>> doesn't have to be true for you to blackmail in chicago, the departing two terms in chicago, the departing two terms president speaks to a massive crowd and to the nation reminding to americans where we come and barack obama is moved to tears along with many of those watching. while in new york and washington tonight, all eyes on the breaking news story involving president-elect trump, and compromiing intelligence in the hands of the russia.

our special "the 11th hour" begins now. good evening in new york. we are having one of those moments of events of the farewell address of the two-term 44 president of the united states and now an expensive story having to do with the president-elect trump. nine days before the inauguration and it involves the russians. later in this broadcast where tonight we have the president speaking to a crowd of 20,000 here. first, the story that's breaking tonight. this starts out with intelligence briefers who delivered the sensitive information to the president-elect trump. those same briefers shared with both men separately of obama and trump, a report that russians

have compromising information of donald trump. the president-elect trump says this on twitter, "fake news, a total political witch hunt." for more lets turn to our andrea mitchell and our reporter ken delaney and our 35 years veteran in the trades and of homeland security and the author of a very timely new book of the plot to hack america and how putin's cyber spies and wikileaks tried to steal the election. and here with hardball with chris matthews with us late at night talking about all of this. en ken, i am going to start with you. first of all, how did briefers

come to present this information both to the president and president-elect trump, what might have been their motives and along the way, can you get to how john mccain pops up in the story. >> sure, brian, i have to be careful of what nbc confirmed tonight with the help of pete william us and andrea mitchell. we know of two-page addendum of the materials that were presented to president obama and president-elect trump and senior leaders of congress, the gang of eight. that addendum summed up a larger group of allegations damaging, potentially explosives about donald trump and don't know if those allegations have been vetted by the u.s. intelligent community, some of them are verified and don't know the extent of what the fbi have sought to verify them.

it is a felony to talk about of these officials and presented to president-elect trump. the russians had information on a lot of different people and republicans and democrats and only chose the leak of information of democrats. secondly, they want to make sure they made trump aware that this information was circulating in the intelligent community before it leaked. >> andrea mitchell, it is being reported two kind of prongs to this. the salacious and the officials, if you will, that's the notion that contacts were going on between the trump people and people in russia. >> well, on that score, there is been some suspicions and the clinton campaign has heard about

this as early as august and a lot of finger pointing at roger stone. and rudy giuliani 's comments indicating pre-knowledge of this. they were already suspicious. the question is, is this being investigated by the fbi? we have not confirmed that. intriguing hence of this, lyndsey gram to chuck todd on "meet the press" suggesting there is some investigation going on. i was covering the intelligence hearing today when ron whiten asked the question of james comey since all of the appearances of the election. he said he could not discuss that in open sessions. they did go into closed sessions later. and the senator from main found that it is highly ironic that james comey could not discuss an ongoing investigation yay or nay

of everything that's happening. so it was a lot of hints and smoke about this. they did raise these questions and they said they're going to in close sessions into the afternoon and early evening. we don't know whether there is, we, at nbc, have not confirm that the fbi is investigating those contacts. if they are, that, of course, is a big red flag for a in coming administration. >> malcolm nanse, we are trying to deal with the known and folks can go crazy on the web tonight and read all that's put out there. i looked back in my notes, you and i converse regularly on television and weeks ago, i

asked you a question about why so many people seemed to be bending over backward to give russia and putin a especially the benefit of the doubt. you profited weeks ago that donald trump has been compromised some how, my question to you as our friend in the spy business, what did you know and when did you know it or was this a surmise on your part? >> my book is analysis of all known information and not being a journalist, i am a spy. i see things differently and exact same way of how the cia does. >> it is most likely -- >> the presidential daily briefs.

>> it is confirmed intelligence which they took and confirmed the very few things that came the mi 6 source that people are talking about. we don't put things out of these super highly sensitive briefings that is not confirmed through our messages. the rumors that we do traffic in are the ones that collect through the highest technical intelligence of multi billion dollar platform that there are or actual agents inspired in the field. whatever information they had, i went through conjectures and surmise and contexts of the president -- they collected our intelligence using the most sensitive sources. there had to be compromising intelligence out there and donald trump went to russia with unsecured phones and internet and met people and you know hung out --

>> and even if a citizen at the time and did not have presidential ambitions. >> i dangle john mccain's name out there. i will ask and answer the same thing. it is that carl berstein reporting tonight that john mccain was given this diplomat and handed over to the fbi. >> chris matthew, you are a journalist and not a spy. you are the opposite of malcolm nance, what do you make of this story? >> well, here it is tuesday night breaking twelve days

before inauguration of very much the same time frame that we saw the comey's story breaking right before the election. this is coming at a critical moment. the american people have to honor a peaceful of transfer of power. if this story blows up tomorrow morning, the russians, vladimir putin, holds information now that is personally embarrassing and some grievous manner to the president-elect trump. did he allowed himself to be nominated and knowing they had something on him and use him and extort him? >> this is been a romance by the american people with a man, it is been a world wind romance with a guy that we did not know. it is hard to say when you don't think he's capable of. many people don't know what donald trump. they know what he stood for.

i am challenging the establishment that you have grown tired of. you feel that it exploited you and abused you. they did not study this guy. he's kind of a character that could be capable of anything. it was a world win romance and now they are meeting the guy they agreed to marry point and it is going to be official. it is worse than concerning. the only concern is whether or not true or not. >> kellyanne conway appears tonight as a guest on seth meyers' show airing on the nbc television network. here is a portion of that interview when seth myers brought up tonight's reports. >> they're unnamed and unspoken sources. it was based on russian investigators to be begin with.

>> based on an mi 6 investigators. >> one of those and it may have originated with russian investigators and also says that the group that wanted hillary clinton to win made them behind the investigation themselves and most importantly that the fbi is trying to confirm. nothing has been confirmed. as an american citizen, we should be concerned that intelligence officials leaked to the press and won't go and tell the president or the president of united states himself, mr. obama of what the information is. they rather tell the press. >> the press report was about them going to the president. >> it says that they never briefed him on it and they appended of two pages at the bottom. >> i believe they did brief him on it >> he says, he was not aware of that. >> that concerns me. >> i understand.

>> it is not true. >> what is not true, that i am concerned? >> that i see. >> i assure you, i am. >> seth myers with kellyanne conway for air tonight. malcolm nance, you are the specialist here and donald trump is still on the calendar to have his first news conference since july. tomorrow at trump tower, if i give you the nbc seat in the front row, what would you ask on the story? >> i would ask what i can tell everyone in the intelligence is thinking right now. did the campaign know anything about these russian hacks or any individual in the campaign and when did they know it and what did they know and was any of his staff complacent in communicating with the russians or wikileaks which is essentially russian intelligence. if it is true, we got a

constitutional crisis. if they don't say anything and continue to praise russia, then it starts to look like a cover up. i am not a politician, i can deliver the content but when i start to see it abused in such a way and create what the russians call, to mass your intentions then we got to ask you serious questions. >> we'll end this segment on that note with our thanks to mitchell and ken delaney and malcolm nance and chris, hang on, we'll be back. after our first break, coming up, reactions to all of this and plus a preview of what may come tomorrow on capitol hill when lets remember -- trump's pick for secretary of state faces questions on russia. senator murphy is coming here next. this is "the 11th hour" on nbc. msnbc.

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president-elect trump nominated secretary of state, rex tillerson, russia opposes a danger, the united states must be clear-eyed with the relationship of russia. joining us from washington is a member of the committee that'll be questioning secretary of state nominee, rex tillerson. this committee will have a huge role in shaping the portions of the trump administration. senator murphy, i have to begin

these explosive allegations in this story tonight. were you reading them as we all have and were you briefed as a member of the committee? >> no, we have not been briefed on these allegations. the director of the fbi and james clapper will be before the senate and all senators briefing later this week and so i expect that either we'll be briefed or ask questions about the allegations at that time. i hope and i pray that these allegations are not true. many of us have been scratching our heads over a year now trying to understand why donald trump has become a very purposeful ally of a vicious time in vladimir putin and why he seems to defend his actions every turn.

i hope it is not the explanation because if it is, it is the biggest story of the united states. tomorrow's hearing on tillerson is our first opportunity to sit down and try to ask those questions of why, why is donald trump seeking an alliance with someone this vicious and wishes nothing ill will on the united states. >> tillerson was selected in part for his relationship years long standing with russia in general and putin specifically. >> what concerns a lot of us and tillerson is an experienced businessman and someone who does a lot of relationships with important people around the world is that he had no experience in diplomacy. it is different in cutting oil and gas deals and sudan and russia and you have a president,

the first in our nation's history who has no experience in diplomacy and who has a national security adviser who's an out right conspiracy theorist. again, distinct and separate from the policy questions and the lack of experience of the highest levels of foreign policy once january 20th hits, it is incredibly alarming. we'll be able to get some answers as to why he was picked other than his relationship with putin in our questions tomorrow. >> the committee mathematically is really a razor's edge for nominees in that. while you and the democratic party are in the minority, it takes one republican switch over to block a nominee. having said that, after you dispense with secretary tillerson, are you calling for hearings on this topic we are discussing here tonight regarding mr. trump?

>> well, i think we all have to sit back and sort through the reports that many of us have not read documents and i think we'll get a chance to be briefed on this and later this week. lets sit back and take a little bit of a breath before we call anything like open hearings like the united states congress. i think these are serious allegations and totally and utterly disqualifying for president-elect trump if they are true. right now it is not enough for us to step forward and calling for a hearing. we need a lot more information. >> right now i don't understand how republicans like marco rubio who's on the committee and in the senate and at large of people like john mccain and lyndsey graham voted for tillerson. the intent of trump's -- is to

move away from president obama's tough stance against russia. they have setting up a scenario where they are going to roll back of all of the sanctions. so if tillerson cannot make a clear, clean promise tomorrow to rubio and mccain and graham, they're not only going to maintain the existing sanctions but increase sanctions because of putin's activities in this election. i don't know how those guys have been railing on obama for how soft he's been on putin and how they could vote for tillerson. if it fails, it fails by a few votes. i don't see how all these republicans can kill on obama for being so soft on obama and going rail on tillerson. >> we'll hear on this. we don't see us but we'll see you. we'll be back live tomorrow.

chris murphy in connecticut, thank you so much for coming on tonight. >> thank you, brian. the parting message in chicago tonight from president obama when "the 11th hour" continues.

and they're absolutely right. they say that it's hot... when really, it's scorching.

and while some may say the desert is desolate... we prefer secluded. what is the desert? it's absolutely what you need right now. absolutely scottsdale. our constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. but, it is really -- just a

piece of parchment. it has no power on its own. we the people, we the people give it power, we the people give it meaning and giving it choices that we make and the alliances that we form. that's up to us. america's no fragile thing. the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured. >> in a moment we'll show you what he says in his wife. that was the president in chicago talking about the constitution while delivering his farewell address. he was played off stage tonight by the bruce springsteen song and that summarized the theme, it was a thank you in part and

of a reading where we are and who we once were and where we maybe headed. with us the talk about it all tonight, chris jansing who's live in chicago and here with us tonight, the host of "hardball," chris matthew and our friend eugene robertson who is also on msnbc and out to chicago we go to begin. chris jansing of all the thousands of miles you flown covering this man and hundreds of events you covered. i was struck of what's missing from the crowd of 2000s. >> they were not holding up their cell phones through a lot of this speech. they were sitting and paid close attention to the man who many of

them have been following since 2008, back to 2004 when he made that first speech at the democratic convention. something you don't see often in this social media age. this speech that was so finely crafted it and thought out by him and his staff and not just his speech writer but some of the people he dependent on most throughout this remarkable journey from the time he first came on to the public conscientiousness. it reflected where he is right now by the people who he's closest to him. he talked about being a community organizer in chicago and getting his starter. they talked about the things he left on the table that he's very aware of this divided country. he touched on that as well. mostly, they say he has been the