ivanka, donald jr., and eric. bobby kennedy served jack kennedy. hillary clinton served bill clinton. and george w. bush fired johnson for george h.w. bush. it's not new but being covered as a negative thing. >> you got the last word. thank you. i'm ari melber. you can e-mail if you didn't like or liked our media coverage. i'll be guest hosting tomorrow if you're around. and "hardball" starts now. trump and putin versus intelligence agencies. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. "joy" reid in new york. there isn't much disagreement when it comes to russia's role in interfering in the u.s. election this year. 17 intelligence agencies said

they were confident it was russia. republicans in congress agree. the white house has publicly named the kremlin. there's one notable exception coming from a man who is being given intelligence briefings when he chooses to take them. president-elect donald trump. he continues to question the findings about russia's involvement before the election he said for all he knows it could be some 400 pound guy in his bedroom in new jersey. according to a new report from nbc news not only was russia involved in the plot it reached to the highest level of the kremlin. nbc news reports that u.s. intelligence officials believe with a high level of confidence that russian president putin became personally involved in the covert russian campaign to interfere with the u.s. presidential election. the spokesman for putin told the associated press today the report was, quote, laughable nonsense. and donald trump tweeted this morning if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act. why do they only complain after hillary lost?

trump's claim that the white house acted after hillary lost isn't true. on october 12th josh earnest publicly blamed russia for the hacking and said there would be a response. >> determining what is appropriate. >> the intelligence assessment earnest was citing was made public via a paper statement from the obama administration five days earlier on october 7th. which happens to be the same day the lurid access hollywood tape of trump bragging to billy bush about assaulting women came out. 11 days later at an october press conference, obama was not asked a single question about the russian hacks. today senator lindsey graham called russia's role in the hack undisputable. >> i'm 100% certain that the russians hacked into podesta's e-mails and other political organizations in the dnc. most of the information released

was unfavorable to clinton, not trump. i don't know their motives other than create discontent and discord and undermine democracy. and earlier today i spoke to senator dianne feinstein of california. the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee. >> i want to start with getting your reaction to the reporting by our cynthia mcfadden and others not only putin sanctioned the hacking of democrats, both hillary clinton and democrats down the ticket, but that he actually participated or he was the driving force behind it. what do you make of that reporting? >> well, i can't really go there. i can't really say where -- whether he was or wasn't a driving force. as a matter of fact, i don't know whether he was or wasn't a driving force. so let me make that clear. the thing is, with both cozy bear and fancy bear and the evidence that leads that the intelligence bureaux used them

and the damage that was done, what we know now was at least for house campaigns. and the presidential campaigns and both political parties with material being put out in large amounts to embarrass the democratic side but not the republican side. and that is pretty conclusive and i think the intelligence agencies, when we were briefed us with high confidence. and we don't often have that. i mean, and it was obvious by their body language, by their emphasis, by the passion that they had in the briefing it's usually pretty cut and dry. that this was really fairly unique. and therefore would a country do this, which is actually foreign

espionage on another country without the ascent or the direct order of the head of the government, particularly when you know the head of that government runs everything in that very large and powerful country. >> and what do you make of it? you talk about the high confidence you have in the assessment and the definitiveness of the briefings you receive from the intelligence community. what do you make of the fact that the soon-to-be next president of the united states, donald trump, does not believe the assessment of the intelligence community as it is, in fact, ridiculing those findings >>well, i have just learned that mr. trump, president-elect, is taking more intelligence briefings. if they're the pdb, we'll see that. that's the one thing on the intelligence side of our committee work that we do not see. only the president sees that. so if he has a similar briefing

that we have had from director clapper or from others at the highest levels and with the information, and i think there's more out that he would be given that we have been given, i think he will take a different view. now, what his reaction will be, i certainly don't know. but i think he will see the seriousness of this. regardless of political party. regardless of which side is benefitted, and which side is hurt. i think he'll see that this is not good for the future of the american democratic system. and therefore we need to do something. now what we do is another story. having said that, president obama, it's my understanding, before he leaves office will put out a report with the facts and hopefully declassify this so the american people can actually see

what happened. that's a good measurement. because this is, in my view, a real attack at our system of election democratic election. and i don't think our country can just standby and let this happen. because once it happens, it's open sesame. >> but, senator, what if he doesn't change his view? what if after receiving even substantially more top secret briefings he still doesn't believe it. can the american people have confidence in the congress to be the investigative authority, in that case when senator mitch mcconnell, the leader of the senator, his wife is about to be soon be working for donald trump and be in his cabinet. he's said to have blocked putting the information out in a partisan manner during the campaign. if trump doesn't change his view and mitch mcconnell already seems to have blocked this information getting out, and will have a family tie to the white house, then who would the american people be able to turn

to? >> let me make a comnt. i snow senator mcconnell. he's the republican leader. he's the majority leader of the senate. he wants our elections to function fairly. and without influence from foreign countries. strike me dead if it's not true. i think it's true. and i think it would be completely irrelevant. his wife is wonderful. she's be a good transportation secretary. and i don't think that would be relevant at all in his mind. i really don't. i think what would be relevant is who did -- who would do an investigation. if i understand it, up to this point, he would leave up to the intelligence committees. this is why i think it's so important that what president obama is reportedly doing and the preparation of a report gets done after all. it broke in the summer. we've known about it for six

months. i think the facts need to be put before the american people. so because this is major. and what people are telling me today is, oh, americans don't really care. well, mr. and mrs. america wake up! you better care! this is our whole system. this is everything the constitution has put forward for us to be at a nation under law. to be able to conduct free and fair elections. and if we can't do that, and if other nations are going to come in and essentially manipulate elections by releasing data to one side, which jaime think is unfavorable to that side then we've got a big problem. >> yeah. senator feinstein, i think everyone can agree on that. thank you for your time. >> you're welcome. nice to talk to you. at the white house today

josh earnest reacted to trump's tweet casting doubt on who is responsible for the hacking of democrat's e-mails. >> another one came in today. this wikileaks is like a treasure-trove. did you see where on wick he leeks it was announced they were paying protesters to be violent. $1500. donna brazil did it again. wikileaks today. she gave the questions to a debate to hillary clinton. >> wikileaks just came out with a new one. just a little while ago. >> her campaign in wikileaks has spoken horribly about catholics and evangelicals. they've got it all done, folks. wikileaks. >> hillary should fire to test data. how do you have people working that say these horrible things about you? i love reading those wikileakss. >> based on the tape there's no question that donald trump made information from the wikileaks

hack a major focus during the final weeks of the campaign. now listen to josh earnest today. >> it was obvious to everyone paying attention including the gentleman's who thumbs authored that tweet that the impact of that malicious activity benefitted the trump campaign and hurt the clinton campaign. that's why the republican nominee was hoping they would do more of it. that's why in the days leading up to election day the republican nominee himself was encouraging people to check out wikileaks. >> meanwhile today the new york times reportshe russian campaign who instrumented the election wasn't limited to the race for the white house. dozens of democratic house candidates were targeted. the hackers linked to russian intelligence went by the name of guccifer 2.0. according to the times the seats that they targeted were hardly

random. some of the most competitive house races in the country. joining me now is cynthia mcfadden who wrote the story yesterday and "new york times" eric lipton who wrote today's story about the targeting of house members. cynthia, your reaction to diane feinstein. she's expressing confidence that the senate will be able to look into the matters despite what will soon be family times between the senate majority leader. >> yeah. i think what she said had a lot of resonance with me and consistent with our reporting. i mean, i think there's another way to look at what trump tweeted today. there is the potential that he's making a pivot. what he said today was asking some questions. why wasn't more put out there? remember when there was the famous sonny hack and the president went on television and looked in the camera and said we're not putting up with this. president obama didn't do this in that instance. our reporting tonight suggested there were a couple of reasons why. according to high level intelligence sources the administration felt they wanted

to stay out of -- the appearance of affecting the election. secondly, they were also confidence hillary clinton was going to win. and they didn't want to take the chance of it for tat cyber tit for tat with the russians if there was going to be time later to straighten it out. it didn't turn out the white house thought. we talked the former head of nato said donald trump is raising interesting questions. let's respond to those questions. america needs to know the answers. i think consistent with what senator feinstein said. >> thb c was reporting the day, the assessment came out october 7th was the same day as the leak of the access hollywood tape. there's arguable that maybe the white house didn't think they could compete with the news cycle. that's leading the news cycle and to the same point nbc noted that journalists asked the president zero questions about a hacking when he did a press conference 11 days later. >> that's on us. that's our failure. but, you know, i think as diane

feinstein points out. the intelligence community made the assessment for at least six months before october 7th. it was certainly six months prior to that. we know that the g 20 president obama went up to putin personally and talked to him about it. and yet the american public was unaware of the full scope of this. a paper statement by intelligence officials is not the same thing as the president. the president didn't go to congress and say this is serious business. let's consider sanctions. so i think there's some questions that need to be answered. >> and eric you had the story. on my show we did the story almost every weekend. the american public had some information. they didn't know at the time when we had various journalists on talking about russians interfering. they were interveering below the presidential level. they were going after house races who was targeted? >> well what happened was the

hacker we believe is an russian affiliate took information from the democratic congressional campaign committee. tens of thousands of pages of documents which their internal assessments of their own candidates which identify weaknesses of their candidates in addition and he dumped those -- that information and individual house races and spot ace cross the country in florida and pennsylvania and new hampshire. and ohio. and he gave this information to bloggers and reporters in those states via direct message often through twitter and then they've got produced coverage in each of the states that was damaging to the democratic candidates. in several cases, it looks as if it may have been a factor in the candidates in house races. . got very little coverage because reporters are mostly focussed on the podesta disputes coming forward from the releases in material. it had great consequences on the house level.

>> i want to ask you whether you think the intelligence community will declassify much of this information so the american people can see what members of congress have seen. >> i think there's going to be classification and i think that's what the president is trying to do. whether it's too little too late remains to be seen. certainly i think there's universal pleasure at the notion that the president is going to convene his bipartisan look at the intelligence information. i think he'll indeed make the case of the american people. because as diane feinstein said earlier today. it's clear that this matters. and the depth of this is vitally important to democracy. >> yeah. wake up american people. i'm sorry, eric. we'll have you back. we're out of time. coming up what trump was supposed to be doing today was holding a press conference where he claimed he was going to explain how he would separate himself from his business when he's president. that didn't happen. we're left with more questions. trump continues to attack the news media as december

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donald trump is set to take the stage soon in hershey, pennsylvania as he continues his thank you tour. even a rodent ride-along. [dad] alright, buddy, don't forget anything! [kid] i won't, dad... [captain rod] happy tuesday morning! captain rod here. it's pretty hairy out on the interstate.traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. december 14th, 2015. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ nothseafood celebration.self" like red lobster's holiday so try new dishes like the new grand seafood feast, and the new wild-caught lobster & shrimp trio,

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"thank you for serving our country" and i'm like, at's my dad male vo: no one deserves a warmer welcome home. that's why we're hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. i'm very proud of him. male vo: comcast. welcome back to "hardball." new alarm of trump's potential conflict of interest. after his children attempted a meeting yesterday with the top executives of multiple silicon valley companies. trump has promised he'll take steps to separate his presidency from his personal business interest but yet to declare how he intends to do it. on monday trump tweeted he'll leave his company to his two adult sons and then under their management, quote, no deals will

be done during his time in office. eric and donald jr. are playing a role on their father's transition team and their involvement in yesterday's summit suggests they'll have a seat at the table. addressing the issue today kellyanne conway and sean spicer emphasized that trump was being transparent. >> i find all this -- this hand wringing over who is in the meeting yesterday to be really over the top. the meeting was so transparent. you've seen clip after clip. excerpt after excerpt. there was nothing secretive about it. and these are adults who have a great to offer to the conversation. >> we brought the press in to show who was at the meeting. it's not like there's anything nefarious going on. we've been clear about the role of his family and the importance they play and the advice they give. >> i'm joined by senior advisor and national spokesperson at move on and michael steele, former chairman of the rnc.

thank you for being here. give the team credit they understand the media and understand the media is one of the favorite words of all journalists is transparency. it said every day on twitter and tv. people love the word "transparency." what does it say we're going to have the kids in the business and the white house. saying we're going to do it. how does it solve the conflict of interest? >> it's not transparency. >> bringing in the media for a couple of minutes to show what want people to see is a photo op. if you want to be transparent you would have a press conference and let -- allow press to ask questions. b., actually release his personal taxes we've been asking for he said he was going to release once he ran for president. never did. three, actually tell us how are you going to divest your companies, your business from the conflict of interest that is -- that is right before you. and instead what he does is uses

twitter. he does 140 characters or less to explain his plan, which is not the way to do it. >> yeah. and, you know, and michael steele, in addition, he invites cameras in to watch his children both be in his cabinet and do business with him as members of his company. he's literally saying i'm going to let you watch us. that makes it better. how can it work? >> well, there you go with another word i have to look up i hear what you're saying. but, you know, there's nothing that stops him from doing it. there's no law in the book or regulation that overseas it or prevents it. the president of the united states is allowed to have at the table advising him whoever he wants. whatever capacity he wants them there to advise him. whether it's a family member or partisan or someone else. they're not getting paid. they're not on the government payroll.

they will not be on the government payroll. that is the reality of it. when you flesh the rest of it out, "joy," the new reality we have to come to grips with is that trump is in the driver's seat here. donald trump understood that the law did not require him because there is no law that requires him to release his tax returns and he didn't. donald trump understands there is no law that sends him in the same box as other federal officials when it comes to conflicts of interest. so he does not see any. therefore, will not respond 0 accordingly. >> here is the problem. there are laws against bribery. there is the clause of the constitution that specifically deals with foreign bribery of an american president. [ talking over each other than ] >> and richard has been on this

air over and over and over that essentially if foreign leaders can check into donald trump's hotel anywhere in the world and essentially pay the president of the united states and then get policy favorable to them. that's akin to essential bribery. called him an inkeeper yesterday. that's richard -- not me. you can say it's $5 word or whatever it wants -- [ talking over each other ] >> excuse me, as a corporate lawyer i have worked in this area. so you need to establish bribery. you just can't say it. you just can't say it or project it -- >> would you consider -- >> excuse me. [ talking over each other ] >> and then gets policies. has it happened? >> let's go to you -- [ talking over each other ] >> he has to correct the conflicts of interest before he gets into office.

the constitution applies to him. the constitution applies to him. it does. does the constitution of the united states apply -- >> absolutely -- >> your party went after barack obama for receiving a nobel peace prize and used the clause as a reason. >> that was a direct benefit. ask and he gave the money away to charity. >> i think the founding fathers didn't believe that, you know, anybody was -- anybody including the president was above the law. right. i think that's the thing to remember when we were putting together. when they were putting together the constitution and all of that. but there's also -- there's the hotel in washington, d.c. right. there is the trump international hotel, which is being -- his lease with the federal government. >> he's the landlord and the tenant. >> so on day one he'll be violating that lease because he -- assen elected official he cannot partake in that lease! and just this past weekend there

was a federal government that had a holiday party at his hotel. >> that's right. >> if he was president, he would be in violation. >> can i just -- >> we have to take a break. we don't have time. we have a commercial. thank you so much. up next donald trump is sure to have an unconventional presidency. it could include his relationship to the press. what happens when he comes to washington? that's next. and at progressive, we let you compare our progressive direct rate... great deals for reals! ...and our competitors' rates side-by-side, so you know you're getting a great deal. saving the moolah. [ chuckles ] as you can see, sometimes progressive isn't the lowest. not always the lowest! jamie. what are you doing? -i'm being your hype man. not right now. you said i was gonna be the hype man. no, we said we wouldn't do it. i'm sorry, we were talking about savings. i liked his way. cha-ching! talking about getting that moneeeey! talking about getting that moneeeey!

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here's what's happening. dylann roof confessed to shooting nine was convicted earlier today on all 33 counts against him. jurors only dlibtded for about two hours in the case. 18 of the counts carry the death penalty. roof sat stone faced as the verdicts were read. the jury will break for the holidays and decide whether roof will spend life in prison or be sentenced to death. he plans to representative himself in the next phase of his trial. now back to "hardball." donald trump has taken his thank you tour to pennsylvania. >> we'll cut the price way down.

way down. how about the f-35 fighter? it's a disaster. totally out of control. we're going get more equipment more our military and better equipment for our military at a smaller price. does that make sense? okay. we're going to stop trying to build new nations in far off lands many areas -- you've never heard of these places. okay. we're going to stop. we're going to be so strong. we're going to be so respected. we're going to be so powerful. we're not respected now. believe me, it's going to turn. we'll have a great, incredible, powerful military. but you know what? i don't think we're going to have to use it. that would be very, very nice. it's america first.

instead -- [ chanting "trump" ] >> that was donald trump in hershey, pennsylvania as he counts his thank you tour. we'll keep an eye on it. during the campaign donald trump frequently attacked the news media as dishonest. he called the press liars. he accused networks of unfair coverage. mostly for reporting the words that came out of his mouth. since becoming president-elect donald trump and the press have sparred over access as trump hasn't allowed the media to travel on his plane. he ditched his protective press pool, and held a news conference since july 27th. yesterday incoming white house chief of staff told conservative radio host the changes might be coming to the daily white house

briefings. white house correspondent president jeff maison released a response saying, "it was not an obama era innovation. the whca assumed responsibility for assigning seats in breefting room over the last two decades at the request of republicans and democratic administrations

who were mindful of the potential appearance of playing favorites if they assigned the seats themselves." trump himself took to twitter this morning to lash out at the media. so what does the future relationship between the new president and the press corps. look like given the ak kro monoany that exists? sam sign is editor at the huffington post and carolyn ryan is at the "new york times." i think nothing occupies real estate in the mind of donald trump like the "new york times." he came up as a queens-based businessman and had theed alation of the times. do you expect the times do to scare have a particularly volatile relationship with donald trump? >> i think we do have a freighted relationship. i think you're right. he almost resents the power even as he covets the approval of the "new york times." i think what is going on now there is sort of a testing of

both sides. he's testing the immediamedia. they're suggesting they're going to shatter some of the tradition the white house press corps. enjoyed. and the media is, as you see in coverage, getting more aggressive and directly calling him out and pointing out inaccuracies and headlines making clear the things he's saying are not true. and feels like a testing period where everyone is taking the other person's measure. >> yeah. for a lot of people it might be a good thing. there's the attitude toward the presidency among a lot of americans in the press corps. in the minds of lot of americans have gotten too cozy with presidents. nicknames from george w. bush and attending dinners that we go to. it's too much. is it better that the press be purely adversaryial? >> well, yes. the press has role in being an adversaryial check on power. and i think that has to

continue, obviously, under this administration. the question about coziness is a difficult one to answer because, of course, you don't want to be cozy with the people you cover. of course you don't want to be biassed toward the people you cover because you're cozy. a good part of journalism does actually depend on access. and if one side of the equation, in this case, the trump administration completely cuts off access and pick one part of the previous interview. but he suggested possibly they would maybe even end or cut down on the amount of daily press briefings. if you cut down on access, that creates a set of problems. you can be adversaryial. but you vice president to maintain an element of access that you can ask the probing questions so you can ask the questions. without access you lose a lot of that. >> and, you know, one of them, carolyn, things that could happen given donald trump's behavior so far is he could simply continue using twitter to communicate directly to his followers who only believe what

he says. they only believe him. you know, they could use breitbart as staid-run media. they have fox news. couldn't they skip over the "new york times," huffington post, and anybody they don't think is friendly. >> i think there will be security questions about his use of twitter and how frequently he can do it as president. i think you're right he's looking for work arounds. he likes to speak directly to his followers. they're passionate. but at the same time, as you point out, he does covet the approval of legacy media. look how he reacted to time magazine. there are certain publications he grew up with and he still thinks regardless of what he tweets about are important. so i think he feels like he's master manipulator of the media and won't give up entirely on the outlets. >> yeah. freaked out by -- republicans in north carolina are trying to strip

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together, we're building a better california. . welcome back to "hardball." democrats in north carolina are calling it a power grab or a coup. republicans trying to strip powers from the newly elected democratic governor. what was supposed to be a special session about helping the victims of natural disasters. just moments ago republicans passed the first of those bills, according to the raleigh news. it would subject the governor's cabinet picks to approval by state legislators. the spokesman for the democratic party of north carolina said, quote, this is an unprecedented, shameful, and cowardly power grab from republicans. here is the incoming governor this morning. >> we don't look good to our

people here in north carolina or to the rest of the country when laws are passed hastily, with little discussion in the middle of the night. it's got to stop. i will use every tool in the governor's office to fight for everyday north carolinans, including the courts, if necessary. what is happening now is unprecedented. >> meanwhile one of the republicans pushing for the change is david lewis told reporters, quote, i think, to be candid, you'll see the general assembly look to reassert the constitutional authority in areas that may have been previously delegated to the executive branch. i'm joined by tonight's round table. thank you for being here. kaitlyn, have you in covering

politics seen anything like this? >> what is remarkable about this is republicans were elected to the state house, obviously, donald trump won by four points. the senator was re-elected. this was a direct message against governor mccrory, the current governor outgoing governor. to make this move after those messages being sent is really remarkable. and something that we haven't really seen before and we're not seeing anywhere else. interestingly there would be other governors coming in with different parties. >> it's something that could be replicated, right. we've seen when laws like stand your ground pass in florida they get replicate aid cross the country. this is undoing the vote and saying we will -- that we will make the governorship not worth having if we don't have it. >> yeah. it's a power of the principles. i think we saw them say reasserting our constitutional authority. you know, back when the governor was republican, it was not a worry they had. >> right. >> democrat is now in office and they'll make the office worthless. we saw it as reconstruction after the civil war when they

scattered the powers of governorships around to make them less important. you know, we saw the climate change. right. we saw states have the ability to pass laws. >> absolutely. and it's causing a reaction. we have -- we have video of it they're protesting now. the moral mondays movement lead by dr. william barber. they are protesting. you see the protesters are inside the capitol building. we'll continue to monitor what is happening. civil disobedience have been taking place. the national media caught on. it's not deterred these members of the house and senate. >> it's absolutely shameless. but it does go back to what they did when mccrory was elected. he was elected as a perceived moderate and swapped way to the right and they passed voter suppression and cutting education bills. it's worse because -- the only thing is, "joyjoy, they have a

majority. unless they peel off some republicans, i think which they will. i would assume they will. i don't know if it'll be enough to do anything. i think he'll be fighting it in the courts. >> that's the point. they already had the majority. they didn't need to do this extra stuff. it doesn't lend to the question why are they doing this? >> that's exactly right. this is the height of partisanship this year. and if anything there was a real message from the electorate they didn't want this to happen. it is so fascinating because they do already control the state house. also, mccrory was the only republican to lose his seat this year. it was a great year for republicans. >> and, you know, the other thing you had the election of an african-american supreme court justice, which tips the balance 4-3 in favor of democrats. if he went to court he would have a favorable court. one of the things you like to do is court back. add two more people. they can't go that route. >> yeah. this is like a cry of rage.

they lost. they hated losing. they think it was not fair for some reason. now they'll do whatever it takes to hold on to power. it's like -- we haven't seen this in a long time. >> yeah. i don't think we've seen this clinging to power. >> no. not in a modern american election. >> yeah. i'm a democrat. we hate losing. this is really tough. but no one is proposing anything like this. you know, the democrats aren't looking for ways to strip donald trump of his power. >> labor secretary announced he was joining the race for chair of the democratic national committee. minnesota congressman keith ellison announced he was running for the chairmanship. for some it looks like a approximately battle between the clinton-obama wing of the party and the pro bernie sanders wing.

worried he could divide the party or alienate the white working class voters. joan, there is a sort of fishing constantly for white working class voters who are clearly republicans. why is that the main driving force between perez and not perez? >> i think it's a false choice, too. tom perez, i'm undecided here. i adore keith ellison. i think he would do a great job. tom perez is someone i respect enormously. he's not put out any plans yet. keith has, you know, a website with lots of plans. you can read about it. secretary perez is taking listen tour, which he's entitled to. it it has to be about issues. how do you rebuild the party? the public base of the party. the messaging of the party. rebuilding the state parties especially in places like michigan and wisconsin where they've been decimated and the union base has been decimated.

it can't be about refighting clinton versus sanders or going out for the white working class. >> like groundhog day. up next they'll tell me something i don't know. which is easy. this is "hardball." the place for politics. ♪ ♪ see ya next year. this season, start a new tradition. experience the power of infiniti now, with leases starting at $319 a month. infiniti. empower the drive.

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♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ all right. we're back. kaitlyn, tell me something i don't foe. >> keep on eye on the senate democrats from red states during the confirmation process. joe manchin, whether he decided or not, staying in the senate may be more welcome news for donald trump than for democrats particularly when it comes to the tillerson nomination where republicans are likely to defect. >> manchin wants them to pick a dnc chair from a red state which would go over brilliantly. nick, tell me something i don't know. >> speaking of dnc chairs, i was curious who had the job the longest in the 20th century, jim farley under fdr. a great period for democrats. he was the first ever guest on "meet the press." >> wow, that's cool. very interesting. jo, can you top that? >> probably not. i'm going to give up. conspiracy monger alex jones has been scrubbing his site of his pizza-gate content but he's got

a new target, it's christine pelosi and the electors who are trying to simply get a cia briefing or intelligence community briefing about the issues of russian hacking. he has accused them of wanting to assassinate donald trump and of course, she is getting death threats. >> wow. okay. really quickly, lightning round, how many electors end up being electors, give me a number. >> i have no idea. seven? >> i'm going to guess, like, two. >> how about none? >> one. i think there might be one. >> there's one. you know -- >> door prize for whoever was right. thank you, kaitlyn, nick, and joan walsh. when we return, let me f finifi finish with a big question facing our profession, media. you're watching "hardball." the place for politics. and can you explain to me why

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let me finish tonight with the big question facing my profession, the media, and not just democrats and what's left of never-trump republicans in the coming years. what are you going to do about it? that's basically what trump is asking when he and his team openly brag that his adult children will defy convention and work both as white house advisers and run trump businesses. businesses trump clearly won't or maybe can't part with as president. it's what he's asking when he insists despite all evidence to the contrary including from the intelligence community that he's about to inherit that, no, russia didn't play a role in getting him elected by hacking democrats. it's what he asked when he

refused and still refuses to release his tax returns. trump is almost daring the media to try, try and do, reporters say, anything that might stop him. he's waving around the threat of cutting off even traditional press briefings. and he and his campaign with considerable help from vladimir putin and russia have spent a year or more undermining confidence in the traditional press, and selling his supporters on the idea that the only voice they can trust is his. whether that voice is heard at a series of televised pep rallies, or on twitter. it's a putin-like approach that so far is working among trump supporters and elected members of his party. the big question, will we let it work on us? that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> they have no idea if it's russia or china or somebody. it could be somebody sitting in a bed someplace. >> as dems and republicans decry russia's election hacking, the

president-elect remains skeptical. >> if you don't believe that the russians were involved in interfering in our election, then i'm really troubled by that. then, the future leaders of trump's business at the president-elect's official business meeting. >> we're not going to discuss those things. it doesn't matter. trust me. >> today, democrats escalate the fight on his business conflicts. plus, north carolina republicans move to strip power from the new democratic governor. >> what is happening now is unprecede unprecedented. and trump's new war with "vanity fair" and the editor who first dubbed him short fingered. >> slightly smaller than large glove, okay? >> when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. in 36 days donald trump becomes the president of the united states. today, trump continues to contest the u.s. intelligence community's near unanimous conclusion that russia