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. this easy-to-understand guide will answer some of your questions and help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that's right for you. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day with us. it is judgment day -- judgment hour for president-elect donald trump. in just about 30 minutes he gets a classified briefing on the evidence that russia meddled in our presidential election. the big question is this. will he finally accept the intelligence, or will he continue his war with america's spy agencies? >> i don't think we've ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere with our election process than

we've seen in this case. >> general clapper. we'll take you there live if we get some pictures from that where, plus, the lesson every new president learns. some campaign promises are hard to keep. the path to obama care repeal is hardly a clear one. mr. trump's pledge to make mexico pay for a new border wall now in serious doubt. >> mr. trump has always been very clear nothing has changed. he is building the wall. mexico will pay for it. he ran on that. you can take that promise. he will keep that promise. >> congress may have some other views on that question. we'll get to that in a moment. the obama's final act. the president gearing up for a big fare we'll address next week, and just moments ago offering his successor and his republican friends some last minute advice. >> keep in mind i'm not the one who named it obama care. they were the ones who named it obama care because what they wanted to do was personalize

this and feed on antipathy towards me in their party as an organizing tool. it's politics. >> that moments ago from the outgoing president. the first lady michelle obama holding her last official event at the white house as we speak. we'll take you there if anything interesting develops. with us to share the reporting, the atlantic's molly ball, cnn manu raju and abby phillips from the washington post. the cia director who will be in the room with donald trump, john brennan, he says there's no doubt in that the united states must voice its outrage against criminal election meddling to bring a critical message to vladimir putin. >> it was very important for the united states to understand exactly what happened here so that we can not only safeguard our system, but we can also make sure that we inform others, and by exposing this publicly may it make mr. putin more reluctant in

the future to go down this path because their activities are being uncovered. >> but will a trump administration, will president trump take that advice and finally accept what is called overwhelming evidence of russia hacking and other meddling, or will the new president stick with this? >> i know a lot about hacking, and hacking is a very hard thing to prove, so it could be somebody else, and i also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of this situation. >> fascinating day. that briefing, again, moments away in new york city. the director of national intelligence, mr. clapper, the cia director mr. brennan, the fbi director jam comey, admiral kelly who was on capitol hill yesterday, among those that will be there to brief the president-elect and his team. the question is does donald trump change his tune and say i accept it? i accept your findings, and i will keep sanctions in place. some republicans want to increase the sanctions against russia, or he just told the "new york times" moments ago this

morning, and you don't give interviews on certain issues unless you want to talk about them. just before this briefing he tells the "new york times" china relatively recently hacked 20 million government names. how come nobody ever talks about that? this is a political witch hunt. not -- they say it's pretty clear evidence. not an effort to do anything about it. donald trump says it's a witch hunt. >> it seems like he is gearing up to acknowledge perhaps that russia had something to do with it, but is trying to create an ekwi equivalency between russia hacking and china hacking. we saw that yesterday with tom cotton, who has been critical of trump and is no friend to russia, but was not willing to lay this on the feet of russia as an attempt to favor donald trump. that's a little bit of a blueprint for what i think we

can expect from trump this afternoon that maybe he might acknowledge russia had something to do with it, but the idea that it's a political witch hunt, that it is -- that it is something that we had experienced in the past from other nation states is part of the denial process of trying to maintain that this is an attempt to delegitimatize him, and i don't think he will change his mind about that. >> as pointed out in the article the big difference is information that was hacked was made public. the chinese, whatever they got their hands on, other actors that have done that released the information they got, but in the case of the election and john podesta's e-mail, he was released publicly. that's part of what drives the public concern. >> in the real challenge -- concern for trump should be that he could be a man on an island here if the evidence is overwhelming. especially if the evidence when

it's declassified and comes out publicly is overwhelming that russia was involved. we know that as soon as today arks korgd to house minority leader nancy pelosi, they're going to release some of this report, and we can learn -- she said it's "stunning in its conclusions", and this report done by the intelligence community assessing exactly what happened, and potentially revealing how emails that were hacked from the dnc got into the hands of russian officials. now, if it's clear, as everyone says it is, and donald trump continues to deny it, you are not going to see much support from him on capitol hill from republicans, and even some of his own advisors will not support what he is saying so he really risks looking like he is alone on this. >> you make a key point. let's try. there are those in team trump, including the president-elect himself who say this is being discussed only to leave the impression that he is an illegitimate president.

he will be inaugurated. president of the united states. two weeks from today in this hour. trump will be the next president of the united states. no one is going to take that away. what do you do about a foreign state actor, and to your point what we are told is that the evidence includes evidence that russia has been at this for eight or nine years, they've been playing around in election systems, the fake news. not just meddling and trying to hack e-mail systems, but also working on the fake news situations to get involved. it's not a new effort, but they have reached the peak in the presidential election. they say they're going to show mr. trump the evidence and they know who from the russian government gave it to a middle man and gave it to wikileaks, and they say they have intercepts of russian officials celebrating on election night, the fact that they won too. they think the trump victory is more than that. i want you to listen to kellyanne conway, one of the people that continues to say this is really much ado about nothing, this is an effort to deledge legitimize the presidency. why would the russians want donald trump to win? >> the russians didn't want him elected.

you know why? because he has said very clearly during the campaign the president-elect he is going to modernize our nuclear capability, and he will have oil and gas exploration all of which goes against russia's economic and military interests. he got elected -- donald trump got elect in part because people want a tougher leader in the white house. a tougher commander in chief. >> i don't think there's any doubt about the last part. at least trump voters want a tougher commander in chief in the white house. just to sort of set the record clear, donald trump did kind of suck up to vladimir putin for the whole campaign. he did turn a blind eye when questioned about vladimir putin stealing land, invading land from his neighbors. donald trump did seem to think it wasn't such a big deal that vladimir putin was helping bashir al assad in syria. donald trump said we can all get along and fix that. sorry, kellyanne, but there are reasons to believe the russians might have preferred donald trump to hillary clinton. the key issue, though, is even this conversation, even my getting into it with her there

is a distraction from what is donald trump going to do when the leaders of the intelligence community give him what they say is incontrovertible evidence that they've been at it for years. >> as you sort of imply there, donald trump has had multiple opportunities to say something else about putin, but he has been favorable to putin at every turn, and he has expressed the views that are the most favorable to putin and to russian interests. it's one of the things he has been the most consistent about in the year and a half since he became a politician. so it's hard to imagine him changing his tune. if there's anything that we know about trump, it's that he doesn't back down. he is not someone who tends to change his views based on contrary evidence. he has had intelligence briefings before, and he said he doesn't believe them. it's hard to see how that suddenly changes. i think his quote about it being a political witch hunt is revealing. he does see this all as

political. >> you know, there's already been a resignation on his transition team on the basis of foreign policy. this is dividing republicans on capitol hill. it's going to be a flash point in multiple confirmation hearings, most prominently for secretary of state. this issue is not going to go away. >> to your point, he has a sense of timing. he does things on purpose. he tweeted just before we came on the air that he wants the senate and the house intelligence committees to investigate how there were leaks to the news media about this report knowing some of the details, including that there were -- that they have identified the emissaries that took it from the russian government and gave it to wikileaks. he is more focused on that than what did russia do, why did russia do it, and what will the united states do about it. the united states and its allies. the current president of the united states says he hopes that after listening to these professionals today, donald trump has a change of heart.

>> my hope is that when the president-elect receives his own briefings and is able to examine the intelligence as his team is put together and they see how professional and effective these agencies are, that some of those current tensions will be reduced. >> you seem quite skeptical that's going to happen. you have to resist this sometimes. it is great theater, and it is a telling -- as we go through the transition. as i was talking about the other day, and i was talking about this with both the military professional and congressional person, in the early days of his administration, he is likely to be faced with an intelligence briefing on kim jong un rolling out an intercontinental ballistic test pad. is donald trump going to believe the intelligence? are the american people going to constantly, and our allies around the world going to constantly doubt what u.s. officials say about our intelligence because the president of the united states says i don't believe it?

>> that's a real risk, and that's what was voiced yesterday in that senate hearing that if approximate it may dispairage the intelligence community, how is that going to make the intelligence community look in terms of its credibility, the eyes of the public, and some of the senator from missouri, the democrat, but also that james clapper's voice as well. there's a difference between healthy skepticism and disparaging the community, and it doesn't seem like donald trump is really changing his tune. in the "new york times" interview just now he cited weapons of mass destruction being the fact that the failure of the intelligence community, not asserting that there were weapons of mass destruction in iraq, and he is still equating what happened in the russia hacks with the wmd's in iraq. it doesn't seem like he believes that they should be given any credibility. >> that was an interesting point yesterday, i thought director clapper was -- please have healthy skepticism. we hope you all have it. we hope all of you chal inlenge. he has access to the in was.

we don't. that was 13 years ago. they make the case they've learned valuable lessons, and they do their job better now. >> i think one thing we have to watch is of the four guys meeting with him today, at least two of them will be gone. james clapper and john brennan. the other two, including comey and this is their first face to mace meeting since the election, the fbi director. will his attitude change once his own people are in there? that's what i wonder. dan coats no, ma'am made to be clapper's successor. expected to sail through with little problem. once they're installed and they're the ones delivering that information, will his attitude change? >> do pompeo, do dan coats, do they have sway over trump, or does mike flynn, his national security advisor be a skeptic of these guys, see who has sway in the trump inner teams. that's one of the questions we'll answer as we go forward. >> we've seen reporting by our colleague and yours saying that

madison is upset with some of the selections that trump is making for various undersecretaries and other civilian officials at the pentagon. the drama continues. >> it's a two-way street. the other question is how does the intelligence community react if trump continues in this vein? ? do they try to seek -- do we get more resignations? what do they try to do? >> the inauguration of the president, two weeks from today. we'll see if we get feedback from the intelligence briefing, classified briefing. up next, building a wall and making mexico pay for it. that's one trump promise everyone remembers, but it turns out you, you at home, the u.s. taxpayers will foot the bill. at least for now. so if you have a flat tire, dead battery, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7. oh dear, i got a flat tire. hmmm. uh... yeah, can you find a take where it's a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah? yeah i got it right here. someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!!

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>> just moments ago this is the vice president-plekt mike pence arriving at trump tower for an important intelligence briefing. >> will donald trump accept those and intensify sanctions or try to pull them back? fascinating question. more on that briefing as we get it. it begins in just a few minutes. now back to other news here in washington. there's a lesson every president learns and learns pretty quickly. some campaign promises are difficult sometimes even impossible to keep. including this one. >> we will build a great wall along the southern border, and mexico will pay for the wall.

>> who is going to pay for the wall? >> mexico is going going to pay for the wall. mexico is going to pay for the wall. who is going to pay for the wall? 100%. now, though, republicans on capitol hill say their plans call for american taxpayers to pay for new border security measures, including some new wall construction, and they say they have team trump support for that financing plan. the president-elect insists you at home, the taxpayer, just part of a temporary fix. in his twitter session, he wrote this this morning. the dishonest media, that would be us, does not report any money spent on building the great wall for sake of speed will be paid back by mexico later. i believe we just reported it again, but we're still dishonest in his view. take that one up at another time.

we want to get this done as quickly as possible. we're going to procreate the money and continue to extend the wall, and then i'm going to get mexico to pay for it. show of hands if anyone at the table -- i checked in with a mexican official today and said that their position remains that they have zero intentions. >>. >> i spent the morning out of a house congress meeting talking to them about what do they think with this idea? this is not coming from house republicans. the trump transition team is telling house republicans they want to include spending, billions of dollars in the appropriations bill. this is their effort. now, i asked them do you think that they'll get mexico to repay for the wall? some don't care. they're, like, we just want to build a wall. others say if he does not get mexico to pay us back, he is

going to get the huge backlash because this was a central campaign promise. >> a key point because i just -- i made light of it there. we have to have thick skins in our business, and committee can't feel too important. he is going to call us dishonest every day even when we tell you the absolute truth. you can maybe the call yourself. you have access to the internet and all that stuff. to your key point, the trump transition team asked them, according to house republicans on capitol hill. here's kellyanne conway, donald trump senior advisor, campaign manager, about to become council of the president in the white house. here's how she says it happened. >> our congress is, i guess, investigating the possibility of paying for it to make it more speedy and then having mexico may for it after the fact, but that's what congress is doing. mr. trump has always been very clear nothing has changed. he is building the wall. mexico will pay for it. he ran on that. you can take that promise. he will keep that promise.

in the end i don't think this matters. they want it to be tough on immigration. they want him to build the wall. i don't think there's any way to get mexico to pay for it. he has talked about if mexico doesn't volunteer a check, maybe you do this through a trade agreement or seize remitances. mexicans in this country sending money home. >> you zlgd have awe chaulgs every chance to enact the coercive measures that will be the method that he uses to make mexico pay for it. he said mexico is going to pay for it. they just don't know it yet. they're saying no now, but that's before he has begun a trade war or done -- taken other coercive methods that he says are the way that mexico is going to be forced to pay for the wall. the idea that mexico will pay for it after we stick them with

the bill and then, you know, do things to them, it's not necessarily a broken promise yet, i wouldn't say. >> i think it's important to keep an eye on house republicans because right now they're saying some of them are shrugging. some of are saying, oh, maybe there will be backlash, but i wouldn't be surprised if a couple of days down the road if they say, hey, if this is what mr. trump wants, this is what president trump wants, this is what president trump gets. we've already seen them fall on their sword in the face of a trump tweet. trump himself contrary to what kellyanne said implicated that the stories are actually correct. he is in support of a plan that calls for taxpayers to pay for it now and mexico to pay for it later. whether that later will ever come, we may never know. >> whether that later will err come if he is tougher on immigration, i believe, he believes. i bet most of his voters believe he has delivered on his promise. >> important point here. if they're going to give in on paying for the wall, they're also essentially this week giving in on the idea of passing

budget measures that would add trillions to the deficit because they said as long as it helps repeal obama care. we are now seeing them essentially put aside eight years of principled opposition to big spending plans because the big spending plan now wi will -- >> building the wall will be really, really hard, even getting that funding through congress is going to be difficult. they still have to get 60 votes in the united states senate. democrats could block this. even if they were to move forward on a wall, they say there are all sorts of legal challenges that could be raised along the border. environmental lawsuits. you name it. that will actually prohibit them from constructing this wall. a lot of challenges ahead. >> a lot of challenges on the immigration issue on the health care issue, in part, because republicans do control everything in this town starting two weeks from today, but they have a narrower senate majority. 52-48. they have a narrow house majority. it's hard. >> i don't think the senate will

be the problem. it's the legal and the environmental that will be harder because republicans rightly pointed out towards this was unearthed that a bunch of democrats still in office voted for the original 2006 measure for part of a 2013 bipartisan compromise that would have put the huge wall up as part of a deal to get comprehensive reform. they're already on the record as being in support of a wall. the question will be when and how it's built. >> how republicans figure out the paying part. 2018 politics might get them enough democratic votes. all right. next up, 14 days and counting for president obama. everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox.

welcome back. a big visit to capitol hill the other day. a bigger farewell addressed next tuesday night in chicago. six on camera interviews in the past 24 hours. president obama, yeah, he has a few things to say before he hands over the white house to his old birther nemesis donald trump. >> i will publicly support repealing obama care and replacing it with your plan, but i want to see it first. >> i topt see it first, he says there. he was joking, if you listen to

that in a more extended way. look, if they can repeal and replace obama care, if they can cover all those people, take away insurance companies being able to kick you off for preexisting conditions, if they can do it in a more affordable way, great. he is kind of baiting them, right? >> yes. because they don't have one plan. in fact, they're saying that they're not going to offer a comprehensive alternative. john cornyn of texas told me this week that they want to do piece by piece way. there's never -- they're never going to meet what the democrats are asking for, and what obama is saying also behind closed doors is telling his democrats not to help them replace plan. if in their view it's not as good as obama care because he says it's going to be like trump care. this is a democratic starting point. the question will be whether they get enough pressure to have to cut a deal if the republicans succeed in repealing the law

first. >> they have to come up with something first, and that question right now is trying to tie the republicans in knots. the president believes he is calling their bluff, and he is calling it right. they have repealed obama care dozens of times when they couldn't actually get it done, but now that they have control and they have the ability to actually repeal it, they have yet to come up with a replace plan. they can't agree on what would be in it, and they have a lot of jitters about what the blow back might be. once they repeal it, anything bad that happens in health care in the same way that it's been blamed on obama care since obama care passed, it will suddenly be in the republican's lap. >> i want to come back to the president and the first lady saying farewell. the president is offering his advice. the initial -- the problem right now, though, is republicans, right? in that the republicans control everything, but as we just noted, they don't have a big boat marchian where.

rand paul can lobby others saying, wait a minute, if you just replay and delay, replace, they'll blow a hole in the deficit. we're not going to -- on the flip side of that, republicans also say they want to include in this repeal effort stripping money from planned parenthood. now, the president-elect was sort of inconsistent on this in the campaign. he applauded some of the work planned parenthood does, but he says he doesn't want to give them any money if they're still in the abortion business. dwoent know what president trump will call this one. susan kol linz, and susan murkowski said i'm not happy to hear the speaker wants to defund planned parenthood in the package. >> they've been there saying no, and murkowski just won herself reelection, and has six years. collins is up sooner, but they have always stood in the way of

this, which is why i think where they may get it through the house, there's a good chance to get it in the senate. you get the math, and you're going to need 60, says and i don't think they're going to find them if that is in there. >> repeeling and all that other stuff is fine, but women's health has remained sacocinc. >> i think there's a good chance they drop the planned parenthood. >> rand paul making threats right now. would he be the person to stop repeal of obama care? i find that hard to believe. we don't know how far they're going to go on that initial repeal vote. they may go after the medicaid expansion, which they can do through the budget reconciliation process. they can, and that could create another huge blowback. particularly among the rural white working class voters who supported donald trump and who may rely on that case. >> on the potential flip side, it may increase the fund-raiser to accelerate the replace plans. if you are trying to get votes. if the country is going to have

this debate, let's have it. let's put the plans on the table. i want to come back moments ago. michelle obama, the first lady, she was the big star of the 2016 campaign. most people thought she was a great asset who was going to help hillary clinton win the election, but hillary clinton did not wib the election. just moments ago she wrapped up her final white house speech. she said she was thrilled to do it before a group of educators, and she told the educators and young people if you don't like the results of the election, if you don't like who is about to move into her house, please don't give up. >> don't be afraid. be focused. be determined. be hopeful. be empowered. empower yourselves with a good education. then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless prize.

lead by example with help. never fear, and know that i will be with you rooting for you and working to support you for the rest of my life. >> what does she mean by the last part? what does she mean by it? she has consistently said when you bring up the idea would you ever run for office, you know, she says get away from me, it's never going to happen. what kind of a role? we don't know. >> i still don't think that whatever michelle obama talks about public service that she ever means running for office. >> you don't need to run for office, but -- >> they are not in her mind the same thing. i think she actually believes that she's most effective when she is working on initiatives as she did as first lady, and i expect her to continue to do a lot of the same things outside of the white house in a sort of organizing capacity, as a speaker, as someone who can

raise attention to things the way that she did as first lady. i don't think it ever crosses her mind that when she says i'm going to be there with you, that she means i'm going to run for office because i think she doesn't believe in that part of the system in terms of her involvement. >> her interview with oprah a few weeks ago was instructive, and i think she hinted during it that she sees what oprah has done post-retirement, post her daily talk show as a model for the kind of work she can do. work on women's education and on other issues, and i suspect, you're right, that's probably what it's going to be. i listen to things like that, and i just go, man, the carters, the bushes, the clirntons, and the obamas will all be on stage watching donald trump. their facial expression is going to be -- >> you can tell that she's not -- she hasn't recovered yet. >> it's gotten worse. >> it's gotten worse. the emotion is there in her voice, in her face. it's very apparent that she still is very shaken. >> that's why i'll be surprised if they ride quietly into the night the way george w. bush did after he left office.

it seems like they're going to be pretty vocal in some ways both her and her husband. especially if they started to dismantle the legacy like obama care. >> if you consider the history, not just in the 2016 campaign, go back again when donald trump who is now obsessed with people delegitimizing him, he spent time trying to delegitimizing obama. they're going to hand over the white house two weeks from today to donald and melania trump. what is she thinking about? what is she going through? it must be interesting as you are packing up the kids, yeah, big farewell address from the president next tuesday night in chicago. cnn will have special coverage of that day. a very interesting week ahead. we're not done with this one yet. when we come back, donald trump once again up early. two weeks from today, he becomes president of the united states. wh tax cuts, immigration, arnold schwarzenegger?

>> wanted to give i awe look there. the dow now four points away from making history. the 20,000 milestone. plus 96 points on the day. frustrating. almost 97. breathe for a second and see if it gets there. 97. look at that. now do they push it up or pull it down? >> come on. come on. >> come on. >> 19,998. trying to wish it across. his 401k have -- >> we will keep an eye on that. the dow very near flirting with -- we'll keep an eye on that. if it makes history, guess what, they'll debate about who gets the credit. is that part of the obama legacy or the trump transition? it will become what has become a morning ritual. checking donald trump's sunrise tweets to find out what is on the president-elects's mind today and what he wants us to talk about. today, as we've noted, two weeks until his inauguration. one big focus? of course, arnold

schwarzenegger's debut as the new host of trump's old gig "celebrity apprentice." here's donald trump's tweet. wow. the ratings are in, and arns got swamped or destroyed by comparison to the ratings machine djt. that will be donald j. trump. so much for being a movie star. the president-elect ends his tweet with this. who cares? he supported kasic and hillary. that's why. okay. the former california governor with tweets of his own, including this video message. >> the campaign is over. the election is over. we are not enemies. we are neighbors. we are friends. most importantly, we are all americans. we have a lot of work to do to keep america great. let's do it, and let's do it together. >> this is near the end of the show. not the beginning. there are a whole hell of a lot more important things to talk about, but it is interesting that this is what he did during the campaign, it's what he is

doing during the transition, and there is no reason to believe he is not going to continue it as president even though some of thinks own aides cringe at the prospect saying -- sean spicer was saying at a david axelrod event saying i don't get a heads up. the president does that -- the president-elect could do it too -- you can move markets and rattle whole capitals. or in this case if you are arnold schwarzenegger, you just have fun zbloosh he has affected some stock prices by attacking companies on twitter. it's so hard to know exactly if there's any sort of strategy. is this just him letting off steam? is this him trying to distract from maybe another controversy, which he seems to have done from time to time? or is it him setting government policy? that's the last part. it was the most maybe risky, if you will -- if you take the position, particularly on a sensitive foreign policy, diplomatic note, how does the rest of the world react? 140 characters. it's amazing how powerful that

is. >> is it -- again, you can argue -- you can say it's much ado about nothing and donald trump having fun with arnold schwarzenegger. you can say he is petty and holds grievances. >> nothing would be better for ratings than the public feud and having the host perhaps answer it in a video that gets a lot of attention. it could be all of the above as well, right?

>> he is in the business conversation and entertainment conversation. >> it's very -- i mean, he is -- this is what -- this is his bread and butter, and it is not so much distracting as it is always having a hand in every conversation that is happening. he always wants to be talked about at all times, and that's extremely important to him. it is also strategic, and it's one of the reasons why he won this election because he was always being talked about at all times. >> do the other guys whether your supporters or critics in full disagreements or just trying to negotiate with donald trump. do they get this and respond in the same atmosphere? i asked the question because here's a tweet from congressman adam schiff. we mentioned earlier in the program donald trump just before this sensitive briefing today, very important briefing today, tweeted not on interest in finding out what the ed is

against russia, but he tweeted i wanted intelligence committees to investigate nbc news because how did it get this information, leaks about this information before me. adam schiff responding of all issues indicate by russian active measures, this is what you want to investigate? this is your top priority for intel committees? that's a perfectly predictable response from a democrat. my question is, show, that it's playing out on twitter. is this, again, part of the new world donald trump has brought us? >> chuck schumer was asked about th it this week because donald trump called him a clown. he have to get off of twitter and share your details and be more expansive. we'll see. you know, roosevelt was the radio president. kennedy perfected how to use television. he has perfected how to use social media.

>> the concern amongst some republicans too, you don't want to be at the receiving end of some of the tweets. if then, all of a sudden 15 million, 17 million twitter followers start coming after you, that's a powerful way to keep his party in line, and one reason why right now you're not haerlg a lot of the republicans speaking out against some of the things that we've been saying. >> it was part of getting him to back off on the ethics decision. the republicans were planning to give us -- we're going to go -- are we going to go there now? all right. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, the election is about to become official. see, that's one of the more fabulous places in the united states capital. in just moments the boxes carrying the electoral votes that make donald trump's victory official will walk right there. send it over to the house. we'll be right back. the microsoft cloud helps us

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>> welcome back. live pictures there from capitol hill. this is normally where we go around the table and have our reporters share from the noteboo notebooks, but i will stay on this and we'll come back to it because we're waiting for the last official act of the 2016 presidential election even though it is january 2017. the senate will soon walk over from its chamber to the house chamber delivering the votes of the electors. the electoral college votes that will make donald trump president -- the president of had elect of the united states. it will make his victory official. let's head back. as we wait for this, as we wait for this, we're at the end of the first week of the new washington. we don't get the new president for two more weeks. what have we learned this week, and i'll just start with this observation. for all the talk from the trump campaign, the people are trying to delegitimize him. some democrats repeedly say we won the popular vote. russia put its thumb on the scale. donald trump is going to be the president of the united states.

i hope we can at least turn the page on that one, and we'll watch to see if the procession comes. it has been -- normally congress comes in for the first week and they say hello to each other and have a little ceremony, and then the town goes flat until the inauguration. this has been a very busy and consequential first week. >> absolutely. i mean, i think on your first point, there are people who will never accept donald trump as president. there are -- there is a small group of liberals who are not going to get anywhere who are talking about legal challenges to the electoral college process, delegitimizing some of the electors. i don't think it's the case that the fate will be turned just like it wasn't magically turned when president obama took the office, and some people never accepted him. particularly the veeiahment -- learned something important because the dynamic of the next six months/four years is how is donald trump going to interact

with the republican congress? how is he going to try to get his agenda through? how is he going to try to actually make policy? the way that he was able to push around the house republicans on this ethics issue, i was up there on capitol hill. they were all terrified. >> all terrified for this. >> that is going to be the dynamic going forward unless they figure out something else. >> well, congress is more relevant now than it has been in a while because they think because they had a republican president trk the republican majority thinks it can get things done. we'll show you more pictures like this. >> have a great weekend. i'll see you sunday morning for inside politics. our coverage picks up after a very quick break. retirement squirrel from voya.y i represent the money you save for the future. see? we're putting away acorns to show the importance of being organized. that's smart. who's he? he's the green money you can spend now. what's up?

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. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> up first, the last step in the 2016 presidential election. right now congress is