director clapper? director clapper: yes. is this theyn: first time you have seen this, or is this a new normal? director clapper: it is a progression of capabilities as they have acquired them and use them, and they certainly have long-standing practices like that against european countries senator cornyn: what has the united states done. what have we done to respond to the hackings that have in occurring in u.s. networks since the 1990's to discourage and deter that sort of activity? director clapper: we have tried to up our game defensively. responded,ectively the sony attack comes to mind, and the response to this case, but the issue as i said earlier is that if nationstates are conducting espionage against one another, which we do as well as many others, and if the standard is to punish because of the conduct of detected espionage, that is another policy call. >> as a recall about the sony hack, it was about how you characterized this. was this an act of war, was this criminal activity involved in a commercial enterprise

clapper. directorith the entirely that you want to be careful when you're talking about how you want to respond to this, and if it is responded to with a similar type of hacking, that escalates very quickly. we have sat through and game doubt what would happen if we had a neck shall hacking and we you decided how we would respond will to it, and how the other side would respond to it. the good that has come out of all of this is that finally, i will think the american people are getting a picture of how big this is, how ubiquitous it is, the and how dangerous it is. and that's of the cast be done about it. director clapper i think is correct that our response has been to up our game, and really that is where the focus needs to be. again, one would hope we could find the silver bullet where we could stand up and say, it is there, this can never be penetrated, anything behind this wall is fine. i don't know if anybody will live to see that day, but in any event, it is good we have us on the tabl

clapper: absolutely. i have served in the trenches and intelligence for every president since kennedy. i have served as a political appointee in both republican and democratic administrations. i am apolitical. mccaskill: there are thousands of men and women who are working in the intelligence community right now, correct? clapper: absolutely. say their which you experience frequently mirrors yours in terms of military experience, being active military or retired military? clapper: a large part of the intelligence community workforce our military. military,former either those that completed full careers or those that served in lisman's or came to the intelligence community as civilians. mccaskill: would it be less important if we maintain the intelligence community as an apolitical lock in terms of our protection? feeler: i could not stronger about that. it is hugely important that the intelligence community conduct itself and be seen as independent, providing unvarnished, untainted objective accurate and

i now pass the baton to general clapper, thank you. >> general clapper? >> first, thanks very much for your opening statements. obviously we are here today to talk about cyber threats that face our nation. and i will offer some brief recommendations and a few parting observations. i want to take note of and thank the members of the committee who are engaged on this mission and spoke to it publicly. i know there is a great interest in the issue of russian interfearance in the electoral process based on the many classified briefings, the intelligence community provided on this topic to congress. secretary of homeland security jeh johnson and i have issued statements about it. joint analysis report that you alluded to publicly issued by public of homeland security provided details on the tools, infrastructure used by intelligence services to compromise infrastructures so yased with the election as well as a range of u.s. government political and private sector entities as you described. as you also noted, the president tasked the intelligence committee to ha

as clapper is saying, that is a policy decision. >> and, hans, how unusual is it to hear james clapper talk about pushing the envelope. can you even speculate is this a response to some of the skepticism by president-elect trump? >> i think there's an agreement in the intelligence committee that they want to have the public come along with this. that was within of tone of the releasing the january 7th report. that's the tension. so much of what they know, they don't want to reveal how they know because that is going to prevent their future ability to hoover up intelligence. >> i want to bring in now former intelligence chief ari schwartz. you've been listening in here. talk a little bit about whether you find this presentation, this public presentation convincing, given that they want to see harder evidence or harder proof of this russian interference? >> one thing they keep saying is next week is when they're actually putting out the public report. at that point i think that it will be a lot easier for people to stand behind and say now we've seen all the pieces here and feel comforta

clapper? the american people, them losing confidence in the intelligence community and the work of the intelligence community, who actually is the benefactor of someone who is about to become commander in chief, trashing the intelligence community? >> i think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism which policymakers to include policy maker number one, should always have for intelligence, but i think there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement. >> and i assume the biggest benefactors of the american people having less confidence in the american community, are those you named today, iran, north korea, china, russia, and isis? >> the intelligence community is not perfect. we are an organization of human beings and we're prone sometimes to make errors. i don't think the intelligence community gets a credit it's due for what it does day in and day out to keep this nation safe and secure and the number of plots, just one example, terrorism plots thwarted both

here against the complaint in clapper. in clapper, they talked about the five problem, and i would have thought that you might be addressing those in your ar argument. >> of course. so first, i want to emphasize that what the supreme court was analyzing in clapper is not a come plapt on tplaint on the mo dismiss, but it is summary judgment. and the court found that there was essentially a lack of evidence as to the interception of the plaintiff's communication, and the court emphasized in the decision the difference of the pleading and proof. it said that the allegations may survive the pleading proofs at summary judgment. but i want to emphasize three other key differences between this case and sclaper as well. >> and before you do that wreefly, was there discovery in clapper? >> no. >> and so it is a prediscovery summary judgment motion which comes in like a 12b-6 or the 12b-1 motion? you can respond to the judge. >> the plaintiffs did not engage in discovery. >> and they did not ask for any? >> no, your honor. >> okay.

i'm honored to appear beside director clapper. when we last met in september, i discussed the changing cyber threat environment and today i look forward to further discussing this complex issue. of course am so aspects of what we do must remain classified to protect our nation's security so today i will limit my discussion to those in the public domain. we have seen over the course of the last year how this cyber threat environment is constantly evolving. we have come to take for granted the connectivity that are built into our lives. those who would seek to harm our fellow americans and our nation utilize the same internet, the same communications devices and the same social media platforms that we, our families and our friends here and warned the world use. we must keep pace with changes to provide policy makers and our commanders the intelligence and cyber capabilities they need to keep us safe. that means understanding our adversaries and understanding what they mean to do and why. we're watching sophisticated adversaries invo

who benefits from that, director clapper? the american people, them losing confidence in the intelligence community and the work of the intelligence community? who actually is the benefactor of someone who is about to beam commander in chief trashing the intelligence community? >> i think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policymakers, to include policymaker number one, should always have for intelligence. but i think there is a difference between skepticism and disparagement. >> and i assume that the biggest benefactors of the american people having less confidence in the intelligence community are in fact the actors you have named today. iran, north korea, china, russia, and isis. >> the intelligence community is not perfect. we are an organization of human beings and we're prone sometimes to make errors. i don't think the intelligence community gets the credit it's due for what it does day in and day out to keep this nation safe and secure and the number of plots, just one example, te

secretary and clapper, your final hopes, thank you for your many years of service, clapper, you.icularly i'll add my voices to bloomingthal. had a chance as had a chance af the intelligence committee to meet them at hearings and at their headquarters and around the world and they don't get the often deserve. the troops usually do because wear uniforms and are known but intelligence officers don't wear uniforms and they are undercover. i want to give my deepest respect and gratitude for what they do. heard a lot of imprecise language here today and it's as well, e media phrases like hacked the election, undermine democracy. intervened in election. i want to be more precise here. let's go to per, october 7 statement. that says, the recent compromise and institutions including from u.s. political talking ions, are we there specifically about the the hack of nc and john podesta's emails? >> yes. anything talking about else? >> that was essentially at the time what we were talking about. >> at the time, then, it says, disclosures nt through websites like wikileaks are consistent with the meth

clapper talked about. this has all been a prelude to what is likely to be a real problem for the president-elect next week. >> and he has set up a situation where he begins his presidency with an adversarial relationship with the people who brief him on the most sensitive issues in the world. and senator graham and others mentioned it in the other days of his administration. north korea may roll an intercontinental ballistic missile on to a test launch pad and the new president may have to decide what to do about that. does he believe the people telling him that? >> there's another thing that came up in this hearing very early on where mccain specifically asked clapper and others whether julian assange, someone donald trump now has also been saying has credibility, whether or not this man should be given credibility for what he's saying about the fact that russia did not give him the e-mails that came from john podesta's hacked account. and point blank, they said, no, we do not trust jewulian assang nor sh

director >> thank you, director clapper. are pretty far along on the report that would be released next week, obviously.ong ar how far along are you? what do you lack and how will this be released? will b it be in a classified format? will you be willing to testify in an open hearing like this? will we need to go down to the skiff to hear this? >> what's planned is a series of briefings in the congress. i think i have four more hearings to do, first with with oversight committees which will be closed hearings, i believe there and and will be -- >> when will that be? >> all house, all senate hearings i believe next week as we roll out a version of the report -- be >> so those would be classified -- >> unclassified version.. >> i see. so the public will not your sources and methods, but you think it will be fairlyho convincing without going beyond what -- >> i assure you i intend to be pushing the envelope as much as i can, particularly on the unclassified version because i think the public should know as much about this as po

i'll now pass the baton to director clapper. thank you. >> general clapper?enator mccain, ranking member reed, and distinguished members of the committee, first, thanks very much for juniyour opening statements. obviously, we're here today to talk about cyberthreats that anr some brief valedictory recommendations and a few parting observations. i certainly want to take note of and thank the members of the committee who are engaged on this issue and who have spoken on it publicly. i know there is a great interest in the issue of russian interference on you're electoral process based on the briefing that has been presented to the congress. jay johnson and i have issued statements about it. the joint analysis report publicly issued by department of homeland security and the federal bureau of investigation provided details on the tools and infrastructure used to compromise infrastructure associated with the election, as well as a range of u.s. government, political and private sector entities as you described. as you alsonoted, the president tasked the intelligen

i will turn the microphone over to admiral clapper. before stepping down of eight years of pentagon service in a few weeks, i want to thank >> i'm sure you'll regret not having that opportunity again. >> it will be nice to be skiing a little bit in february, that's for sure. but having said that, since i am just a few weeks from stepping down i do want to thank this committee for its partnership and i want to thank director clapper and admiral rogers for the privilege of being able to serve together with them in the leadership of the u.s. intelligence community. and to the men and women of the u.s. intelligence community, civilian and military, thousands of whom are deployed today around the world advancing u.s. interests and protecting america. i do admire your integrity and your service. it has been an honor to serve with you over the last many years. in the interests of time, i will briefly note the department of defense's views on cyber in three core themes. first, the threats we must address. second, what we are doing to address t

very interesting to me clapper , talked specifically about deterrence. are we in a new era of nuclear weapons, except instead of nuclear it is cyber? dangerous actors from attacking us with these new weapons? he didn't have a lot of suggestions in that respect. laura: we have seen the obama administration act to expel those russian officials. there are more sanctions on specific russians. any evidence these are going to work? >> the sad part is that these are old tools, tried and tested issues, and have not changed russia's behavior with respect to ukraine, syria, to some extent with respect to north korea. we are seeing the troubling behavior we were trying to deter with sanctions. i'm concerned with the fact that we don't have a clear equation. number one, it is not exactly clear there is a redline. laura: does the u.s. have to have as good cyber capabilities as russia does? >> and this is what dni clapper said, don't try to deter ciber with cyber. do other things. presumably, do sanctions on the russian economy, name and shame individuals, diplomatic

clapper to saying negative things about mr. trump and getting him to respond to intelligence officials bringing up the iraq war. clapper claim closest by saying he thought the rack war was a red herring. and the third dynamic and potentially e most lasting, not a single one of those briefers, one of them with a lot of flags on his chest are saying that america's cyber security is up to snuff and whether it's private or public, it isn't in the place it needs to be. that may be the most last beiin takeout of this committee. we will get the report early next week and then we'll see to what extent they made their case that russia was behind. >> let's talk about how much longer the skepticism around this can last. up until now president-elect donald trump has aired a lot of skepticism. president obama at this point has received the classified report. he's been briefed. donald trump will be getting that tomorrow. and james clapper noted the content of that report plus what we're hearing today really will be very convincing. so what d

is that correct, director clapper? >> correct. >> the unclassified assessment states that republican affiliated websites were hacked to the russians, but the report does not go into detail about whether or not data were taken, stolen from those systems, and weather information came from networks used by republican candidates, whether that included the trump campaign. could you give us a fuller understanding the of the hacking on the republican side? was the trump campaign, for example, hacked? if mr. comey is a better person for this. >> thank you, senator. i want to be thoughtful about what i say in an open setting, but there was evidence that there was hacking directed at state level organizations, state-level campaigns and the rnc, older domains of the rnc. that is, email domains they were no longer using and the information was harvested from there but it was old stuff. none of that was released. we did not develop any evidence that the trump campaign or the current rnc was successfully hacked. >> does the, i see t

james clapper, he is the director of national intelligence. he described the cyberattacks today, also fake news and traditional propaganda he says was organized by the russia government. clapper saying there was no way to gauge the influence the attacks had on the election. he did emphasize that there were multiple factors when it comes to why russia did this. >> you stated that the report soon to be released will discuss the motive. would you care to give any kind of preview today? >> i would rather not. >> i didn't think so. >> there are actually more than one motive. >> the president-elect donald trump has cast doubt on the reports that the kremlin was orchestrating the attacks on the election. he is scheduled to receive his briefing from the intelligence community tomorrow. we'll start our coverage with nbc's peter alexander. he is covering the hearing today. give us the details of what came out here. one of the questions is the role the intelligence community believes the russian government, the top levels of the russian government, inclu

trump's very public doubts that clapper and his agents have it right. missouri democrat claire mccaskill. >> who actually is the benefactor of someone who is about to become commander in chief trashing the intelligence community? >> i've received many expressions of concern from foreign counter-parts about, you know, the disparagement of the u.s. intelligence community, or i should say, what has been interpreted as disparagement of the intelligence community. >> reporter: mike rogers, who heads the national security agency, said it could hurt moral. >> i just don't want a situation where our workforce decides to walk. because i think that really is not a good place for us to be. >> reporter: mr. trump tweeted today that he is actually a "a big fan" of the u.s. intel community. but he has also publicly backed up wikileaks founder julian assange, who claims the leaked emails did not come from russian state actors. >> director clapper, how would you describe mr. assange? >> i don't think those of us in the intelligence community have a whole lot of respect

i'll pass the baton to general clapper. thank you. >> general clapper?> chairman mccain, ranking member reid, distinguished members of the committee, first, thanks very much for your opening statements. obviously here here today to talk about cyber threats facing our nation. i will offer some brief val valedictory recommendations. i want to thank the members of the committee who are engaged on this issue and have spoken about it publicly. i know there is great interest in russian interference in our electoral process based on the briefings the intelligence community has provided on this topic to the congress. secretary of homeland security jeh johnson and i have issued statements about it. the joint analysis report that you alluded to publicly issued by department of homeland security and the federal bureau of investigation provided details on the tools, infrastructure used by the russian intelligence services to compromise infrastructure associated with the election. as well as a range of u.s. government, political, and private sector entities as you de

. >> trump tweeted about his conversation with clapper saying, quote, james clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated, made up, phony facts, too bad, exclamation point. that is actually a contradiction of clapper's public statement. intelligence community has not made a judgment, it says, on the veracity of the allegations. president obama was also

thank you. >> director clapper has to leave in about 20 minutes. we'll enforce the crime -- the time. senator tillis. >> thank you, mr. chair. gentlemen, thank you all for your service. i for one have high confidence in the community that you represent. and i hope that they recognize that i speak for most of the senators here that share the same view. director clapper, i'm going to spend most of my time privately reflecting on some of the comments that you made. the glass house comment is something i think is very important. there's been research done by a professor at carnegie mellon that's estimated that the united states has been involved in one way or another in 81 different elections since world war ii. that doesn't include coups or e regime change. russia has done it some 36 times. when russia was apparently trying to influence our election, we had the israelis accusing us of trying to influence their election. we live in a big glass house and there are a lot of rocks to throw, and i think that's consistent with what you've said on other matt

well, clapper was asked today ty whether or not vladimir putinut knows, whether or not vladimir putinw what was going on and he left no doubt from his viewpoint, the us intelligence agency, specifically the cia and the fbi about whatut what vladimir putin did or did not nt know about this hacking.acki. listen to what he had to say on that. tha >> you say you think this was approved at the highest leveligv of government in russia generally speaking; is thatg; i right? >> that's what we said. >> okay.hat's wh>>o's the highest level ofst v government?ment? >> well, the highest is president putin. >> do you think a lot happensth ink ra ussia big tha kn abobout? >> not very many.ery many. >> yeah, i don't think so. >> certainly none that areinly n politically sensitive ine in another country. country. >> reporter: okay, so whereo wh do we go on all of this? well, clapper revealed today that next week they are releasing a major report, thehe final report probably from thehe obama administration on all of this. in that report, folks, are going to be motives.e mo notice i said motives there.

i'd like to welcome our witnesses, jim clapper, director of national intelligence, john brennan director of the central intelligence agency and jim comey, director of the federal bureau of investigation. admiral mike rogers, director of the national security agency. directors clapper and brennan, while i've said this to you before and close session, this is likely your last appearance before the committee, at least in your current roles. i want to thank each of you before you get out of here for your many years of dedicated service, both in uniform and out of uniform, jim. john come in many different capacities u.s. circuit country your country in an unbelievable way we want you to know how grateful we are to you and how grateful the nation is to you for a service you provided. we can meet today to discuss the president discuss the presidents reveal fresh and neck dvds and the intentions in recent u.s. elections. but russia and the soviet union had used have used active measures and the tools of statecraft since the 1920s, recent actions by the russian government representatives hubert g

clapper did not use those words in his statement.hich reads, we also discussed the private security company document which was widely circulated in recent months among the media. i emphasize this document is not a u.s. intelligence community product. that i do not believe the leaks came from within the ic. the ic has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable. that does not say that they found it unreliable. he says and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions. however part of our obligation is to make sure policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture. ranking member of the house intelligence committee joins us. the question is pretty basic but vital at this point. what do you know about whether or not it is true that the fbi and maybe other intel agencies are looking into the allegations provided in this dossier because they found the source of the dossier credible? >> chris, i can't comment on that. but i can say this with reference to the conversation you just had about dir

clapper said that was not his call to make.epared to say it cost clinton the election. >> certainly intelligence community can't gauge the impact it had on choices of the electorate made. there is no way for us to gauge that. >> either way said republican lindsay graham, the u.s. need to strike back. >> i think what obama did was throw a pebble. i'm ready to throw a rock. >> hanging over the hearing, mr. trump's very public doubts that clapper and his agents have it right. missouri democrat, claire mccaskill. >> who is the benefactor of some one about to become commander-in-chief trashing the intelligence community. >> i received many expressions of concern from foreign counterparts about you know the disparagement of the u.s. intelligence community or i should say what is interpreted as disparagement of the intelligence community. >> mike rodgers who heads the national security agency said it could hurt morale. >> i just don't want a situation where our work force decide to walk. i think that really is not a good place for us

is that something that you agree with, director clapper? director clapper? >> yes, that is clearly a theme and certainly something that the russians are pushing in messaging in europe. they would very much like to drive wedges between us and western europe, the alliance is there, and between and among the countries in europe. >> and i assume there is agreement among the panel, does anybody agree disagree with tha that. one of the things that has emerged as i have listened to this discussion is that we don't have a strategy to respond to that kind of an effort. we don't have a strategy that's been testified with respect to cyber, but a broader strategy around messaging, around how to respond to that kind of activity. do you agree with that? >> i'm speaking personally. as i commented earlier to senator mccain, i do think we need a u.s. information agency on steroids that deals with the totality of the information realm. and to mount in all forms, to include social media. >> i'm sorry to interrupt, but can i just ask, why do you believe that hasn't happened? di

although, clapper may have calmed the waters a little bit tonight. that's a nice phrase that nicole just used. but he pushed it to a new level with this line about nazi, germany that was breathtaking. it is extremely unsettling to see the president-elect accusing his opponents as nazis. it makes you wonder what kind -- what this relationship is going to be like when he actually takes office and how is this breach mended? the clapper statement is a step in that direction and maybe a recognition that the rhetoric is just getting out of control in a way that ultimately hurts everybody. that struck me the most. i also thought that, you know, briefly on russia, it was interesting to see trump say that he would not necessarily get along with vladimir putin. he said we may not get along. but then at the end he said something to the effect of, well, what's wrong with putin wanted me in office? you know, that's an asset. that's an asset if putin wants me to be president. i thought that was kind of probably unintentional double indan tra there. that's when you

clapper and other heads are set to brief president-elect donald trump.sta has the preview. >> reporter: donald trump will go over the findings that russia was hacking into the november election. expected at the meeting is the outgo outgoing director james clapper and michael flynn. yesterday, the intelligence community leaders reiterating the findings that russia was involved in hacking. trump in a series of tweets last night continued to raise doubts about the assessment. he has named a retiring indiana senator dan coats as the director of intelligence. i'm told coats will not be at the meeting later today. >> thank you, jim. the trump tweets came after cnn reported the dnc rebuffed an fbi request to review the computers after the initial attack. that according to a senior law official who says it forced the bureau to rely on a third party for data and relaying the investigation. this despite the dnc telling buzzfeed news the fbi never asked to access servers. trump latching on to that report to bring doubt on the intelligence in russia. he writes, the

director clapper, i think it's important to put some context around some of these discussions. one of the most important things to me is that your public statement in october, along with jay johnson, was prior to the election, and you were simply telling facts that you had observed, and in my experience of reading intelligence community communications, it is one of the more unequivocal that i have seen. you've stated here that you have high confidence in those conclusions, that the russians were behind it, that it was intended to interfere with our elections, and that approval went to the highest levels of the russian government. have you learned anything subsequently that you can tell is here today to contradict those findings that you publicly stated last october? >> no. in fact, if anything, what we have since learned just reinforces that statement of the seventh of october. >> and there was no political intention, you are simply reporting facts as you saw them and i presume that is correct? your history as one of being nonpolitical. >> absolutely. i felt particularly strong

now clapper released a statement late last night saying this. let's take a look. he said i emphasize this document is not a u.s. intelligence community product and i do not believe the leaks came from within the ic. the ic or intelligence community has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions. however, part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are proswried the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security. so, wolf, the bottom line is this. clapper is trying to diffuse a feud between trump and the intelligence agencies, which he'll, of course, head up in eight days when he takes office. clapper's comment is the first confirmation by government official that trump's briefing documents did include information on allegations against him by those russian operatives. >>> jeff, stand by. dana bash, a significant moment when a statement like that is released confirming that, yes, they did brief the president-elect on these allegations that

james clapper called donald trump. part of our obligation is to make sure policymakers are prepared for matters that may affect national security. that is implicit confirmation that the intelligence community did give trump the two-page summary. something that the trump team seems unwilling to confirm. >> we have asked the trump team repeatedly on air and on cnnpolitics.com to specify what they are saying is inaccurate. we have yet to see that. they continue to make claims our reporting was not factual. they have not given the american people the details on what they are pushing back on. i strongly encourage readers to go to cnnpolitics.com and go through the speech yesterday. >> let's take a look at what senator rubio said with rex tillerson yesterday and russia and vladimir putin and war crimes and human rights violations. >> is vladimir putin a war criminal? >> i would not use that term. >> based on all this information, and what is publicly in the record about what happened in the russian military, you are still no

>> no, in fact, jim clapper, the director of national intelligence today, nicole, in his testimony pointed out how a lot of our intelligence friends are actually showing great sympathy towards american intelligence because of the way american intelligence has been disparaged by the president-elect. look, here's kind of the scope of the problem here, nicole. going out and getting this stuff, whether it's done by the united states or by an allied service, intel is a great risk. and so now you've actually got a fundamental, moral question if you're say the head of cia. do i want to put one of my officers in harm's way to get information that i really don't have much confidence will be put to good use by my first client? and the point i would then make, nicole, to the question you just raised, there are probably a whole bunch of allied services who might be reluctant to share information with us because, you know, we don't have that great a track record about keeping things secret. and they would be even more reluctant to share the information with us if they thought it wouldn't do any good in

i think clapper also signaled from the top of that community that it's not appropriate. but clapper, and it won't be that -- dan coates likely to head it up, former indiana senator. i think once trump takes office the tone and tenor is likely to change. >> shepard: your suggest that is it did this. i thought it was notable that as the people that the president-elect have dominated were going against his statements as a campaigner, donald trump did not come out against their statements, did not admonish them publicly in a way that candidate trump and recent trump might have under other circumstances. which suggested to me that there's a blending coming. >> exactly. key's allowing them to break with him publicly. and trump himself shifted yesterday saying, yes, i do think russia was behind this. which i think is a big deal and shows that, yes, he is a part of the reality-based community, he's not going to continue denying that russia was behind this. he said before it could have been a 400 pound man sitting on his bed. he isn't doing that any more. he's allowing several of

director clapper also told mr. trump that the intelligence community is not to blame for

you think trump has it in for clapper. >> general clapper is retiring within days. this is about the institutional or intelligence community, how it functions, how it ren ders advise to decision makers. it's irrelevant. >> is there -- admit he helped him within is there any motive why he can deny the clearly established facts? >> i do not have an idea where he would not accept the facts. they have been accepted by everyone else on bipartisan basis. i think it's something that will cloud his presidency unless he is first one to call for aspects of this, by the way this is going on today in other countries that have having democratic collections, this is not something to personalize or trivialize, it's something serious. >> do you think russians elections? >> there was russia involvement, the question is what are the consequences that's something that's hat not been determined. when the report is released it may shed light on that. >> thank you, senator. >>> meanwhile president-elect donald trump trying to julian assange. wrong i state what he states. it is for the pe

this is james clapper, the outgoing director of national intelligence. anrussia has clearly assumed even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber operations, leaking data stolen from these operations, and targeting critical of her structure systems. amy: critics including journalist glenn greenwald question the case that russia interfered in november's election. and james clapper has previously lied during sworn testimony to congress. in march 2013, clapper was asked by senator ron wyden, "does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans?" to which he replied, "no, sir." clapper later defended himself by claiming he had answered the question in the least untruthful manner. later today, donald trump is set to meet with clapper, along with cia director john brennan and fbi director james comey, who say they'll present evidence to the president-elect that russian hackers meddled in november's election. donald trump big knowledged today he will not force mexico to pay for a wall along the u.s. mexico bord

clapper issued a rare public statement after his call with the president-elect expressing dismay at the leaks and making it clear that he did not believe the intelligence community had anything to do with what he called a private security document that contained these claims about trump. he add that the intelligence community has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions, clapper said. however, part of our obligation is to ensure that the policy makers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security. jake? >> all right, evan perez, thank you so much for that update. for more i am joined by cnn national chief correspondent jim sciutto. jim, as evan just said, the vice-president is not the only public official who has essentially confirmed our story. >> i think we should note the importance of this and the rarity of this. two people were physically inside these highly classified briefings, one the vice-president, two, the director of national intellige

and they're taking this very seriously. >> you know, that clapper, general clapper, the director of nationallligence hey said it's okay for someone to have a healthy skepticism but it's another thing to get involved in disparagement of the entire u.s. intelligence community. you know a lot about russia. what is putin's endgame here? >> well, you know, there is the argument that putin doesn't have much to gain by so-called resetting his relationship with the united states. remember, he's a master deflector. the fact that he's sort of meddling in countries and democrats around the world to take away from what is going on in his own country, you've got a contracting economy there. you see his popularity begin to rise now that russia has become the subject around the world that people are talking about. so what happens once russia does become aligned or closer with the united states? it's a one commodity economy that depended almost solely on oil and natural gas prices. they have gone up recently, but it's not a diversified economy. their population is shrinking as well. you could make the argum

today james clapper said that he is a big fan of the sanctions against russia. what do you say to that? did they go far enough? should there be even more sanctions levied? what should those sanctions look like? >> i'm open. i think we have to have a discussion on that. i think we have to see what comes out in this report next week, which sounds as it's going to be much more detailed to the extent the russians were involved. clapper said it wasn't just about the hacks on the dnc. there were other activities involved. i think we need to see the full picture. and when we see that full picture we can develop those kinds of strategies. i think the other thing that came out in this hearing is that we don't have that clearly spelled out in a comprehensive way so we can show the world community if you do this to the united states, this will be the penalty and it will be severe. so i'm hoping that what we heard today and what we're going to see next week in the report will lead to the kind of concrete responses necessary to send a strong and clear message to everybody in

clapper came out in october -- >> you're not asking a question. you're making statements. >> i'm giving you context. you made conclusions. >> that's an opinion. >> tell me what's an opinion. did clapper come out in early october and say we know it is russia. >> what didn't obama say in response? >> no, no, no. >> he said to vladimir putin, knock it off. what does knock it off mean? >> did clapper come out in early october and say it's russia. >> what is it that we know? that russia is trying to interfere with the election results? do you think they wanted donald trump as president. >> did clapper come out in early october and say we know russia is behind the hacks, period, full stop. >> behind the hacks of the dnc? >> yes. >> let's complete the whole sentence. >> i'll let you complete it the way you want. is the answer going to come. >> he said that. yesterday, according to cnn, a cnn report that i read in the news that the fbi said the dnc never exceeded to the fbi's simple request to allow fbi access. >> again, irrelevant. irrelevant. >> then wh