

one of the most important men in the hotel industry. >> reporter: in 2009 trump was given award by joe. >> i'd especially like to congratulate and thank joe, the head of the academy, for the unbelievable job that he does. >> and last year at trump's mar-a-lago new year's eve celebration. >> thank you very much, joe. >> reporter: again, joey no socks front and center with donald trump. last may trump told the associated press he didn't know him well and wasn't aware of his conviction. >> let's assume donald trump doesn't know who this guy is. wow. donald trump is so unaware and doesn't have people around him to warn him that you're standing next to a convicted felon? >> reporter: david k. johnson for 30 years covered trump's rough and tumble rise mostly for "the new york times." his new book "the making of donald trump" pulls no punches.

>> i was absolutely shocked that donald trump, president-elect, would stand at a public forum next to a convicted felon, who claimed to be connected with john gotti, credibly enough that the new york city prosecutor's office thought that that was a real connection. >> reporter: the u.s. secret service declined to comment on the matter, referring cnn to the trump transition team, which also refused to comment on the relationship between trump and joe. several mar-a-lago members and guests who attended the party tell cnn there was no secret service background check prior to it but they did go through metal detectors. >> here's in my mind the most fundamental aspect of this. you've been elected to the most powerful office in the world. all sorts of people want to cozy up to you and there are all sorts of opportunities for people to make money off of some relationship with you. why would you connect yourself in public with a convicted fell

on t fellon? >> reporter: rooted in the american academy of hospitality sciences, an organization that over the years trump has been listed as ambassador extraordinai extraordinaire. >> donald trump proudly hangs at least 19 awards. you'll notice they're signed not just by joey no socks, they're also signed donald j. trump as chairman of the board. >> reporter: trump's signature is on some of the award. it's like trump giving himself ayn ward. the secret service says they only physically protect the president-elect and the president. they referred us to the transition team which did not want to go into detail between joey no socks and donald trump. >> miguel, thank you. let's go straight to it. jeff lee lord and keith boykin.

this is a guy claims a relationship to got toy, convicted felon. why is trump hanging around with this guy? >> clearly he knows him in some capacity. >> even though he said he doesn't. he does. donald trump, first of all, if he meets you for ten minutes he'll be a pretty loyal guy. two, i think with all due respect this is overplayed. the gentleman said why would the president-elect will next to somebody. a convicted drug smuggler was there in the clinton white house posing for a christmas party picture with hillary clinton shortly after he paid money to al gore for the 2000 race. we can get well into the cia and sharing a misstress with the president of the united states. this isn't even close to this kind of thing.

not even close. >> because they're all hanging out with convicted felons. >> just had an election in november where a certain guy named donald trump said he was going to drain the swaump, get rid of the shady business dealings, and now your excuse is everybody does this, it's not a problem. >> no, no, no. >> those were politicians he was talking about. >> it's okay when a billionaire does it. >> i don't know anything about the guy -- >> joey no socks. >> joey no socks. >> but donald trump, and that's the problem. donald trump is surrounding himself with yes people. he needs better people to give him advice. somebody should tell him don't neat with convicted felons on new year's eve. don't tweet every day. don't suck up to russian dictators and ceos who want to curry his favor because somebody says something nice about him. >> there's something else at the heart of it which is how traump has handled the attention on joey no socks. he said in may he did not know

joey no socks very well. okay. obviously that piece would show that to not be the case on the surface level. he appeared in a tribute video for him. let me play what trump said about joey no socks. >> i'd especially like to congratulate and thank joey cinque, the head of the academy, for the unbelievable job that he does. there's nobody like him. he's a special guy. there's just nobody close. >> either he speaks that glowingly of somebody he doesn't know at all, which is its own issue, or he knows him. >> news flash, i personally have spent decades going to events where some political figure will stand up and say glowing things about somebody they hardly know. >> a special guy. >> they have speechwriters that do this for them. i just don't even think -- i mean, we're dealing with isis, we're tealing with obamacare, dealing -- i just don't think this is anywhere on the radar. >> fundamental honesty matter of

whether you ask, do you know somebody and you say i don't know them that well when again and again you're seen with him? >> he may not know about his -- >> that's not possible or plausible. this is why it matters. it's not just joey no socks. it's don king, who's also a convicted felon, the russian immigrant who was another convicted felon who's involved in the trump sojo project. trump has a history of dealing with shady people and he says he hires and will surround himself with the best people. there's no evidence of that. we see corruption and pay to play and crookedness, the same stuff he accused other people of engaging in, he's doing that now. >> i don't see that at all. >> people see more when the hearings happen because there's plenty of evidence. look, for example, at general michael flynn, a conspiracy theorist who's been appointed -- >> are you saying general flynn is a crook? >> i'm saying he's a conspiracy theorist and trump doesn't pick the best people. he doesn't surround himself with the best people. this is another indication. why is he meeting with don king

and joey no socks and not having intelligence briefings? he doesn't have time for intelligence briefings. he has time to tweet every day. >> that's not so. >> his lack of seriousness of the job of president. >> all i can say is we litigated all this kind of stuff in the campaign. it's over, my friend, and i know it's a new year and there's a new president-elect. >> not acting like a president of the united states. you think the president should be associate with the criminals? >> of course not. >> then it's not just -- >> of course not. >> we agree. >> thunless he's about to becom attorney general of the united states, i don't think you have to worry. >> if you held the president of the united states, barack obama, to the same standard, i would feel comfortable about that. donald trump said he was going to drain the swamp and there's every evidence he's not doing it. >> i mean, the drain the swamp is about lobbyists and consultants in washington -- >> not about criminals? convicted criminals?

>> i don't think he's player in washington. >> thank you both. next, ford scrapping plans to build a case in mexico. ford says it's good business but trump is getting all the credit. and a strange habit of appearing in public half dressed. is there a method to his seeming madness? tonight putin's onetime top aide speaks out. and my life is basketball.west, but that doesn't stop my afib from leaving me at a higher risk of stroke. that'd be devastating. i took warfarin for over 15 years. until i learned more about once-daily xarelto®... a latest-generation blood thinner. then i made the switch. xarelto® significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem.

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ford will upgrade a facility in michigan instead of going to mexico. trump said he had to do it. the announcement comes on the same day trump took general motors to task saying gm should not be bidding one of its models in mexico. he tweets, gm sending tax-free across border, make in the usa or pay a big border tax. poppy harlow is at a ford plant in flat rock, michigan, tonight. you sat down with ford's ceo. so they're going to cancel this mexican plant. plans for this. why? ask. >> reporter: it's a huge cannes

place. in part business driven. there has been no love lost between the president-elect and ford. they have a long history trading barbs back and forth. at one point the president-elect so even said ford was going to fire all of its workers in the united states. that is just not true. i skwd mark fields are you changing this because of trump? >> it makes sense for our business and we look at all factor including what we view as a more positive u.s. manufacturing business environment under president-elect trump and it's literally a vote of confidence around some of the pro-growth policies that he has been outlining. >> but this is a trend we've seen. the president-elect calls out carrier, gets jobs to stay here, calls out boeing, he gets a cheaper air force one. calls out lockheed martin and they say we're going to work with you. there is a concern among some, mark, that this is in essence a

form of croney capitalism, that the president can cut deals with companies and they expect favors from the administration in return. >> first off, we didn't cut a deal with the president-elect. we did what's right for our business, first and foremost. that's what drives us in every business decision we make. we look at a lot of factors, poppy, and one that we see is this more positive u.s. environment for manufacturing and investment here. >> it's interesting, poppy, when you pushed him, he said we didn't cut a deal with the president-elect. as you point out, you said it would be 40% cheaper to make those cars in mexico. 40% cheaper. it's hard to imagine they would go ahead and reverse a decision like that if not because of donald trump's specifically and his threats. >> reporter: it is indeed, erin. you know, this is a $1.6 billion plant that they're just not moving forward with. on top of the fact that it costs them so much less to make cars in mexico.

he never said that trump was not part of the decision. he just said trump wasn't the full driver of the decision. an outstanding question is will it cost americans more now to buy their cars that are made here because labor cost is so much higher? that's certainly a question. at the same point in time, remember, erin, they're not spending $1.6 billion in mexico. what they're spending that the plant in michigan is $700 million so, there is a cost savings there as well. he said demand for small cars is not where it was before so that's another driver for this. but everything in this environment is political. >> poppy, thanks. up next, does vladimir putin see himself in trump? a putin insider speaks out. and jeanne moos on how a 2-year-old saved the day teaching all parents an important lesson. managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. i didn't think there was anything else to talk about.

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breaking news. the president-elect is not scheduled tomorrow to comment about the russian hacking investigation. he said he would have more to say on it, quote, tuesday or wednesday. this comes as trump faces

questions about his ties to vladimir putin. frederik pleitgen is out front. >> it would be nice if we got along. if we don't, we don't, but it would be nice. >> reporter: donald trump then a candidate hoping for warmer ties with vladimir putin. now it appear his wish is coming true. >> he is a brilliant, intelligent person without a doubt. >> reporter: as president obama all but accuses vladimir putin himself of election-related hacking in the u.s., trump is finding an admirer in putin. >> translator: very excited about trump's election. i think he even had a brief moment of euphoria. >> reporter: pavlovski was a top putin adviser for ten years until he was dismissed in 2011 for opposing putin's controversial third term in office. he says putin has high expectations for donald trump. >> translator: putin is expecting an acceptance of russia's agenda from the new president trump.

>> reporter: that could include less criticism of russia's controversial intervention in syria and more importantly a possible easing of sanctions imposed by the u.s. and europe over the crisis in ukraine. the russian president even seeing a reflection of himself in donald trump, he says. >> translator: he just likes a strong man, a winner in a situation where no one believed in his victory because that's how it had been with putin himself. >> reporter: since his election, trump has been careful not to criticize russia or its leader, while blasting china for what he calls one-sided trade relations with the u.s. and a lack of support pressuring north korea on its nuke program. that china bashing even helps putin, phe says. >> reporter: we don't want to find ourselves in one bed with china and trump could help us find a middle way. >> reporter: both putin and trump have a way of playing to the cameras.

trump with his reality tv career, putin with photos like these showing him braving the outdoors, wrestling tiger, and riding shirtless on a horse. >> translator: putin's character, style, habits are those of a middle-class bourgeois. he's prone to comfort. he absolutely didn't want to be the man who works 10 to 20 hours a day. >> reporter: and he tells me he believes right now the kremlin is anxiously waiting to see whether donald trump will follow up on one of the positive things he's been saying about vladimir putin once he takes office. erin? >> no doubt. fred, thank you very much. retired major general spdr marks. thanks for being with me. just hearing this, this is a man who had worked for putin for a long time. he still lives in russia. he's not saying anything negative about vladimir putin but his description about how

vladimir putin feels about donald trump, very excited he won, a brief moment of euphoria, expecting an acceptance of russia's agenda. does this concern you? >> it does. a little dangerous, frankly, if the expectation is that the united states with the new president is going to fully embrace vladimir putin and what he wants, pew tip, to achieve. it's a good thing that our president-elect wants to try to have a better relationship with russia, but let's be frank, this is the third administration that's tried to do that. and for a whole bunch of reasons, primarily our focus and deep engagement in the middle east, we've been diverted by putting resources and real attention to this. but bush 43 and president obama and now president-elect donald trump would to try to improve that relationship. i'm concerned that there's going to be an embrace here and we need to -- the only way that you improve this relationship is to trust building measures that are very, very measured and very precise. >> of course we'll see whether

that happens. you know, president obama started with a wonderful new relationship with vladimir putin and we see where that ended. but then this former adviser talking to fred says putin sees a lot of himself in donald trump. vladimir putin loves propaganda pictures of himself. one year he sent everybody in the country a dvd of himself playing judo or something like that. >> medvedev. >> that's right. and now donald trump obviously also has that showmanship about him. obviously, i don't think we'll ever see donald trump putting up a picture of himself without his shirt on. >> please. >> but vladimir putin saying he likes a strong man, a winner, sees himself in donald trump. will that flattery blind trump to the truth of putin? >> i think president-elect trump is a bright guy. let's give him credit for that. he is a bright i would say very intuitive guy. i don't think he's going to be blinded by that. i think what you see is you see

these two personalities that might in fact conflate in that they both have excessive, what i would call excessive confidence. and when you act on that confidence, you tend to dismiss what might be contrarian views that are coming in, those whispers in your ear that are essential to good, solid loep leadership. you need to have somebody telling you routinely, hey, president, put your shirt back on. hey, president-elect, let's not try to embrace putin too much. >> nobody tells putin to put his shirt back on. >> probably not. >> thank you very much, general marks. next, jeanne moos with a story of the 2-year-old who's being called a mini superman after saving his twin. you do all this research

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a 2-year-old saves the day, brother of the year. already? here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: when kaylee shof reviewed the video of a chest falling on her twin sons she felt it in her chest. >> my heart sank. i didn't know what to do. i felt like the worst mom. >> reporter: but the worst did not happen. 2 1/2-year-old bodie got right up while his twin brother brock remained pinned. >> this one's bodie and this one's brock and they're super rambunctious. >> reporter: it was around 8:30 in the morning, the boys and their parents in separate bedrooms in their utah home. >> we usually hear everything. we didn't hear a cry or a big thud. >> reporter: for two minutes brodie tried to free his twin, first by pushing then trying to move the dresser from the other side. then trying to lift it in vain. but finally bodie managed to push the chest far enough for

brock to squirm out from under it. both boys were fine. >> no bumps or bruises. >> online commenters asked and the parents were where? mom? dad? hello? but they heard nothing and we saw in the security monitor that the dresser had fallen after the kids were both safe. they risked online criticism posting the video to demonstrate the dangers of unfastened furniture. the chest of drawers is now bolted to the wall. of course we in the media are falling all over bodie. how could we not? >> tiny hero. >> a whole new meaning to brotherly love. >> many are calling him a real life mini super kid. >> bodie took time off from saving his brother to play with an electric bottle warmer and follow the cord. wrote one commenter, love the way he first clambers over the chest of drawers, further crushing his brother. but someday bodie will puff out his chest, curling about the

chest he lifted to rescue his twin bro. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> obviously a wonderful ending there but make sure you bolt things. thanks for joining us. watch "out front" anytime, anywhere. anderson is next. >> good evening. thanks for joining us. breaking news on president-elect trump's delay in unplugging himself from the family interest. there's new ties to the convicted felon joey no socks. a 180 on house gop plans to gut the watchdogs keeping every member of congress, republicans and democrats honest. that and breaking news on russian efforts to med until the election which is where we begin with late word that a new classified report is about to hit and the measures being taken to make sure that donald trump gets the best possible look at it. pamela brown