assange. >> she she criticized julian assange for releasing her emails when she was governor of alaska and saying everybody should see the movie snowden. there's been a weird 180 not just in the conservative world but in the conservative trump loyalist world. all of a sudden julian assange is, like, you know, a hero and somebody who everybody should applaud, and is it because it could help from the perspective of trump his legitimacy and, you know, questions that he thinks people are putting out into the ether about his winning the white house? unclear. using this man as the kind of beacon of credibility -- >> he doesn't have any credibility. >> you are talking about julian assange? >> he doesn't have credibility. that's -- look, this is also where you are going to have a fight with congress. you have republicans and you have democrats who want to get to the bottom of this hacking business. the president-elect apparently does not. that's potential conflict. >> let's see what the president-elect says friday after he is briefed by the heads of the u.s. intelligence community. he is given

also tweeting about julian assange. in 140 characters, i would say muddying the waters about what he thinks about julian assange or what he thinks about the role of the russians. julian assange said a is 14-year-old could have hacked john podesta. also the russians did not give him the information. listen to this 2010 sound. >> he will talk about wikileaks. >> that's a disgrace. >> i think he should be like death penalty or something. what a difference six years makes. >> a huge difference. i think we were surprised to find that clip. cnn is awesome at doing that. yesterday, we had a story about other people switching their position on julian assange when it seems to benefit them politically. sarah palin as well. a big donald trump supporter. as we said, quite a bit of push back on this as a whole. this isn't political to the intelligence community. it is what they are saying. even some republican senators are saying. this is a national security issue that should not be handled on twitter and not taken lightly. >> there

trust the entire senate and the intel or side with julian assange? donald trump unloading on had i intelligence community again in russia's role in hacking. a battle building in six years, president obama heads to capitol hill to tell democrats to fight as the next administration says job one is to rip obamacare apart. plus the future of really, really fast on display at the consumer electronics show in vegas. the car that everyone is talking about, plus other gadgets that would make even super heros jealous. welcome to the lead. i'm jim. the growing divide between donald trump and the u.s. intelligence community. one official telling we are heading into a new era where it is, quote, hostile. he alleged u.s. officials may be kking the intel tweeting, intelligence briefing on so-called russian hacking was delayed until friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. very strange. exclamation point. sources tell ynn that the meeting was never he scheduled, in fact, for earlier this week and president obama who ordered the review, by the way, has yet

over trump's support of julian assange. now donald trump may be looking to reshape the entire intelligence apparatus. >>> digging in to define the nation's health care system. the gop repealing obamacare, but with no replacement. how president obama tried to rally democrats. >>> video just awful to see. mentally challenged man in chicago bound and tortured on facebook live. we'll tell you what his captors were saying. that's ahead. >>> good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. nice to see you. thursday, january 5th. 5:00 a.m. in the east. let's start with donald trump taking on the intelligence community and widening the divide. the president-elect continuing to express skepticism about russia's interference in the presidential election. he seems to be siding with julian assange over his own intelligence team. trump said a 14-year-old could have hacked john podesta. why was the dnc so careless? trump has dismissed claims by intelligence pointing to the russians for the hack and releas

it's not unrelated to julian assange. that is during the campaign, wikileaks was helpful to him, assange was helpful to him. during the campaign the russian hacks were helpful to him, and donald trump does not bite the hand that feeds him. you're with him or against him. if you're with him, it doesn't matter if you're an accused sex offender holding up in the embassy in ecuador. >> granting that donald trump may have a problem surrendering the me to the we when it comes to taking on his role as the leader of all of us in earnest, how much of this goes back to the politicizing of this by the administration? they knew this information about russia early on. they're blaming us in the media for not paying attention to what happened with clapper in early october. that's not really fair. they could have been singing at the top of their lungs about this and they didn't. the white house made calculations to leave it alone and there's lots of spin game going on there why they did it. you've been critical of that move. why? >> beca

now wikileaks founder julian assange is under pressure. will he make good on his pledge to face possible espionage charges in return for manning's release? plus, the date's developments at the world economic forum. reporter: here in davos, nobel prize-winning economist joseph stiglitz rules trump's economic policies are bound to fail. brent: i am brent goff. good to have you with us. outgoing u.s. president barack obama has given his last press conference, telling the media america needs you, democracy needs you. that is after his successor, donald trump, floated the idea of booting the press corps out of the white house. obama urged journalists to empower americans with accurate, rigorous reporting. president obama: i spent a lot of time in my farewell address talking about the state of our democracy. it goes without saying that essential to that is a free press. that is part of how this place, this country, this grand experiment of self-government has to work. it doesn't work if we don't have a well-informed citizenry. and you are the co

now wikileaks founder julian assange is under pressure. will he make good on his pledge to face possible espionage charges in return for manning's release? plus, the date's developments at the world economic forum. reporter: here in davos, nobel prize-winning economist joseph stiglitz rules trump's economic policies are bound to fail. brent: i am brent goff. good to have you with us. outgoing u.s. president barack obama has given his last press conference, telling the media america needs you, democracy needs you. that is after his successor, donald trump, floated the idea of booting the press corps out of the white house. obama urged journalists to empower americans with accurate, rigorous reporting. president oba: i spent a lot of time in my farewell address talking about the state of our democracy. it goes without saying that essential to that is a free press. that is part of how this place, this country, this grand experiment of self-government has to work. it doesn't work if we don't have a well-informed citizenry. and you are the cond

julian assange. someone else who seems to have a change of heart. sarah palin back in 2010 she wrote, assange is not a journalist and more than editor of al qaeda's new english language magazine is. not a journalist. anti-american operative. now palin, as of today has a different message with assange. here's what she says. exposing the truth regarding the left having been guilty is attitudes of which falsely accused others, hid what many in the left have been supporting and shocking. this important information finally opened people's eyes and operatives would not have been exposed were it not for julian assange. frank, the changing partners and dancing here is so fast. assange is now a hero to the trump world. >> you're a hero to trump if your message is something that dove tails with the self-interest. that's nothing new. we're in scary territory. i want to get back to something you asked about facts. it's not that people are having arguments about what is and isn't a fact. we have americans who are living an entirely different universes in terms o

citing julian assange. is most remarkable, given how much discussion there has been, how many media reports have been devoted to this topic, what we actually know about any of this is very little. of course, it is possible that the russian government was actually behind these hacks. nobody has ever said russia did not do it. no one is ever said this is the sort of thing that putin would not do. this is the kind of stuff u.s. and russia both that to one another into multiple countries around the world for many decades, not just things like this, but far worse in terms of interfering in other countries democracies and their internal affairs. the real issue is that there has ofn a very extreme dirth evidence to actually support the claims that of come from the u.s. government, largely, though not exquisitely, through anonymous sources, laundered through newspapers. people were very skeptical, rightly so, when julian assange came out and declared his source was not the russian government or any state actor. the

then as now julian assange was at the helm of wikileaks. today he's crediting him as an intelligence source saying he's proving russia did not hack the u.s. election. stunning. >> national security republicans have long been on the record decrying the behavior of the wikileaks outfit and by julian assange. they dumped hundreds of thousands of classified documents, compromised u.s. diplomatic missions, our assets overseas. it was shameful and should be condemned by democrats and republicans and everybody. it's a difficult day for the united states intelligence professional when the president-elect responds to and respects and trusts julian assange over that professional. and i think that's going to have to change in the coming days precisely because the president is going to be the president of the entire government and he is going to be responsible for defending the country. julian assange will not help him one single bit. >> as a practical matter, it doesn't serve his interests as the president and commander in chief. the intelligence comm

julian assange or dni clapper? >> well my default position is going to be to give the intelligence community the benefit of the doubt because after all they do have access to information that has not yet been shared with me as a member of the house foreign affairs committee or house arms services committee. >> then we have gotten you closer to believing the intelligence community over assange and donald trump. >> but to have a final opinion, though, i need to see the evidence. >> all right, well congressman mo brooks, thank you very much. i'm joined by charlie pierce, writer at large for "esquire" and msnbc contributor charlie sykes of right wisconsin. i don't know if you are as surprised as i am that when you hear a republican member of congress who sits on the relevant committee, arms services and foreign affairs, that he was not willing to definitively say, charlie sykes, that he believes dni clapper more than he believes julian assange. that is how far the republican party has gone. they aren't willing to come

julian assange. someone else who seems to have a change of heart. sarah palin back in 2010 she wrote, assange is not a journalist and more than editor of al qaeda's new english language magazine is. not a journalist. anti-american operative. now palin, as of today has a different message with assange. here's what she says. exposing the truth regarding the left having been guilty is attitudes of which falsely accused others, hid what many in the left have been supporting and shocking. this important information finally opened people's eyes and operatives would not have been exposed were it notor julian assange. frank, the changing partners and dancing here is so fast. assange is now a hero to the trump world. >> you're a hero to trump if your message is something that dove tails with the self-interest. that's nothing new. we're in scary territory. i want to get back to something you asked about facts. it's not that people are having arguments about what is and isn't a fact. we have americans who are living an entirely different universes in terms of

and now there's still mixed views of julian assange if you read hotair.com, they take what julian assange has to take with a lot of salt and looking at exactly what he did expose and whether or not that was helpful to republicans in the election. >> six years ago sarah palin linked assange to a terrorist when he attacked personal emails that they were boring. what's going on here? >> people don't have principles. the cancer of american politics which is that people will believe or say what suits their partisan interest in the short-term. >> both parties do this. >> across the board phenomena. we have a lot of people that used to talk about how a menace he is. this is the fundamental problem with american politics across the board. people no longer make principled arguments, they make opportunistic arguments and this is a galling and extreme case of it. >> here is what donald trump tweeted. dishonest media like saying that i'm in agreement with julian assange, wrong, i simply state what he states, i am for the people. a clip you might have seen of donald trump and businessman billionaire t

julian assange or dni clapper? >> well my default position is going to be to give the intelligence community the benefit of the doubt because after all they do have access to information that has not yet been shared with me as a member of the house foreign affairs committee or house arms services committee. >> then we have gotten you closer to believing the intelligence community over assange and donald trump. >> but to have a final opinion, though, i need to see the evidence. >> all right, well congressman mo brooks, thank you very much. i'm joined by charlie pierce, writer at large for "esquire" and msnbc contributor charlie sykes of rightwionsin. i don't know if you are as surprised as i am that when you hear a republican member of congress who sits on the relevant committee, arms services and foreign affairs, that he was not willing to definitively say, charlie sykes, that he believes dni clapper more than he believes julian assange. that is how far the republican party has gone. they aren't willing to come out

>> i wouldn't listen to julian assange. i think i is quite a ne'er do well. >> so you would listen to the cia over julian assange? >> i don't have to pick just the cia analysts. i mentioned the author of the article in the wall street journal today. neither is he julian assange, nor is he somebody who works for the cia. >> but you'd lien to somebody from aei over the cia analysts? >> i would listen to someone who i think is making a coe gent point, and doing it with good evidence. i don't start from the proposition of i'll listen to x, pau because i like him or don't like him. >> you have 16 intelligence agencies that are basically -- >> here's the thing. >> let's not forget, this is not just about russia, this is also about the dnc and podesta as well. >> i actually don't think there's a problem with what donald trump is saying about some of the plitization of intelligence. i think the question is, where is he getting this alternate theory, right, so if you are going to say that the analysts aren't giving you good informat

do you believe julian assange? is he credible in your mind is this. >> i want to see what information he has. again, i think -- >> you want to see what information julian assange has? >> julian assange. we look at all the information. one of my concerns with the way this thing has been handled is the intelligence community has been leaking information to you and the rest of the press. the chairman of the house intelligence community has as much information as you do, wolf. that's a problem. >> he has a lot more than i do. >> not on this situation. he doesn't. traditionally the intelligence community partners with the congressional intelligence committees. hasn't happened. >> the chairman of the init tell generals committee, adam schiff and nunes and the senate, the chairman and vice chairman, they have been well briefed on this russian hack. >> they will tell you they haven't. the intelligence community were offered to come in and give them a private briefing in regard to the information the intelligence community

of julian assange's interview went viral and was completely false." in the piece, you cite a passage from a recent interview with julian assange conducted by italian journalist maurizi. you then point out the distortion of the words in the account given by the ben jacobs. his precise words are worth citing a at length. when asked about his response to trump's election, he said in an interview "hillary clinton's election would have been a consolidation of power in the existing ruling class of the united states. donald trump is not a d d.c. insider. he is s a part of ththe uneded states and his gathering around him a spectrum of other rich people and several idiosyncratic personalities. they do not by themselves form an existing structure, so it is a weak structure which is destabilizing the pre-existing central part of the network within d.c. it is a new structure which will evolve rapidly but at the moment, it is l loosenessss meas there are e opportunitities forr change in the united states. change for the worst and changee for the better." so could

of julian assange's interview went viral and was completely false." in the piece, you cite a passage from a recent interview with julian assange conducted by italian journalist maurizi. you then point out the distortion of the words in the account given by the ben jacobs. his precise words are worthth citing at length. when asked about his response to trump's election, he said in an interview "hillary clinton's election would have been a consolidation of power in the existing ruling class of the united states. donald trump is not a d.c. insideder. he is a part o of thununited statates and his gathering aroud him a spectrum of other rich people and several idiosyncratic personalities. they do not by themselves form an existing structure, so it is a weak structure which is destabilizing the pre-existing central part of the network within d.c. it is a new structure which will evolve rapidly but at the moment, it t is looseseness meas there e are opportununitiefofor change in the united states. change for the worst and change for the better." so could you

of julian assange's interview went viral and was completely false." in the piece, you cite a passage from a recent interview with julian assange conducted by italian journalist maurizi. you then point out the distortion of the words in the account given by the ben jacobs. his precise words are worth citing at length. when asked about his response to trump's election, he said in an interview "hillary clinton's election would have been a consolidation of power in the existing ruling class of the united states. donald trump is not a d.c. insider. he is a part of the united states and his gathering around him a spectrum of other rich people and several idiosyncratic personalities. they do not by themselves form an existing structure, so it is a weak structure which is destabilizing the pre-existing central part of the network within d.c. it is a new structure which will evolve rapidly but at the moment, it is looseness means there are opportunities for change in the united states. change for the worst and change for the better." so could you explain, glen

after the clemency announcement, julian assange tweeted victory. thank you for everyone who campaigned for chelsea manning's clemency. >> and the response from capitol hill, reaction from democrats muted and very harsh from republicans. west virginia senator joe manchin, a conservative democrat said the short sentence was dead wrong and gave a green light to hacking and cyber attacks. >> it was wrong. treason and espionage, should have been 35 years. >> republican senator lindsey graham told cnn's dana bash manning stabbed his fellow soldiers in the back by releasing classified information and putting their lives at risk. president obama by granting clemency to tang step slapped all of those in the face. >> and john mccain, a grave mistake that i fear will encourage further acts of espionage and undermine discipline. and devalues the courage of real whistle-blowers who have used proper channels to hold our government accountably. >>> this morning, we're told that the president-elect is finishing up the writing of the presidential inaugural address.

donald trump's now quoting julian assange of all people as his new hero. according to video in 2010 uncovered by kcnn today, trump said wikileaks was a disgrace. here he is in the old days. >> he's going to talk about wikileaks. you had nothing to do with leaking of those document. >> i think it's disgraceful. >> think it's disgraceful? >> i think there should be the death penalty or something. >> death penalty for wikileaks. someone else who seems to have had a change of heart on wikileaks, sarah palin, 2010, wrote "assange is not a journalist, any more than an editor of al qaeda's magazine is, he's an anti-american operative with blood on his hands." palin as of today has a different message with assange. "exposing the truth regarding the left having been oh so guilty of atrocious actions and attitudes of which they falsely accused others, the media collusion that hid what many on the left have been supporting is shocking. this is important information that finally opened people's eyes to democrat candidates and operatives would not have been exposed wer

trump posted on twitter, julian assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked podesta. why was dnc so careless? also said russians did not give him the info. information from a source believers of his own party like paul ryan does not trust. >> i think he's a sycophant for russia. he leaks, he steal das that, and compromises national security. >> reporter: now people inside the intelligence community are firing back at the president-elect. one senior official, a career intelligence officer, directly involved in the intelligence briefing on russia tells nbc news, if intelligence was merely reporting the obvious, we wouldn't need it. analysts need to admit degreeses of uncertainty and mr. trump needs to trust the professionals. and from the intelligence community to capitol hill, the bipartisan blowback is growing. >> i'm running out of adjectives and expletives to describe the situation. it is really so appalling and here he is taking the side of julian assange. >> i hope the president-elect will get his information and trust the american patriots who work in the intelli

is donald trump being duped by julian assange? >> i don't know if he's being duped by julian assange but the idea that he cannot leave the bolivian embassy and order all of his meals out is bizarre. what worries me about trump is he's delegitimatizing the intelligence community. these are people who risk their lives every day to keep the country safe. number two, he's siding with vice president. the tweet where he's a really smart man, i knew how smart he was. and then number three instead of saying i don't know what happened on this hack and i'm not sure that the intelligence agencies know everything, he's taking the opposite task and say let's move on, it's not a big deal. the american people need to scratch their heads and say what the heck is going on here. >> on friday's meeting where he meets up with the heads of the intelligence community here in the united states, will that do anything to shift his opinion? >> well, i certainly hope so. these are people who work 24/7 to provide the president with the best intelligence and

julian assange said, "a 14-year-old could have hacked podesta. why was dnc so careless? also said russians did not give him the info. very different from trump's 2010 stance on wikileaks after after publishing thousands of documents. >> there should be a death penalty or something. >> reporter: praise for assange who published the hacked e-mails from john podesta, highlighting a sharp split between the president-elect and other gop leaders. house speaker paul ryan unleashing a wave of criticism against the wikileaks founder. >> i think the guy is for russia. he leaks, he steals data, and compromises national security. >> reporter: as senator lyndsay graham offers this advice to trump. >> this was done by the russians and i hope by friday president-elect trump will come to that realization and ignore mr. assange. not only should he ignore julian assange, he should condemn him for what he's done to our country. >> reporter: assange insists his information isn't coming from the russian government. >> our source is not a state party. sorry, the answer for our interactions is

he is now taking the same approach with the julian assange thing. the dismonies media is saying i meant one thing. i'm just saying this is what some people are saying. but that's his way of propagating this misinformation or outright fabrications in the case of birtherism and trying to maintain some deniability. >> what concerns do you have for the spy agencies going forward where theyave been so much criticized by president-elect? it'sextraordinary. it has never happened before. >> i worry about what it does for moralend recruiting. i worry about what it does for men and women who are thinking about putting their lives on the line to get information to the policy makers and thehief client, the president of the united states, are they willing to do it if he is going to disregard what he is being informed. but you know, i also worry about what steps he may take to retaliate against the agencies. these potential reforms of the director of national intelligence office or the cia. >> there has been past criticism that they areloated and their bureaucrac

assange, you have julian assange basically saying manning is a hero and president obama, you know, by default is a hero for freeing -- >> in many ways, and we'll hear from barack obama directly tomorrow when he holds his final news conference. i was surprised and people here are probably surprised. what i find more surprising is some of the contributes, though, of the release of chelsea manning are the same ones who are not coming out and being as forceful about the russians hacking into our systems. it's just a very bizarre situation that we're in right now. democrats the law and order party, political party when it comes to the russians and quite frankly the republicans when it comes to chelsea manning, they're the ones that are law and order. very bizarre.

i'm not telling. >> i'm going to offend a julian assange. he says it is, the idea is that they have people who leaked to them it's wikileaks. >> exactly, this is all just about democrats pointing fingers because the democrats, they still do not understand why they lost. they're blaming everyone come another blame and the russians and they're just going to keep losing if they don't wake up and look in the mirror and ask why they lost so badly in november. >> tom: you can see why people don't believe him, he looks like a boardwalk drawing of a bond villain. >> it's always the weird ones who are geniuses, though, that's why i trust him. >> trumps fat diet theory, could have been russia, could have been china, could have been a fat guy. >> it's not usually fat guys, the typical thing is some skinny guy behind his computer. >> bad posture. >> either extremely obese or extremely, scarily thin. >> tom: on saturday, donald trump was asked by a reporter about how important the issue of security was in his administration. >> we have something really i

so he credits julian assange. he credits vladimir putin and mocks the intelligence community. it's an academic conversation. he's the president-elect. but in 16 days he's the president. never mind the democrat ickedem. more and more republicans are getting concerned. republicans coming out saying they hope the president-elect has a very quick turning of the page. >> you from obviously president obama's chief of staff in the white house. you know how it works. does the president's mind set change when you start to get the daily briefings every day? >> no, he'll get them if he wants them. but the fact of the hatter ett matter is, donald trump's going to do did hit his way. everything's fantastic and there's no reason form him to change. that's his m.o. and it's not going to change. i honor of being there to the runup to the osama bin laden raid, and i saw what dedication the intelligence agencies and all the different agencies that were brought to bear for that action gave for ten years, looking for osama bin laden. and the sort of dedication. when you question that, and you que

so, he is indellably tied to julian assange. if obama grants clemency, assange will agree to clemency despite constitutional it he has been hold up in london to a steroid extradition to sweden. he is facing allegations there of sexual assault by two women. the reason he has given repeatedly, he feared if i go there to face these allegations, that's really a -- an attempt for the u.s. to then extradite me from there back to the u.s. for releasing these documents. but five days ago he said, listen, you grant clemency, i will come to the u.s. i will face extradition and, of course, face charges for his involvement in this. the question now is does julian assange keep that promise? of course there's no connection -- we're not trying to make any connection between that assange demand and the fact the obama administration decided to do this, but the fact is they have done it. five days ago julian assange promised to come here to the u.s. we'll see if he follows through on that promise. and imagine if he does, you will have, i don't kn

assange. >> what is your opinion of julian assange. >> i really have none other than i think the guy is a sycophan for russia. he leaks, he steals data, and compromises national security. >> he has a history of under mining american interests. i hope no american will be duped by him. you shouldn't give him any credibility. >> this is very dangerous. julian assange is a bad person with probably american blood on his hands and definitely the information he's put out there has made our country far less safe. >> meanwhile, former gop vice-presidential nominee sarah palin who condemned wikileaks hacker julian assange has made an about-face. back in 2010, she had called him an anti american operative with blood on his hands for leaking classified documents and meanwhile congressman dana rohrabacher is planning a trip to russia to see how we can work with duma. the congressman was coy when asked whether his group would meet with putin. i really can't say that. he said after a pause and half a smile. it's possible. senator john mccain reportedly said there's a lunatic fringe in every party.

julian a sans created international controversy, julian assange. many, including myself at the time, had criticized him for doing this and during our sitdown inteiew, i asked assange where wikileaks draws the line. take a look. i told you this, when you first came on the scene in 2010, i was afraid you were waging war against the u.s. i said, you know, other people might be -- this classified information -- could put american lives at risk. that was my concern. so in the meantime, what you released at that time, the standard operating procedures,s, delta, the u.s. army, camp at gitmo, you released a classified video of the baghdad helicopter. that killed two journalists. you also released the afghanistan war logs, the iraq war logs, the guantanamo files. more diplomatic cables, wisteria files leading up to -- the syria files. you've done to go things that have been extraordinary helpful. and i think journalism in a way. one, you showed us that we do not have cyber security. you acknowledged that. in this election in particular, two, we expose a lev

julian a sans created international controversy, julian assange. many, including myself at the time, had criticized him for time, had criticized him for and during our sitdown interview, i asked assange where wikileaks draws the line. take a look. i told you this, when you first came on the scene in 2010, i was afraid you were waging war against the u.s. i said, you know, other people might be -- this classified information -- could put american lives at risk. that was my concern. so in the meantime, what you released at that time, the standard operating procedures, delta, the u.s. army, camp at gitmo, you released a classified video of the baghdad helicopter. that killed two journalists. you also released the afghanistan war logs, the iraq he war logs, the guantanamo files. more diplomatic cables, wisteria files leading up to -- the syria files. you've done to go things that have been extraordinary helpful. and i think journalism in a way. one, you showed us that we do not have cyber security. acknowledged that. in this election in particular, two

julian assange is adamant about it. saying they know. >> they were very light on any evidence backing up their claim that russia, the dni is saying, sean, will be have to be very careful about releasing messages and sources. we are going to declassify as much as we can but we have to be careful because of the sense of nature of all this. >> sean: where was the urgency when nasa was hacked, the state department, the white house? >> you nailed it, though. that was embarrassing to the democrats. now, they think is embarrassing to trump. or embarrassing to his oregon, sliding his victory. >> sean: this is all political political. should they have fixed cybersecurity eight years ago? >> even the way that hillary went about restoring her emails. if this was so important that people not use private emails, email servers, then why didn't they move to seize that computer early on with hillary? if this is really a serious issue, they could've done a lot more in the beginning of that investigation. but again, it was inconvenient f

and trump is clarifying his public posture towards wikileaks founder julian assange. earlier this week, trump tweeted, quote, julian assange said a 14 year old could have hacked podesta. why bywhy was dmc so careless? also said russians did not give him the info"! trump today tweeted, "the dishonest immediate like saying i am in agreement with julian assange. wrong. i simply state which he states. it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. the media lies to make it look like i am against "intelligence" when in fact i am a big fan." with two weeks to go, donald trump said for more than an hour to get a videotaped deposition, a case involving a washington, d.c., chef who was supposed to open a spanish the end restaurant at the new trump international tell. he claims after trump made his comments about mexican immigrants 18 months ago he couldn't work with him anymore. trump insists that he is owed damages big league. >> thank you. horrifying and heartbreaking. those are just some of the words being used to describe a sickening video of four blast s

these documents were originally leaked to julian assange. he's come out with a statement about what the president of the united states did. he says, i welcome president obama's decision to commute the sentence of my alleged source, miss chelsea, from 35 years to time served. she never should have been convicted in the first place. she is a hero whose bravery should be applauded. should president obama be on the same side as julian assange? >> i don't think he is. chelsea manning is guilty of a serious crime. chelsea manning went through the criminal justice system, the military jus sis system, served more than six years in leavenworth. she was also sentenced to a period of time that is much longer than those who have been convicted of comparable crimes. the president made a decision to receive a commutation. he made a decision based on all those factors. certainly we don't take julian assange's recommendation prior to this statement, the tweet from a week ago, that has not been a factor in the president's decision. >> the president has spoke

you said i hope no american will be duped by julian assange. do you think the president of the united states has been duped? >> i don't know. all i can tell you is i hope he listens to the intelligence briefing. i'm sure he will. all 17 intelligence agencies have come to the same conclusion. you don't have to be sherlock holmes to figure out what the russians are up to, they're trying to break the backbone of democracies throughout the entire world. any time somebody does something they don't like in the neighborhood, they hack them or invade them. i am fully convinced that the russians did this. i hope the president will come to that conclusion. and i'm introducing sanctions next week in a bipartisan fashion with senator mccain and others to go after russia, more sanctions, not less, to deter their behavior, not just against us but the world at large. if we don't stand up to the russians, we're going to get more of this. >> senator, you're fully convinced. other republican senators are fully convinced. what is the chance that donald trump rece

president to in effect ally himself with julian assange is remarkable. >> do you think julian assange is salivating over this. >> i think he's happy that hillary clinton is not going to be the next president. he knew it would pretty much mean indictments in 2010, he knew she was going to pursue crimes against him, not just for sex crimes but for espionage and i think for trump he thinks is probably a wild-card and he might walk free and trump has tax returns among him and we may see wikileaks on the other side in four years. >> if he doesn't say this is wrong, north korea could be hacking the republicans, that's his point as well to your point as well. thank you. coming up next the racist murderer behind the charlton church massacre speaking out in court about his sanity and why he just told the entire jury to ignore his lawyers. your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your c

there aren't any julian assange supporters i've ever met so he's on thin ice with the julian assange stuff. >> david, give us a sense of what you think might play out in this meeting in terms of the dynamic. forget the intelligence for a second. >> right. >> you're expected to have the head of -- dni james clapper, head of the fbi, expected to have john brennan, director of the cia, sitting in there with a meeting with a man who openly, as well as vice president mike pence, openly doubting their intelligence and the credibility of their information. how awkward is that going to be? >> it's going to be awkward, but you have to remember, every president-elect goes through this. and the only one in recent memory who had extensive experience with the intelligence community before this type of meeting was george h.w. bush who had been a cia director before becoming vice president then president. >> correct me if i'm wrong, was there anyone as hostile to the intelligence community as president-elect trump? >> oh, yes, we have historical -- richard nixon came into office, he didn't take a s

julian assange this is a great thing. he tweeted last week that if you want to see whistleblowers and a new trump administration, that you need to commute the sentence or release chelsea manning. >> the politics of this are so bizarre. to watch senator menendez and democrats earlier tried to walk away from this, it's amazing. you almost wonder if it will be interesting to see what president obama says tomorrow. you almost wonder if he's trying to unite donald trump and the intel community and republicans and democrats together against this. no one has anything good to say. it's completely bizarre. there is may be an explanation about the length of the sentence. the fact that she has served seven years but beyond that, this is corrosive, as steve says, to future intelligence. it's the opposite. >> this is a radical move by a president who, tens of millions of americans think at various points in his administration he didn't have the best in interests of america. coming on the heels of all of this caterwauling about leaking

julian a sans created international controversy, julian assange. many, including myself at the time, had criticized him for doing this and during our sitdown interview, i asked assange where wikileaks draws the line. take a look. i told you this, when you first came on the scene in 2010, i was afraid you were waging war against the u.s. i said, you know, other people might be -- this classified information -- could put american lives at risk. that was my concern. so in the meantime, what you released at that time, the standard operating procedures, delta, the u.s. army, camp at gitmo, you released a classified video of the baghdad helicopter. that killed two journalists. you also released the afghanistan war logs, the iraq he war logs, the guantanamo files. more diplomatic cables, wisteria files leading up to -- the syria files. you've done to go things that have been extraordinary helpful. and i think journalism in a way. one, you showed us that we do not have cyber security. acknowledged that. in this election in particular, two, we expose a leve

julian assange is adamant about it. saying they know. >> they were very light on any evidence backing up their claim that russia, the dni is saying, sean, will be have to be very careful about releasing messages and sources. we are going to declassify as much as we can but we have to be careful because of the sense of nature of all this. >> sean: where was the urgency when nasa was hacked, the state department, the white house? >> you nailed it, though. that was embarrassing to the democrats. now, they think is embarrassing to trump. or embarrassing to his victory oregon, sliding his victory. >> sean: this is all political political. should they have fixed cybersecurity eight years ago? >> even the way that hillary went about restoring her emails. if this was so important that people not use private emails, email servers, then why didn't they move to seize that computer early on with hillary? if this is really a serious issue, they could've done a lot more in the beginning of that investigation. but again, it was inconv

. >> wikileaks founder julian assange has to go to say about it. the exclusive interview you will only see at fox news. heather: how would you like hundreds of dollars delivered right on your door every month? where that poverty pot dream is coming true so if you have a flat tire, dead battery, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7. oh dear, i got a flat tire. hmmm. uh... yeah, can you find a take where it's a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah? yeah i got it right here. someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!! well it's good... good for me. what do you think? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. heather: welcome back, doubling down, wikileaks founder julian assange insists that russia had stero involvement in the emails leaked during the election. clayton: exclusive interview with sawn hannity, assange says the obama administration is trying to to delegitimize the trump presidency. heather: you will not see everywhere else. good morning, kelly.

plus, part two of our exclusive interview with wikileaks founder, julian assange. also, newt gingrich is here to react to all of this. we'll talk about the snowflakes with corey lewandowski. and finally, cities like chicago surging.ci we will check in with clark, hannity starts right here right now. >> sean: we are getting an incredible reaction to our interview, we are going to play more of our sitdown interview. that's coming out later tonight. but first, a very desperate president obama goes to capitol hill all on a last ditch effort to try and save his disastrous health care law. but his tonight's opening monologue. ♪ o it has been a a monumental faile but that has not stopped the president and democrats to try to save it. congressional leaders dusted off the same old tired, divisive rhetoric they want to scare you. the american people. about those republicans repealing and replacing obamacare. the same old talking points. take a look.k. >> repealing and replacing obamacare wouldn't make america great again, it would make america sick again. >> they have no r

julian assange has been called a high tech tear roft by vice president biden. president bush wouldn't speak at an event where he thought julian assange would be appearing as well. oh, what a change. this is just ex-ped yentd. trump issic maing it claer as he comes into office he's going to keep the intelligence communityality arm's length. challenge the institution. he doesn't want anything -- there's a bipartisan congress that's going to try to get to the bottom of this and very disturbed by what russia did a lot more than the president-elect. >> what do you think the end game is on his backing assange. put aside why he's held up in the ecuadorian embassy in the first place. isn't this a slap in the face to the intelligence community, consistently tweeting him as his resource? >> yeah, tweeting and tweaking them as people who can't be believed. he's going to come into office as the president, and you can't constantly run against the government when you leave the government. it's one thing to talk about wanting to reduce the department of education. it's anothe

julian assange saying he didn't get his information from russia. well, you have john brennan saying that's not the case and other intelligence officials. and president-elect trump basically tweeting that statements that julian assange has said, siding with you'll general assange of wikileaks. all of this creating an unprecedented moment and national security experts warning that this rift could undermine national security. there's a lot at stake with that briefing on friday, craig. >> we did hear from the vice president-elect on that meeting that's supposed to happen. here's what mike pence had to say. listen. >> the president-elect has expressed his very sincere and healthy american skepticism about intelligence conclusions. >> again, mike pence there expressing what also sounds like some skepticism as well. kristen welker for us there at trump tower, thank you. and a thanks to hans nichols and a thanks to kasie hunt as well on capitol hill. >>> the big question for republicans not whether ty have a plan to replace the affordable care act, they ha