let's start with you quickly, i want to get your reaction to senator cardon. it appears clear, there ain't a lot of leverage that democrats have right now. and obviously they're not really ready to go full scale in terms of their opposition to donald trump and republicans. >> yeah, you know, i think the democrats realize they need to pick and choose their battles. so right now, when republicans are -- they have a lot of republicans who are outraged about this had executive order as well. we're getting a supreme court tomorrow night. i think the democrats are going to wait until there's a second supreme court nominee and that's where they're going to pitch a major battle. that's when the balance of the court could change and that's where you're going to see chuck schumer and the rest of his conference really come out to oppose trump and the rest of his administration. >> bottom line is whoever he selects tomorrow replaces antonin scalia, that doesn't have a lot of impact. what happens next will be significant. to you quickly, what leverage do the democrats have

so we went to go see senator ben cardon today he just met with rex till areerson and it's on the senate foreign relations mit de and finance committee as well. he'll have a say in perspective freshry secretary nominee steve and we asked senator carden can you go ahead with all the hearings and meeting you have when you simply do not have the paperwork in your hands. this is what he had to say. >> we have an unpress departmented number of nominees that are coming from the private sector that were never vetted before and they have circumstances and it's not easy for members of the senate to evaluate that and not easy for opposite government ethics to figure out how to deal with potential conflict. it's a difficult challenge. and it's not right to be forced to go to confirmation hearings if you don't have all that information. >> all right. so he is saying it's not fair. the bottom line is this. this in-coming frez elect needs a government this incoming president-elect noodz a cabinet. if there is any lay it on this remember this inauguration up here is a week from friday at some point the

the left side of your screen, senator ben cardon of maryland there, this is the senate foreign committeeating right now the nomination of rex tillerson for secretary of state. they are expected to hold a vote a few minutes from now. again, with marco rubio saying he now supports rex tillerson's confirmation and now looks like he will have the votes in that committee and presumably on the senate floor to become the secretary of state. we will keep those pictures up on the screen. we will let you know if and when there's any movement on that. ben ginsburg, i want to ask you about a bigger picture question about the first few days of trump administration. obviously on saturday, you had donald trump through his twitter account, you had sean spicer with the press, really litigating the question of how many people showed up at his inauguration. how many people were watching, really going aggressively at the administration. we saw in spicer's briefing today and what trump said yesterday, maybe a different tone. i'm curious what you make big picture the first few days of the trump administration

he opposes it, will congress -- >> i don't count votes but i will certainly and lindsey graham and cardonnd others are preparing very tough sanctions against russia. whether they will pass or not, i'm not sure but we're sure going to try. >> senator, if president-elect donald trump continues to cast doubt on these intelligence assessments after he gets his briefing, will you consider holding off his cabinet nominees or what steps might you consider? >> the president is entitled to his views. i'm entitled to my views and i'll do my job as chairman of the committees. >> what's the most important thing -- >> senator john mccain there speaking to reporters in a senate hallway after a very important hearing on cyberthreats against the united states. much of the conversation in the hall. also much of the conversation at that hearing focused on russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election including hacking of clinton campaign chairman john podesta's e-mails and the release of those e-mails into the public sphere. senator mccain saying he has no way of saying they impacted votes. there is

i'm asking you about this because it came up, one of your colleagues, sen cardon from maryland stated matter of factually that news accounts indicated russia may have information about mr. trump that they could use to compromise his presidency. that was just put into the record during this hearing today. i wonder, do you think ghaichb these are all entirely unsubstantiated allegations coming apparently from one former british intelligence official. one of the claims apparently is already at least been debunked, is it responsible for anyone in politics right now to be talking about that possibility? >> well, look, i'm not going to speak to them and give them any credibility until, and if, they are verified. or some of them are verified. if none are verified, that, you know, we've all been subject, i know i've been subject in the past to that type of false information that ended up being false stories. so the bottom line is i'm not going to give it credibility until and if, in fact, they are substantiated. having said that. i would not be surprised, and this is the one thing that does b

and you know, as far as getting into -- i've told senator cardon, if there is a substantial issue we need to look at that would affect senator tillerson's -- you don't want to be demoted to that -- [laughter] >> to nominee tillerson's role, if we need to have somebod from outside to do so. to get to silly questions that's not what we've done in this committee, and i hope we will not turn this process into one that turns qualified people away from wanting to serve. so again, if there's some substantive issue that we need to pursue and get into private setting and have someone come in from accounting firm that really matters as it relates to his ability to not have conflicts as a secretary of state or something like that, i'm willing to look at it as i know he is, asking questions that are not in any way determinative to him are belittling to him, and the respect with which we've dealt with nominees and their privacy. but i thank you for working with me. >> will you just yield for one moment? i thank you for that, and i can assure you that the disagreement on supplying tax returns has

five minutes, cory booker, sheldon whitehouse, tom cardon, ask your questions and we're done. that's it. can you handle that, mr. pruitt? we are wasting a lot of time otherwise we are just talking about it spirit lets go three minutes each and then we will call it good. you are up. >> mr. kevin? >> senator booker. >> i want to be i do think, you've been favored generous it's too. i appreciate what seems like an accord write a few minutes each. i appreciate that the one thing you did mark which i think should be important is i have no sympathy for the nominee and his interns. i do have for his family behind in hua sent through this and i just want to park for true champions, and i think that's important to note. i thank them for the indulgence. not the nominee but -- >> that is more evidence he cares for the children of oklahoma. >> i would you say many people, more people vote for me because my wife then vote for me and i would suggest for you as well in the case of his nominee. >> i just wanted to touch on two things and then we will wrap up. the first is on your question and

ben cardon and i have introduced and passed legislation in this regard to try to push back against the bds forces. recently of course with the consent of the obama administration the u.n. security council demand israel cease all activities in the occupied palestinian territories. i think this will galvanize additional bds activity. here is my question to you. would you make it a priority to counter boycott efforts and sanctions and make sure israel is not held to a double standard, but instead treated as a normal member of the international community? >> yes, i would. >> any preliminary thoughts as to how you would do that? >> well, i think by raising it in our interactions with countries that do put in place provisions of boycott, whatever elements of activity or business with israel in their country that we begin by highlighting that we oppose that and just expressing that view and that those countries need to understand that it does shade our view of them as well as then. one of the things that would i think help change the dynamic obviously would be if there were a change in the dy