tweet us at "new day". post your comment on facebook. another big day for president-elect's nominees. let's get to it. does anyone really believe that story? >> james clapper telling the president-elect that the intelligence community did not leak a dossier. >> i know cnn is feeling the heat today. >> you guys are feeling the heat. >> vladimir putin. >> i would not use that term. >> are you prepared to be the one republican to vote no. >> i'm prepared to do right. >> this is irresponsible. this is dangerous. this should be defeated. >> don't and eric are going to be running the company. >> what he's describing does not resolve the conflicts of conflict of interest. >> if they do a bad job i'll say you're fired. >> this is "new day" with chris

cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> intel reaching out to donald trump president-elect. james clapper trying to reassure the president-elect the intel did not leak the story. clapper issuing a rare statement saying he's profoundly dismayed by leaks. >> president-elect blasting journalists at his first press conference. though mr. trump did finally concede that russia was behind election hacks. all this as senate republicans move a step closer to miss mantling obamacare. we're just eight days from inauguration day. we have it all covered four. let's begin our coverage with adam who is in washington. >> reporter: good morning. the director of national intelligence james clammer is trying to diffuse a feud between the nation's next president and u.s. intelligence community. clapper said he called president-elect donald trump last night to assure him that the intelligence agencies were

not the source of leaks about an opposition research dossier containing unsubstantiated allegations against donald trump. an operative russians claim to have compromising personal and financial information on mr. trump. clapper issued a statement last night explaining why the unverified information was included in documents last friday. clapper said quote part of our obligation is to ensure policymakers are provide with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security. the first was on the record confirmation from a government official that trump's briefing documents did include information on the opposition research. the nation's top intelligence official noted the intelligent agencies did not produce the 35 page dossier containing the underlying allegations.

the fbi and other allegations haven't verified those claims. as cnn first reported the original documents were compiled as opposition research for mr. trump's republican and democratic political opponents. >> thank you very much. after months of casting doubt about russia, mr. trump concedes russia hacked the u.s. election. one of many headlines emerging from the president-elect's first press conference since the election. we go live to washington with more. >> reporter: good morning. donald trump did say for the first time that russia carried out the cyber attacks in hopes of interfering with the election even as he wavered by saying we get hacked by other countries. he saved his anger for u.s. intelligence agencies and media during his first press conference in six months. donald trump saying for the first time he accepts that russia carried out the election cyber attacks. during a rowdy and contentious

press conference. >> as far as hack being i think it was russia but i think we also get hacked by other countries. >> reporter: spending much of the hour long news conference blasting the media. and deflecting reports that the nation's top intelligence leaders informed him and president obama about possible incriminating information in the hands of the russians. >> i think it's a disgrace that information would be let out. it's all fake news. it's phoney stuff. it didn't happen. >> reporter: the president-elect singling out some media outlets that reported on the intel claims and taking aim at u.s. intelligence agencies. as he pointed to the kremlin's denial. >> you know president putin and russia put out a statement today that this fake news was indeed fake news. >> reporter: trump did not say whether any of his aides have been in touch with the russian officials during the presidential campaign refusing to answer questions from cnn's jim acosta. >> mr. president-elect can you

give us a question -- you're attacking us. >> i'm not going give you a question. you are fake news. >> reporter: the incoming white house press secretary threatening to throw acosta out of future press conferences. >> i informed him i thought no one should be treated that way and treated that disrespectfully. >> reporter: trump also not mentioning whether he'll continue the sanctions imposed on russia by president obama. >> if putin likes donald trump, i consider that an asset not a liability. because we have a horrible relationship with russia. >> reporter: all this as trump had an attorney lay out his plans to distance himself from his business empire. trump will relinquish control of the company to his two sons and place his assets in a trust a step he says he doesn't have to take. >> as a president i could run the trump organization, great, great company. i could run the company. i do a very good job. but i don't want to do that. >> reporter: trump pledging to stop any new overseas ventures

and vowing to turn any profits from foreign government officials staying at his hotels over to the u.s. treasury. >> i hope at the end of eight years i'll come back and say oh, you did a good job. otherwise if they do a bad job i'll say you're fired. >> reporter: before trump left that room he did finally say none of his campaign associates had been in touch with russian officials during the election but he would not say whether he would keep those punishing sanctions on moscow as many republicans have called on him to do. his view on other matters coming in to sharper view as confirmation hearings for his cabinet members continue on capitol hill. chris? other big business going on capitol hill. senate republicans passing a budget resolution that includes the repeal of obamacare. this is just one step in a long process but the democrats were already making a stand with many passionate pleas to save the health care law. we go live to capitol hill for details. >> reporter: good morning. is this first tiny nail in the

coffin for obamacare. put simply, this is basically starts the wheels in motion on all of this, moving towards the repeal of the president's signature piece of legislation. the senate overnight taking a very small but very significant procedural move by approving this budget resolution which will become the blueprint, the vehicle for the miss mantling of obamacare. we heard fiery speeches overnight that lasted into the we hours of this morning from democrats protesting this move by republicans. >> up to 30 million americans will lose their health care with many thousands dying as a result. >> 95% of children in america now have affordable comprehensive health insurance. why would we want to move backwards. >> imagine becoming pregnant and have your insurer drop your coverage because you are no longer mic. >> reporter: this will very

likely be taken up by the house on friday which will pave the way for this to continue moving forward. very importantly the republicans have not settled on just one replacement plan. there are many competing plans out there but certainly the president-elect ratcheting up the pressure on republicans to put something together. he said just yesterday he wants the repeal and the replace to happen almost simultaneously. >> we'll talk about that now. thank you very much. earlier this week we spoke to republican senator ron johnson from wisconsin about the obamacare repeal and he said he wanted to see a game plan for replacement before he voted to eliminate the affordable care act. last night he voted for repeal. good morning. why did you take this first step towards repeal without a replacement plan. >> it is only the first step. all this does is really give direction to a couple of committees to start working on

the process of being able to repeal it so we can replace it with reforms that work better. i've been saying for quite some time our first step needs to start repairing the damage. so this is the first step. what we need to do is concentrate on the elements, start repairing the damage done. it's bean mess. in wisconsin individuals on individual market are paying double and triple what they were. that's not affordable care. even when people have insurance they can't use it because the deductibles are so high. obamacare has been a failure. collapsing on its own weight. from my standpoint, it's the responsible thing to do to start repairing the damage and working on a transition to a system that works. this is just the first step. >> exactly what is the replacement plan that you would favor? >> again, i will freely admit that republicans in the house and senate don't have total agreement on exactly what that thing will be, but the elements

are pretty common. free market reforms, patient centered, turning more and more of the decisions of insurance back to individuals and back to the states in terms of regulatory environment. all the efficient health benefits, all these marked reforms that have caused premiums to double and triple those are things that need to be replaced with things that work, free market based reforms. >> since do you have those four things that you say are vital and pretty simple why don't you have a replacement plan yet? >> because i don't think you're going to see one mass civilian plan like obamacare. you're going to see step by step approach targeting the individual damage of the individual reforms and we'll put in replacements for each individual one of those problems. anyway that would be my approach. other people have different ideas. my approach is kind of a step by step process, first thing is end the national definition of health care. those are driven up care. turn that definition back over

to states. allow individuals to purchase across state lines because you can have more competition that way. give more power to the states. most americans view the states as more competent doing this, certainly as they've seen the destruction and really the well miserable failure of obamacare. >> you call it miserable failure. has the highest sign ups in its history. 30 mill lone people rely on it. people are currently enjoying its benefits that believe it hasn't hurt them. >> the main promises, if you like your health care plan you can keep it. millions lost affordable care. premiums will be declining by $25 per family. it is true premiums have doubled and tripled on the individual market. the patient protection affordable care plan didn't live up to its name. it's collapsing. insurance carriers are leaving the market. it's not a sustainable model. >> i want to talk to you about

rex tillerson's confirmation hearing yesterday. were you satisfied with the answers that mr. tillerson gave to your fellow lawmakers? >> i think mr. tillerson did a really good job. this is not an easy task for him. he wasn't thinking about becoming secretary of state two months ago. democrats were talking about how remarkable it was he didn't have a note. he didn't even take notes during the hearing. this is all off the top of his head. he had an awful lot of things to say. he proved himself to be highly intelligent. very knowledgeable about a host of issues. also pretty deft at handling show boating on parts of other members, pressing on questions i want a secretary of state to answer. >> let me play you one short moment this was his answer to whether or not he had ever lobbied congress or white house for sanctions to be lifted on russia and he gave an answer

that today fact checkers say was false. listen to this. >> i have never lobbied against sanctions. >> company you direct dead. >> to my knowledge, exxon never directly lobbied against sanctions. >> okay. so senator, according to congressional records, public records, exxon repeatedly talked to lawmakers and the white house about their feelings on sanctions. >> my understanding his answer, they lobbied to make sure sanctions were fair across the board, that u.s. companies were not disadvantaged to other companies. you can start kwquibbling with e details. his relationship with putin, those things are an asset. and from my standpoint, his answers to, you know, saying that nato is incredibly important, article 5 is inviolable, certainly from the

standpoint of what happened in crimea his action would be to show strength and resolve. across the board i think he handled himself very well. >> why do you think he hasn't spoken to president-elect trump about russia or putin? >> you have toe really drill down the specific question asked of him and i'm not exactly sure what he was answering there. i'm sure they had some discussion about russia. on that particular issue being discussed at that time, there's a possibility. this is an enormous task trying to set up an administration. i have been incredibly impressed with president-elect trump's activity level trying to fill an administration. here in the senate we're grappling with how do you hold the hearings, how do you get the information so we can make sure the next administration has the national security and homeland security team in place on day one. >> senator, if they never had a conversation, if what he said was actually on its face true and they never had a conversation would you be

comfortable with that? >> i'm not exactly sure what president-elect trump was looking for when he was interviewing his secretary of state. i'll leave that between those two individuals. >> senator ron johnson, thanks so much for being on "new day". >> have a good day. the nation's intel chief reached out to donald trump to say the intel community did not leak this dossier about the president-elect to the media. trump has a different take of what was said. what do democrats think? that's next. more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. and if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24/7. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

substantiate. the director of national intelligence james clapper calling president-elect donald trump last night. he denied intel leaks to the media. this morning trump tweeted clapper called him to denounce the false and fictitious report, unquote. clapper did not use those words in his statement. which reads, we also discussed the private security company document which was widely circulated in recent months

among the media. i emphasize this document is not a u.s. intelligence community product. that i do not believe the leaks came from within the ic. the ic has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable. that does not say that they found it unreliable. he says and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions. however part of our obligation is to make sure policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture. ranking member of the house intelligence committee joins us. the question is pretty basic but vital at this point. what do you know about whether or not it is true that the fbi and maybe other intel agencies are looking into the allegations provided in this dossier because they found the source of the dossier credible? >> chris, i can't comment on

that. but i can say this with reference to the conversation you just had about director's statement as well as the president-elect's tweets. and that is sadly you simply cannot rely on the president-elect's tweets or statements about what he's receiving in intelligence briefings and that's a real problem. by that i mean the op report on the russian hacking was very clear. it made no conclusions about whether the outcomes were affected by the hacking. that was beyond the scope of what the intelligence community looks at and nonetheless it was misrepresented by the president-elect. so here people really want to know what director clapper said to donald trump don't rely on donald trump's tweet rely on director clapper's statement. >> i realize you don't want to divulge classified information. look this was bounce ago round some of this stuff. john mccain gave to it comey. comey said he already had these documents. harry reid sent a letter to him saying i know you're looking into these things.

you know, james comey even took the unprecedented step to come out the discuss the investigation because of his perceived notion of its impact on politics. this situation is starting to move in that direction where the president-elect is giving one version of events that do not meet up with our reporting or the reckoning of it seems the director of national intelligence. are you sure you can't confirm these allegations are being looked into? >> i can't comment on that. i think you're absolutely right that director comey when he testified and king asked him the question during the senate hearing he said he couldn't comment on any investigation that may be open or not open. that cannot be squared with his conduct during the whole investigation of the hillary clinton emails. and that's a very tough question that the director has to answer why he might be treating this differently than he did the clinton e-mail situation. but i'm not privileged to be able to comment on what the community or fbi is

investigating or not investigating. >> all right. so this relationship between the president-elect and the intel community, clapper, you know, obviously the president can put his own people in charge of these intel communities, agencies. what is your concern going forward? >> well my concern is that the the president-elect continues to want to either deny the scope of what the russians did in this election or ignore intelligence when it comes to him that indicates that putin is not doing what putin is telling him or the russians are taking action in violation of what promises may have been made to the president-elect, if he doesn't want to hear that information, there are ways that he can direct the intelligence community essentially to stop devoting resources to pursuing those leads. we're going to have to work very hard in the intelligence community on a bipartisan basis to make sure we continue to invest in intelligence in russia. they are one of the principal threats facing the country. i think that's recognized by

both sides of the aisle. we have to do that. one other point i want make while i can't comment on what the intelligence community, fbi may or may not investigate, i can tell you what i think congress ought to investigate and i think in the most nonpartisan way and ideally through an independent commission along with a joint congressional investigation, we ought to follow the evidence of what the russians did across all of the platforms of cyber malevolence. they used techniques here in europe, hacking, blackmail, extortion. if any of those things are implicated here we ought to followo those facts. >> obamacare, first step taken in the senate. obviously, the american audience is getting an introduction into the legislative process because thient seems these votes can be dispositive they are just little

steps along the way. what's the democrats disposition right now to what the possible is here? do you think you can save the aca? is the word to just oppose so that you don't have to own whatever happens or is there a good faith interest in working with the republicans to salvage what you can and maybe improve what needs improving? >> i think that we can save the aca. i think we can save it because frankly it's done a lot of good and the republicans have no idea what to do. they only have a campaign slogan, repeal and replace but they never had any where what to reblas. >> you're losing the messaging war. you're losing the messaging war even when we push back on the facts which are fairly plain. premiums are doubling and tripling yes but the population affected by those are a very small percentage of the population let alone the population under the aca. people don't care. they think the aca is broken. it needs to be fixed.

it was one of the driving forces in the election. how do you counter that. >> that's a misconception. if you look how many people support the aca and add how many people don't support it because they think it should go farther that's a majority of americans. you might make a stronger argument that they are losing the point. and i think, frankly, as we get closer to their repeal and no answer to replacement they are going to lose more and more public support when more and more americans realize what republicans have in mind will cut millions of people off of their health care. they will lose this fight. so i think democrats need to stand strong. if therefore were an interest in improving the aca we'll work with them. they never demonstrated that interest. that's problem. democrats like myself have acknowledged before the election for years, in fact, the aca is not perfect. we ought to improve it. ought to strengthen it. there's no interest in doing that in the gop and we can't do that alone in the minority. that doesn't mean we stop

fighting for it. frankly because they have no alternative we have a chance of winning this fight. >> congressman, thank you for making the case on "new day" as always. appreciate it. donald trump reveals his plans to handle conflict of interests. does your child need help with digestive balance?

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. can donald trump separate himself from his business interests in satisfactory fashion. depends who you are trying to satisfy. trump says voters priced in his conflicts when they voted for him. here's his take. >> so i could actually run my business. i could actually run my business and run government at the same time. i don't like the way that looks but i would be able to do that if i wanted to. you can't do that in any other capacity. >> let's discuss. we have adams o'brien author of "trump nation." executive editor of bloomberg view. and a fellow with the brookings institution and served as president obama's ethics czar

from 2009 to 2011. okay. norm, as you know, i've relied on you for the legal acumen in this area before. how do you see what the president-elect laid out yesterday. >> thanks, chris. and before the president-elect announced his plans, so no one would excuse us of moving the goal posts, my republican counterpart, professor painter, the bush ethics czar and america's most constitutional lawyer laid out a five point scorecard to grade the president-elect's plan. how did he do? he got an f in all five of the categories. maybe one d plus. so there was unanimous bipartisan condemnation of this including extraordinarily the director of the office of government ethics who said the plan was meaningless. >> let's lay out your five point

scorecard. he would leave the ownership not just the operational ownership. eddie vest into a true blind trust. he would appoint an independent trustee not a family member. all emoluments clause, issues resolved. strong ethics wall in place for administration and business. so none of those past muster, you are saying? >> that's right. on the ownership, he's hanging on to the ownership. so there's no break at all. the thing he's breaking with on the first one, ownership, is four decades of bipartisan presidential tradition. presidents have all used the blind trust or the equivalent. and in order to make that ownership break, no blind trust as o.g. has said it's the policy of the government of ethics that

rule applies to the president. he's not doing that. the trustee, the third category non-independent trustee he's putting his kids in charge. that defeast the whole purpose, the confidence you want to have that the trustee won't be leaking information back and forth. on emoluments fancy 18th century word. this is what it means. the founders of our country were very concerned that foreign governments would use huge sums of money and other benefits to influence an american president. you can understand why that would distort the judgment, make a president -- >> right. >> here donald trump has not dealt with that problem of emoluments. all he said is i'll peel out one revenue stream in my books and records from my hotels but that's not sufficient. that one piece, he's got to take all it out of the hotels and what about the nonhotel properties, what about the

condos he sells, the apartments? and he's a real estate developer, and he sells the brand. and those both rely on emoluments. what are they? real estate permitting. he's not doing anything about that from foreign governments. >> all right, norm. hold on a second. >> you get the idea. it's an f. it's an f. the ethics wall is not a wall it's a sieve or a colander. >> i don't know if you can add to any of that, tim. >> i don't disagree with norm. i think there's two things worth noting here. one of the constant critiques is that any shady area between policy making and the clinton foundation was solely about financial conflicts of interest. same rule applies to trump administration. secondly we had some unfinished business. he doesn't have a business too

big to one wind. he owns one commercial real estate. >> they tried to compare it yesterday to nelson rockefeller. false comparison. overseas a couple of gucourses scotland, one in ireland. rest are licensing deals. in the u.s. some lucrative retail in manhattan. >> so that can be liquidated. >> can be liquidated. >> there's an issue with that. norm, let me push back on you. idea of forcing a sale or divestiture is unfair and leads to more compromise. here's the argument. one, who is going to buy it and what do they think they are getting. undue burden to trump and his kids and any successors he's giving assets to you'll force a sale which creates a buyers market or depress the asset prices or artificially pump them

up. a blind trust doesn't work here because he'll always know what's going on, these are his kids running it. it would never work as an instrument. unfair standard being set for the president-elect. >> chris, you're doing a good job as the devil's advocate, but i got to tell you that's all wrong. first of all, it's a relatively simple procedure. there's nothing unfair about it. he signs over to the trustee and then the trustee figures out how to monetize all of this stuff. some might be handled in private equity with sale to executives. maybe a leveraged buy out. maybe an ipo. might be packaged up into different deals. this is the high watermark for trump's brand, all those trump voters who selected him might apartment piece of the trump rock, the gilt edge stock certificate that bears an ipo. i don't believe it would be a

fire sale. as for the fairness point the man hostage to run for president of the united states. he has a big job to do. you heard of sophie's choice, hobson's choice now trump's choice. does he want to be president or entangled with these businesses? i think he should be president. >> there you go. to your point it is a public service and let's not lose sight of that. thank you both very much for laying all of this out for us in such a colorful way. thank you. it was a rocky confirmation hearing for secretary of state nominee rex tillerson. he was grilled about russia and his world view. one prominent republican was unsatisfied with his answers. that's ahead on "new day". 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.

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it's absolutely what you need right now. absolutely scottsdale. time now for five things you need know for your "new day". tom intelligence chief calling donald trump, james clapper assuring mr. trump that the intel community did not leak details of an unsubstantiated report. >> senate republicans pass a resolution that include repealing obamacare. it was a marathon late night session. the house is expected to take up the measure tomorrow. the senate begins three more confirmation hearings soon for mr. trump's nominees for secretary of states of defense, housing and cia director. >> florida police arresting three people they say helped a

man accused of shooting a police officer to evade authorities. markeith loyd is the man they are looking for. he remains on the run. he's accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend. multiple reports that nfl's san diego chargers will announce they are moving to los angeles next season. team owner scheduling a meeting with his entire staff at 11:00 a.m. eastern. the team has played in san diego since 1961. for more on five things to know go to cnn.com for the latest. rex tillerson was grilled at his confirmation hearing over russia as well his world view. we'll talk about which republicans might not vote for him. that's next.

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donald trump's nominee for secretary of state, rex tillerson facing tough questions about russia at his confirm jays hearing. cnn's tom foreman has more on what we know about the long time oil executive. >> reporter: this nominee has a long history of dealing with russia in general and vladimir putin in particular. so perhaps it's no surprise his russian connection wound up at the white hot center of this hearing. when russian troops roared into you crane in 2014, the obama white house hit back fast and hard with economic sanctions. an international energy giant exxonmobil questioned the move. with billions at stake in russian oil deals then ceo rex

tillerson told shareholders we do not support sanctions generally, because we don't find them to be effective. but listen to what he said when asked about his stance during his confirmation hearing for secretary of state. >> first, i have never lobbied against sanctions personally. i continue to believe -- >> the company you directed did. >> to my knowledge exxon never directly lobbied against sanctions. >> reporter: hold on this federal lobbying report shows exxon did lobby congress about russia, ukraine and the sanctions numerous times. amid the uproar over his testimony exxonmobil tweeted, let's be clear, we engage with lawmakers to discuss sanction impacts, not 0 whether or not sanctions should be imposed. that's a view tillerson floated too, but some on the committee were not buying it. >> in your mind, calling united states senator to express your belief that sanctions would be

ineffective is not lobbying? i would argue that's a distinction without a difference. >> reporter: by day's end democratic leaning political group issued a statement to respectfully request that the fbi open an investigation to determine whether mr. tillerson lied under oath to congress. while he says he has not done that, he also insists he's taking all the questions to heart. >> i understand full well the responsibilities and seriousness of it. >> reporter: for lawmakers the issue is quite simple. if he's confirmed as secretary of state, tillerson would be in a position to push for a roll back of those sanctions. and if they are rolled back that could mean an awful lot of money for his old company. tom foreman, washington. did tillerson lie under oath about lobbying against russia's sanctions? let's get to the bottom line. with our cnn political director.

we had a couple of republicans on this morning who say no that's not how they interpreted what he said about never having lobbied congress or the white house. how did you see it? >> it all depends on the definition of lobbying. clearly, exxon was not in favor of the sanctions. that much we can state. even exxon agrees with its statement that you saw tom included in his piece because they were discussing the impact of the sanctions. i do think much like chris murphy the democratic senator said this is a little bit of a distinction without a difference. i don't know that there's going to be grounds for a full investigation about lying under oath to congress. i just think that this is how each side is going to spin the way the use of the word lobbying. >> so, rex tillerson says on the stand yesterday that he has not discussed this area of policy and russia was what they were discussing with the president-elect. do you believe that? >> i think it was one of the

most confounding and shocking statements in the hearing yesterday. how is that possible? rex tillerson has met with donald trump, donald trump was well aware of his connections both from a business perspective and a personal perspective to vladimir putin doing business in russia. this being a front and center issue, it just defies logic that that somehow would not come up. but rex tillerson says that they haven't discussed that. i think if that's true that's pretty problematic also at some point your secretary of state designee and president-elect should have a conversation about one of the most pressing global challenges that exist. >> because of some of this, senator marco rubio seems to be on the fence about whether or not he would vote to confirm rex tillerson. john mccain and lindsey graham may also be in that category. what will happen with his confirmation? >> let's start with marco rubio who after three rounds of questioning came out and talked to reporters and still refused

to say how he was going to vote. still saying he had some questions he wanted answers. remember that foreign relations committee is one vote majority republican. if marco rubio in committee votes down the tillerson nomination that can be a huge stumbling block. still can get to the floor but that would just be -- it would have huge reverberations. if john mccain and lindsey graham and marco rubio and there are a couple of others, republicans who have been circumspect about the tillerson nomination if they go against it donald trump will need democratic votes to get this controversial secretary of state nominee through, that could happen except that those high-profile republicans of course give even the most conservative democrats some cover to stick with the party, the democratic party in opposition if, indeed, some republicans are voting. >> do you think there's any real chance that tillerson doesn't get through or sessions doesn't get through and second part bottom line who gets the most

heat today >> bottom line, i think both those nominees get through. at the end of the day the president-elect does get some deference from the united states senate in their advise and consent role to put his team together. the republicans that have vote. poem line he gets his nominee. in terms of who gets the heat today all nice are on the cia director nominee because of this intelligence battle that's so front and center. is this guy now that donald trump has nominated to manage this entire intelligence process. i think he's going to get a lot of heat on those questions about russia and intel. >> very interesting to see all of that. thank you very much. programming note. speaker of the house paul ryan takes part in a cnn town hall tonight. hosted by jake tapper. what will he say about mr. trump's battle with the intel community and how will republicans plan to replace obamacare? join us to find out tonight at

9:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. per fact timing for the audience. jake tapper at the center of the reporting for this dossier. speaker of the house. and people ask them real questions about it tonight. awesome. late night laughs next. ♪ for millions of baby boomers there's a virus out there. a virus that's serious, like hiv, but it hasn't been talked about much. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. that's because hep c can hide in your body silently

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tell your senators to reject rex tillerson. and protect american interests not corporate interests. the first lady bringing the jokes when she set the record straight about why sasha missed

her dad's farewell address. here are your late night laughs. >> sasha wasn't there because -- >> she had a file. you know the obamas, girl, sorry. take your test. >> sorry. >> you can say good-bye later. >> james, can i get some thank you note writing music, please? >> never seen him that happy in my entire -- >> is that how it's done? >> perfect. i'm pretty good at this. thank you, barack, for proving you're not a lame duck. [ laughter ] but my very own silver fox. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you, first lady, michele obama -- cheer cheer -- for bringing a whole new meaning

to the phrase the right to bear arms. [ cheers and applause ] yeah! >> you are welcome. thank you inauguration day or as i like to call it, let's move! >> let's move. that's it. >> finally, thank you, mrs. obama, for always promoting physical fitness and hey since you like exercise so much, how about running for president? [ cheers and applause ] >> that is great. she was very playful. she played along. i like the arm thank you. she even got that down. >> interesting insight to her and the people around her they were quick to say michele obama is not going to run for office. that's rarely said. usually your get the non-answer

to say. >> be fascinating to see what they will do next and how much they will be in the public eye and life. >> and absence of leadership in democratic party is putting the outgoing president in a tough spot. he's until their big champion. usually they stay quiet. will he? >> there you go. thanks so much for joining us. cnn special coverage of the senate confirmation hearings with wolf blitzer begins now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. i want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world for our special coverage on the hill right now capitol hill right behind us, and under the microscope over the next hour a new round of trump nominees appears before lawmakers. they are fighting to earn congress' trust and top posts in the incoming trump white house.

just minutes from now retired general mattis makes his case to become the next defense secretary of the united states. former combat marine enjoys bipartisan support but lawmakers have to grant an exception to an existing law. mattis has not been retired from the military, the mandatory seven years in toward being eligible to become defense secretary. at the top of the hour, former presidential candidate dr. ben carson also appears before a senate committee. trump's former rival is poised to lead the department of housing and urban development. he'll face questions over his lack of government experience and his own statement that he be a bad fit to lead a government agency. also at the top of the next hour the kansas congressman mike pompeo will have to navigate a potential minefield as he's questioned about becoming the next director of the central intelligence agency. he'll be