senator richard blumenthal of the nutmeg state, connecticut. thank you.ur weekend, sir. >> thank you. >> a reminder, we are waiting to see president-elect donald trump in louisiana. we'll bring it to you when it happens there. again, keep in mind he ran on the promise of better jobs, wages for average americans, but is donald trump now betraying the working class with some of his cabinet appointees? >>> plus, a hero remembered. saying good-bye to john glenn, the first american to orbit the earth. >> god speed, john glenn. five, four, three, two, one, zero. discover card. i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. give it. sure! it's free for everyone. oh! well that's nice! and checking your score won't hurt your credit. oh! i'm so proud of you. well thank you. free at at discover.com/creditscorecard, even if you're not a customer. let's just get a sandwich or something. "or something"? you don't just graduate from medical school, "or something." and we don't just pull smoked chicken, bake fresh foccacia and hand-slice avocado. there'

speaks of overregulation we will speak to senator richard blumenthal. he represents the state of connecticut. that is where the engine for the f-35 is made. we will ask whether politics play a role. >>> let's get to our "closing bell" exchange for the christmas eve eve. dow up one point. we are trading at 19,919. joining us today andris fleming. there is steven at post nine. and we have rick santelli checking in from chicago, as well. happy friday. what is holding us back here? michael santoli used the rocket took off after the election but we spent all the fuel and just hovering right now. what is causing that do you think? >> there is a couple of things going on. wednesday afternoon we had two serious technical levels break on the s&p 500. on the russell 2,000 that was 1,377. they broke side by side and we haven't come too close since. trading has been light. we are faced off with a pension fund rebalance that is larger than usual. every month we have rebalances to deal with. this time due to the run in equities we are probably looking at $35 billion

joining me now is senator richard blumenthal, democrat from connecticut and a member of the armed services committee. thank you for joining. senator mcconnell is saying along with many people in both parties there should be a full investigation. what do you think that inquiry should do and should it include a look at potential financial conflicts or ties between donald trump's companies and russia? >> this investigation ought to be bipartisan and clearly there's bipartisan agreement that clear and convincing evidence mandate a congressional investigation. and possibly a commission to be established, legislatively, to focus on the criminal cyberattack on the united states. let's be very clear. what happened here was cyberespionage, directed at our democracy, and a violation of our criminal law. the computer fraud and abuse act let to indictments of five chinese military officials, just last may. what happened here is even more egregious. and this commission or select committee ought to investigate that violation of our criminal law. put aside donald trump's complicate conflicts of interest

connecticut senator richard blumenthal was asking the airlines to voluntarily ban e-cigs from airplane cabins and wants the federal government to recall them until they can have clear safety standards for these batteries. >> interim police cheech tony chaplin speaks to abc 7 news for the first time since he did not get the top job. >> a look into a >>> san francisco's interim police chief tony chaplin are l stay on the force when the new chief takes over. >> vic lee is live at police headquarters with this story you'll see only on 7 news. vic? >> reporter: tony chaplin says it's been a whirlwind seven months as interim police chief, and he says he is thankful for the support he's gotten from the rank and file and also from community leaders, and he also tells me he's going nowhere. he'll stay put right here at the sfpd where he has been for the past decades. >> it's been seven months since tony chaplin was tapped by mayor ed lee to be interim police chief and a 26-year veteran and a street cop who rose through the ranks. >> it's really a tough job. you know, you go from incredible high

she lost to the democratic incumbent richard blumenthal. she also contributed amounts of money to the trump foundation. we've all seen the video of donald trump at a professional wrestling match, so this is a relationship that is being turned in to the head of the small business administration for linda mcmann, guys. >> john, what do you think is most significant about the sba role? >> well, the sba is there to facilitate lending to small businesses and helping them overcome red tape and other difficulties in getting going. obviously donald trump comes out of the business world. he's not what you would call a small businessman, but he has got deep connections to figures in the business community all over the country and all over the world. and he is going to put that business sensibility to work at the sba. >> all right. john harwood with the latest on one of trump's picks being announced this afternoon with linda mcmann by sba. >>> as donald trump promised in time magazine to lower drug prices. we'll find out what that means for that indus

and in the senate including patty murray, richard burr, bernie sanders, johnny isakson, and richard blumenthal. i'm also grateful to the house leadership including john boehner, paul ryan, kevin mccarthy, and all the committee members who strive day in and day out to do right by america's vet van -- veteran heroes. it is nothing less than what our veterans deserve. much remains to be done. we can all be proud of the work that we have together accomplished so far. i have every confidence, mr. speaker, that the next committee chairman, dr. roe, who i'm grateful to call a friend, will continue the work that we have started and i look forward to seeing all that he and the house will continue to accomplish for the men and women who have worn the uniform and born the battle and who without a doubt are most worthy of our appreciation and our support. again, mr. speaker, i thank my family, most especially my wife, for the support that they have given during my service here in this congress. with that, i urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time. the

jeanne shaheen and richard blumenthal have requested an official review of flynn's security clearance citing today's report in a separate incident in which he disclosed information to pakistan and that he, and i'm quoting, had technicians secretly install an internet connection in his pentagon office even though it was forbidden. he's become the main funnel for security information to a president who you'll recall has been skipping his intelligence briefings because, as trump said, i'm like a smart person. joining me now, michael steele, former chair of the republan national committee. the lock her up thing, i mean, it's amazing the parallels, right? >> yeah. >> so hillary clinton does this thing that violates protocol. she's investigating. the finding is, yeah, she violated protocol but she didn't knowingly compromise national security, she's okay. >> but the argument was that she knowingly violated that protocol -- >> right. and general flynn did the same thing. >> no. they said he did not know he had violated this protocol. and that's the difference. >> you think it's perfectly fin

in fact, the bill that we discussed today which is named in part for richard blumenthal is as he said a minute ago a downpayment on the continuing debt we owe to our veterans who have served us well. i said that first day in the committee when i took over as chairman. you know, there are no republican veterans and no democratic veterans. there are only american veterans. they are the americans that fought for our flag, fought for our constitution, fought for our liberty and fought for each of us. i'm proud to have fought with richard in the fox hole of the united states senate for our veterans. there is much left to be done. with the passage of this act today which is named after senator blumenthal and congressman jeff miller who is retiring in the house, we're making another downpayment on what we owe our veterans. there other other payments soon to come. i met earlier today with john mccain. we've made a commitment to make sure veterans choice is made permanent to our veterans and work to see to it that veterans have the best choice they can have. not to privatize the v.a. but optim

couple of moments of tension, though, one of those when senator richard blumenthal of connecticut askedoth ceos to attest they wouldn't weaken their news. i asked randall stevenson about that after the hearing and here's that he told me. >> purpose in a news agency is to provide objective coverage of the news, period. why would that change? regardless of who is president or who owns cnn. objective news coverage is the objective. >> mark cuban of the dallas mavericks on hand, he made the argument that even though this is an $85 billion proposed deal all in, these guys are still the underdogs when they're compared to google and facebook and the other entities in silicon valley that they'll have to compete with. here is what mark cuban told me also just after the hearing. >> regardless of the size, just in terms of content, opportunity, disruption, these guys are at a disadvantage. i don't see this as being a negative consumers, i think it is going to be a big positive. >> overall, even though there were a couple of those tense moments, you have to say nothing here that could potentially d

opportunity to better care for our veterans with the passage of h.r. 6416, the jeff miller and richard blumenthal veterans health care and benefits improvement act of 2016. i look forward to this legislation which has passed the house coming to the senate. it includes 76 bipartisan provisions to improve v.a. health care, streamline disability compensation and address other benefits and services that must be reformed to better serve our veterans. i thank the chairman of the committee, my chairman of my committee, the senator from georgia for his leadership in this regard. and i'm particularly pleased that this legislation includes legislation that i along with senator blumenthal have diligently worked for over the last several years and it's sponsored by 48 of our senate colleagues, the toxic exposure research act. this legislation takes a significant step toward researching the potential health effects from toxic exposure to veterans and their descendants. to send a strong message to our veterans we must pass this legislation. i often meet at the world war ii memorial with veterans for the memori

. >> you have senator ron white and joe manchin and senator richard blumenthal and chris coons and debbiefrustration because this isn't something we want to get behind. >> remember when president obama was campaigning he needed a lot of pro-israel support so we didn't hear any of this from him. but another big part of the obama campaign, especially in 2008 was we are going to go and talk to iran and north korea and cuba. all of these enemies. look what he -- when you are spending that time much time with the enemies, what about our friends? if you are israel with friends like us, who needs enemies, man, they are by themselves at least for another couple weeks. >> and remember that scene at the democratic convention? i was there in charlotte in 2012. the fight over language in the platform about whether or not to move the u.s. embassy in israel. we have got it? >> all those delegates opposed say no. >> no. >> and the opinion of the chair two thirds have voted in the affirmative, the motion is adopted and the platform has been amended as shown on the screen. >> i remember that was a moment