and we are back with senator richard blumenthal of connecticut.ina reacting very strongly to secretary of state nominee rex tillerson who suggested a more aggressive strategy by the u.s. in the contested waters of the south china sea. that's where china has built and now mill triesed artificial islands, huge ones with, our brian todd has been looking into this. brian, what have you been learning about the remarkable comments from the secretary of state nominee? >> we're getting signals the president-elect trump security team is going to get in china's face over those islands. it's raised a key question, will the trump administration maintain the current strategy of essentially buzzing these waters with american war ships and planes to signal their displeasure over the islands or will they try to block china from accessing them. and risk a possible conflict. they've staked a claim to thousands of acres of what were sand bars and reeves. they've used sophisticated equipment like these ships, pumping sand through those thin tubes to create islands. t

connecticut democratic senator richard blumenthal, member of the judiciary committee. senator, have you determined how you'll vote in advance, and can you tell us the kind of questions you'll ask him tomorrow? >> i am going to make my decision once i hear from senator sessions himself in response to my questions and other colleagues, and the kind of questions i'm going to be asking will go to his record on civil rights and voting rights, on women's health care. he has denounced roe v. wade, which guarantees a woman's right to choose. and on other issues like religious freedoms, torture, where he's taken positions that i think are out of the mainstream, and of course his staunch and steadfast opposition to any kind of immigration reform. those answers to those questions, and some others, will determine how i'll vote. >> is it jermaine to you that he was turned down for the federal bench by this same committee, though admittedly it has turned over several times over? >> brian, it is germane, because a public record, a man's career, his life's work, all of it is germane,

we heard from senator richard blumenthal, the connecticut democrat. he's one of the three we're waiting to hear from. we talked to him last night and again this afternoon keeping his cards close to the vest how he'll vote and keeping his cards pretty close to the vest on the questions he will ask this afternoon. one person who has been there watching this all, part of a number of civil rights folks who have been keeping pressure, al franken is on the hill, been in the hearing room. what have you heard that has given you pause? >> well, i heard a lot this morning he has answered some of the questions in an interesting way, because i think the problem, brian, that many in the civil rights community has is where he can deny whether or not he made certain statements that he's on record voting and supporting for example the shelby decision, which led to the supreme court decision that took out section five of the voting rights act. he's been on record concerning voter i.d. so we can have different opinions. we can't have different facts. when you have some

senator richard blumenthal sits on the committee that will approve or deny his nomination. he will explain the delay. >>> plus -- >> the white house expected to weigh in momentarily over at the daily briefing. there you see live pictures for the briefing room. sean spicer, his second q & a with reporters coming up as well. people confuse nice and kind but they're different... nice tells you what you want to hear. but kind is honest. this bar is made with cranberries and almonds. so, guess what? we call it cranberry almond. give kind a try. won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. >>> welcome back to w

. >> i am richard blumenthal from connecticut.ckly -- my see dad came to this country in 1935 to escape persecution as a refugee. he was 17 years old. he had not much more than the shirt on his back. he spoke no english and he knew no one in this country. the united states of america gave him a chance to succeed. ashamed of sad and this order. he was a proud american. but he would be sad and ashamed of a ban on anyone based on religion, or race, or national origin. that kind of band and discrimination -- that kind of and discrimination is not only anti-refugee and anti-muslim, but it is anti-american. fight, be strong and we will with your help. and this movement is capturing america. america is rising. america is rising. and it should because this is a threat not just to one religion or race but it is a threat to all of us. thank you for being here tonight. thank you leader pelosi. i am happy to introduce my colleague. >> from the great state of oregon. oregon stands for liberty. you stand for liberty. oregon stands for justice.

senator richard blumenthal out of connecticut and senator markey from massachusetts say they want answersned and why it happens. they say they are arguing from the behalf of the consumer. all business leaders want to know, can this happen to my company. caroline: not just cyber security, but complexity of these systems as well. cory johnson, editor at large. coming up, a peek into the lives of uber drivers and the drastic measures that they take to stay afloat. this is bloomberg. caroline: number is asking the court to help serve a message to its drivers -- uber is asking to help serve a message to its drivers. declining a driver from being treated as an employee. was declared that declare thisan through arbitration. rideryan kelly giant -- handling giant, more and more drivers are relying on it as their main source of income. drivers take drastic measures to stay afloat. eric, this is a great story, and you followed individual drivers. they are sleeping in their cars. economist compare this to a type of immigration. a driver living in sacramento, driving into sentences oh, sleeping in hi

senator richard blumenthal visits cnn next. stay with us.is that they contourt tempur-peto your body.s... it keeps us comfortable and asleep at night. start the new year off right with the best sleep of your life. buy your tempur-pedic now for as low as $25 a month and a 90-night free trial. call or click today. and they're absolutely right. they say that it's hot... when really, it's scorching. and while some may say the desert is desolate... we prefer secluded. what is the desert? it's absolutely what you need right now. absolutely scottsdale. >>> happening now, russia calling. there is new information that retired general michael flynn, donald trump national security advisor was in contact with the russians at the very same time the obama administration was preparing to retal i didn't tell for russian cyber attacks. still on the attack, trump unleashes a barrage of tweets. sleez bag russia has compromising information on him. and trump calls hillary clinton quote,

we're going to go back into the hearing, senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. >> dismissing credible and significant conclusions about the russian attack undermines public support for actions that the presint must take to deter and punish these kinds of actions. >> i do think that public trust and confidence in the intelligence community is crucial. and both in this country and i think the dependence that other countries, other nations have on the u.s. intelligence community. and i've received many expressions of concern from foreign counterparts about, you know, the disparagement of the u.s. ielligence community or i should say what has been interpreted as disparagement of the intelligence community. >> well, there's no question about the disparagement. there's no question about the dismissing and demeaning of the intelligence community entirely unmerited. and would you agree in light of your saying that you are even more resolute now in your conclusion about russian involvement in this hacking, that comparing it to the judgment made about weapons of mass destruction in the iraq sit

on monday, richard blumenthal praised sally yates for speaking out. >> i want to salute sally yates, who has taken a stand based on moral and legal principle in the highest tradition of the department of justice, saying that these orders cannot be the rule of law and morality is more important than the politics at the moment, of ahe impulsive edict ruler who apparently fails to understand that law -- or at least, his administration. amy: widespread resistance to trump's immigration ban continued across the united states and the world in nearly monday all sectors of society from the streets to silicon , valley to branches of the halls of washington. more than 100 employees of the state department have signed onto drafts of a dissent memo that condemn trump's executive order. one draft of the memo reads -- "this ban stands in opposition to the core american and constitutional values that we, as federal employees, took an oath to uphold. we have a special obligation to maintain an immigration system that is as free as possible from discrimination, that does not have an implied or actual

and so he was asked and this is the exchange between richard blumenthal, and the designated secretary, about how he is taking care of this particular divestment business and how it might differ from the president-elect. >> but simply, as a matter of appearance and morality, for that matter, you were able to do it. why not the president? >> i'm not familiar enough, senator, with the exactitudes of his holdings to have any judgment as to how easy or hard it would be to do it. >> you did it to avoid any conflicts of interest, correct? >> that is correct, sir. >> and he was also pressed on this further, and ross said that the rules that apply to a senate confirmed position, such as the one he is up for, are different than those directed at the president. and so h gave a little room there for donald trump's position of not doing the traditional divestments. so that has been of high interest. they've also talked about nafta and trade and the imbalance with china. a lot of issues that will be a part of the economic plan of the new trump administration, but this was a hearing that did not hav

but richard blumenthal said he had great concerns about the actions that unfolded last night and it isrd a real constitutional question and he has great concerns. in his life prior to coming to the united states senate he was a state attorney general in connecticut and a u.s. attorney and has background on this, as many members of the committee do. so they understand these issues in ways that go beyond just a general knowledge. so we expect that there will be a lot of emotion around this and that for jeff sessions who has been expecting to go through this process thinking perhaps the worst issues had been behind him, with questions raised about his failure to rise to the federal bench about 30 something years ago with questions that related to race. that was the first sort of iteration of drama around his nomination. and now with the actions of the president to release from her duty the deputy -- the acting attorney general and what is notable, chris, you may have seen that it was sessions during yates' own confirmation hearing who raised the question to her that it's a political envir

and he was drawn out by connecticut democrat, richard blumenthal, who noted that the president-elect has donot done e same, and asking ross if he believes he must do this in order to comply with the rules and not be subject to any ethics conflicts, why shouldn't the president. and he said, ethics rules do not apply to the president in the same way. this is a friendlier environment, but the issues will be very prominent in the new administration. andrea? >> kelly o'donnell and anne thompson, and of course, cakasi hunt, thank you all so much. joining me now is gene shaheen, a lot to dig into here. fit of all, theonfirmation hearing today for what would be governor hailey as the -- nikki haley as the new ambassador to the united nations. i wanted to play one of your exchanges with her. >> how will you avoid the conflict between your efforts at the u.n. and the security council and the president-elect's tweets, his -- the positions that he's taken on many of the issues that will come before the security -- the united nations? >> you know, i think that what the president-elect has put out

he said when asked by democrat of connecticut richard blumenthal about his divestment and ross has divested about 90% of his holdings and he's a billionaire worth $2.5 billion, has assets around the world, separating humae ining himself that in agreement with the office of government ethics. when asked why hasn't the president done the same thing, ross responded the ethics rules that apply to a senate confirmed nominee, such as himself, do not apply to the president. blumenthal was using that questioning to say if the secretary of commerce is trying to avoid conflicts and is separating himself from his massive wealth, shouldn't the president do the same thing? beyond that, there's been a lot of conversation about things like trade where he and trump ring the same bell sag that nafta is something they could look at right away. he explained why he opposed the trans-pacific partnership. also talking about things like rural broadband and infrastructure. donald trump wants to increase infrastructure. ross is saying that oppressed by republicans from ruraluaries that they would consider expanding

what's interesting, ron wyden, a democratic senator from oregon, pat leahy of vermont, and richard blumenthal of connecticut, who were part of holding up mike pompeo's nomination, we're going to get real appointed with parliamentary procedure in the next hundred days. democrats may be in the minority, but there are certain things they can do. ironically enough, that could mean that john brennan, with whom trump has been having a very public feud. you had john brennan going to the "wall street journal" and say, try telling all those hard-working men and women who worked to secure our future every day that they are akin to nazis, which is what donald trump called them on his twitter feed. he may now have to continue to serve on as dronald trump's cia director, at least in the interim, until they can figure out how to get pompeo unstuck. >> we are still following all these different, really vivid scenes of folks who have taken to the streets across the country to participate in the women's march. and certainly you are going to recognize our next guest, as so many of us have grown up with her. so

>> sheldon whitehouse, al franken, richard blumenthal out of connecticut -- >> these are very, very liberalmbers of the democratic party. senator blumenthal is a former attorney general of the state of connecticut, an expert in state and federal law, probably will ask questions that are a little more pointed. then, of course, we have senator cory booker who's actually going to be a witness against him but will not have the opportunity to interrogate him. stuart: dana, the democrats are trying to portray mr. sessions and the whole trump team as a pack of racists. that's the brush they're trying to scrape over the entire administration. so far it doesn't look like it's been successful. mr. sessions had a pretty good answer for charges about the voter fraud and the kkk, etc., etc. >> yeah. it's silly to call one who busted the klan in alabama, to claim that they're racist. and the accusations that came up against jeff sessions came from two individuals who proved themselves to be not credible witnesses because they both ran afoul of the law. one was indicted on bribery, and herbert was scolded

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and we also included in those photos vice president biden with connecticut senator richard blumenthal. here is an article -- it says it will not be the same without told thetor thune the term runse until noon on inauguration day on january 20, the departing biden got one last chance to kiss wives, have babies, and offer dating advice. one more story from "the washington post," george and laura bush announced they would attend donald trump's inauguration, and also hillary clinton and former president bill clinton will attend the ceremony, according to their spokesman. the announcement added to what had been a thin list of president slated to attend. jimmy carter was the only living president who agreed to be present. george h w bush will not attend the ceremony because of his advanced age. you can read more about that at washingtonpost.com. nancy pelosi and paul ryan speaking today on the house floor.

he met with jeff sessions this week, as did richard blumenthal, dianne feinstein many of the , democrats. we will see how it goes. a lot of these democratic senators emerged from these private meetings saying look, senator sessions is a colleague, but we have a lot of tough questions ready and waiting for him at the hearings next week. stephanie: and is not the first time he has been before that committee. let's move onto general james mattis. he will be preformed -- before the armed services committee. what is happening there? what happened with the waiver he needed? seung min kim: it looks like the waiver he needs to become the pentagon chief, because he has not been out of uniform for seven years as the law mandates , that doesn't look like it's going to be an issue. my colleagues surveyed a lot of democratic senators who are willing to grant him the one-time waiver. aside from senator gillibrand, a democrat from new york on the armed services committee who was very fast out of the gate saying she would oppose a waiver for general mattis we don't see that , sentiment building among de