on the isis threat we've got polo sandoval and phil mudd and julia are here to break it down. >>> first, the breaking news on the berlin christmas market attack. tunisian state tv just announced three arrests in connection to the plot. the three men between the ages of 18 and 27 are described as terrorist elements. this new information emerging as new video of the slain attacker aniece amry pledging his allegiance to isis as that video continues to circulate. in this video amri says he would serve baghdadi and vow to slaughter the crusaders who are shelling the muslims everyday, but he doesn't refer to monday's attack that left 12 dead and injured 48. one of those victims the body of an italian woman was transported to rome this morning. cnn international correspondent nina dos-santos is in milan for us. you spoke with counterterrorism officials there who said amri had, quote, hallmarks of being

she says they were trying to hack the dnc, phil mudd, almost on a daily basis. what do you think about that as a strategy and whether or not it's been effective. >> i don't think it's been effective yet. this goes back to the 1990s and the dawn of the digital age. the chinese and the russians have been stealing american military secrets. forget about the secrets from the dnc for a long time. i think senator mccain and chuck schumer are right. there has to be a broader conversation in the congress outside individual committees about how we move forward to ensure we can protect ourselves during the election of 2020. this isn't about what's happened. this is a big issue. i don't think a presidential statement behind the scenes to putin makes much difference. we have to address this in a bigger way. >> there are bipartisan effort to try to address this. john mccain is leading the charge. donald trump has resisted believing, maggie, that this is even happening. reince priebus yesterday talked about what it would take to get donald trump to believe it. so, listen to t

phil mudd, let's discuss this.clearly no love loss between netanyahu and president obama for sure. but this is -- i mean, this is something. what do you make of this? >> brianna, there's nothing to discuss. this is unacceptable. the state department and the president of the united states have to make decisions how to vote on a very sensitive issue in the united nations. and a man who has not been sworn in as president just said if you choose to vote the way i don't want to vote, i will undercut you as soon as i take the oath of office. one president at a time. the second thing i will tell you is, if this president-elect wants to negotiate between palestinians and israelis, he's undercutting his ability to negotiate. he has said there's a potential to move the embassy to jerusalem. unacceptable to palestinians. he's now saying he has a position onsetlements that is unacceptable to palestinians. if you want to go into office neutral in less than a month, you lost your opportunity. i don't understand what's going on h

phil mudd said it well. not who did it benefit but apparently, it took place. >>> up next, a new study reveals americans much less likely to outearn their parents. i'm going to talk to j.d. vance and frank about how this contributed to trump's victory and what means for all of our future. are on the best network. (both) yes! (vo) with no surprise overages, you can use your data worry free and even carry over the data you don't use. and right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only $40 per line. and, just for the holidays, get the motoz play droid absolutely free. no trade-in required. i love you in that, no, i love you in that. no, i love you in that! (vo) hurry, these offers end soon. get the best deals and the best network, only on verizon. in einstein since he started the new beneful recipe. the number one ingredient in it is beef. (einstein) the beef is fantastic! (becky) he has enough energy to believe that he can jump high enough to catch a bird. (vo) try new beneful originals with beef. now with real

let's bounce that concept to you, phil mudd, because the nature of how this is being communicated does not necessarily blow someone out of the water who wants to deny it. we don't know where they got it or how they got it. you know, i know the intelligence community has to keep methods and sourcing somewhat under wraps, but in a situation like this that has become politicized. the president-elect says, i don't buy it. they've been wrong before. how do they know? and the answer is forthcoming aren't the most clarifying. >> i agree, chris. we've got problems on both sides. problems on the intelligence side and problems on the political side. >> when you say problems, phil, just to be clear. are you saying you don't trust the intel or about messaging that you're talking about? >> both. i think we're losing the distinction between what we know and what we think. we know someone stole information that was released on wi wikleaks. we know the fingerprints in the digital world because we've been following them for years. we translate that into saying because we know they stole stuff, we also

phil mudd, thank you very much. alisyn?it never ends with those two. >>> donald trump says that he's getting some guidance for some of his cabinet picks from president obama. what is president obama telling mr. trump exactly? that's next. when you find something worth waiting for, we'll help you invest to protect it for the future. financial guidance while you're mastering life. from chase, so you can. who says i shouldn't havmy doctor.very day? my dentist. definitely my wife. hey wait. we have better bubbles. make sparkling water at home and drink 43% more water every day. sodastream. love your water. freshly made in the tokyo-japanese tradition, each batch is small. special. unique... every bowl blurring the line between food...and art. when you cook with incredible ingredients... you make incredible meals. fresh ingredients. step-by-step-recipes. delivered to your door, for less than $9 a meal. get $30 off your first delivery blueapron.com/cook. >> we have a really good chemistry together. we talk. i really like him as a

phil mudd, thank you for being here as usual. >>> i'll speak to chief strategist sean spicer on all ofs, what are your thoughts? tweet me @smerconish and i will read the best during the course of the program. hit me with something quickly. smerconish, during the campaign he latched on to everything the fbi put out on hillary like it was direct word from god. why the reverse? angel, why the reverse, because it doesn't suit his partisan interests right now. that's why. one more if we've got time for it. smerconish, cnn international, it seems almost treasonist after trump rejects intelligence from his own agencies regarding russian hacking. such a depressing story. it's not who did it benefit? it's appoint that apparently it took place. >>> up next a new study reveals americans are much less likely to outearn their parents. i'll talk about how this contributed to trump's victory and what it means for all of our future. say hi to xiidra, lifitegrast ophthalmic solution. the first eye drop approved for the signs and symptoms of dry eye. one drop in each eye, twice a day. common side effect

phil mudd. jackie kucinich, manu raju and r rebecca berg, thank you all. >>> is russia getting ready for a space war? >>> what is north korea getting ready for? the u.s. spots new activity at a chemical weapons plant as kim jong un oversees a drill by fighter ploilts. ploilts. pilots. ly $40 per line. you'll even get the iphone 7, the samsung galaxy s7, the pixel phone by google, or the motoz droid for only $10 per month. no trade-in required. hurry, these offers end soon. get the best deals and the best network, only on verizon. >>> sources say russia has recently tested what is believed to be an anti-satellite weapon. that is a growing concern for the u.s. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr has been looking into this. tell us, barbara, what you've been learning. >> reporter: why is this so significant? because satellites rub everything from your laptop computer to the military's ability to drop precision bombs. so if those satellites are taken out of commission, that can bring things to

we're joined by counterterrorism analyst phil mudd, and correspondent clarissa ward. so phil, this is being investigated as an act of terrorism, and we've seen al qaeda, we've seen isis calling on people to use a truck or use whatever they have. we saw something similar in a way at ohio state university recently. is that what we could be seeing here? >> i think we could be see thing for a simple reason, if you have looked what the we have faced over the last 15 years, if you look at an airliner or an airport, the access to that facility is difficult. it requires planning, maybe some inside assistance. if you look at what we saw in nice, that truck attack months ago, if you look at ohio state, if you look at this, isis has talked about this in mare magazine, because it's not only easy to do, you don't require any training, you don't require much access to anything but a large geographic space. it's a long way from where we were years ago, because a lot of these people don't have training that the original hijackers had. >> i know that folks must be looking at the target

(laughter) >>> and we are back with ann in london and here with me in new york steven cohen and phil mudd. what do you make of russia's moves over the last few years? >> i have to say in my 40 years of doing and thinking about this, i have never seen anything like this. we are at the moment, by whatever name, in a cold war with russia. more dangerous than the last one. as we talk, it's a confrontation fraught with the possibly of hot war from ukraine to syria. we have in the united states allegations, very little confirmed facts that i have seen that the russians tried to steal our election and that there is a pattern in europe and here that the russias are invading us. meanwhile, the most reputable newspapers are referring to lackeys around trump. so what we really need is what we used to have, is a debate about our own policy and about these dangers and that we are not having that debate but discussing not a whole lot of factual confirmation. i think it puts us in a terrible crisis. and the end result would be a crippled american president who can't pursue whatever he wants to do with r

. >> phil mudd, you worked with the cia, the fbi.when you hear donald trump saying i don't need these daily presidential intelligence briefings, i can do it once a week. they're just telling me the same thing every single day. you helped prepare those presidential daily briefs. what's your reaction to that? >> i can't figure that out. telling you the same thing every day? he's a migraine for the cia. if he's telling you the same thing over the past three days, we've had bombings in turkey, somalia, action with the south korean president, you look at what's happening in aleppo where the government is making major gains against some of the people that we, the u.s. government and cia supports. if i were him, i would be curious about what the pressing social media is saying about his own comments in china and taiwan, all over 72 hours, wolf. the question is not whether the man is smart, the question is whether he's informed. if you're not listening to what's going on around the world, the answer is no. >> why is he dismissing -- i mean,

phil mudd, if i could start with you on some of the nitty gritty of this.bama is expelling 35 "diplomats" from the united states as part of this. how does that work? do they walk out on their own, are they escorted out? >> i guess president obama just told 35 russian families it's time to move on. the fbi has an entire component dedicated to following the russians around. the white house will give them the directive to come one that list of top 35. that has to be coordinated within the government, because you have to anticipate from state department that the ambassador, the u.s. ambassador to moscow will be called in and from the cia, that their officers will be expelled. once you have that internal coordination, the russian embassy in washington will be add vised that those families have 72 hours to leave. so by monday morning, they ought to be out. theoretically, they could say no, but they're going to leave. >> so russia will respond. how big of a loss will that be for the u.s.? >> it's significant because it's a disruption in operations. you have to ant

. >> let's bring back phil mudd to talk about this. also cia director and formerbas. want to start with you. i don't know if you could hear the audio but basically mr. trump is saying he has been proven right about his calls for a muslim ban and he says you know my plans all along and that hab hasn't really changed. we don't know what that is. husband plans have actually changed. but putting that aside for the moment. we heard phil mudd say this is exactly the wrong thing to do, to set up the us against them narrative only actually increases tension and crime and terrorism. what's your thought in. >> this is a difficult and complicated problem. a restriction on muslim immigration might well run afoul of the first amendment. i imagine there are cases on this. it's an interesting and important legal question. you've got that issue just for starters. secondly, you've got the fact that we are at war with a subset of islam. but certainly not with all of isl islam. if you look at indonesia for example and the history of people such as gus doer, late former president of the

phil mudd, clarissa ward. peter bergen. thank you to all of you. we appreciate it. >>> coming up, donald trump reacting to the christmas market attack in berlin. is he getting daily classified intelligence briefings while he vacations in florida? there is no typical day. there is nothing typical about making movies. i'm victoria alonso and i'm an executive producer... ...at marvel studios. we are very much hands-on producers. if my office... ...becomes a plane or an airport the surface pro's perfect. fast and portable but also light. you don't do this 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for... ...decades if you don't feel it in your heart. listen, i know my super power is to not ever sleep. that's it. that's the only super power i have. this is my new alert system for whenever anything happens in the market. but thinkorswim already lets you create custom alerts for all the things that are important to you. i guess we don't need the kid anymore. custom alerts on thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade. won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the

. >> phil mudd, the president walls blunt in describing how he threatened, he warned putin when he saw him at the g-20 summit. listen to this. >> in early september when i saw president putin in china, i felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out there there would be serious consequence it is he didn't. and, in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. >> he says election process, he means voting machines, stuff like that. but there has been other hacking by the russians we're told that's still going on. how much of an impact would a threat like that to putin really be? >> how close to zero can you get, wolf? let's take this out of the public domain. we've seen russian intervention in crimea and ukraine, public with the europeans involved. impact not only zero, but if you look at the russian popular opinion on these interventions, extremely positive. let's go to syria. a lot of pressure on the russians about bombing of the cities by russians. impact not only zero, but the russian popula

phil mudd, take us inside the german intelligence operation right now. what is the very first thing they are trying to determine? what are they doing or trying to draw right now from this suspect or this man that they have in custody? >> many of these cases, obviously, you have a suicide bomber, so you don't have someone to question. in this case, you have an individual, hopefully he's talking. you're going to ask him two questions. is there another plot out there and are there other plotters out there? meanwhile, if you have his identifying, you're going to acquire data like his phone data, e-mail data, to see whether or not he's talking, whether that data can give you a picture of his inner circle. then, shortly after, in the coming days, you start to ask broader questions. did anybody provide him money? was he radicalized someone? but the first question isn't what happened. i wouldn't ask him anything about what happened in that square. my first question would be, did anybody tell you to do this? and is anybody out there tonight planning to do somethi

with us, phil mudd, a former senior official with the fbi, and mark hertling, a retired cia analyst. wringing, this is an awful lot of former military people in very close advisory roles to the president. they worry about sort of a more hawkish foreign policy. but isn't sort of the opposite often true, that it's often the military personnel who are sort of counseling restraint, more than some civilians, who are content to be more hawkish? >> i would certainly agree with that, anderson. and i think it's because of the professional military education that every single general officer goes through on his or her rise to the top. you know, every single general officer has graduated from one of the four war colleges in the country, where they study national security policy. so it's not just as probably many americans think, it's not just military operations and tactics and strategies that they're studying, but they're actually looking at how all elements of national security come together to defend the people of the country. so, it would normally be the military folks in the room, who are

political analyst, and senior editor at "the atlantic" and former cia counterterrorism official, phil mudd, into this. also, ron brownstein with us as well. gentleman, thank you so much. ron, i want to get your take on what elise was just saying. what do you think this is aiming at? is this specifically the election? did you get the sense that trump feels that they're trying to delegitimatize his election? >> well, look, i think the intelligence community has reached two conclusions in succession. the first one was during the fall when they said it was russian intelligence that was behind the hacks of the democratic national committee and john podesta, and all of the information provide ed by wikileaks that proved so destabilizing in the election. and more importantly, according to "the new york times" and "washington post," the cia has concluded, the intelligence agency has concluded, that that intervention in the election was designed specifically to help donald trump win the election. now, they're not saying, as elise noted, that they actually tampered with the voting machines, but they

let's bring in now our two guests cnn national julieette, and phil mudd. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> phil, let me start with the news out just a couple minutes ago. i want to read directly from the tunisian interior ministry statement in relation to the three arrests connected to the berlin attacker, they write it turns out among the members of the cell, the nephew of the berlin terrorist confessed he communicated with his uncle through the telegram app to escape security surveillance. he amri asks him the nephew to swear allegiance to isis organization. phil, when you get that detail about these three men arrested in tunisia, you glean from that what? >> we're at the beginning stages of the investigation, victor. what happens in these cases -- think of this as two steps in the first step over the past few days, the amount of data you're absorbing, communications including travel patterns, documents, text messages, phone calls, that will blow up the investigation so you're talking potentially to dozens or more people. you will then beg

joining us, cnn counterterrorism analyst, former cia, and fbi official phil mudd. cnn intelligence and security analyst, former cia officer bob baer. phil, how big a deal do you think it is the president-elect is not getting daily presidential briefings? >> i don't think it's a huge deal. i think that's the wrong question. there's a variety of avenues a president can get information, written product, briefing product as the president-elect, himself, said, his vice president is getting this information every day. let's hope there are filters putting information to him, what's happening in aleppo today, attacks in the middle east over the weekend, there's a political crisis in south korea right across the border from north korea. i think the question is about trust. going forward when you're looking at things like russian involvement in ukraine, russian involvement in syria, what's happening with the iran nuclear deal that the president opposes? does the president trust what he's getting or is he going to step back and say my advisers will give me what to think, i don

and we have counterterrorism analyst phil mudd. phil, you and i have been corresponding off camera here about the reporting. the concern is it's not just this guy. not just this market and you have different countries now weighing in on what the plots could be, how these are related and who's responsible for this guy getting that far away, even french intelligence authorities saying he must have gone through france to get to italy. did he go through pairs and did we miss him, too? what is your take? >> well, yeah, he went through france. we know that now and then by train to italy, a country he spent quite a few years in and was imprisoned in for quite a few years, as well. he could have been wearing a baseball cap, some sunglasses, something to disguise himself. that made it easier for him to travel all the way to italy from germany, despite being the most wanted man in europe. it remains to be seen whether he was getting help from this isis recruitment a logistical network he was part of inside germany. a lot of questions, why did

let's bring in paul cruickshank look with phil mudd. and we also have a former cia counterterrorism analyst and former fbi investigator. paul, you are learning new information about an anis amri. what is the latest? >> the new information is that back in december of 2015, amri was preparing to try to go and join isis, actually going on long 20 mile treks in order to shape up for the journey, but he wasn't able to travel. he had become frustrated by that. and then started talking about launching attacks inside germany. all of that being picked up by a police informant inside this network in germany and then transmitted to german security officials. this recruit him network inside germany according to analysts believed to have been responsible for as many as 20 peoplehim network inside germany according to analysts believed to have been responsible for as many as 20 people joining isis. and so that is a rather large number of people. one of them, according to information in this investigative files rose to a senior level within the securi

phil mudd made the point a couple days ago, a former intelligence official, that this is a strategicionship, that tillerson could use, his relationship with russian and putin officials, could be used to help the united states. it could end up being an asset and the concern that democrats have is that there is a form that you fill out when you're nominated for a cabinet position. he wasn't explicit that he would give over his tax returns. >> just information about his tax returns. >> yes, exactly. now, there's no requirement that -- there's no rule he has to give them over and democrats really do, though, risk politicizing this to the point that they push republicans into tillerson's pocket that he wouldn't have normally had. >> because there are republicans who have concerns, ed, and it seems like what they want to extract from him during this confirmation process are assurances, right? >> and there's no democrat i've talked to who thinks that he would be defeated. but certainly nominee to nominee democrats hope to sort of wound them along the way, slow the process, make it so that t

phil mudd, starting with you.at stood out to you in the president's approximately 45-minute speech? >> wolf, quite simply tone and temperament. step away from all the details and go back eight years. we have a new president talking about change who says i am going to shut down guantanamo and pull out of places like iraq. reality is a brutal teacher. guantanamo closure was opposed by congress. it's still not closed, obviously. isis was the reality that taught the president you cannot pull out that quickly. we have a president-elect now who says i might reince tut wat reince t reince water boarding. i think when he transitions from the campaign trail to the oval office that he's going to face the same problems with the bureaucracy and international reality that president obama did. the message from the president is simple. say whatever you want on the trail. when you face the realities of the office, tone and temperament will be different. >> david axelrod, you served as a top advisor to president obama during his f

. >> all right, phil mudd, manu raju. china makes a bold military move in contested waters. why china is claiming it's all in the name of self-defense. try theraflu expressmax,nd flu hold you back now in new caplets. it's the only cold & flu caplet that has a maximum strength formula with a unique warming sensation you instantly feel. theraflu. for a powerful comeback. new expressmax caplets. >>> a bold and alarming move, new satellite images reveal anti-aircraft and other weapons systems have now been installed at a group of artificial islands in the contested waters of the south china sea. china has already built military-length airstrips. and deployed missiles to the island. cnn's pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more. hi, barbara. >> good morning, carol. well, this move is likely to be politically unsettling, at least. you know, president-elect donald trump already commenting that china should not be doing this in this area. these contested waters. also, unlike -- likely to unsettle china's nearby neighbors, e

and cia paul cruickshank and cnn counterterrorism analyst and former cia counterterrorism official phil mudd. paul we hear you have just learned new details. what are they? >> -- from german security officials that the tunisian perpetrator of this attack, there's a manhunt going on right now, were connected to a isis recruitment network in germany whose key leaders were arrested in november, so just a few weeks ago, including a charismatic individual who said himself that he's part of isis. this was a network that was trying to smuggle people from germany to syria and iraq to join the terrorist network, isis. also hearing that the tunisian suspect was actually arrested, trying to get over to italy with a forged document in the southern german town in august but a judge let him go. that's another key detail hearing from a german security official. i'm also hearing that there are new ongoing raids in north ryne westphalia. that's where this radical recruitment network for isis were trying to proselytize where they were selecting people to travel to join isis in syria and iraq. so there are a l

do have some breaking news now so let's get to cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank as well as phil mudd. paul, what have you just learned? >> well, we have obtained sections of a 345-page investigative file into this so-called abu wallah network, the radical isis recruiting network in germany to which this suspect belonged. the suspect mentioned several times in the file, and most notably discussed that the file talks about him discussing attacks inside germany. there was a place informant providing investigators with details, and he told the investigators that this suspect, months before the attack, launching abeing tos inside germany, and had been supported in that wish by senior members of this network who provided him with some lodgings inside germany. these extraordinary investigative files also reveal that according to the police informant other members of the network discussed launching truck attacks inside germany, to load those trucks with gasoline, with bombs, and drive them into crowds. german investigators, jemplen security services, aware of all of this before the attack. a

. >>> "outfront" now, phil mudd, former cia counterterrorer official. chris, former assistant fbi director for criminal investigative division. and paul cruickshank, our terror analyst. i have a picture of the truck i'm going to show. first, paul, you've been talking to your sources. what have you learned about this attack? >> erin, they're investigating this as a terrorist attack but have not yet made that determination that it, indeed, was, a terrorist attack. as officials look at what's played out in the last few hours in per lyberlin, they see the similarities with the nice attack in the summer in which 86 people were killed biy an is-is-inspired driver. they see the parallels a few weeks ago, the attacker, ohio state university in the united states. a smaller car was involved in that attack. fortunately, there were no fatalities in that example. but they're looking at this as a potential terrorist attack. we have not had any claim of responsibility yet from any terrorist group. isis has been silent on this so far. that may change in the hours ahead

let's bring in counterterrorism analyst and cia official phil mudd and former u.s. ambassador to iraq and turkey james jeffries. gentlemen thank you very much. so they have these i' identification papers of a tunisian. they have dna from truck. why aren't they releasing his name. what now? how do they try to find one person in a european manhunt? >> first thing they are going to do is look at public information, for example where he lived, his apartments, go talk to anybody who lived with him or around him. if they have a name you can presume they have the potential to go to communications companies and determine if he has a cell phone. he has a cell phone that thing is like a noose around his neck. who did he talk, to who did he text, his contact list. every one of those people are being covered. the next question is whether they have a photograph so you can go to the public. they know if they have technical information like his phone, who his inner circle is. i want to know if they release the photo if he touches people who he doesn't know and call in and say hey

. >> phil mudd, cnn's counter terrorism analyst, a former cia operative, right, he's worked for the cia for a long time before retiring, he said since mr. trump is discounting what our intelligence agencies are saying, namely the cia, as far as russia tilting the election to hillary clinton, and he's believing the kremlin instead, phil says that russia's sitting back and laughing and jumping for joy because they won. >> right. right. i mean, this is the thing. i think we can expect a reset like we have never seen before and what do i mean by that. i mean when president obama came in and when president bush came in before him, they all said okay, let's start with a fresh page with russia. let's see if we can cooperate. but with trump, it's going to go even beyond normal cooperation, where the danger is in lifting sanctions, for example, that we are actually, would be doing something counter to u.s. interests, counter to the interests of our allies in europe, and frankly, counter to our values. on syria, i want to say before i run out of time, president trump should be calling president p