we had lisa monaco, the national terrorism director, announce today that president obama has ordered an intelligence review to be completed before he is out of office in terms of what russia did in this election. but this bombshell tonight from "the washington post" that the cia knew that russia wasn't just meddling, russia was trying to deliver the presidency to donald trump and this news about the partisan difference in terms of the response on capitol hill that members of congress who were republican particularly mitch mcconnell didn't want the american people to be told whereas democrats wanted to do that. it's striking not only because his wife went on to get a cabinet job from donald trump, but it's striking because this is i think not what any of us expected to be living through in our lifetime thinking about the vulnerability of the american political system to our enemies and how american politicians respond to that with such incredible partisanship. >>> next, we'll talk to the person who knows more about russian/american relations than anyone alive, next. stay with us. when

obama dispatched counterterrorism direct lisa monaco, fbi director james comey, homeland secretary jeh johnson. he sent them for a show of solidarity and bipartisan unity against russia interfering in our election. this detail is incredible. in a secure room in the capital used for briefings and classified information, these administration officials broadly laid out the evidence that u.s. spy agencies had collected showing russia's role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the e-mails of the democratic organizations and individuals. they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as the threat posed by unprecedented medunprecedent ed meddling by a foreign power in our election process. get this, the democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. republicans, however, were divided. some seemed opposed to the idea of going public with explosive allegations in the final stages of an election. according to several officials mitch mcconnell raised doubts about the underlying intellig

our guest today is lisa monaco. the president of homeland security and counterterrorism and john brennan, guests, and lisa monaco is here for her first visit to our merry band of reporters at least a speaker, she was here when the director of the fbi came a while ago, a long while ago, long long while ago. lisa monaco graduated from the windsor school where she says teachers taught us we are going to go places and they sure were right about that. i just graduated from harvard with a law degree from the university of chicago and worked for judge in the court of appeals for the third circuit and is served under attorney general janet reno, works for the district of columbia and was named to the enron task force. from there she was counsel for the fbi and staff to director robert mueller, and the deputy attorney general's office, confirmation by the senate and assistant attorney general for national security, held her current position since march 2013 working out of what she calls my cave or bunker in the white house n

joining us from the obama administration, lisa monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. lisa, thank you for taking a few minutes. let me ask you the question raised by hansichols a few minutes ago. president obama imposing these sanctions, president-elect trump sworn in, president obama leaving office. is there any kind of timing with the outgoing president with the incoming president? >> what there was was notification today to the senior member of the president-elect's team. but no, no consultation in advance. this is, as you pointed out, a set of sanctions, disclosure of malicious cyber activity, and the expulsion of 35 russian intelligence officers and their families and the closure of compounds being used in the united states for intelligence collection purposes. all of these are a set of steps designed to respond to the aggressive behavior by the russian government against our personnel in moscow and the cyber activities that we disclosed and called out earlier this fall in october and attributed to coming from the highest levels of the russia

michael: this became public today because lisa monaco had breakfast with the reporters. started with an overview about threats to the country, threats to the homeland, and talked about the cyber threat. she said when there are cyber attacks that threaten american interests, we will act to protect our interests. i asked her later if the u.s. government has taken or will be taking steps to impose costs on the russians as a result of these cyber attacks, and she did not answer that question. charlie: someone once said to me after the russians were accused of doing this that the response, the proportionate response would be something that would be done so that putin knew what it was about, but it would look for credibility within russia, so it would not be done with a lot of bells and soundings. >> that's right, charlie, but there is a risk to that as well. there's always a temptation, let's keep it quiet and in the family, but one of the biggest problems in cyber, as we've discussed on past shows, is establishing some sense of deterrence. it does not exist in the cyber real

lisa monaco spoke out. listen to what she said. >> the reversal of sanctions would be highly unusual. indeed the sanctions usually remain in place until the activity and reasons for them being imposed in the first place has been removed. >> so, since all the talk about president obama looking to sanction russia, donald trump has been dismiss sive of the intelligence community. i'm saying a thawing of this. reince priebus was on fox yesterday saying we can talk to the agencies and find the evidence there. how bad is it? i interpret that is show me the evidence and we'll act. >> the intelligence agency standing by eager to show them. i did note that president-elect donald trump said he would be available next week to get briefed. it is fascinating. you are right. it would be unusual to reverse sanctions like this. don't you think this year is a little unusual? >> what does putin do? this is a chess game. >> high fives. he's happy. >> the united states has taken its action. sent all these people out. does he j

this is all according to the counter terror adviser lisa monaco in the white house. >> let's discusss with democratic senator ron white, member of the senate intelligence committee. thank you for joining us. really appreciate it. on this news that we are just learning that president obama is putting forth this full review into the hacking allegations by russians, what does that mean? >> first of all, it's a good step and what's important is that it lead quickly to declassifying and releasing information to the american people with respect to russian involvement in our elections. i and a number of other intelligence members, it's the first time so many members in recent years have asked that this information be declassified. i think the president's step is constructive. >> let me read you what donald trump said about this broader issue to "time" magazine, the issue just put out this week. he said i don't believe they interfered. that became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. any time i do something they say oh, russia interfered. so donald trump doesn't believe i

. >> lisa monaco talked about the report the u.s. released on thursday detailing how the u.s.ves russia hacked u.s. e-mails. listen. >> we are also disclosing today and exposing today a set of information from the department of homeland security and the fbi that will enable network defenders people operating networks across our country and frashlly internationally to better defend themselves. we are exposing the tactics, the techniques, the procedures that the russian intelligence services have used to interfere in our election and to probe our systems. >> there are people asking where are the facts? show us what is happening. they are showing what's happening. that was lisa monaco, the white house's top homeland security adviser. >> brian todd has more on how the u.s. says russia breached u.s. e-mail systems. >> reporter: moscow says the hacking allegations against russia are groundless. vladimir putin challenging america to prove them. u.s. officials tell cnn the hacks continue around the clock, fishing attempts targeting private e-mail candidates associated with hillary cli

lisa monaco joins me now live for more. lisa, thank you for joining us. 35 individuals with diplomatic and consular passes into the united states, who you are now identifying as intelligence operatives, what were they doing to merit being ejected? >> good to be with you, jake. what these individuals were doing were basically collecting intelligence. they were intelligence officers operating here and using these compounds, one in new york, one in maryland, for intelligence collection purposes. and what we are saying today is, in response to and in order to impose consequences for the russian government's increasing harassment and aggression toward our personnel in moscow and, of course, their malicious cyber activities, interfering and an effort to interfere in our election process, we are imposing consequences. we are expelling the 35 intelligence officers and their families from this country. they've got 72 hours to leave the country. we're also closing those compounds and not allowing access anymore to those compounds and shutting down that intelligence

i will end lisa monaco is not hunter in chief not afraid to speak up at meetings. she want us to echo her at meetings. we need to stop simplifying what the challenges are, have a more nuanced conversation not only what we do to help each other, help young men, help young women. i will leave it at that. i will let my colleagues say more. >> maybe you can pick up on that. that is something probably a lot of people in the room experienced. if it was simple as standing up, applauding, saying, you go girl, women would not be 7% of ceo's in the united states. >> well, as i was warning my colleagues as we came out here, you know i'm going to be a little contrarian, right? duh. i agree with jen. i grew up with three brothers. i was the chief of staff at the fbi, a historically male bastion. this is not an unusual environment and i think jen's right, we kind of diminish the issue when we start talking about the going back to the '50s type of approach i think as jen said. we all are supportive of each other and many, many other assistants to the president who are women, who

we're basically forcing them to reengineer their approaches. >> reporter: lisa monaco from the white, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: this evening, in a statement, president-elect trump said "it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things." but he said that in the interests of the nation, he'll meet with intelligence chiefs next week on the russian hacking. >> sreenivasan: the russians and turks announced a cease-fire deal among some of the warring parties in syria. it is due to take effect at midnight, local time. margaret warner has the story. >> warner: confirmation came from the kremlin, and russian president vladimir putin: >> ( translated ): the agreements reached are of course fragile and need special attention. but this is a notable result of our joint work and efforts by our partners in the region. >> warner: one of those partners, turkish president recep tayyip erdogan, called it an historic chance. >> ( translated ): we have an opportunity to stop the bloodshed in syria with a political solution. we must not squander this chance. >> warner:

please join me in welcoming and applauding from the white house lisa monaco, cecilia munoz, jen psaki and tina tchen, and moderator and founding editor of political magazine susan glaser. [applause] >> good morning, everybody at thank you so much, lori, for that great introduction. i have to tell you, i am so delighted to be here that only because this event is one of my favorite conversations of the year but this group couldn't be a better group pic we are so excited to get started. we already have been begin our panel backstage. we have lots of things at a short time to say. but really i can't think of a better group of people with more collective insight into the different sort of ways in which i white house works and the ways in which power works in washington. so i just, these are just off of the gold standard group of people. they bring so many diverse experiences of the two terms of present obama is administration to bear on this conversation today. i'm just excited to get excited as her but he is. this is a group with particularly powerhouse set of title. i know outside of was

>>reporter: lisa monaco says intelligence officials will deliver a report to the president that willbe sent on to members of congress before he leaves next month. they say this will enable him to take stock of cyber responsibilities and reduce future threats. >>> were committed to the integrity of our election and the report will dig into the pattern of malicious cyber activity tied to the elections. >>> wikileaks from internal emails and the hillary clinton campaign plagued the former secretary of state throughout the election cycle and a conscious effort donations state to achieve the specific effect said nsa official michael rogers. senator lindsey graham said this week that it is clear to me that wikileaks was designed to hurt clinton and it could be us tomorrow. >>> the obama administration accuse russia of conducting many hacks the service during the run up to the election. they denied there was any impact on the actual vote outcome. >>reporter: asked about it at the apex summit in late november, the president said the topic did not come up in conversation with russian presiden

lisa monaco said intelligence officials will deliver a report to the president, which then will be sent on to members of congress before he a review, that white house officials say will enable them to take stock of cyber defensive capabilities and reduce future threats... schultz soyt we are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections and this report will dig into this pattern of malicious cyber activity timed to our elections script: wikileaks' release of committee and the hillary clinton campaign... plagued the former secy of state throughout the election cycle... clinton and it could be us tomorrow."the obama administration has accused russia of conducting many of the hacks that surfaced during the run-up to the election, but denied there was any impact on the actual vote. asked about it at the apec summit in late november, the president said the topic didn't come up in conversation with russian president vladimir putin.. obama sot i had already made very clear to him our concerns around cyberattacks, generally, as well as specific concerns we had surrounding the dnc hack. s

homeland security and counter- terrorism adviser lisa monaco said today that the administration would be careful about revealing investigation results to the public. the review is expected to be done before president-elect donald trump's inauguration on january 20th. before the election...the u-s government publicly blamed the russian gorn influence election outcomes. mister trump has repeatedly denied a russian tie to election-related hacking. a secret santa just made the holidays a little brighter for some families in pittsburgh. the principal at h-w good elementary school says the secret santa came to the school and paid off the students' overdue school lunch balances. the person-- who wants to remain anonymous-- told the school he just wanted to give back to those who needed it most. "for some our kids the only meal in school." "showed up here yesterday with a check paid off all the account balances and even paid for a child's lunch for the rest of the month." "it's an amazing feeling someone would want to help as many students as they have." the parents of the students whose acco

it is now held by lisa monaco, previously by fran townsend. there are reports that there is a consideration of having michael flynn do it all and not replacing that person. is it possible to be national security adviser and also be in charge of the counter terror effort? what would be your takeaway. >> it's possible. i don't think it is -- >> advisable? >> no. i don't think it is a good idea. it is a big job to have a focus on counter terrorism and i think that ought to occupy someone's every waking moment. that's in a high position within the white house. the national security adviser will have enough on their plate with everything going on around the world. that would concern me. but there are a lot of rumors going around that they may want to do away with the whole director of national intelligence. and that may be why they have taken time to find a candidate for the office if they don't think the office will be around that long. that would be a mistake. right now we are operating on rumor and tweet. >> rumor and tweet at the same time as t

here is how the current homeland security and counter-terrorism adviser, lisa monaco, described the job earlier this month. >> when i go upstairs, about 50 paces from my cave office in the west wing up to the oval office, the president knows it's because something bad has happened, quite frankly. domestically usually, or to u.s. persons abroad. that is my focus, and he knows it. >> now, it is a reminder that presidents must be surrounded by people like that to help deal with crises which unfortunately happen, large and small, on a regular basis. what republicans here and around the country are pleading with donald trump to avoid are distractions like the one that week with the trump foundation which he said he would dissolve which, of course, jake was only met by the new york attorney general saying, no, you can't because i am still investigating. >> thank you. president-elect donald trump is saying the media is not reporting the good his foundation has done. david fahrenthold may take issue with that. spending months diving into the foundation and documenting hundreds of calls to chari

monaco,t today is lisa assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism. and john brennan, guests, and lisa monaco is here for her first visit to our merry band of reporters at least a speaker, she was here when the director of the fbi came a while ago, a long while ago, long long while ago. lisa monaco graduated from the windsor school where she says teachers taught us we are going to go places and they sure were right about that. just graduated from harvard with a law degree from the university of chicago and worked for judge in the court of appeals for the third circuit and is served under attorney general janet reno, works for the district of columbia and was named to the enron task force. from there she was counsel for the fbi and staff to director robert mueller, and the deputy attorney general's office, confirmation by the senate and assistant attorney general for national security, held her current position since march 2013 working out of what she calls my cave or bunker in the white house near the situation room. and so ends the biographical porti

here's how the current homeland security and counterterrorism adviser lisa monaco described the job thisonth. >> when i go upstairs about 50 paces from my cave office in the west wing to the oval office, the president knows it's because something bad has happened, quite frankly, domestically, usually, or to u.s. persons abroad. that is my focus. and he knows it. >> it's got to be one of the highest pressure jobs in washington. dana bash joins us now. dana, what are the transition team telling you about turf battles inside the administration once trump takes over the presidency? >> well, you know, some of the people in the current administration, the obama administration, says that part of the reason why they combined these two roles is because not just a sort of personnel turf, but also more importantly, and you know this very well, jim, in the beat that you cover national security, it's very hard to separate cyber security from homeland security from international security, many, many times depending on the issue. the concern is that's what they could run into. however, i am told that t

they have yet to appoint an assistant to the president to counter terrorism to replace lisa monaco, thel figure in the battle against isis. reports that they may not nominate someone, that michael flynn thinks he can be both national security adviser and assistant to counter terrorism. what's your advice? >> my advice would be that's a mistake, especially if you consider that your top priority. i'm worried about how this incoming president 13we7bds to prosecute the war on terrorism. he has to be careful to strike a balance between being tough and bombing them, as he said. and also dealing with the recruitment issue. as you bomb them you can cause new recruits and see radicalization. these things happen because sometimes of brutal measures. i'm not saying that's necessarily why this man unfortunately shot the russian ambassador. but if you are not careful with the tactics you use and putting it within a context of a broader policy to counter terrorism then you can run into increased radicalization to include in the homeland. so if it's your top priority you should appoint someone who is

announcement today by the president's assistant national security director for counter terrorism lisa monacot he wants an investigation into russia's role in hacking and in trying to influence the election. let's play a little bit of lisa at the monitor breakfast today. >> the president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process and to capture lessons learned and report to a range of stake holders to include the congress. he expects a report prior to leaving office, yes. we'll see what comes out of the report but there will be a report to a range of stake holders to include congress. >> leading senators including republicans are already investigating or calling for investigation into russia and russia's role. what is your view on this? >> my view is we need to make sure this is done in a bipartisan way here in congress. i'm glad the administration is going to conduct a review. we need republicans and democrats in the senate joining together to do our own review, to hold hearings whether it be on the foreign relations com

lisa monaco told cnn it would be highly unusual. >> the reversal of sanctions such as what you've described would be highly unusual. indeed, the sanctions usually remain in place until the activity and the reasons for them imposed in the first place has been removed. >> lisa monkic icco. and a hearing next we'll talking about cyber threats and the future. earlier john mccain told us from his travels in europe he would do just that. talking this over with my panel. rebecca byrd and jackie kucinich and ask you your opinion. listening to congressman franks. this is a developing response to this russian hacking response by the u.s. administration from trump supporters saying, we're not sure russia did it. but we have to be tougher on russia. >> right. >> and obama was never tough enough. but their president denies the premise that russia attacked, and seems to say he doesn't want to be tougher. how do you rectify this? there's division even within the republican party? >> seems they're talking past each other now. not willing to address trump's position. to be honest, this is headed for a colli

the key positions for counterterrorism at the white house counterterrorism chief, lisa monaco.his person is the presidents go to person on terrorism, so that's a key position. headed the national counterterrorism center is also key. the head of the defense -- dni, director of national intelligence. it is key because he has to keep focus on the big intelligence picture, but also has to stay focused on the terrorism threat. i think he's been very good. those are the big ones i think for chair is said and of course the military position -- so much is around operations command. that is our direct action military counterterrorism group. the military has three-star generals. but those positions are achieved. the military will signal that the people are who fill that position. but those are the big ones. and i would just be guessing if i say i have any idea who will pick. van anonymous gentleman. >> i think she whispers. >> by name is sarah thompson at the state department. adequate question about the characterization of this conflict and the sense of an ideological war and the termin

obama, of course, has had someone in that position, her name is lisa monaco, her name -- she's been oversee these responsibilities as well but what it appears the trump team is doing is elevating thomas bow start to be an equal with retired lieutenant general michael flynn. one of them will be in charge of threats to the homeland and one will be in charge of threats internationally and overseas. simply separating the offices as they used to be in the bush administration. thomas boss cert is a veteran of the bush administrationert is a the bush administration and he was a strong proponent of the iraq war, donald trump campaigned against it and railed against the bush administration's support of the iraq war and thomas bossert wrote just last year this in the "washington times," let's look. he said "to be clear, the use of military force against iraq and afghanistan was and remains just. of course the iraq war not front and center of this conversation any longer but it was ten years ago this week that saddam hussein was executed so certainly donald trump tapping someone he has a difference of

the current homeland security adviser lisa monaco, has direct and immediate access to the president. she has the ability to walk into the oval whenever she wants. she has a prime seat at the principal's meeting, the national security meeting that president obama runs. so what difference does it make? which lead to juana's point which is something we can safely lean into, which is to give people in washington and, frankly, around the country who are a little bit concerned about some of the things that general flynn has said, a little bit of hope and a sigh of relief that they have somebody in there that they are more comfortable with. >> might be a bit more of a moderate. we'll see. moving the discussion on. cnn's chief national security correspondent. jim sciutto, interviewed senators lindsey graham and john mccain. graham says when it comes to putin and russia's interference with the u.s. election nearly the entire congress disagrees with donald trump. >> accept the assessment, he's doubled and tripled down on talking about a cozier relationship with putin, denying the intelligence

here's lisa monaco talking to jake tapper explaining exactly what was behind all of this. >> what these individuals were doing were basically collecting intelligence. they were intelligence officers operating here and using these compounds, one in new york, one in maryland, for intelligence collection purposes. what we are saying today is in response to and in order to impose consequences for the russian government's increasing harassment and aggression toward our personnel in moscow and of course, their malicious cyberactivities interfering in an effort to interfere in our election process, we are imposing consequences. >> reporter: the president is also declassifying intelligence on russian cyberactivity to help cybersecurity professionals here and in the united states and abroad identify, detect and disrupt cyberattacks from russia. >> evan perez. the view from washington. thank you. that announcement of sanctions against russia is prompting a swift response from president-elect donald trump. he's issuing a statement saying quote, it is time for our country to move on to bigger and b

. >> a role held by lisa monaco for this president. what else are we expecting transition-wise from donald trump. he has critical seats within his own cabinet to fill out. >> he does. but the focus is starting to shift towards the defense for a lot of the potentially more controversial picks that have to wind through capitol hill. most of the major choices have been made. they are trying to make sure jeff sessions as attorney general, for example, steve mnuchin in particular can get through the confirmation hearings in a smooth fashion. they are putting together something of a war room team that will make sure the hearings go smoothly. some start before donald trump's inauguration. we are expecting jeff sessions first hearing to be on january 10. so at this point there is not a lot the democratdo to hold up the picks. they might pick one or two to make more of a push against, if you will. but they are not able to filibuster them. it's rare even if they did still have the power to do it that that would happen. at the same time, there is

i think that the key positions for counterterrorism are the white house counterterrorism chief, lisa monaco now, before that fran townsend. clark, this person is the president's go-to person on terrorism. so that's the key position. i think the head of the national counterterrorism center is key. the head of the defense -- the dni, defense -- >> director are of national intelligence. >> thank you. it's key because he has to keep focus on the big intelligence picture, but also has to stay focus owned the terrorism threat and i think clapper has been very good at that. so those are the big ones for terrorism, and of course, the military positions, the military -- so much is around joint special operations command, that is our direct, a military counterterrorism group so those positions are always key. military guys are three-star generals. those positions are key. i think that's less of a problem because the military will signal who are the people that fill that position. those are the big ones. and i would just be guessing if i said i hadden in idea who he will -- had any idea who he will pi

lisa monaco, the director of homeland security and counterterrorism here, made a point of saying that they were notified this morning, the trump administration was, that something was going to happen and presumably what was going to happen, but they were not consulted. they were not brought into the loop and into the decision-making process about what the united states would do. also, the administration -- the obama administration has hinted strongly that the public portion of this is only a small part of what they're going to do. they've hinted strongly for weeks now, for months, that a, we're not even going to tell the public anything that happened, so it's significant they did reveal all of this, but i think it's pretty safe to assume and based on president obama's statement that there is much more that they are going to do or are doing that's covert, that the administration says the targets of this action will know something has happened, but the public will not. and i've heard a number of analysts say, that might be more punishing and bet the attention of vladimir putin perhaps m

. >> there are concerns the sanctions may only last until trump is sworn in, but listen to what lisa monacoold cnn. >> i will tell you the reversal of sanctions such as you describe would be highly unusual. indeed, the sanctions usually remain in place until the activity and the reasons for them being imposed in the first place has been removed. >> of course, the trump team doesn't seem to acknowledge fully russia is behind the hacking. betsy, do you expect president trump will undo all of this? >> it is a really good question, and it is not something that will be easy to predict. i think there's certainly a possibility. that said, trump hasn't failed a number of administrative jobs -- he hasn't pick some of his closest advisers who will be handling russia issues. of course, rex tillerson, his nominee to be secretary of state, who heads exxon, we know exxon lost upwards to a billion dollars in 2014. so that might potentially, or some folks in some quarters are concerned that it might form the way he thinks about the sanctions. of course, it would be a change in foreign policy for the sancti

it's interesting to note current white house homeland security adviser lisa monaco saying rollback of sanctions will be quote highly unusual and inadvisable. >> thank you very much for the reporting. so much to discuss. let's bring back matthew chance and evan perez, and let's welcome in more guests, robin wright contributing writer for the new yorker and a joint fellow at the u.s. institute of peace and woodrow wilson center. also philip mudd former cia counterterrorism official. let me begin with you, philip mudd, because this is just -- no one expected this this morning. we expected tit for tat. we expected russia to do what the kremlin said they were advising putin to do, pull back, push out, expel these u.s. diplomats from russia. now putin comes out with this statement saying he's not going to do that. he's going to defer any action until trump takes over and not create problems for american diplomats. what do you make of this? >> well, this is remarkable. you can dismiss vladimir putin as sort of a tin pot thug. let's be clear, the man is smart, if not brilliant. let's go back

first of all, the report itself, the fact that he's going to do this was disclosed today by lisa monacohis national security adviser, saying that he's ordered a full review of what russia did, and he wants that report by the time he leaves office or before he leaves office. you may recall that just two months ago the government said that they saw signs that russia was involved in hacking and trying to influence the election and that this couldn't happen without the cooperation, the knowledge, and the urging of the highest levels of the russian government. they didn't mention vladimir putin by name, but they really didn't have to. so that's the first thing. but she talked about the report today. she didn't say anything about whether the administration would disclose any actions or was contemplating actions to retaliate for the election hacking, so there's been no mention of that. we still don't know what the answer is to that question. >> now, there's a separate effort developing on capitol hill beyond that. what can you tell us about that? >> right, and it's being led by republicans and

it was disclosed this morning by lisa monaco, his national security adviser.he purpose of it is, i must say, a little unclear, beyond simply wanting to know the facts. it could be that he wants to have something to lay out before he leaves office, to make it harder for donald trump to deny it. trump has said that he doesn't think the intel agencies are right about this. they said in october, that they had pretty conclusive evidence that it must go up to the highest levels of the russian government. it could be that he wants to give support for the congressional committees on both the house and senate, who have already said that they're going to have hearings on this. that he wants to be able to give them a jump start. but in any event, the administration is simply saying that it wants to make as much of a record as possible to give to congress. one big question here, ari, is whether we'll ever see this report. whether it will come out in perhaps a redacted form, because the white house has said it' sure to be full of all sorts of classified information about h

here's how lisa monaco described it at a breakfast with reporters this morning. >> this is consistent the work that we did over the summer, to engage both the congress on the threats that we were seeing and state and local stake holders that i just spoke to in terms of providing them both information and tools to defend themselves, and help them confront the risk. we may be in -- have crossed into a new there shareshold. >> meanwhile, president-elect donald trump may continue to cast doubt on the u.s. intelligence community that russia was, indeed responsible. on tuesday, he told "time" magazine, quote, i don't believe they interfered. it could be russian, china, or some guy at home in new jersey. this comes as a group of republicans prepare to lead their own investigation. here's what graham told cnn yesterday. >> i'm going after russia in every way you can go after russia. i think they're one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage. i think they did interfere with our elections. and i want putin personally to pay a price. >> should trump take a tougher tone with russ

lisa monaco speaking thursday after the white house announced retaliatory measures against russia for its alleged hacking the presidential campaign. >> we are exposing the tactics and procedures that the russian intelligence service has used to interfere with our election. >> the administration sectioning for russian individuals in closing down to russian compounds and ordering 35 russian people to leave the u.s. within 72 hours.>> the country's embassy in the uk slamming obama on twitter and calling the sanctions called for dij@ vu. president elect donald trump who has brushed off intelligence hacking has given a statement saying it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. kellyanne conway saw something different in the sanctions. >> even those who are sympathetic to president obama on most issues are sane part of the reason he did this today was to boxing president elect donald trump expect many republicans have supported retaliation over russians hacking. >> is not questioning donald trump. he won by having a strong message. it is saying that a country thinks

thank you for coming, i'm dave cook, our guest is lisa monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. we're delighted she is here for her first visit with our band of reporters, as speaker she tells us when the director of the fbi came a while ago. a long while ago. lisa grew up in newton, massachusetts, she says our teachers taught you are you are going to go places. our guest graduated from harvard, eernlearned a law degr can clerked for a judge for the third circuit. counsel to attorney jnet reno, federal prosecutor in the us attorneys office and was named to the enron task force. from there she went to the fbi where she was counsel and chief of staff to robert muller, deputy attorney generals office and con mermation -- she held h her current position. she calls my cave or bunker in the white house a windowless office in the situation room and -- >> thank god. >> now on to -- my colleagues eat their sausage while i rattle on. now on to the so compelling recitation of ground rules, we're on the record here. please no live blogging or tweeting and no f

this statement was made on friday by lisa monaco with the president's national security advisers. it is important not to relitigate, but make sure americans going forward and we had elections that are worldwide elections in germany, france, the netherlands and voters need to be on guard when you see false news or leaked information. >> what if we find out that russia was deeply involved in -- let's say we found out they were deeply involved in the release of fake news or false news? what then? >> we clearly know that russia has been interfering in other countries elections for many, many years. and i agree, i saw that comment from speaker ryan a little bit earlier. russia is aggressive. a bully in the region. mr. peutin is somebody you can o reasonable business with. let's not jump ahead of ourse ourselv ourselves. we need to do this in an organized and bipartisan fashion. >> reading the stories over the weekend, everything is anonymous senior administration officials. this goes very frustrating over time. over and over again, even innocuous stuff cannot be attributed to any real

i was in the first briefing with jeh johnson, james comey, lisa monaco, assure everybody, the 12 that russian state actor could hack voting machines. the purpose of that meeting was to assure the american public, to give them confidence that the election on november 8th would be fair and legitimate. now this administration is changing its tune. i asked for a briefing, secure briefing from the cia this morning. i came in yesterday to meet with general kelly. they refused a briefing. i don't know what is up with that i certainly take anything from julian assange with a grain of salt but we really don't know. quite honestly i don't know how you can assume with a high level of confidence what any actors motives are in this. shouldn't come as surprise to us that russia is hacking and spreading disinformation and propaganda. i don't like it. we need to push back on it but this has been known for quite some time. martha: i want to play with you a sound bite from president obama on npr interview yesterday. he is talking about what his response will be to russia, indeed if it is russia, julian

i was one of the 12 members of congress in that first secure briefing with lisa monaco and james comeyas in september, and they were confident that our election system was sound. that there was no way that russia could hack into voting machines and affect the outcome. and the takeaway was, we were all supposed to instill that confidence throughout the country, so that once the election was over, it was a legitimate election, and nobody was questioning it. and now -- right. >> now it's the wrong outcome. >> precisely. >> and i wonder because, you know, the justice department, we looked at some of the stuff that happened there, and people think there might have been a wink and a nod in certain ways. with comey, it's even more overt what people say about comey, is that he was totally in the republican tank with that letter that came out. but we're afraid to say that maybe john brennan is a, you know, a close associate of barack obama. do we know that there's no political taint to this as well with the cia? >> no, it sounds very political to me, quite honestly. and again, nobody should be