good evening. topping the hour, breaking news in president-elect trump's running b running running battle with the intelligence community president-elect today casting fresh doubt on the intelligence

consensus that russia meddled in the election. it's a far cry from his view of assange a few years back when he essentially called for the man's head. >> he's going to talk about wikileaks. >> i think it's disgraceful. >> you do? >> there should be like the death penalty or something. >> today a different tune. last night this tweet on his upcoming briefing with the director of national intelligence. it read the intelligence in quotes briefing on so-called russian hacking in dwoets was delayed till friday. perhaps more time needed to build a case. u.s. officials dispute his factual claim there was any delay. first, the breaking news tonight, jim chute tote joins us now. what are you learning about the possible future of the intelligence community once he takes office? >> our reporting is trump wants to limit or reassess the power of the director of national intelligence to be clear, this was something that was founded, recommended after 9/11 as part of the 9/11 commission hearings

to have a director of national jgs to oversee the 16 intelligence agencies make sure there was intelligence sharing as you know, that was one of the concerns. pre9/11 is those agencies weren't sharing that intelligence so they could prevent attacks like we saw on 9/11. i will say this is not entirely new. there's been talk about this for some time. a lot of those agencies bristled at the idea of having an overarching body. it's a little bit of an administrative thing. our understanding is it's being pushed by general michael flynn who was pushed out as the head of the defense intelligence agency under president obama in part by the then director of national intelligence. there's some internal politics behind this, as well. >> how concerned are people or how are they reacting at the president-elect continue dozen cast doubts about their work? >> the word i hear is dismay, right? you have intelligence agencies

working very hard oftentimes under very difficult certainly sometimes dangerous circumstances to keep the president and the government apprised of threats whether it's terrorism, north carolina, russia, you name it. and you have the president-elect coming in and publicly via twitter questioning not only their ability, their capability but really their politics here. there's dismay and also confusion and we saw some of that this week where donald trump said yesterday his intelligence briefing on russian hacking was delayed, fact is, it was never scheduled for yesterday. it was always the end of the week after the president gets his own briefing on this review he ordered. there is real concern inside those agencies as to what this means for them. >> trump has had intelligence briefings in the past with high ranking officials. is there a difference between the trump they see in meetings and the messages he's sending out in public. >> there is. we hear from intelligence officials that the trump you see on twitter is one thing. this those presidential daily

briefings which he's getting several times a week, is he more deferentialal. he's not berating them in private. it's just then in public, he dismisses them. it's difficult for them to rec tie phi what is the true trump. the trouble is, it's harder to rein in those public comments because it raises overall questions about the capability of the intelligence agencies and when you have a real threat, if it's an imminent attack on the u.s., a terror attack, north korea, et cetera, you have the president elect who has called into question in public and repeatedly the capability of these organizations. they're very concerned. >> jim sciutto. his public statements at least put mr. trump in conflict with a lot of intelligence professionals and leaves him at odds with people from his own party. sara murray has that. >> reporter: donald trump's relentless concept tickism against u.s. intelligence highlighting a sharp split

between the president elect and other gop leader. house speaker paul ryan unleashing a wave of criticism against the wikileaks founder who published the hacks e-mails from hillary clinton's campaign chairman john podesta. >> i think the guy is a sick cofant for russia. he leaks, steals data and compromises national security. >> reporter: as senator lindsey graham offers this advice to trump. >> not only should he ignore assange, he should condemn him for what he's done to our country. >> assange insists his information isn't coming from the russian government. >> our ours source is not a state party. the answer for our interactions is no. >> reporter: as director brannan questions his credibility. >> he's not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity. >> reporter: and implorz skeptics to wait for the upcoming report on russia. >> i would suggest to individuals who have not yet seen the report or been believed on it, that they wait and see

what it is that the intelligence community is putting forward before they make those judgments. >> reporter: today, vice president elect mike pence is backing up his boss's leeriness of u.s. intelligence. >> i think that the president-elect has expressed his very sincere and healthy american skepticism about intelligence conclusions. >> sarah, has donald trump explained why he distrusts these intelligence sources? >> reporter: he has not exactly for himself but sean spicer, the incoming white house press secretary told reporters earlier today it's not the raw intelligence that donald trump is doubting but rather it's the conclusions that intelligence officials are drawing that russia then meddled in the u.s. election. spicer said that is what donald trump is hoping to press intelligence officials for on friday is a better explanation for how they were able to conclude russia did try to interfere in the u.s. elections. there's another component to

this, and it's the fact that donald trump is personally offended by part of this. sources believe that he believes that this is an opportunity for intelligence officials to try to undermine his victory, to undermine his legitimacy as president. so there's a little bit of a point of pride playing itself out here, as well. >> thanks for the update. perspective from a former diplomat who knows how vital the relationship between decisionmakers and the intelligence community can be, elliott kohn from the johns hopkins of advanced studies. author of "the big stick." >> i want to ask about this "wall street journal" report that's right the transition team are looking to scale back the office of the director of national intelligence and also kind of lower the staff numbers, the cia and langley and get more people out in the field. what do you make of those? >> i don't know. i guess i tend to think this is

sort of a distraction from the feud that president-elect has decided to have with the intelligence community soever bantive issues. the office national intelligence is an umbrella organization. there's been a lot of disagreement whether creating it was a good idea or not. this is actually pretty petty stuff. it's not particularly important. what is important is the president-elect deciding he knows better than the national security agency and the rest of the intelligence community. >> what do you think the impact that have is? >> the president-elect tweeting ow, kind of mocking the intelligence community putting intelligence in quotes, pitting russian hacking in quotes. he clearly seems to believe that the intelligence community is far too politicized or in some way he seems to be siding with julian assange over that. >> who knows what he believes. this is dangerous. >> dangerous? >> it is dangerous. it sets up and tagnistic

relationship between the intelligence community which does exist to serve the president and the administration and the president. and it seems to indicate that he has this kind of sleep walker's confidence in his own judgment and his own reading of things. and i think it sends a terrible message to the world that he prefers to side with vladimir putin and julian assange who are both in different ways reprehensible characters. >> some supports say look pushing back on the intelligence community raises the bar. maybe it makes them scrub things even harder. >> absolutely. pushing, i was a government official for several years. i spent a lot of time pushing back on the intelligence community. the way you do that is you get a lot of briefings and they say things. you say explain to me how do you know that. and what is the logic chain here and it's done not by tweets. it's done by hour of serious conversation. if somebody like say former vice president dick cheney was quite good at that.

despite what people did think, they did not mind being grilled by dick cheney. it made them better. it was not done by blasting out tweets which dismiss the intelligence community in favor of a russian dictator and a traitor. >> the idea that he's tweeting out messages to north carolina or whether it's to north korea but about north korea they're certainly going to read, this is uncharted waters. this is. >> this is completely unprecedented abnormal. again, it's dangerous. on the sbachbs say the policy towards north korea, it might or might not be the right thing. it's important to do this in a deliberate way. >> more than 140 characters. >> right. and not at 3:00 a.m. and you need to have your secretary of state, your secretary of defense. you need to think through what are the possibilities? how could this play out. this is reckless. and this will get us in trouble because either he will commit himself to dangerous could yours can of action or he will equally

possibly back down. then you'll ironically perhaps have the same thing that happened with president obama. a red line that turns out not to mean anything. and part of the pattern here is he tweets something at 3:00 a.m. and kellyanne conway walks it back when she wakes up five or six hours later. >> i want to ask about the book, "the big stick." essentially you are arguing in this age where so much has this information soft power, you're basically pushing back on that saying that military force, there is a role for that in a number perhaps more than ever in a number of circumstances. >> look, one thing i say is, the limits of soft power, not that soft power is not important. it's important to put sanctions on the russians or iranians. we need to understand it has limits. no country has been sanctioned more than north korea. in very short order, they'll be able to hit the continental united states with nuclear weapons. military power is tremendously

important. and part of what the book is about a case for what is really now the traditional american policy of global leadership 37 and what i try to argue out in the book is the way in which military power undergirds that in places like europe, for example, or say in the south china sea. >> congratulations on book. it's gotten great reviews. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. a lot more ahead tonight, including a closer look where u.s. intelligence agencies have failed to get it right and clearly succeeded. the pence factor, could he be the most powerful vice president since dick cheney? we'll take a closer look at that when we continue.

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you touched all these. don't just get your taxes done, amy. get your taxes won. as jim sciutto reported sources telling us donald trump is considering a shake-up that might limit the power of the director of national intelligence happening in the middle of mr. trump's clash with the intelligence community. he justy phis his skepticism by citing examples of intelligence failures over the years. more now on the fail urnds success stories from cnn's tom foreman. >> reporter: even as isis roars through its third year as a self-proclaimed caliphate in northern iraq and syria, debate is raging in the u.s. did president obama fail to heed early signs of the terror group's rise? >> he's the founder of isis. >> reporter: or as he told "60 minutes," did the intelligence community not sufficiently warn him about the threat? >> i think they underestimated what had been taking place in

syria. >> reporter: from the killing of osama bin laden to the steady march of drone strikes which have taken out dozens of terrorist leaders, the 16 agencies which comprise the intelligence community can claim many successes which have saved countless lives. for roughly $70 billion tax dollars a year, they track down bad guys, disrupting terror plots and crippling crime rings. but there have been notable failures, too. for example, while intelligence forces knew about the rise of al qaeda well before 2001, many security analysts say they badly miss the warning signs of the 9/11 attacks. there have been several so-called lone wolf terror attacks which have slipped below the intelligence radar. and, of course, there was the war in iraq. the invasion was driven forward by the bush administration's insistence the iraqiss had

weapons of mass dres destruction. >> we're giving you facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. >> reporter: but that was not true and later the same officials who hush for the thanks to rollin sises they too had been led astray. >> i'm not the investigator of the intelligence community. but if i was, we would be having very long meetings about this. >> reporter: such finger pointing and the inherent secrecy of intelligence working make it streeply difficult to get the facts straight. >> i think the way that i would describe is that everybody did. >> reporter: and in that environment, figuring out whom to hold accountable can also require some pretty good gathering of intelligence. anderson? >> tom, thanks very much. plenty to talk about tonight with former chief of staff bill daley and cnn politics anchor john king. >> bill, in taking issue with the findings over the hackings that the president-elect pointed out it came from the same people

that said zaim had weapons of mass destruction, is that a fair comparison for him to make? >> i think a president should question any information he gets. but to challenge what seems to be a unanimous opinion of the intelligence agencies and look at a glaring mistake of which the cia and the other intelligence agencies have said, obviously, was a mistake. worldwide international agencies made. it's starting to battle before you're even president i can't figure out what the purpose is. he's going to have to depend on, the country depends on these men and women keeping us safe. he will depend on their intelligence. he can't be doubting or going around them to try to get information from other sources and that undermines their competent xrks obviously and their dedication. and questions it. >> john, also in such a public way. to be tweeting out sort of i mean, i guess you can internet his putting quotes an around the

word intelligence to describe the intelligence community but it certainly seems to be sarcastic and kind of a snide aside about the entire not just the cia but the entire intelligence community. >> by putting the words intelligence in quotes, putting the words russian hacking in quotes suggesting they're trying to cook the books in delaying a briefing which wasn't delayed. mr. trump's facts are wrong on that. it was originally scheduled for friday when the report is finished. essentially mockings the intelligence community and publicly saying look at julian assange, he's on television saying the russians didn't do. he credits assange and putin and mocks the u.intelligence community. in 16 days he's the president. never mind the democratic criticism no, disrespect to bill or any other democrats. more and more republicans are getting alarmed about this. the speaker did an interview with hugh hewitt and called assange a sick cofant for the

russians. a number of other republicans saying they hope the president-elect has a quick turning of the page as he gets set to become president. >> bill, you were president obama's chief of staff in the white house. you know how it works. does a president's mind-set change when you start to get the daily briefings every day assuming he does get the briefings? >> if he wants them. i think donald trump has proven over the last 15, 18 months he's going to do it his way. he's unconventional. there's no reason to think after his success in the election and what he believes is a fantastic transition everything's fantastic, that there's any reason for him to change. i think that's his m.o. and it will continue. to question our -- i had the honor of being there during the run-up to the osama bin laden raid i saw what dedication the intelligence agencies and all of the different agencies that were brought to bear for that action gave for ten years looking for

osama bin laden. and the sort of dedication. when you question that and you question their motives and you question their competence and you're going to be president of the united states and lead these men and women out there risking their lives every day for our security, it's just a dangerous thing. forget politically. for the nation. and for the people who spend their lives protecting us. i just don't understand it. i think it's a disgraceful action by the president-elect. >> john, some supports of trump might say look, he's pushing back. that's not necessarily an unhealthy thing that it basically raises the bar and raises everybody's expectations and makes people work harder. >> no question. i think after the iraq war experience, a healthy skepticism is warranted. john brennan who now serves president obama but goes back through other republican and democratic administrations in his government service as do most of the former military or current military in the intelligence community, they have served democratic and

republican presidents. is it healthy to be skeptical? absolutely. what alarms people in the intelligence community, this annoys the people in the intelligence community and people across the partisan spectrum here in washington, democrats and republicans and career foreign service and civil service people is doing it so publicly, so publicly and mocking their words, undermining their words and their findings. if he wants to say scrub it, again, that's fine. post-iraq we should all be skeptical of what we get. we're having a conversation about the president-elect, about things he has said during the campaign or during the transition. if you talk to military people or intelligence people here in washington, they think this new president in his very early days and weeks in office may have to make a monumental decision about north korea. this they go to test an intercontinent had ballistic missile what, is trump going to say when the cia, the defense intelligence agency and other agencies come to him with that intelligence. sometimes you get to send them back to scrub the books again. bill knows this better than i do

from being in "the situation room." sometimes the president has to make a snap judgment. >> bill, john king, thank you. you heard blunt assessments of julian assange. regardless of who likes him, it's fair to say he's no stranger to controversy. gary tuchman reports. >> reporter: this video from 2007 was secret until wikileaks reesed in 2010. >> roger. i just estimate there's probably about 20 of them. >> reporter: u.s. apache helicopter group members see suspected insurgents in iraq and say they see prokt propelled grenades. they get per his to fire. turns out two journalists from reuters. were in the group. >> come on, fire. >> roger. >> reporter: at least a dozen people killed in the attack. some innocent civilians including the news crew. release of this video helped make the founder of wikileaks an

traceal named julian assange a household name. state department cables were released by wikileaks including arab leaders lobbying the u.s. to attack iran and suggested is u.s. diplomats were told to engage in low level spying. many politicians democrats and republicans outraged the classified information had been released. >> i'm calling on the attorney general and supporting his efforts to fully prosecute wikileaks and its founder for violating the staunch act and for calling secretary of state hillary clinton to declare wikileaks a foreign terrorist organization. >> reporter: none of that happened. the following year, assange appeared on cbs' "60 minutes." >> i'm sure there are certain views amongst hillary clinton and her lot we are subverting her authority. you're right, we are subverting

illegitimate authority. the question is whether the authority is legitimate or illegitimate. >> do you consider the u.s. state department a legitimate authority? >> it's legitimate in so far as its actions are legitimate. it has actions that are not. >> reporter: since 2006, millions of sensitive military and diplomatic documents were released to and by assange and wikileaks. that's not the only controversy surrounding him. he's been holed up more than four years in the ecuador embassy in london after being an excused of sexual assault. ecuador granted him asylum after charges were brought. just before the democratic national convention began this summer, wikileaks published thousands of leaked e-mails from the democratic national committee. >> the question of anger that you're interfering in the u.s. election. you said this is what your readers are american and therefore, it's okay?

>> well, it's what our readers demand and also our basic principles. the publication of true information and that's an important qualifier. true information about modern institutions allows us to understand what they're doing and therefore, to reform them in with the continuing release of dnc documents in the months after the convention, the overwhelming consensus among u.s. intelligence is that the russian government is behind the leaks to wikileaks. here's what assange said about that in his most recent tv appearance. >> we have said repeatedly over the last two months that our source is not the russian government. and it is not state party. >> reporter: so who is his source? he's not saying. while the mystery about the man and his methods continues. gary tuchman, cnn, atlanta. well, a lot more news ahead. mike pence gave a taste of the role he's likely to play in the

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in 16 days, mike pence will become the 48th vice president of the united states. he is expected to be donald trump's point man on capitol hill where he's been laying the groundwork with the gop. today his focus obviously was one of trump's biggest campaign promises. obamacare. senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny reports. >> reporter: i couldn't be more humbled and more excited to be back in the capitol today. >> reporter: mike pence back i the capitol hill as donald trump's vice president. >> we are 16 days away from the end of business as usual in washington, d.c. >> reporter: the first order of new business he said is a quick repeal of obamacare. he laid out a road map for republicans at the very hour president obama also visited capitol hill urging democrats to fight. the dueling images of an outgoing president and an incoming vice president spoke volumes about pence's standing in the new white house. >> the american people have

spoken. they want to see us repeal and replace obamacare. and today, my message to members of congress is we are going to be in the promise keeping business. >> reporter: had the vice president elect's rising influence has become clear throughout the transition from recommending cabinet members to filling key staff positions with his own confidantes. pence bed in congress for a dozen years. railing against the health care law the day it passed. >> some say we're making history. i say we're breaking history. >> reporter: today he made clear he'll again be a fixture in the capitol setting up a working office just outside the house and senate like vice president dick cheney. republicans close to pence tell cnn he hopes to model his vice presidency after cheney's with one key difference. he must also play the role of trump whisperer, explaining and defending the president to skeptical republicans. shortly after trump tweeted a warning early today about

repealing the law too quickly, republicans must it be careful in that the dems own the poor obamacare disaster. it was left to pence to expand on that thought. >> as he said this morning, in a tweet, it will be important that we be careful as we do that. that we do that in a way that doesn't work a hardship on american families. who have gained insurance through this program. >> reporter: in addition to health care, pence said the new administration would roll back obama's legacy through executive actions and legislation easing regulations, passing tax reform and an infrastructure program. while trump still gives many republicans heartburn, they see pence as a far steadier hand. arizona senator jeff flake is one of pence's oldest friends in congress who has been critical of trump. >> it's reassuring to all of us. mike spent 12 years in the house, four years as governor. he's extremely knowledgeable about the legislative process. and he's always been a policy wonk. >> the imprint of mike pence can

be seen across the new trump administration. he will play a key role in implementing that trump agenda starting with obamacare. but republicans here on capitol hill also tell me they hope he will be influential inside the white house on matters of foreign policy and intelligence. anderson? >> jeff, thanks. a lot to discuss. joining me cnn chief political analyst gloria borger and anchor john king. john, it was a pretty striking visual today to see president obama and vice president elect pence on the hill rather than obama and trump. how much does that say about what kind of role pence will have as vice president? >> we should not understate or overstate pence's role. there's no question he is key to donald trump. he is his number one legislative point person on capitol hill. more importantly, he's the number one conduit for conservatives in congress and elsewhere in washington who still have doubts about donald trump and worries about donald trump and frankly still don't know donald trump and what direction he will take as president.

pence is their point person. they know he has donald trump's ear. donald trump is grateful for his loyalty on the campaign trail. we don't know how much influence pence has in the room one-on-one with trump. donald trump is the boss. he made that clear during the campaign. pence is among those who went to donald trump at one point i'm told and said you should back off all that twitter stuff. but when it comes to capitol hill, relationships, bridge building conduit for conservatives, he's critical. >> gloria, certainly not the first time pence served as trump's emissary to capitol hill. >> no, he met with paul ryan during the campaign and after to make sure that that relationship has smoothed out. he's also met with some republican who are not frechbds trump like senator ben sass of nebraska. i think what he really is is sort of the trump translator. he explains trump to congress and explainses congress to trump. i think at this point, that's

kind of his biggest role. i think one way to judge his influence will be to see if ivanka, trump and jerryd are still behind him. because after all, they were the ones who really wanted him in that job. he has their trust. and i think if donald trump, who i believe trusts him now, continues to draw him in that inner circle, then i think we could see him have more and more influence just like the family does. >> john, you made that point, as well. the important point beyond an emissary to capitol hill, how much power will pence have in that white house? it's said he wants to model his vice presidency on dick cheney who certainly had a lot of the power and a lot of personal connection in terms of policy with the president. >> there is no question george w. bush gave cheney a broad portfolio. no question cheney probably expanded his port foal what he was specifically given by president bush.

in mike pence, you have essentially during the campaign we talked how trump was the anti-obama. in many ways pence is the anti-trump. you don't get into this stage of politics without having a healthy ego. he has an unassuming air about him, very well respected on capitol hill. he's a movement conservative. democrats don't agree with him much but they like him, too. we won't know till 100 days in or more what his influence with the president is. at the moment, he has an important role in large part because trump trusts him and doesn't know congress. i talked to a republican senator who said of mike pence, he's one before us. donald trump is donald trump. i don't think that was meant at critically as it sounds when you say it. a lot of the republicans on capitol hill don't know when push comes to shove, will he listen to democrats or go back to prior democratic tendencies or be one of them. they do trust pence. >> you know, one thing i was going to say is that these

relationships between presidents and vice presidents kind of ebb and flow. this, the white house is a really small place. and either a president grows to like his vice president, trust him and depend on him like i think barack obama has grown trust joe biden. i think they were less close in the first term, more close in the second term. or their relationship can split apart as it did with george w. bush and dick cheney who ended up clashing really over foreign policy. and so the question really is, does donald trump want a yes man or does donald trump want somebody who when he disagrees with him will tell him why i disagree with you and this is what you ought to do and then will will he liston his vice president? >> yeah. gloria borger, john king, thank you both. >> thank you. just ahead, the president's club is obviously a small one. january 20th it will add the 45th member.

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no matter how ugly or contentious a presidential election is, and let's be frank, the last one was in a class of

its own, come january 20th, former presidents and first ladies show up at the ceremony putting differences an side. just before president obama's first inauguration, he gathered past presidents for a meeting and for this unique photo. again, despite the nastiness of the past year, looks as though respect for the tradition will continue. jimmy carter has rsvp a yes, george w and laura bush, bill and hillary clinton. joining us now rice professor university professler. and john meech cham. john, the fact the clintons have confirmed they'll be at the inauguration not odd for a former president and first lady. rare for the defeated candidate to be there, isn't it? >> unless you were maybe the vice president or you would be there in the course of things. so i think it's a sign of great grace on the part of both the

bush 43s and the clintons both of whom were the target obviously of a lot of not only tweets but sustained attacks from trump to come to the inaugurati inauguration. it's a fairly recent thing for former presidents who were not immediately going out of office to come. part of it is a reflection of the partisan atmosphere atmosphere is so poisonous with the perspective of years, former presidents tend to get a larger view and want to lend sense of unity to those occasions. >> that's not something that always happened. >> not unless you had a reason to be there. one of the complications in recent years force 25% of my lifetime a bush has been president. you have fatherses there who happen to be president. but for former presidents to take pains to be there is something that's a relatively recent vicinity and. >> interesting. doug, as far as the bushes go, obviously george w. bush former

president. his brother got soundly defeated by donald trump. >> there's no love lost for the bush family and donald trump. they don't really like him. reality is reality. i've been amazed george w. bush is nowhere to be seen or heard from. he's there in dallas running his presidential library. eyes aren't going to be looking at him and laura very much or bill and hillary clinton. as you said at the beginning, it was a brutal campaign. there is going to be hillary clinton having to absorb the fact she lost to this guy and i think if there are big ratings for the inauguration a lot of people will be looking at the body language like we do at state of the union addresses or how bill and hillary clinton are interacting with the trumps. >> and where they'll be seated. >> john mentioned they didn't always come. grant wouldn't ride in a carriage with andrew johnson so johnson just sulked in the white house and wouldn't come to the event. you can go through a lot of

these elections where john meech cham what he was saying was true. it didn't happen like this but longevity means you live longer so you'll be a longer ex-president and air transport is easier, easier to get to dc than in the old days. >> no matter how contentious something is, it's about honoring the tradition of this and the peaceful transfer of power. >> nobody knows what it's like to be president except those have been president. you used the phrase club which is exactly right. our friends michael duffy and nancy gibbs wrote a wonderful book called "the president's club." i think there is a certain fraternity and that's going to be the right word for now among those who have been there. one of the things that's so interesting about everyone responding yes in this moment is of all the moments that if for instance if bush 43 wanted to stay in dallas or be off as doug was saying in africa work on his projects, this would be the one.

this is a man the president lake effect accused him of falsifying the road to the iraq war of being asleep at switch on 9/11. but the bushes in particular both 41 and 43 have a reverence for the office that i think they believe in a contentious moment a shot of commit and unity is important for the country. >> yeah, such incredible photo of all those former presidents with then president obama. doug, john amaechiham, as well. up next, the nanny cam video a lot of people are talking about. a dresser falling on to a 2-year-old boy until his twin brothers saves him. now already questions about whether or not the whole thing is a hoax. what the parents are saying when we continue.

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heart stopping nanny cam video has gone viral online. keep this in mind, on average, a child dies in america every two weeks from furniture or a tv falling on them. thankfully, for a utah mom and dad, no one was hurt when a dresser came crashing down on one of their 2-year-old twins, still controversy over whether it is a hoax. >> reporter: is it a hoax or brotherly heroism. it all started in the bedroom of these two year old boys. then this happened. little brock trapped underneath it. unsure what to do, body steps back to assess the situation, then climbs on top of the dresser, likely adding even more pressure, but suddenly, his rescue plan becomes kris cal

cle clear. after one more failed attempt, body firmly plants his pajamas feet and uses strength to push it. by now, it's about 8:20 a.m. their mom wakes up and checks the feed from the nanny cam in the boys' room. >> i saw the dresser had fallen down and no kids to be seen. i jump out of bed, fling open the door. >> reporter: she found her boys playing as if nothing had happened. she and her husband turned to the nanny campho for answers. >> we think there was a little extra help in there. >> reporter: on his facebook page, the father wrote, we are so grateful for the bond these

twin brothers share. we feel blessed that he is okay. but now some internet sleuths are suggesting this is nothing more than a hoax. they're asking why was the nanny cam pointed directly at the dresser, how candidadid the part hear it fall. why was it empty? the parents say they emptied it because the boys throw their clothes avenue where. he works for the nanny cam company. he says it's a coincidence. >> it's ironic that it works at my house, that we caught something like it that. >> reporter: both saying they'd never risk their boys' safety. they say their goal is just to raise awareness. >> a lot of people are like, i've bolted my dresser now. >> thank goodness, it didn't turn out worse than it did. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn,

florida. fans of the bachelors won't want to miss this. the ridiculist is next. i had that dream again -- that i was on the icelandic game show. and everyone knows me for discounts, like safe driver and paperless billing. but nobody knows the box behind the discounts. oh, it's like my father always told me -- "put that down. that's expensive." of course i save people an average of nearly $600, but who's gonna save me? [ voice breaking ] and that's when i realized... i'm allergic to wasabi. well, i feel better. it's been five minutes. talk about progress. [ chuckles ] okay.

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all on the go. you can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. download the xfinity tv app today. time now for the ridiculist. in the new season of the bachelor, women trying to marry some guy, seems like it would be illegal, but it has become an institution. this is the 20th season. watch this from the season premiere a few nights ago. >> i like that. >> i'm so excited to meet you. >> here we go. >> and i dolphinitely can't wait

to talk to you. >> they ripped off the costume from the andy cohen show. but that woman should marry him and be done with it. even if you didn't care for the dolphinitely joke. she came in there with a real sense of porpoise. get it? i guess you got to do something do stand out. >> when i think about finding the one. it's, you know, someone who's kind of strong personality and feels empowered and someone who's truly my partner. >> okay. that's the best cut away ever. the bachelor is all about drama in the house. but the real question is, what do the other women think? >> there's a girl that dressed up as a dolphin, i believe it was a dolphin or a whale. >> is it a dolphin or a shark?

>> it's a dolphin. dolphin. >> i still think it's a shark. they ripped it off from andy. i take you back, bachelor, do not marry that woman. she's clearly wearing a shark costume. she thinks it a's dolphin. madam, if you are in fact a dolphin, i'm not going to say that. where -- i'm not going to say that. the writer of the segment wanted me to ask, where is your blow hole. i'm not going to say that. she's got shark gills, got shark teeth. she's a shark. shockingly, in bachelorville, correctly identifying animals is low on the priority list. >> i love that she's wearing heels. >> show is my spirit animal. >> i want to be friends with the

dolphin shark. >> i'm glad she's wearing heels. i know a shark when i see it. >> is that a dolphin call? >> she's calling for him. that is the cutest thing i've ever seen in my life. >> okay. you're just milking it. >> for the record, sir, you cannot milk a shark. the shark's name is alexis, of course. she is 23. and she wants to be a dolphin a trainer. they spoof it burning love. >> i hope you like nice things, because i have a lot of money. >> okay. >> i have nine numbers for you, 135 [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> that was my social security number. >> i know. >> a cougar. >> i don't want my physical appearance to distract you from the real me. so i will be wearing this

costume until we get to know each other a little better. >> that makes sense. >> i feel like one of these women could end up being my wife or at my fiance for a while. >> aren't we all sharks looking for a spouse? breaking news, donald trump looking at ways to rein in power of the director of national tlins. this in the midst of his twitter feud with the very people who risk their lives to protect us. now what will happen when top intelligence chiefs brief trump face-to-face this coming friday. plus, inauguration day just 16 days away. and the members of the marching band of one historically black college are at odds over whether they should perform. is it