captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> inskeep: and i'm steve inskeep. >> woodruff: on the newshour tonight: >> i saw the information; i read the information outside of that meeting. it's all fake news. >> woodruff: in his first news confernce as president-elect, donald trump takes on reports of russian spying, questions over conflicts of interest with his business, and much more. >> inskeep: also ahead: his choice for secretary of state faced questions at a confirmation hearing. rex tillerson was asked if russia's vladimir putin is a war criminal. >> woodruff: plus, we continue our series "the obama years" with a look at the president's efforts to fight climate change. >> i think that this president believes that climate change is real. he believes there is a moral and

ethical imperative to act and he >> inskeep: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> ♪ love me tender ♪ love me true we can like many, but we can love only a precious few. because it is for those precious few that you have to be willing to do so very much. but you don't have to do it alone. lincoln financial helps you provide for and protect your financial future, because this is what you do for people you love. lincoln financial-- you're in charge. >> bnsf railway. >> xq institute.

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>> woodruff: good evening. we are having some guests join me here at the newshour anchor desk in the coming weeks. tonight, it is steve inskeep, whom many of you recognize from npr's "morning edition." welcome, steve. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and we are devoting much of tonight's program to our lead story-- the trump news conference today. it came amid a swirl of stories about the president-elect and russia. >> it's all fake news, it's phony stuff, it didn't happen. and it was gotten by opponents of ours. >> woodruff: at his first news conference since the election, donald trump flatly denied the russians have any compromising information on him. >> but it should have never been released, but i read it and it's a disgrace, i think it's an absolute disgrace. >> woodruff: the bombshell burst tuesday evening, when cnn reported the president-elect and president obama were briefed on the matter last week. the report included

unsubstantiated claims that russian intelligence compiled a dossier on mr. trump during visits to moscow. the website "buzzfeed" then published a 35-page cache of memos from the alleged dossier-- including a claim of sexual activity caught on a moscow hotel room surveillance camera. "the new york times" and other major news organizations said they had been aware of the information for months, but could not verify the claims. today, mr. trump insisted he would not put himself in such a position. >> i told many people, be careful, because you don't want to see yourself on television. there are cameras all over. and again, not just russia, but all over. does anyone really believe that story? i'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way. ( laughter ) believe me. >> woodruff: from there, the president-elect lit into the news media, again. he condemned "buzzfeed:"

>> a failing pile of garbage that wrote it, i think they're going to suffer the consequences. >> woodruff: and he accused cnn of being "fake news", and brushed off persistent attempts by its correspondent to ask a question. later, cnn's parent company, time warner, defended its reporting, and buzzfeed said it published what it called a "newsworthy document." as for the leak itself: >> i think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake, out. i think it's a disgrace, and i say that... that's something that nazi germany would have done, and did do. >> woodruff: on russian hacking more broadly, the president- elect suggested an up-side to the probing of democratic party computers and emails. >> the hacking is bad and it shouldn't be done. but look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking. that hillary clinton got the

questions to the debate and didn't report it? that's a horrible thing. >> woodruff: likewise, he acknowledged the intelligence verdict that president vladimir putin ordered the hacking-- but he didn't leave it there. >> i think it was russia, but we get hacked by other countries, and other people. >> woodruff: and looking ahead, mr. trump suggested the hacking will not necessarily hinder future cooperation with putin. >> if putin likes trump, guess what, folks? that's called an asset, not a liability. now, russia will have greater respect for our country than when other people have led. you will see that. russia will respect our country more. he shouldn't have done it. i don't believe he will be doing it any more. >> woodruff: there were also questions about the trump organization's business ties to russia-- and he denied there are any.

>> we could make deals in russia very easily if we wanted to, i just don't want to because i thought that would be a conflict. so i have no loans, no dealings and no current pending deals. >> woodruff: mr. trump has not released tax returns to verify his claims, and he said again he won't do so until a federal audit is finished. he also declined to say whether his associates or campaign staff had contact with russian officials during the presidential campaign. an abc reporter tweeted later that the president-elect denied any such contact, after the news conference ended. we take a closer look at russia, the president-elect, and these latest revelations, with former attorney at the national security agency, susan hennessey-- she is now a fellow at the brookings insitution, and is managing editor for the website "lawfare," about the intersection of the law and national security; and with john sipher-- he served almost 30 years at the c.i.a., both in the agency's clandestine service

and executive ranks. he was stationed in moscow in the 1990s and ran the c.i.a.'s russia program for three years. he's now at crosslead, a consulting firm. and welcome to both of you. so let's start, susan hennessey, but i just want to ask both of you in brief, what do you make of this report? >> right, so for the moment, the real story is the allegations themselves are unverified. they're obviously quite salacious in nature. the real story is the intelligence community thought it was appropriate to brief the president of the united states and the president-elect. that means that serious people are taking this seriously. that's different than saying that the intelligence community believes the allegations, or has substantiated them. but this is a matter that's-- is not just simply a matter of fake news or something that we should disregard. clearly it passes some degree of preliminary credibility. >> woodruff: john sipher, your take? >> i think the question is, is this real? there are things on the positive side and the negative side.

the positive side, for those who have lived and worked with the russians, it feels right. a lot of the details fit. also, i think, the author had some credibility which is on the positive side. >> woodruff: this is the former british intelligence officer. >> yes. on the negative side it really is hard to make a distinction if we don't know who those sources are. we talks about his sources providing various information in the c.i.a. before we would put out a report like that, an intelligence report. there could be, you know, hundreds of pages of information on that person's access otheir suitability, on their personality. we don't have that. and secondly, the fact that a lot of this reporting is when the presidential administration in russia and the kremlin is a little bit worrying, because, i mean, that's essentially a hard nut to crack. and u.s. intelligence agencies have been trying to do that for years, and the fact that he has this much data about them does put it into question a little bit. >> woodruff: susan hennessey, your organization had a copy of

this several weeks ago. you looked into it, decided not to put it out, but did you look into it. how did you go about figuring out or trying to figure out what's real and what isn't here? >> the document was shared with us to-- so that we could provide some professional input putts too whether or not it was credible. as we were satisfied that the relevant government entities were aware of the documents, and then like everything else, we attempted to talk to people in various communities to see whether or not the allegation seemed credible to them. i think the point that we're at now, it's really not about our organization or anyone else verifying the specific facts. the f.b.i. is conducting an investigation. we will expect there are very specific allegations in this document. those allegations can either be proven true or proven false so we should expect some answers that provide some additional clarity. one important note is just because a single fact in the

document is true, it doesn't mean the rest of the document is true. and just because a single fact in the document is false, that doesn't mean the rest of the document is false. >> woodruff: john sipher, let's go back to what you said a minute ago. you said there are parts of this are credible and you said it's the way the russians operate. what it you mean by that? >> it must look odd to anybody who has read this. russia is a police state and has been a police state for much of its history, and this is the way they often do business. they collect blackmailo people. when i lived there, we had audio and video in our houses. we are followed all the time, restaurants and blaises, hotels, like this have exproo audio in them. they collect this. they do psychological profiling of people to try to see who might be sources for them this is just the way the russians operate. so when you read this, it smaks of the kind of thing we would believe is credible. that doesn't mean it is. >> woodruff: the methods. >> right, the methods. >> woodruff: but you went on to say that the precise details

in here are not borne out, are not verified by any individuals outside of this report, the british-- the british office. >> right, and in that sense it's difficult because of the hyper-partisan atmosphere here. the fact that this is now in the public is going to spin up on the salacious details and these type of things. whereas i think the f.b.i. does have a lot of experience doing very sensitive investigations like this, working with partners overseas and others, to try to put this together. because there are a lot of details that we as citizens can't follow up on. did people travel during those certain days? who are these people? that's the kind of stuff we just can't do, and the f.b.i. can can and will. >> woodruff: for example, susan hennessey, there's an attempt to get fisa court, the court that has to okay investigations, survawns of individuals, permission for them to look at four different people who were working for the trump campaign, the trump organizati

organization. how unusual would something like that be? >> so certainly, it's highly unusual in the context of a political campaign or a presidential election. that said, there is news reports that there were additional attempts to secure a fisa warrant, and that the f.b.i. reportedly obtained one in october. if the allegations and the documents are true, are accurate, those are the kinds of things that would fall within fisa. that's the type of warrant that the government would pursue. that said, just like everything else, we're a step away from actually verifying the substance of that. >> woodruff: john sipher, if you're in charge of the investigation to figure out what is and what isn't right, if anything is accurate in here, what do you need to do now? >> what you need to do is take each piece of this document and run it to ground. you need to find out-- the issue here is not the salacious detaicialgz the blackmail piece. the issue here is the criminal

behavior if people in the trump campaign were working with russian intelligence to collect information on americans. if that's the case, there's a lot of detail in there that neez to be verified. we need to find out did people travel on the days they said they traveled, those type of things. there are a lot of things to run down that you can run down with your partners and information you can collect, travel records and all these type of things. >> woodruff: susan hennessey, what would you add to that? if you were involved in trying to determine if any parts of this were accurate, or to verify that they're not accurate, how would do you that? >> right so, certainly the f.b.i. is going to be calling on all of their resources to investigate the specific allegations, things like travel records, things like financial documents. they're also going to need to draw on intelligence sources. so there are specific sort of comments about meetings between putin and others, sort of high-level, high-value intelligence targets. they would really need to reach

very deeply into their intelligence networks and the networks of allied intelligence agencies in order to see if there's anything to lend credibility or substantiate these very serious allegations. >> woodruff: john sipher, we saw that senator john mccain had a role, the republican senator, of course, from arizona, had a role in this. how did he come into this, and does that tell us anything? >> senator mccain, obviously, has a lot of experience working with the government on sensitive things and has always been a hawk on russia issues. i'm supportive of that. i think he's been good in that case. my understanding is the author of this himself provided information, this information to get to the f.b.i. through mr. mccain who got the information through the f.b.i. and obviously, other news places had it. what's interesting is president trump, president-elect trump seems tong the intelligence agencies themselves leaked this information whereas it doesn't seem to me that's the case, the fact that you and others have had this for so long and actually held off on putting it,

suggests to me that this information has been out there for a while, and i think that's why general clapper and others briefed the president-elect on this last friday. >> woodruff: what would you add to that? >> so i think this is an incredibly important point. president-elect trump today seemed to suggest he believes the intelligence community leaked this, saying it would be a blot if they had done so. there's absolutely no indication that the intelligence community is the source of the document. buzzfeed, the organization that published this document. this is actually not even an intelligence community document. it is a private company. it's not even classified material. and so a little bit there is a suspicion that once again donald trump is using his personal attacks on the intelligence community a little bit to divert attention from the substance of the allegation s. >> woodruff: very quickly to both of you. how confident are you that we're going to know eventually whether this is-- whether any of this is accurate? >> i have-- yes, i have conidence that the f.b.i. is going to follow this through.

my nervousness is that these kind of things are going to dribble and drabble out over the next several years and cause a real problem for this administration going forward. >> because this is so important for the credibility of the president, away would really am to see him establish some kind of independent commission or cownls to get to the bottom of the facts and provide some reassurance to the american people that it is being investigated and that president trump himself is taking this seriously. >> woodruff: susan hennessey, john sipher, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> inskeep: during his press conference, the president-elect said something no president- elect may have said before. he said he had just turned down a multi-billion dollar business deal. >> over the weekend, i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai with a very, very, very

amazing man, a great, great developer from the middle east, hussein damac, a friend of mine, great guy. and i was offered $2 billion to do a deal in dubai-- a number of deals-- and i turned it down. >> inskeep: $2 billion. "his friend" hussein damac was apparently a man with a different last name, who runs a company called damac group. but the talk of a deal in a key persian gulf nation, days before he moves into the white house, suggests the clash between the president's duties and the worldwide operations of trump organization. the president-elect said he had a plan to manage those conflicts, which we're going to evaluate this evening. that plan includes: turning the business over to his two older sons, plus a business executive; his sons aren't supposed to tell him what they're doing; and the president-elect will step back from management, but remain the owner of trump

property; and the company will avoid new overseas business deals. mr. trump said he's doing this, even though the law would allow him to keep making deals as president. >> i don't like the way that looks, but i would be able to do that if i wanted to. i would be the only one to be able to do that. you can't do that in any other capacity. but as a president, i could run the trump organization, great, great company, and i could run the company-- the country. i'd do a very good job, but i don't want to do that. >> inskeep: the president-elect is correct that a federal conflict of interest law excludes the president, but what about the rest of it? we've brought in two lawyers who managed ethics issues for two presidents. richard painter did it for president george w. bush. norm eisen did it for president obama. mr. eisen, let's start with you, the president-elect suggests he is going above and beyond. is he? >> no. he's going beneath and below the minimum floor that's requireed by law, that's required by our most fundamental law, the

constitution, that is established by what every president for four decades has done, that ethics require and that common sense requires, steve. this was a sad day. i was not happy to see what happened here. but what the president has announced fails every aspect of the bipartisan consensus that has emerged on what he should do, and it's going to lead to scandal and corruption and a constitutional crisis from the moment he's sworn in. >> inskeep: okay you mentioned the law. you mentioned common sense. let's talk about common sense a little bit here richard painter. we will get to the law. what is wrong with turning over management of the company to his sons who it is said will act independently of him? >> well, he will still own the company. and the problem is the company, the trump organization, has business deals all over the world and some may be getting turned down, some might get

accepted. there are already deals in place. there are deals with powerful politicians in indonesia, with oligarchs in the philippines, deals in turkey. i mean, these are parts of the world where there are very important issues to be dealt with on behalf of the united states and strategic concerns. we can't have the president have substantial economic exposure himself in these countries and business partners who may be in league with foreign governments. this is an enormous conflict of interest. we also have the president of the president's name being on buildings around the world in places where it's questionable whether these other countries can protect those buildings. we don't have the obama tower in downtown paris or nairobi or some place. and we couldn't protect it. and then we put the trump name up. that's going to be jeopardizing the lives of people who live in those buildings and could drag the united states into a conflict.

that's only the beginnings of the problems. we have potential mix, truffle business with united states government business and that would trigger a bribery investigation. and we, of course, have those payments coming in from foreign governments and companies controlled by foreign governments that violate the constitution, unless they sweep all of those out of the trump organization as of january 20. >> inskeep: you mentioned also the constitution and i definitely want to get to that, but let's refer to something else that norm eisen mentioned. norm eisen said this violates the bipartisan consensus about ethics for the president of the united states in recent decades. the president-elect, however, brought out a lawyer-- cheri dillon is her name-- at this press conference and she dismissed some of the this. >> some people suggested a blind trust, but you cannot have a totally blind trust with operating businesss. president tusm can't unno he owns trump tower.

and the press will make sure that any new developments at the trump organization are well publicized. further, it would be impossible to find an institutional trustee that would be competent to run the trump organization. the approach that he is taking allows don and eric to preserve this great company and its iconic assets. >> inskeep: i have heard this from a lot of people, blind trust, how can that be possible because his assets are so visible? his name is on buildings. should she right a blind trust isn't going to work? >> no, she's wrong on all three of those point. on the first point, if it's a problem that he would still on know things in a blind trust, how much more of a problem is it now where he has this completely unprecedented continuing ownership interest, and very weak protections that were outlined today for communications between and among his sons. does anybody really believe that they're not going to be talking

about the business? then, number two, it actually would be simple to do this. all trump needs to do-- this is not complicated-- find an independent professional trustee. there are plenty out there who have dealt with far more complications. the frump organization is just a big international family business. trump signs it over. this is what we hoped in a bipartisan way and prayed would happen. signs it over to the trustee. the trustee figures out what can i sale? how do i sell it? what can i borrow? maybe i do a public equity, so if it's not sold on the market the executives buy tpackage the less-indebtedded properties with the more-indebtedded properties. donald trump has enough to worry about without thinking about that. nd then on the third point of destroying the business. the donald trump name is at an all-time high. this is the best time to make these moves. when the corruptions and scandals start to flow, it's going to be much harder.

but he is going to have to do it because those negative consequences are sure to follow. >> inskeep: another just very briefly here now, the law. you mentioned the law. you mentioned the constitution. you've said that the president would violate the constitution if he continues on this course. emoluments clause is what he's talking about. the emoluments clause prohibits gifts from a foreign government. the president-elect's lawyer says nobody has defined a gift, and she says, the president doing business is not a gift. >> no one would have thought, when the constitution was written, that paying your hotel bill was an emolument. instead, it would have been thought of as a value-for-value exchange; not a gift, not a title, and not an emolument. but since president-elect trump has been elected, some people want to define emoluments to cover routine business transactions like paying for hotel rooms. they suggest that the constitution prohibits the businesses from even arm's- length transactions that the president-elect has absolutely nothing to do with and isn't even aware of.

these people are wrong. this is not what the constitution says. paying for a hotel room is not a gift or a present and it has nothing to do with an office. it's not an emolument. >> inskeep: richard painter, what's wrong with that logic? it's routine business. >> this is a for-profit hotel. he is making profits over-- dealing with foreign governments. same with the loans from foreign government-owned banks. those are for a for-profit business. that is prohibited under the emoluments clause of the constitution. she's right on one point-- you can't take the trump tower, put it in a trust, and pretend you don't have it. of course the trustee will have to sell the trump tower. he needs to make a decision-- does he wants to be president or does he want to be a landlord and a hotel owner? he has nine days to make that decision. i thought he'd already made it. but that's what this is about.

he just doesn't want to give up the hotel. he doesn't want to give trump tower to his son or sell it. and it is not that difficult to sell pain nice building like that on 5th avenue. >> inskeep: norm eisen, briefly, can the president-elect solve some of these concerns by being more toronto about who is paying what for what. >> we laid out yesterday a scorecard of five criteria, and one of them was to have strong ethics provisions with strong transparencies around them, an ethics firewall. but we made the point, that alone is not enough. he is going to be, as professor painter says, emoluments covers all of the different benefits he's getting-- loans, permits, trademarks, other things outside the hotel, selling apartments to foreign government agents and sovereigns. he's going to be in violation of the constitution on day one, and no amount of transparency can cure that offense against our

founding document. >> inskeep: could it they solve some of this problem by releasing the president-elect's tax return? >> it's critical that the tax returns come out, particularly today when there's been so much talk about russia, steve. professor painter and i wrote during the campaign that there's an enormous amount of information about foreign government gifts, payments, partnerships, even business expenses, possibly, and deconductions taken, given the nature of the russia allegations, we need to see that, and richard and i said today that all russia-related aspects of the tax return should be released and the intelligence committees should get the full tax returns to put these roocial allegations to bed. >> inskeep: norm eisen was the top ethics lawyer for president obama. richard painter was the top ethic lawyers for president george w. bush. gentlemen, thanks to you both. >> thanks, steve. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: the president-elect made news on a number of other fronts today. our john yang was in the room this morning, and joins us from trump tower. so, john, as we said before, it's been a long time since mr. trump had had a news conference, almost six months. before you tell us what more he said, give us a sense of the room, the scene. >> yang: it was in the lobby here of trump torque the pink marble lobby of the tower. it was standing room only. two hours before the session began, all the seats had already been claimed, reporters, photographers, camera crews from all around the globe. and it was if there was a pent-up demand to ask questions of the president-elect, and mr. trump did not disappoint. in addition to all the big headlines that you've already talked bhe made news on some

other front, on obamacare, for example. he said he wants to move quickly to repeople peele and replace at the same time, even though some key lawmakers of his own party say that may be hard to do. he says he's going to unveil his own proposal as a replacement as soon as representative tom price is confirmed as his health and human sempses secretary. >> so the easiest thing would be to let it implode in '17, and believe me, we'd get pretty much whatever we wanted. but it would take a long time. we're going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan. it will be repeal and replace. it will be essentially simultaneously. it will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week, but probably the same day. >> yang: now, that price

nomination has run into some headwinds over exwez his selling and traigd health care-related stocks while he sit on the ways and means committee. some democrats say they want ton if he profited from insider information. >> woodruff: now, another area where he made news had to do with filling that advocacy on the the supreme court after the death of justice antonin scalia almost a year ago, during which time republicans did not go along with president obama's nominee. >> yang: that's right. and folks may remember in september, during the campaign, mr. trump released a list of 21 possible nominees. he said today that he's already begun interviewing some of those candidates, and he said he'll make his nomination to fill the court vacancy within two weeks after he's inaugurated. >> wodruff: john, he also spoke about the issue that really helped launch his campaign, building the border wall with mexico. >> yang: that's right, that signature issue of the campaign. he said that mexico is going to

pay for it one way or another. he said heap doesn't want to wait and negotiate with mexico about how they're going to pick up the tap. he said he wants to start building right away and vice president mike pence is in charge of making that happen. and then, he said, he'll negotiate with mexico on picking up the tab. >> woodruff: and finally, john, he and his press spokesman had plenty to say about the press, about in the wake of the story today about the russian tel report on him. >> yang: it wouldn't be a trump press conference without a little press bashing. trlg enough, he started out saying how glad he was to be there. he sounded almost nosphalgic for news conferences. he credited news conferences to winning the election for him. things turned tense later in the session when he refused to take a question from jim acosta of cnn. cnn has been reporting very aggressively on this allegation

that russia has compromising information about the president-elect. >> cnn going out of their way to build it up, it's a disgrace. >> sir, since you're attacking us, can you give us a question? since you're-- >> go ahead. >> mr. president-elect-- >> go ahead, go ahead, not you. >> since you are attacking our organization-- >> your organization is terrible. your organization is terrible. >> give me a chance to ask a question, sir. >> quiet, quiet. >> mr. president-elect-- >> she's asking a question, don't be rude. >> mr. president-elect, you're attacking us. you can give us a question. >> don't be rude. i am not going to give you a question. are you fake news. >> yang: since then, cnn pointed out they have refraind from reporting on the details of the alleged dossier, unlike buzzfeed, because cnn hasn't been able to independently verify any of the information. but in any case, judy, it looks lie it's going to be an interesting four years in the white house briefing room. >> woodruff: that's right, john. the president-elect had strong

words for both buzzfeed and cnn. john yang reporting from just outside trump tower. thank you. >> inskeep: the president elect took some questions about his relationship with russia. many more questions went to his choice for secretary of state. margaret warner has been watching the senate foreign relations committee hearing. >> reporter: rex tillerson was nearly obscured by the mob of cameras as he settled in for the marathon session. senators quickly focused on the topic of russia: did tillerson, as chairman and c.e.o. of exxon mobil, have too cozy a relationship with russian president vladimir putin? florida republican marco rubio: >> is vladimir putin a war criminal? >> i would not use that term. >> well, let me describe the in aleppo, mr. putin has directed his military to conduct

a devastating campaign. he's targeted schools, markets-- it's resulted in the death of thousands of civilians. this is not the first time mr. putin has been involved in campaigns of this kind. >> those are very, very serious charges to make, and i would want to have much more information before reaching a conclusion. [ crosstalk ] i would want to be fully informed before advising the president. >> are you aware that people who oppose vladimir putin wind up dead around the world? poisoned, shot in the back of the head, and do you think that's coincidental or likely, as i believe, that they were a part of an effort to murder his political opponents? >> well, people who speak up for freedom in regimes that are repressive are often at threat, and these things happen to them. in terms of assigning specific responsibilities, i would have to have more information. >> none of this is classified, mr. tillerson. these people are dead. >> reporter: tillerson, at exxon-mobil, brokered multi-

billion dollar deals with russia, meeting with putin multiple times. in 2013, he received the order of friendship award from putin himself. but tillerson today said he'd support continuing sanctions against russia for now. he also implied his intimate knowledge of russia meant he understood its strategy, and could anticipate its moves, to america's benefit. >> do you want this to get worse? or does russia desire a different relationship? we're not likely to ever be friends. but i also know the russian people because of having spent so many years in russia. there is scope to define a different relationship that can bring down the temperature around the conflicts we have today. ( chanting and protests ) >> reporter: outside the hearing and inside, protesters called on senators to reject the nominee

for his big oil ties. tillerson promised to recuse himself for a year from any decisions that would affect exxon mobil. >> my love of country and my patriotism is going to dictate that i serve no one's interest but the american people in advancing our own national security. >> reporter: climate change was also at issue. as candidate, president-elect trump called it a "hoax," and promised to pull out of the new paris agreement on greenhouse gas emissions. at exxon, tillerson did oversee the company's shift from vigorously denying climate change to acknowledging it. today, he did the same, with a caveat. >> i came to my personal --came to the conclusion a few years ago that the risk of climate change does exist. >> you believe that human activity, based on your belief, and science is contributing to climate change? >> the increase in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect. our ability to predict that effect is very limited. >> reporter: along the way,

tillerson showed he diverges with mr. trump, as here on nato's response following russia's annexation of crimea from ukraine. >> so your recommendation would have been to do a more robust supply of military? >> yes, sir. i think what russian leadership would've understood is a powerful response that indicated a "yes, you took the crimea but this stops right here." >> nato has deployed troops in >> that's encouraging to me to hear you say that, because it's not exactly consistent with what mr. trump has been saying. >> reporter: tillerson said if russia invaded a nato ally, he'd support an alliance response under article 5. he had some tough words on china too, equating its island- building in the south china sea with russia's annexation of crimea. mr. trump's penchant for announcing policy on twitter also came up. >> so how do you finesse this? how would you ensure the legs are not cut out from underneath

you as the nation's chief diplomat? >> well, if confirmed and i am able to serve this president- elect, i don't think i'm going to be telling the boss how he ought to communicate with american people. that's going to be his choice. >> so-- do you have in mind any contingency plans, to address... >> yes, i have his cell phone number. >> okay. >> and he's promised me he'll answer. >> reporter: tillerson's confirmation hearing is set to continue tomorrow morning. for the pbs newshour, i'm margaret warner. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: a look back on president obama's struggle to cement his legacy on climate change. but first, in the rest of the day's news, this was the second and final day of the confirmation hearing for jeff sessions, the trump nominee to

be attorney general. black leaders have strongly criticized the alabama senator and, william brangham reports, their views got a full airing today. >> i know it is exceptional for a senator to testify against another senator... >> reporter: jeff sessions was not in the room to hear it, but his nomination drew a rare rebuke from a senate colleague-- democrat cory booker of new jersey: >> he'll be expected to defend the equal rights of gay and lesbian and transgender americans, but his record indicates that he won't. he will be expected to defend voting rights, but his record indicates that he won't. >> reporter: georgia congressman and civil rights icon john lewis also spoke against the nomination. >> it doesn't matter how senator sessions may smile, how friendly he may be, how he may speak to you, but we need someone who's going to stand up. speak up. and speak out.

for the people that need help, for people that have been discriminated against. >> reporter: three black officials who worked with sessions in the past gave their support to the attorney general- designate. >> senator sessions is unquestionably qualified for the job. >> reporter: and a former attorney general, michael mukasey, came to his defense as well. >> principled, intelligent, knowledgeable, thorough, modest and thoroughly dedicated to the rule of law and the mission of the department-- which is to enforce the law and to preserve our freedoms. >> reporter: sessions is ultimately expected to win easy confirmation in the senate. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> inskeep: amid the president's cabinet choices from outside washington, there are some from well inside. his choice for transportation secretary is elaine chao. she served two previous presidents. and she testified today, with her husband mitch mcconnell behind her. she spoke of using private money to build up public infrastructure. >> we all know that the

government doesn't have the resources to do it all. it's also important to recognize that the way we build and deliver projects is just as important as how much we invest. >> inskeep: those words hint at a potential political conflict. the president elect says he wants big spending on infrastructure. democrats say they agree, but they want it to be federal spending. some republicans have spoken instead of big tax breaks for businesses that build. >> woodruff: president-elect trump also today announced his nominee for secretary of veterans affairs. david shulkin is currently the department's top health official, managing 1,700 facilities that treat nine million veterans. in a statement, shulkin said he is eager to begin reforming a system plagued by long wait times. >> inskeep: a federal judge today formally sentenced dylann roof to death, for killing nine black worshippers at a church in charleston, south carolina. a jury agreed on the sentence

yesterday. now, roof stared straight ahead today as relatives of some of the victims said they forgive him, but one called his name and finally shouted in frustration, "i wish you would look at me, boy." >> woodruff: in afghanistan, the death toll climbed past 50 in tuesday's bombings in kabul and kandahar. five diplomats from the united arab emirates died in the attack in kandahar. the persian gulf state's abassador was among the wounded. the taliban claimed the kabul bombing, but there's been no claim in the kandahar incident. >> inskeep: in other news, volkswagen agreed today to plead guilty to criminal charges. the company will also pay $4.3 billion in fines for cheating on emissions. it's part of a plea bargain with the u.s. justice department. a grand jury has indicted six high-ranking v.w. employees for allegedly lying to regulators and destroying evidence among other charges. federal prosecutors say at least 40 people took part in the fraud and cover-up. >> this is a case that

illustrates a company that at very high levels knew of this problem and deliberately chose to continue with this fraudulent behavior. and that's one reason why the actions taken here are so severe and do devolve on individuals. >> inskeep: volkswagon already settled civil charges related to the emissions cheating, for $15 billion. >> woodruff: eastern europe struggled to cope today with a blast of bitter cold and heavy snow. officials report at least 73 deaths in recent days. temperatures have hit -14 in parts of the balkans, the coldest in more than 50 years. and in greece, medical officials warned of "inhuman" conditions at migrant camps. meanwhile, in northern california, rescue crews used boats to reach stranded people after the heaviest rain in a decade. thousands more have been urged to evacuate ahead of the floods. >> inskeep: and on wall street, oil prices went up and so did stocks. for weeks now, people have been waiting for the dow to climb

over 20,000-- it hasn't quite happened yet. the dow jones industrial average gained 98 points to close at 19,954. the nasdaq rose 11 points, and the s&p 500 added six. >> inskeep: and finally tonight, we continue our series about "the obama years." in his farewell address last night, the president spoke of his actions against climate change, including a global accord to reduce emissions. he did more as his time in office went on, despite opponents who criticized the costs, or doubted the science. miles o'brien reports, as part of our weekly look at the "leading edge" of science and technology. >> and that's why i invited luther, my anger translator, to join me here tonight. >> reporter: in the long, heated debate over global warming, this was a night to remember. >> but we do need to stay focused on some big challenges,

like climate change. >> hey, if you all haven't noticed, california is bone dry! >> reporter: at the white house correspondents' dinner in 2015, barack obama became the first president to openly scorn climate change deniers, with the help of comedian keegan-michael key playing the president's anger translator, "luther." >> ...instead of doing anything about it, we've got elected officials throwing snowballs in the senate. >> okay, i think i got it, bro. >> it is crazy! what about our kids? what kind of stupid, shortsighted, irresponsible bull-- >> whoa, whoa! >> reporter: by all accounts, the president's frustration and anger were real. >> i think that this president believes that climate change is real. he believes there is a moral and ethical imperative to act and he has taken the laws on the books and implemented them to their

fullest. >> reporter: carol browner ran the environmental protection agency in the '90s. she joined the obama white house as a senior advisor. she helped guide the administration aggressively employ existing laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. they raised the bar on mileage for automakers, made appliances more efficient and tried to control carbon dioxide emissions at power plants as if it were any other kind of pollutant. >> he said, "this is a serious problem and i am committed to taking every step." >> reporter: but for browner, the rule changes were a consolation prize. she came to the white house to shepherd a sweeping climate change bill through congress. >> we had looked economy-wide to look at all sources of carbon pollution. at the time, it really seemed like the thoughtful and wise thing to do, because obviously this is an economy-wide problem. >> reporter: she envisioned an economy-wide cap and trade

system that would have set a nationwide limit-- or cap-- on greenhouse gas emissions. companies would be granted allowances to produce these climate altering gases. those that produced less than their allowance could sell or trade permits to emit more to companies that could not reach the goal. but the american clean energy and security act of 2009, sponsored by democrats henry waxman and ed markey, ran into a political buzzsaw. economist douglas holtz-eakin is the president of the american action forum and a veteran of the john mccain presidential campaign. >> it was a very intrusive, heavily regulatory bill where literally at the key moment, john boehner literally went to the podium, started flipping through and reading pages randomly and he could find something bad on everyone. >> 20% of the electricity that goes into every federal agency has to come from renewable sources. do we have any idea whether this

is possible? i can't find the answer here. >> reporter: the money that would change hands in cap and trade was supposed to stay in the private sector, not go to the u.s. treasury, but in its first budget message to congress, the administration implied it would auction emission allowances to companies, making it look like a tax. >> some staffers on the hill or someone saw that, and within six months, cap-and-trade became labeled as cap-and-tax... >> reporter: robert stavins is the director of the environmental economics program at harvard. >> ...and that was the theme that conservative republicans and coal-state democrats used to fight against waxman-markey in the house of representatives and to stop it in the senate. >> i sued the e.p.a. and i'll take dead aim at the cap and trade bill, because it's bad for west virginia. >> reporter: the cap and trade

climate bill passed in the house in 2009... >> the bill is passed! >> reporter: ...but it never even reached the floor of the senate for a vote. >> had they scaled it back and answered the question "what can we get the votes for?", that would have been very different than waxman-markey. >> reporter: after democrats lost control of the house in the 2010 midterm elections, the administration's lawmaking prospects were fading. so mr. obama started issuing executive orders aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. john holdren is the president's science advisor. >> i think it was the only sensible decision to make, to ask "what can we do using executive authority to carry us until we get a congress that's more willing to consider these kinds of actions?" >> reporter: the biggest of these rule-making steps was the clean power plan. >> ...the single most important step america has ever taken in the fight against global climate change.

>> reporter: it uses the clean air act, first enacted in 1963 to control other pollutants, to encourage states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions generated by the electric utilities. >> i think it was his only chess move, at that point. >> reporter: chelsea henderson is with an organization called republicen, conservatives who are seeking government action on climate change. >> in the end, i would have liked to have seen him overreach earlier in the legislative process, rather than on the regulatory side. >> reporter: 27 states took the obama administration to court to try and stop the plan. early last year, the supreme court ordered the e.p.a. not to enforce it. >> i think the president did the best he had with the tools he had, which were the tools of executive authority. i don't think he exceeded the legal extent of those tools. but those are questions that will continue to be tested in the courts obviously, and some of them may be tested in the

congress. >> reporter: and of course, executive orders that can be enacted with the stroke of a presidential pen can be undone in similar fashion. but mr. obama's defenders say changing existing rules was a more nimble tool than passing new laws. >> if we had waited to start the existing law, cars would not have gotten more efficient for at least another year or two. and more importantly, the president wouldn't have had the kind of efficiency standards, the proposal on power plants that then allowed us to go to paris and really establish our leadership. >> reporter: paris, the site of a pivotal meeting of 195 nations that led to an agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, limiting the increase in the global average temperature to 2 degrees celsius or below. it is the first comprehensive climate agreement in history. >> it happened only because the united states and china stood up

together. president obama and president xi in beijing in november 2014 stood up, and we're the two biggest economies, we're the two biggest emitters, this is a huge problem, we are jointly going to lead. >> reporter: u.s. participation in the paris agreement cannot be quickly revoked. a withdrawal has to be announced three years in advance, and then it takes another year for it to become official. but the agreement is voluntary, with no teeth besides global peer pressure, and there is a loophole. >> if the trump administration decided instead not just to remove itself from the paris climate agreement, but from the overall u.n. framework convention on climate change that goes back to 1992, ratified by the senate, signed by republican president george h. w. bush, that takes only one year delay. >> reporter: barack obama leaves a climate legacy that is bold, yet fragile. history will likely remember him as the first climate president,

but in today's political climate, that moniker could very quickly become a footnote. miles o'brien, the pbs newshour, washington. >> inskeep: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm steve inskeep. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪

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