executive overreach versus environmentalism will be in the hands of a new president and a new congress in just 22 days. that's all for tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." ayman mohyeldin picks up our coverage right now. >> and breaking news this hour. we are getting reaction tonight. donald trump's first statement and reaction to the white house punishing ssia for interfering with the russ. president obama firing back against russia for meddling in the presidential election. 45 operatives ordered out of the united states and we just heard from the kremlin. and how will donald trump respond? he's expected to release a statement at any moment. we're live at trump headquarters in florida. also, inside donald trump's inaugural address. how ronald reagan is factoring in and what might he say about the future of u.s./russia relations. we start with that breaking news tonight. president obama striking back against russia for interfering with the presidential election.

this presidential executive order, naming four operatives involved in placing sanctions on two intelligence services. the president also ordering 35 russian intelligence officials out of the united states. they've got 72 hours to leave the country. they're also shuttering two rung compounds here in the united states, this order say that the sanctions are for, ote, tampering with or altering or causing a misappropriation of information with theurpose or effect of interfering or undermine elections or institutions. now, russian president vladimir putin was not personally named, but president obama saying, quote, these data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the high levelses of the russian government. putin and the kremlin had called the claims, quote, laughable nonsense, and tonight a spokesman for putin told the associated press that the kremlin regrets the sanctions and will coronet retaliatory measures against the united states. and within the hour, top obama official had this to say.

>> what you've seen today in the announcements we've made and the set of steps that we are disclosing today is a determination to make clear that there will be consequences for aggressive activities from the russian government against our personnel, and in efforts to interfere with our election process. >> nbc's hans nichols is at the pentagon and joins us now live from ere. hans, let's talk a little bit about theignificance of these sanctions. walk us through them aittle bit. >> well, there are really three parts, ayman. one, the sanctions against the four individuals and five institutions. that gives you a sense that the white house and intelligence agencies here in the states thinks this goes to the highest levels of russia's intelligence agencies. these were gru officials that they have sanctioned. and you have the second part, the expulsion, persona non grata, declaring these officials that are working in embassies in consular ways, but not really. they're basically spies, and they're now being expelled.

they have 72 hours to get out of town. and then there's a defensive aspect to this, ayman. and that is that the white house is giving a clear indication, almost guidebooks, to cyberdefense firms that here's what they can potentially do to guard against future attacks. and then there's one final point on this. and that is that this isn't the last we've heard. the white house has been very clear that this isn't the entire response, and that there may be more. whether or not they ever own up to that response and publicly say that they were responsible, we don't know that. what we do know is that if they do take additional responses, the people on the receiving end of that will know and they will feel the effect of a potential cyberresponse. ayman? >> hans, we've gotten statements from obviously, the office of directf national intelligence, substantiated by the other intelligence agencies that russia's behind this. there's no doubt the administration has been pointing the finger very straight forward at moscow. but we haven't seen any evidence yet. that hasn't been released to the

public. are we expecting the u.s. agencies who have this evidence in some capacity to make it public. >> the challenge with that, ayman, is that, yes, it would bring clarity and it could potentially be the case be closed and shut from the white house's perspective. but you don't want to compromise sources and methods. and i'm not enough of a cybersleuth to really understand the forensics of all of this, on how you can make the case definitively, without revealing how you know. and my understanding of intelligence agencies and my understanding of this white house is they would never do anything to compromise sources and methods even if it leaves a shadow of a doubt. so i expect we may never know conclusively and the white house will never fully share that information, because the risk of compromising sources would be too high. >> hans, i've got to interrupt you for a second. we're getting a statement from president-elect donald trump. i'm going to read this. essentially, the statement from president-elect's transition

team. quote, it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, i will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to update them on this situation. you know, again, this is a statement that has just come out. "i will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation." that is the statement coming from president-elect donald trump. >> so ayman, to me that's an indication that donald trump is not going to reverse, is not going to try to challenge and fight obama and litigant this in public and that president barack obama's announcements, his sanctions, the expulsion of 35 will likely stand. but we'll have to hear more from trump. >> hans nichols live for us at the pentagon. let's go over to nbc's tammy leitner. she joins us live from hawaii where the president is vacationing. we just heard there from president-elect donald trump. what have we heard from the white house on this, in terms of the timing of these sanctions,

their purpose? >> reporter: you know, ayman, we're learning so much more about this. these sanctions were not levied only because of the hacking, they were also levied because of the hacking of our u.s. diplomats in russia. we now know, this has been going on for four years. it's really increased over the last 12 months. arbitrary police stops, they've been releasing personal information, which is extremely dangerous. let's go ahead and listen to what else the deputy press secretary had to say. >> we've seen russia try and physically harass them, physically accost them. we've seen verbal and physical harassment. we've seen them try to revoke their credentials. we've seen them try to detain them. we've seen harassment of our diplomatic facilities in russia. again, the president believes that's outside the norms of how countries engage with one another and that's why he took the actions today. >> as hans mentioned, 35 russian diplomats who are here in the united states, they have two compounds here in maryland and

new york. they are all being expelled. they have 72 hours to leave. and i asked the deputy press secretary, i said, are they being expelled because of the hacking scandal or because of the way the counterparts, their counterparts in russia have been treated? and he said it's because of the harassment of our u.s. diplomats in russia. ayman? >> tammy, i understand he also spoke to the deputy press secretary. what more can youell us in terms of what they're saying in terms of sanctions and whether they expect the incoming administration to uphold them or not. do we have any indication whether the white house is going to communicate to president-elect trump's team to keep these sanctions in place going forward, even now when we know it seems donald trump is saying it's time to move on to bigger and better things in the country. >> reporter: look, president-elect donald trump does have the power to overturn these sanctions, but the white house white house is advising that he does not do that.

they're saying that would be a very, very bad move. >> tammy leitner live for us. let's go now to nbc's hallie jackson in west palm beach, florida, tracking the trump transition team with more reaction. hallie, let's talk a little bit about this statement that's coming out from the president-elect. how are you reading this? the first part of it saying, it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. seems like he's dismissing it, but saying, nonetheless, i still will be briefed by intelligence officials about this. >> reporter: here's how i think the statement could be interpreted. that first part, the section where he says, it's time for our country to move on, essentially, this is reiterating what he said publicly yesterday. donald trump is not somebody who has backed away from prior statements often and you remember when he appeared on the steps of mar-a-lago and spoke with reporters for about ten minutes late last night, he said roughly the same thing. that we ought to get on with our lives, and i'm paraphrasing here. it's the second part of the statement, his meeting that's going to be happening within the coming weeks with leaders of the intelligence community that

seems to essentially buy him some time. no idea what donald trump will do on january 21st. whether he will roll back these sanctions or not. if he goes into office and repeals these sanctions, if he undoes the that he does not trust the cia and the fbi and the intelligence officials that have put together these assessments. on the other hand, if he uh leaves these sanctions in place, he runs the rusk of damaging the relationship he wants to build the russian president vladimir putin. you have members of congress, senator mccain and graham and others who want tougher penalties against russia. so this is donald trump trying to buy himself a little bit of time, figure out what exactly he wants to do next month. and sit down face to face with some of these intelligence officials to get more of an assessment. he's been having these briefings. intelligence officials tell nbc news that president-elect trump

and his team have been told about the evidence behind te assessment that, in fact, russia did interfere or try to interfere with the u.s. election. so i think that next week, after he sits down and meets with these leaders, we'll have, hopefully, more to report, or at least the president-elect will come out potentially with more of a decision on where he'll go next month. >> hallie jackson live for us there in florida. thank you very much for that update, hallie jackson. all right, the reaction from congressional leaders is also pouring in. senators mccain and graham releasing a statement saying, the retaliatory measures announced by the obama administration today are long overdue, but ultimately, they're a small price for russia to pay for its brazen attack on american democracy. we intend to lead the effort in the new congress to impose stronger sanctions on russia. let's bring in delaware senator chris coons. it's great to have you with us. first, your response to this statement that has just come out from president-elect donald trump. and i'm not sure if you've had a chance to see it, but at least

you've heard a little bit about it on our air. he's saying, it's time for the country to move on to bigger and better things, but nonetheless, he's going to be briefed by intelligence officials next week. how do you read that statement? >> ayman, that's an incredible statement. it's just unbelievable to me that president-elect trump can say it's time to move on to bigger and better things. there is no bigger and better thing in america than our democracy. and the american intelligence community months ago reached the unanimous conclusion that russia intentionally attacked our democracy. that they engaged in a cyberattack intended to influence the outcome of our 2016 presidential election. i can't think of a more brazen attack on what it means to be an american than to have a foreign adversary the election. and i look forward working with

our republican and democratic colleagues on the foreign relations committee an throhout congress to strengthen these sanctions and to sustain our tough actions against russia to make sure they pay a price for trying to influence our elections. >> senator, are you surprised at all that the statement from the president-elect does not even reference the statements as to whether or not he intends to keephem in place, come january 20th? do you see it in the same way my colleague is describing it, that this is an attempt to buy him some time? >> well, i hope he takes his time. i hope he actually does take seriously a briefing from our senior intelligence officials. he's previously brushed them off and suggested that they don't really know what they're talking about. he's made previous public statements in which he said that we don't really know who's responsible and that it's hard to understand and that these attacks coulhave been carried out by someone lying in their bed. laughable statements that suggest that he frankly doesn't really understand how

sophisticated our intelligence community is at understanding the fingerprints left behind by cyberattacks on america, on complex, and on our elections. i also, frankly, ayman, think we feed to work together, republicans and democrats in congress, and president-elect trump, to secure our elections going forward. we still have some real vulnerabilities to cyberattacks in this country. and we need to do some hard work together to invest in making sure that we don't face this same problem two years from now when we have our next elections. >> senator, we know that donald trump is not alone in this. we've heard from other members, colleagues of yours on capitol hill, members of congress saying that this is a distraction that with the democrats and what president obama is doing, trying to drum up this russian hack has been a distraction for the democrats losing in the general election, but more importantly, we haven't seen -- the american public has not yet seen any definitive evidence that russia was, in fact, behind this hacking. >> well, there is definitive evidence. and ayman, i look forward to the

hearingings that we're going to have on the foreign relations committee, the armed services committee, and the intelligence committee to lay that evidence out in a classified setting in front of members, both republican and democrat in the united states senate. and then in summary form, we will declassify and make it one of the things that president obama announced today, that will be summary reports released by the department of homeland security and other federal entities to lay some of that evidence out. look, the classified evidence that's been pretended to members of congress shouldn't ever be fully revealed to the public, because it does rely on critical sources and methods that our intelligence community used to reach these conclusions. but i'm convinced and i frankly think republican leaders have spoken out today and in recent weeks to show tt they're convinced that this is an important issue. republican leader mitch mcconnell, republican speaker, paul ryan, have supported obama's action and have said that there needs to be hearings and legislative action to make

sure that we take strong enough action against russia. if president-elect trump doesn't take that seriously, i think he's in for a surprise when he becomes president a few weeks from now and discovers that there is strong bipartisan support for action against russia's attack on our elections. >> so, senator, do you look at donald trump as becoming increasingly isolated on this particular issue, given the fact that as you mentioned, there is some bipartisan support for an investigation into russian hacking? there's obviously the intelligence community that's out there. russia right now, least gotten a slightly warmer relationship with vladimir putin than the outgoing president. hoe is he feeling the most pressure from and do you see him changing his positions at all? >> i'm hopeful he will change his position. in recent days, senior republican senators, mccain and graham joined senator klobuchar in a trip to a number of our allies, estonia, baltic state, nato member, as well as germany

and ukraine. i led a trip back in august and many democrats and republicans have visited these countries in order to assure them that the irresponsible statements by donald trump when he was a candidate suggesting that he might walk back our support for nato, suggesting that he might sell ukraine down the river in some deal with putin after being installed as president in january, i don't think you're going to see a lot of bipartisan support for some of the more outrageous suggestions made by donald trump in the campaign. and it my hope that he will hear statements made by a wide range of republicans and democrats, as they have traveled to eastern and central european countries, as a suggestion that he should take a deep breath, get a real briefing from the intelligence community, and reach the conclusion many of us have reached on our visits to our allies, that standing up to vladimir putin is in america's interests. >> all right. senator chris coons, we'll have to leave it there, but thank you, sir, very much, for joining

us this evening. >> thank you, ayman. joining me now is radio talk show host, hugh hewitt, who held many positions in the reagan white house, including assistant white house counsel. hugh, great to have you with us. first, your take on trump's statement? how are you reading it? obviously, it's been divided in these two parts. the first part saying, it's time to move on. the second part saying, hi will sit down and take some briefings from the intelligence officials in this country about thi matter. >> i view it as a very prudent rejection by the president-elect of the media's narrative that has built all day that somehow donald trump has to respond to everything our president does. we have one president at a time. that's been the popular refrain and i think it's correct. he is going to get briefed in. i think he wants to talk to general mattis, general kelly, the incoming head of homeland security. he wants to talk to mike pompeo. he hasn't even named his director of national intelligence yet. so when i heard that statement and heard you read it to the audience, i thought, very smart.

because i don't think we'll be talking about president obama's failed russian policy 30 days from now. we're not going to be talking about the red line in syria or the withdraw of missile defense from poland and the czech republic. we're not going to be talking about the reset button or even this june when this originally came to the president, the harassment of our diplomats, he was originally presented in june with sanctions options and president obama rejected that. so i agree with senate majority leader mcconnell and speaker ryan, it's too little, it's too late, better late than never, and that russia is not our friend. i'm quoting senator mcconnell on this, specifically. the hawks on this have always been republicans. mitt romney tried to make this an issue in 2012 and president obama dismissed him saying, the '80s called and want their foreign policy back. i don't think donald trump wants to get in the wreckage of that burned down house. >> so hugh, if you think obama's policies have failed with russia in particular, and as you were saying, that you've taken a position, a similar position

that russia is not our friend, ybe not going so far as saying it is our enemy, but certainly not our friend, then why would you see this statement as being a smart one, as opposed to saying, he would uphold the sanctions? if donald trump called you today, what would you say to him about these sanctions going forward? keep them in place or revoke them? >> i would be very modest about what i can -- because i don't know. this is a highly classified set of things going on right now. michael ohamlin was on last hour saying that president obama has in one sense done president-elect himsela favor by giving him some cudgels to use or carrots to plant going do the road. i would be very hesitant and i think a lot of talking heads have to be much more humble about this, at this point. because today turkey and russia agreed to negotiate the future of syria without us. our position in the world has been dramatically compromised by the fantasyland foreign policy of president obama. so if i'm president-elect, i'd do what sean spicer said on my

radio show this morning, i would say, wait and see, we're going to have an amazing nine hours on the first day of the inauguration, and then an amazing nine months, and a great eight years. their strategic planning should not be in any way impacted by the thrhing around of the last few weeks of the obama administration, even though this particular thrash around is a good one, in my view. >> there's so much to get to, but unfortunately we'll have to leave it at that. great to talk to you. >> thank you. more on this breaking news straight ahead, including what could be a tough spot for president-elect donald trump and president obama says more punishment is coming. what else could it be? our experts are going to weigh in on that. [ cough ]

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welcome back, everyone, we've been following this breaking news all day. in just the last few minutes, we've gotten a statement from president-elect donald trump, saying that the russian sanctions -- commenting on them. saying, it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great

people, i will meet with the leaders of the intelligence community next week insider to be updated on the facts of this situation. again, this presidential executive order, naming four operatives involved in placing sanctions on two russian intelligence services. the president also ordering 75 russian intelligence officials out of the united states within 72 hours. joining us now, richard nance. he's the author of "the plot to hack america: how putin's cyberattacks and wikileaks tried to steal the 2016 elections." malcolm, good to have you with us. always a pleasure to talk to you. let me first play you a sound bite from december 16th. take a listen to this. i'll get your reaction to it on the back end. >> our goal conti to be to send a clear message to russia or others not to do this to us, because we can do stuff to you.

but it is also important for us to do in that in a thoughtful, methodical way. some of it we will do publicly, some in a way that they will know, but not everyone will. >> on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most severe thing we could have done, where does what we saw today rank on that scale? >> pretty much, this ranks somewhere from the 1 to 2 on a scale line. >> that's pretty low. >> yeah, it's pretty low. placing sanctions against russian intelligence, the fsb and the gru is almost a nonstarter for the most part. but going after the individuals and putting them on that sanctions list, essentially, is a -- gives us the latitude to essentially sanction the kremlin to a certain extent. the key question here is, will

this last past 20 days? will donald trump just lift these sanctions? and if he does, he's essentially saying that russian intelligence is fine by him. but we could do very damaging things, that would be essentially war, and that's what a 10 would be. >> so you're essentially saying right now that what has happened today is more on the symbolic side, given the fact that, a, president obama is leaving in a matter of three weeks and this could be reversed, but more importantly, out of all of the tools in our arsenal, president obama is not using nearly enough? >> well, what i am saying is that the cyberweapons systems that we have -- and some people don't like that term, but when we use them in terms of cyberwarfare, that's essentially what they are. they're the electronic equivalent of cruise missiles. things could get much, much worse, and it will be very interesting to see how russia takes this. but let's just be honest about something here. and very clear. russia conducted a cyberwarfare attack on the fundamental

structure of the american democratic system, that has been in place for 240 years. any other time in history, this would almost be considered an act of war. so, the electronic warfare methodologies that the president may choose to use can be executed with just one keystroke. we may never know what those are. >> why would we not treat it as an act of war? if you're saying this was an act of war on our democratic system. >> that's entirely a political question that has to be determined. i mean, this isn't -- it hasn't actually broken any physical infrastructure. people don't understand that cyberwarfare is a battle space. it's a place where we have many, many billions of dollars in resources. it will be determined whether we actually conduct warfare against the gru or fsb, the former kgb, or whether we go after the oligarchies of russia or the

cybercriminals themselves, which russia uses as subcontractors. you're more likely to see a cyberwarfare operation against that group of people, who have illicit funds than you would against the creme lins itself. >> let me ask are you to put on your intelligence hat for a moment for us and help us decipher this donald trump statement. what do you make of it in terms of how he phrased it, in terms of saying, he doesn't make any reference to the sanctions, saying, it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. sounds like he's kind of dismissing this whole talk about sanctions and russia hacking, but at the same time saying, he's still going to be meeting with the leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the situation and the facts. >> well, it's absolutely stunning, stunning, that donald trump is going to wait a week to be briefed by the u.s. intelligence community. he could demand brief at any time, 24/7, 365, but to put this off a week shows he doesn't want

to handle it. and it also shows, if we're physically attacked, is donald trump going to wait a week before he talks to intelligence? he needs to understand and perhaps he doesn't even comprehend what cyberwarfare is. and some of his past statements have shown that he really doesn't understand what's going on here. but another part of it is, he doesn't seem to think that this is a great thing, that, you know, has happened, you know, to american democracy. he seems to dismiss it, out of hand. this is a fundamental attack on america's natural processes, which has never been done in the history of this nation. and for those people who are dismissing this as a leak or a rumor, then you don't understand that america has never had an enemy put their hand on the thumb on the scale of the american electoral process and it could just as easily happen to donald trump. >> my good friend and one of the best in the business, malcolm nance, always a pleasure to have you with us. >> thank you, ayman. who are the foreign russian operatives that the obama administration named today and

what did the fbi know about them before the actual hacking took place? and what are those two facilities that have now been shut down here in the united states? our investigative reporter joins us next. move to underwear toddlers see things a bit differently thanks to pampers easy-ups while they see their first underwear you see the best way to potty train pampers easy-ups our first and only training underwear with an all-around stretchy waistband and pampers' superior protection so you'll see fewer leaks and they'll see their first underwear pampers easy-ups. the easiest way to underwear. pampers

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all right. we're back with breaking news on the white house, punishing russia for interfering with the election. we're now learning about specific individuals who are facing sanctions, including a pair of russian nationals who apparently have been wanted by the fbi for some time. joining us now is nbc news investigations reporter, tom nter. tom, great to have you with us. what are we learning this hour about these two individuals? >> we know the two individuals have been identified. they've been on the fbi's radar now for several years. both are wanted, wanted posters have been issued that we're seeing right now. wanted posters have been issued for both of them since 2014. both of them have been charged in some way, federal arrest warrants have been issued for both of them. and perhaps, not surprising, they're facing charges having to do with computer crimes.

in one case, for belan, he's charged with aggravated identity theft among a number of computer charges and the same thing with bogachev. >> and sanctions are being imposed overseas, but we also know there are some facilities or compounds being st down? >> there's a facility in new york and in maryland. the facility in new york, we're trying to get more information about, as far as what was going on there or what could have been happening. the facility in new york is a little bit more interesting. that facility is close to the nsa's headquarters in ft. mead and perhaps a little bit more interesting, it's even closer to the nsa's research and development facility in kent island. so that location is a little bit more intriguing and something that we'll obviously have to be watching. >> certainly connecting the dots. tom winter, thanks very much for joining us. great reporting, as always. ahead, news today on a possible press conference from president-elect donald trump. that's next.

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put under a microscope, we can see all the bacteria that still exists. polident's unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture every day. we gist just got a statement from donald trump, saying, it's time to move on to bigger and better things. it's been about 155 days since president-elect has held a press conference. now seems like a good time for him to take some questions. in fact, today his incoming press secretary conceded they, quote, owe a press conference. and he said that next month, there will be one. >> business as usual is over. and i think what i mean by that

is that, you know, the president-elect looks at this and says, what's best for the country? how do we put america and americans first? and stop trying to figure out how we cater to pundits and the establishment class and donors. he's putting american first and foremost. >> joining me now, christina grier, political science professor, yamiche alcindor, and sorry about that mispronuns nation, cade. what do you make of this statement that's come out by president-elect trump, that it's time to move on to bigger and better things? >> the fact that he has not given a proper press conference in 155 days is highly problematic. the fact that he promised that he would on december 15th, to talk about some of his financial

improprieties and conflicts of interest and then just canceled it, so he is setting a precedent on many levels that is disturbing and quite worrisome. not only is media in many ways the fourth branch of government, but he's consistently planting seeds of doubt that the media cannot and should not do the job that they do, but it is also his responsibility to respect president barack obama. in the past, we have a rule, one president at a time. so it's one thing to not give proper press conferences, but it's another thing to constantly tweet and undermine some of the legitimacy of our current sitting -- >> what do you make of the fact that he comes out in the evening and has a few words with the press, sometimes with don king by his side and other things like that? not enough? >> no, it's not enough. it's not substantiative, and this is a man who has also already said that he hasn't been going to his own briefings. so when he says, we can talk about this next week after i've thought about some things, that's highly problematic, as well. because you need to be briefed on a daily basis. this is not a job you get to do once a week, this isn't a job you get to do at your own leisure.

this is something that is 28 hours a day. and this goes to the larger issue of him possibly not understanding the role and the weight of the office. >> yamiche, let me bring you in here and ask you the same about this statement that has come out today there donald trump? how are you reading it in terms of what has developed today from president obama, the sanctions on russia, and the statement that has now come out from president-elect trump? >>hen i look at these sanctions, what i think about is the fa that president obama is really trying to b in donald trump. he's saying, we're not going to move on, and even after you're inaugurated, you'll have to deal with these sanctions that i've put on russia. donald trump will have to take them away or deal with them. there are people on both sides of the aisle that want a full investigation into russia's hacking of the election cycle. so i think what this statement to me tells me is that donald trump is somewhat frustrated. last night he came out and said a couple of words to reporters, definitely not a press conference, and says, we should move on. now he has a formal statement basically saying the exact same thing. and i think while donald trump is really -- does not want to

talk about this issue and really wants to, i think, think about the fact that he was elected and that, you know, he wants to feel as though he was fairly elected. and of course, there's no evidence that the voting machines were hacked, but the idea is he's very frustrated with the idea that people will be thinking about his legitimacy as a president and wondering whether or not he's legitimate when it comes to what's going on with russia. i think he's really frustrated by that. but president obama today as told him, you're going to have to deal with this. >> so katon, do you agree with that assessment that donald trump has now been somewhat boxed in by members of his own party? sop gop hardliners like mccain and graham, who have been very anti-russia on this particular issue, want investigations, and others like paul ryan and representative franks, who have been a little bit, staying very critical of president obama and these sanctions with the statements that come out today. >> i think, first of all, that donald trump's not worried about being boxed in by anyone right now. the folks that elected him, that supported him, are getting

firmer and firmer by the day. there still seems to be a lot of disconte with the election. there's a lot of armchair quarterbacking going on right now. donald trump's not the president yet. and i hear the argument over press conferences and no press conferences. if he gives one, it will be one too many, and if he doesn't give any, it will be not enough. i think we have to wait for donald trump to become the president of the united states to continue to assemble his team, give him the due diligence of the time of when he is president of the united states. i mean, the armchair quarterbacks are ad nauseam after this race, with hillary losing and donald trump winning. so i would tell you that i don't -- i think if anybody in washington, including my good friend, senator lindsey graham and others think they're going to box donald trump in, that's going to be a mistake. and, i think we have to come to the realization that this is going to be the most unconventional presidency you have ever seen for the first six months in the history of the presidency. and we'll see how that works out. but right now, donald trump's backers are firm, they're still

with him, they haven't left him. >> fair enough. >> and we'll see how he acts as president. >> yamiche, i think you wanted to jump in on that statement? >> i wanted to jump in, i think there is this idea, yes, we can wait for donald trump to be president, but he's already been tweeting about real important policies. he's been talking about the trade policies, he's been talkabout sanctions -- the u.n. vote dealing with israel. he's been talking about all these different things, taking calls from the president of taiwan. he's been doing all of these things that are questionable that people want answers to. you changing the u.s. policy? are you going to change the trade policy and do something with china? what do you want to do about russian hacking? so he's doing all of these things and tweeting about them and people have to write about his tweets because he's the president-elect. so, i think, yes, he does owe a press conference sooner than later. >> let he play this sound bite and i'll get your reaction to it. go ahead. >> i think it's important to keep in mind that the congress hasn't even been briefed on this at all.

what we're hearing is information leaked the from the intelligence community, primarily from the barack obama administration apparatus, and so, to come to these kind of conclusions at this point, i think, is a little bit premature, to say the least. >> so representative trent franks, really casting a little bit of a doubt on the intelligence community, that russia was behind this k thatting, essentially taking a little bit of the same tone as president-elect donald trump when he said, look, they don't know that it's the russians, they don't know if it's the chinese, they don't know if it's a man in new jersey sitting on his bed. so i'm curious to get your thoughts. we haven't seen the evidence. the public hasn't seen the evidence. why trust both the intelligence community, who have gotten things wrong in the past or the administration on this issue. >> yes, the intelligence community has gotten some things wrong in the past. but let's be clear. there's enough information out there from the fbi and cia and from this administration who has given us zero scandals that russia was definitely indeed

behind th. so when we have a man who does not understand the gravity of the office, and uses twitter as his main way to communicate with people, this is before he's even taken the oval office and so he tweets things that can actually not just move markets, billions of dollars, as we saw with boeing, but pretty soon, his tweets could also move ships and possibly nuclear weapons. this is something where if he is going to communicate with the american public, he has to understand that either as president-elect or as president, he should at least get into the role of communication in a proper way. >> i'll squeeze in a quick break and we'll finish this conversation. a lot more, stay with us, as we come back.

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assuming on january 20th, trump also presented with the intelligence about the russian hacking, who he believes it or

not, decides to keep the sanctis, can you envision a scenario whereby the republican leadership in congress decides to go it alone with more sanctions or tougher measures against russia and without the president? >> i certainly can. and let me clear this up. i mean, there are three branches of government, the president, and i understand that we want everybody to get along and the republicans control everything. but let me be clear that we don't -- we haven't considered the communist china or the russias are dear friends in the republican party for quite a long while. vladimir putin is who he is. we understand where he came from and what he is. so, we have -- the congress has a job to do and so does the president. and i think once donald trump becomes president of the united states, with his full attache of advisers and a cabinet and soaks into the presidency, ihink you'll find that communications become better between my party

and the presidency, which he is the de facto leader of the republican party. again, let me be clear. i've never been in a room when we were electing people where we said, let's go get along with russia, china, with iran. once we start doing that, we might as well start detracting all the wonderful numbers we got in the statehouses while barack obama was president. >> so yamiche, do you think there's smooth sailing for president trump on this issue with russia, given the fact that there have been some hard lines coming out of congress? >> i think if he continues to say "move on" and continues to feel as if bringing up russia's hacking issues somehow takes away from his legitimacy as president, he's going to have a rough ride ahead of him. i think both republicans and democrats agree this is a really important issue and that donald trump is going to have face the fact that this is important. >> guys, i'm sorry, we've run out of time. always a pleasure to have the three of you with us. >> thank you. ahead, an nbc news exclusive report on the 64 police officers

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see your lexus dealer. now to an msnbc news special investigation on police officers shot and killed in the line of duty this year. these are the faces. 64 officers shot and killed in 2016 alone. eachs behin family and friends. msnbc chief legal correspondent, ari melber talked to many of their loved ones. ari is here with their story. >> thanks, ayman.

that's right, the msnbc legal unit talked t officers' families, law enforcement experts to probe what has been a deadly year for police. >> tonight, breaking news. dallas police ambush. five killed, seven injured by sniper fire. >> when it came on the news that officers had been shot, i froze. >> reporter: valerie's 32-year-old son, patrick, was a dallas police officer on duty that night. a job he had dreamed of since he was a little boy. >> did you worry about him when he was on the job? >> of course, you know, as a family, we all worried about our loved ones, especially with everything that's been going on. >> reporter: patrick was a three-time veteran of the iraq war, the middle child of a tight-knit ft. worth family and the father of a 3-year-old little girl. >> tell me about patrick. who was he? >> patrick was a sweet, caring, lovable person.

>> on the night of july 7th, the zamaripa's family worst nightmare came true. >> they just told me that he had been shot and that he didn't make it. my heart is broken. >> reporter: this year, the family christmas tree pays tribute to patrick and the reality that he won't be coming home is still sinking in. >> to wake up and know that he's not here, that i can't call him, hear his voice again, you just don't want to face the world. >> reporter: in california, another family knows this pain too well. >> every single day, there's something that reminds us of her. and the pain of losing her. >> reporter: on october 8th, david and lu lu's daughter, officer lesley zerebny was killed in an ambush attack in palm springs. s >> it was just a perfect storm of bad things that had happen. >> reporter: officer zerebny had

just returned from maternity leave when david, a retired officer, got word his daughter was killed. >> every time one of these officers is assassinated, like our beautiful daughter was, i feel it now, because i know what that family is going through, which is a living hell. >> reporter: in place of christmas decorations at the cling house are photos and mementos of their youngest daughter, gone too soon. they say they're trying to stay strong for their son-in-law, zachary, also a police officer, and their 6-month-old granddaughter, who celebrated her first christmas without her mom. >> pretty much every day is just a challenge to get up and put one foot in front of the other, because we miss her so much. she was the light of our life. >> now it's the smallest members of these families, two little girls, who are leading the way to a path of healing. >> that's our report. and what we heard from a lot of families, ayman. >> i can't even begin to imagine

the pain and the suffering, but you heard there at the end of it, you're saying the path to healing. how are these families even coping and trying to heal in such difficult situations? >> that's the extraordinary part. and spending time with them, you're reminds of what the tual service and sacrifice looks like. those are wor we use, but you see it day to day, you see it in the void there. i also spoke to the family member of one of the officers killed in the baton rouge ambush, and she spoke t me about saying, look, she goes back, when she's feeling discouraged, on days when she doesn't want to go on and looks at her husband's works and his words and what he called for and said, how can she stop, how can he give up when he ner did? that idea of taking a real inspiration from the fallen officer's work. >> it is a startling statistic, almost one officerer week for the entire year. ari melber with that very powerful report. thank you very much, ari. thanks for watching this hour. i'm ayman mohyeldin. "hardball" starts right now.

punishing putin. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm steve kornacki in tonight for chris matthews. president obama struck back at vladimir putin. this afternoon, the white house announcing sweeping new actions to punish russia for what our intelligence agencies conclude is its role in interfering in this year's presidential election. 35 russian diplomats who the president called intelligence operatives were given 72 hours to leave the united states. russian intelligence services were sanctioned, as was the head of one of those intel services and three of his deputies. three companies were also sanctioned. they allegedly provided support to russia's cyberoperations. in addition, two facilitie in the u.s. owned by the russian government are being shut down. in a statement, the president said all americans s