at haven't of the one of lastest oil companies he has ties to none other than vlad putin and the kremlin. putin awarded him the russian order of friendship, an honor for a foreign citizen. president-elect presented the ties as a selling opinionment we have team coverage of the trump transition and russian hacking. mike emannal mass more, and first to john roberts live at trump tower in mid-town with more on the secretary of state search. john? >> reporter: good afternoon. the announce. won't come for another couple of days, but sources tell fox news donald trump settled on his pick for secretary of state and is the exxonmobil pret -- president and ceo, rex tillerson, tillerson was recommend by neatable people who used to be in government. robert gates and condoleezza rice, very big supporter's tillerson and he is friends with james baker. one thing that donald trump likes with tillerson he is a dealmaker and has crafted some very complicated deals in in of the most difficult plays in word, here's what trump said about tillerson. >> much more than a business executive. he is a world class

consider this, president trump gets off the phone with vlad putin, says, vlad agree with you, i need defense, "mad dog." that alone is worth a deterrent wing of b-21 nuclear bombers. we want to deter our enemies. i think that is the right choice. melissa: i can imagine him calling him vlad as well. makes sense to me. how does his approach different? from his tone you think he is growing to be very aggressive but he is also cerebral and thoughtful. how do you think his approach will be different than what we've done? >> i think it will be very balanced but the fact when you have iranian speedboats driving fast and threatening our ships in the in the gulf, hello cop aiming weapons at us and fighters close by, that will stop. he will tell them if you take any provocative action toward us we will shoot you down. that will stop. many other things iranians are doing in the middle east will stop. i assure you within 30 to 60 days, from the 209th of january -- 20th of january, isis will no longer be called a caliphate. melissa: i hope you're right. general thanks for coming on we appreciate

vlad. putin announcing he's taking the highroad for now and will not expel american diplomats in response to u.s. sanctions against russia for hacks targeting the dnc during the 2016 race. he also invited diplomats and their children in russia to christmas and new year's shows in the kremlin. president-elect trump a short time ago, you've probably seen this, reacted with this tweet -- great move on delay by v. putin. i always knew he was very smart. jim sciutto joins us now. that tweet aside, russia vowed to answer any hostile steps from the u.s. but it hasn't been very hostile so far, right? >> no, it hasn't. let obesity honest with you, he'll get a much friendlier u.s. administration in three weeks' time. he knows that and with that tweet donald trump has been telegraphing that broadly and widely. perhaps a smart strategic move the wait. vladimir putin has always been very conscious of political theater and with these moves inviting american children to a new year's celebration, holding off for

putin? >> well, vlad is a bit of a tough guy, so telling him you're going to send hem a very angry letter probably't do it. we have to do something that sends a political message and that says relationships and money. >> reporter: president obama says the u.s. will respond. among the options on the table are sanctions or an offensive cyberattack. but, scott, there's no historical precedent to draw on here as the administration tries to avoid an >> pelley: jeff pegues, thanks. well, mr. trump has mocked the allegations of russian hacking, but it appeared today that the president-elect is having a change of tweet. here's major garrett. >> reporter: in the past 24 hours, mr. trump offered two tweets that for the first time acceptedly the possibility of politically motivated russian hacking. this morning mr. trump acknowledged that the hack revealed damaging information about the democratic national committee. yesterday he wrote, "if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act? why did they only complain after hillary lost?" in fact, intelligence officials publ

and that struck me as being, you know, pertinent to what vladmir putin, vlad the merciful they're callingim now. by refusing the advice of his foreign ministry and refusing to expel them in a tit for tat manner from the u.s. expulsions of the russian diplomats. he used that to his advantage dramatically, didn't he? it was an amazing bit of political theater. he took a side swipe at the obama administration, reached out across to the incoming trump administration and said, look, you know, the future of relations between russia and the united states are going to be dependent on the policies of donald trump when he becomes president. donald trump appreciated that very much, tweeting his applause for that putin move. >> matthew chance, thank you so much. >>> so with all of this out there now, what could it mean for u.s./russia relations under a trump administration? that's coming up next. >>> donald trump is going to ring in the new year in style at a big party at his resort in florida. he heads back to new york tomorrow. rebecca burg is a national political reporter for real clear politics.

. >> not much in russia happens without vlad peer putimir putin. >> reporter: a hearing was announced into the hacks, defended by representative bird whose analysis has been questioned by president-elect trump saying, "unlike many in washington, though, they check politics at the office door and focus on their mission." before leaving with his family for hawaii for the holidays, a mostly defensive president, but a hint of offense. >> so at a point in time where we've taken certain actions that we can divulge publicly, we will do so. at times there is message that will be directly received by the russians and not publicized. zoo that was the longest press conference of obama's presidency. he declined numerous opportunities to criticize his successor giving donald trump a lot of leeway. even declining to criticize him for taking that phone call from taiwan's president saying that the entire foreign policy everything needs to be "subject to fresh eyes." >> hans, thank you. >>> what do the russians think about president obama's tough talk? our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is

now you flip it around, donald trump is too close to vlad and putin is a bad guy. wait in 2012 in that debate, you said we were going to be friends. >> exactly right. they cross red lines and support the assad regime. we do nothing. now for the election violation, we expel spies and close down two compounds. it's a slap on the wrist diplomatically. we would have done it in the cold war. happened all the time. this is a big decisive action? no, it's not. >> it's like fixing a broken arm with a band-aid. what does that do at the end of the day? why not hit on the inner circle? where does he get hit the hardest? is that the question? >> absolutely. the compounds we're going after, they're mysterious. one in maryland outside of d.c. you can see it there. it's about an hour and a half outside of d.c. on the eastern shore of maryland. beautiful area. been there many times. never been to that compound, i can assure you. >> apparent live, they've got great parties there. they've served them vodka. >> we go there because we want to be secret and -- what is happening? >> whe

vlad! the intelligence community keeps telling us that russia, putin specifically, hacked our election. but now, donald trump is tweeting stuff like, "if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act? why did they only complain after hillary lost?" they did complain before she lost, donald! i complained, too. the president did. you talked about it. you asked them to hack hillary! >> russia, if you are listening, i hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. >> stephen: oh, you know where the russians might find those emails? wherever you're hiding your tax returns. ( cheers and applause ) just look. look there! look there! >> jon: oh, ooooh! >> stephen: so check one's calendar. five weeks from today, donald j. trump will be our next president. they're all going, "trump!" no one knows what to expect. will he divest his businesses? will he hold press conferences? will state dinners be replaced ( laughter ) "merkel, keep your grubby hands off my happy meal toy." but we do know what the trump administration is going to do about global

vlad. president-elect trump receiving a nice letter from vladimir putin. good afternoon. we begin this friday afternoon with a critical warning from u.s. intelligence officials right before this christmas and hannukkah weekend. the fbi ask the u.s. department of homeland security releasing a joint bulletin regarding possible isis threats. cnn justice correspondent evan perez joins us. >> this is a bulletin that the fbi and the homeland security department have sent along in the last couple hours, and to private security cameras around the country. it needs part, isis sympathizers continue operational calls for tikes holiday gatherings, including targeting churches. we have christmas and hannukkah churches beginning tomorrow and law enforcement agencies are being told to be vigilant, to look for suspicious activity. we should note officials tell us this was sent out of an abundance of caution. there is no credible threat in the united states. the military in europe also issued its own warning to troops and to families there. they suggest taking precautions, such as going t

vlad situation. we have the national security adviser and state, they share this situation of being a friend of putin. as an american i find it absolutely disturbing that we have that nexus in these three positions, and we've got a developing problem that, i don't know how we're going to resolve it. >> it's hard to think in those three, in the president, national security and secretary of state how they could possibly be any more pro vladimir putin, how they could, in any way, be more positive about putin. >> and that's the problem is that in any one case you might say, well, it's actually good to have somebody on the team who has good relations with russia, who has some understanding of the president of russia as a foreign leader. and speaking for myself, it makes me uncomfortable when you have enough people in the room who think that vladimir putin is, who basically share vladimir putin's world view, and i think this is something that's really important to ask to the nominees, the degree to which they do share that world view. i think it's fair to worry about whether or not this is going to provide

response to vladimir putin's i will advised comment earlier this week that russia would develop weapons that would negative divat negate the u.s. nuclear arsenal. trump was saying okay, vladutin. when you say president-elect trump is only talking about rebuilding the nuclear arsenal, didn't he go further though by saying expand our capabilities? isn't that what alarmed people? >> well, i think what does expand mean? i hate to go thrint on you. if you are expanding the capabilities of individual systems, that's northernization, if you are expanding numbers of nuclear warheads, that's something different. we're not going to do that. we don't need to do that. russia is not going to do that. look, we have been putting patches on the elbows and sleeves of our nuclear systems. our nuclear triad for more than a generation. now it's time for a new outfit. again, even obama recognized that we need to modernize our nukes. because the paradox is as monstrous as nuclear weapons are, they have kept the peace of europe and the world for almost for more than two generations. and the more terrible they are, the less likely they are to be used. the left will never deal with that. >> weste