Sean spicer today started the press conference by lumping our reporting with what buzz feed did. Here is what he said. The fact that buzz feed and cnn made the decision to run with this unsubstantiated claim is a pathetic attempt to get clicks. We did not publish the 35page unsubstantiated allegations. Nor did we link to it. Not even to the buzz feed story that mentioned it. I asked Senior Adviser for trump, Kellyanne Conway about it just a short time ago. At todays press conference, sean spicer, i was surprised by what he said. He said buzz feed and cnn ran with the unsubstantiated claim. Thats not true. And what cnn said is cnn is not reporting on details of that memo as it is not independently corroborated with the allegations. Do you acknowledge cnn did not release the 35page unsubstantiated claims against donald trump and it is untrue for spicer to suggest otherwise . Sean spicer was right as was the president elect. Cnn went first yesterday and buzz feed went second. We didnt report what buzz feed reported. I didnt say that you did but you linked to it in your story. Sean spicer said you did. I know cnn must be feeling the heat today of having a headline yesterday at around 6 30 p. M. That said, quote, intel chiefs presented trump with information that russia could had information to compromise him. That is just false. And as you saw through nbc news reports today, tweets from people at politico, no friend of donald trumps, and frankly a lot of outlets, print and electronic, so reluctant and hesitant to go forward with anything close to what cnn or buzz feed did. Again, youre conflating what buzz you went first. I know what cnn did. Anderson, you are a responsible journalist, you have gone all over the world. Youre widely respected. Whats inaccurate about what cnn reported . The whole headline. Go read the entire story. Four bylines and a story thats just not true that the president elect was presented with information that was appended in a twopage document to the briefing. Nbc has said it was not. Other people have said it was not. Nbc has said it was not verbally presented and cnn never said it was verbally presented. We said, cnn, based on their reporting from multiple sources, we said, we dont know if it was verbally presented. What cnn said was, quote, classified documents presented last tweak to president obama and president elect trump included allegations that russian operatives claim to have personal and Financial Information about donald trump. Anderson, your sources are not correct. And the fact is that youre saying in that intelligence briefing there was no information in any of the documents that of that twopage summary. Two things on that. One, we dont discuss the classified information that is presented in Intelligence Briefings you said it wasnt true. Excuse me, i know cnn is feeling the heat i think you guys are feeling the heat. What heat do we feel . That you got this raw information, this complete ridiculous fake news, actually just fake also not even news. Backed up by not only multiple sources but other news agencies, New York Times, washington go ahead. Im surprised youre arguing with me. It has not been backed up by credible news sources and you know as well as i do these rumors were running around for months. Every news outlet was chasing these rumors. We were not reporting rumor. Because cnn went first and had this breathless report, everybody said it was a bombshell, earth shattering report last night. We didnt say it was a bombshell. It says right here, intel chiefs presented trump with russian claims of information to compromise him. Wheres the word bombshell . Your headline is wrong. Then seth meyers said that he confronted me on the bombshell, none of it is true. You tell me can you tell me would you run the same story today knowing everything you know, everything thats happened . Absolutely. You would, wow, because the executive editor of the New York Times said they saw this information they were talking about the buzz feed story. Talking about the buzz feed story. You linked to no. We said we cannot corroborate. Were not reporting what they released. In fact, jake tapper has been very critical of what buzz feed has done. If you couldnt corroborate it, why did you link to it . Why are you linking to fake news . Michael cohen mentioned in that report is not the Michael Cohen who works at the trump organization. We never said he was. Youre linking to the buzz feed report. Were not. Were not linking to the buzz feed report. Its mentioned in here. Im looking at the updated cnn report. I read it right before we came on air. Absolutely you know people why did you run a story, why run a story based on anonymous sourcing that now has been rebutted about a twopage appendix that youre saying there was no twopage summary that was included in briefing material . The president elect was asked that question today. You should refer to his answer. But i will tell you you can answer it. He said i wasnt in the briefing. Okay. So you cant say whether or not youre saying its not true but youre saying what did the president elect say when he was asked . You tell me. Then you didnt Pay Attention to the press conference. Youre relying on cnn, on verified sources i just watched the press conference. I dont want to misquote the president elect. I assume you know what he said today. I sure do. He said he doesnt want to talk about he wont talk about what happened in the Intelligence Briefings. Right. He shouldnt. Its called an intelligence briefing. Are you comfortable that if this didnt happen in an intelligence briefing then you can talk about it. If this wasnt a part of the briefing are you comfortable were your four journalists in the intelligence briefing . Were the officials who leaked to the media in the intelligence briefing . No, no, no, no, no. On the one hand what youre saying doesnt make sense. On the one hand youre saying our reporting is inaccurate but on the on the other hand youre saying you dont know if it was in the intelligence briefing and you cant say even if you did know. Right . I can tell you that credible news reports today say that it was not in there. An nbc news report based on one source. An nbc news report based on one source. And what is yours based on . Multiple sources and the New York Times and the washington journal as well say that. No. Excuse me. You know who put this collection of raw material is, right . Were not reporting that raw material. Were not reporting that this person were not basing our reporting on what this person did. Of course it was opposition research. Cnn is not buzz feed. I wish you guys would acknowledge and be straightforward. I get why politically it makes sense for you to link cnn with what buzz feed did but as jake tapper said on the air he doesnt approve. Hes one of the reporters on this. He doesnt approve of what buzz feed did. I would not have dumped all this unsubstantiated allegations. Its unfair. But now that its out there, cnn is happy to refer to it. Arent you . We have not mentioned it on the air or talked about the details on the air. Its on cnn. Com. But here is the thing now to get lots of clicks. I encourage people to go online. Cnn and buzz feed have a lot in common. You both were absolutely convinced and told your viewers Hillary Clinton would win this election. And why is that relevant you cant stick to what were talking about now . This is what were talking about because the excitement, the fury about hacking reached a fever pitch after the Election Results where neither what was expected or desired by cnn, president obama, Hillary Clinton, and the whole crew. If cybersecurity was such a big priority to this administration and the Democratic Party and its apologists in the media, why didnt we do more about it over the last eight years . Why when 21 million personnel files hacked for innocent people, by china, president obama gave them basically a slap. Do more about it in the last eight years . Why when 21 million personnel fires were hacked of innocent americans by china, president obama basically gave them a slap on the wrist . I know you like to pivot, i get it. Thats actually real news. That happened. Okay. Thats not unsourced, unnamed you still have not answered is what is inaccurate in our reporting . Because you said you werent in the briefing, you dont know if what were reporting is true or not. You werent in the briefing. I guess you havent heard anything about what was in the briefing from anybody who was there. Can you deny that what we reported, not what buzz feed, all that unsubstantiated stuff, which were not reporting, what we reported, how can you say its not true . I think if you link to something on your website youre reporting it. Youre not answering the question. How can you say its not true . Hold on. You cant say youre not reporting it if its on your website. If its on your website you cant answer this question. Heres the answer. If the four intelligence officials that gave the top secret briefing last week that some fools think they should leak to the media when its a top secret intelligence briefing for a reason so that were all protected, everybody, then why according to your on report last night, report is a loose word here, why did they not tell the president elect about it. Because your own reporting says theres no confirmation that they briefed him early. I appreciate you acknowledging that. Hold on. If its worthy of a cnn screaming headline that became this huge fake news story, then why did they not brief him . They had an opportunity. They were here in trump tower. Why didnt they tell him if it was so important . I dont have the answer to that. I have the answer. Its important to politics, not intelligence. We report on what we know and we report on what our sources are telling us and what our sources said. We could not get any confirmation whether or not this was verbally discussed. Why run with it . Because if its significant enough to be in the briefing documents, then it seems significant. The fact that whether its not for whatever the reason, they decided to have it be in the briefing documents that is news. Well continue this interview. It goes on for quite a lot. We want to play every minute and second for it. Were not editing it at all. Keep in mind, Kellyanne Conway keeps mentioning we linked to the buzz feed article. That is not true and well prove it. The next hour, the town hall but more Kellyanne Conway when we come back. Children grandpa i never want to miss these moments due to my pain. I live for this. Arthritis used to get in the way. But now with blueemu maximum arthritis cream, ill never miss another hug. Blueemu maximum arthritis cream. Beat the pain and enjoy life. And before the break you heard trumps Senior Adviser, Kellyanne Conway, take issue with our reporting. My continuing interview with Kellyanne Conway. If its significant enough to be in the briefing documents it seems significant. For whatever the reason they decided to have it be in the briefing documents, that is news, no . What if its not in the briefing documents . What will cnn do . If our report is wrong, well acknowledge that. Will heads roll . Because they didnt after the election when all the pundits were wrong, the polling was wrong, all the consultants were wrong, and all the anchors were wrong. Youre talking about poll during the election. I dont think youll clean house if the report is wrong, if there wasnt a twopage appendix because you havent yet. What you think and what is true are not necessarily the same thing. Im trying to figure out what you can say is true and not. You cannot take issue with any specific that we have reported. Ive yet to hear you say specifically that is not true. Its not true. Not true those were in the briefing documents . Categorically . Its true you have no evidence other than unnamed sources you dont have the briefing documents. Thats whats true. They would not have access to the briefing documents. You dont know who the sources are but there are multiple. Tell them to come forward. They can have this chair anytime. Tell them to come forward. This is a red herring. Youre trying to distract from my question which is you do not have information whether its true or not. You can use pivot, distract, red herring all you want. The media have a 16 Approval Rating for a reason. Its been earned. Its crap like this that is why donald trump won. Youre doing him a favor. Again, this was an antielection, it was rejection that everybody thinks they know better than people. Its very concerning. You say its not true but you cant say whether its true or not. I get the anger over the buzz feed stuff. That was unsubstantiated. I think i do understand because its politics for you to try to link all the reporters together. It seems unfair and frankly disingenuous. No. Actually, very few people came to cnns defense today. Im sure youre aware of that. Shepard smith on fox did which was interesting. And actually showed courage. Thats a cherry. Great. Anybody else on fox or anybody else . I dont see people rushing to cnns defense. I saw a lot of pushback, frankly. I havent talked to sean hannity today. Im sure you guys have a couple times. You can pick on fox all you want but ive been on other networks today. Sean spicer, the president elect gave a press conference to over 400 credentialed journalists and theyre not linking to cnns report. Theres a reason for that. Because unnamed, unsourced folks. If you say let me ask you a question because youre a journalist and im not. I should point out the New York Times, the wall street journal matched what our report but. If you say that cnns not reporting on something but its on your website, does that mean that cnn is not reporting on it, because i think they are. Buzz feed is not on our website. The buzz feed report, the story is not linked on your website, not mentioned . I dont know all of the programming. Im told its not but i dont believe that it is. I find it weird that cnn and frankly if cnn linked to the buzz feed stuff, that seems to me inappropriate. And if cnn does that, i would not support that. But as far as i know, that is not the case. Im going to check out our website and i urge people to go to our website and check it out for themselves. Anderson, do you think that buzz feed or anybody else after months of deciding against publishing specious, scurrilous, unverified, uncorroborated junk in a Democratic Opposition Research document, do you think they would have released it last night had cnn not preceded it with its own report . I doubt it. The last time i read buzz feed i saw a headline that said ten top sex toys to improve your sex life. I dont buzz feed so i dont speak for them or defend them. I dont think they should have published unsubstantiated allegations against the president elect of the United States. Thats inappropriate. Maybe they would not have had the imprimatur of cnn, the vaunted name of cnn went first. You went first. They went second. We reported something based on multiple sources then cocorroborated by the New York Times and the wall street journal and others, youre saying not the two pages. Its been pushed back by nbc news and others tonight. Nbc news based on one source and they said it wasnt verbally presented, and we never said it was. Anderson, do you think it should have been, though . If its worthy i dont know. I cant speak do you think it should have been verbally presented . No, no, im just asking as a smart person who loves america. I cant speak im not going to speak for the intelligence officials and what they chose to brief or not. Then its not important, right . They were in the room. I have no idea. Thats for your judgment. I have no idea. We stand by our reporting which was we dont know whether it was actually verbally briefed. We dont have reporting on that. All we have based on multiple sources, which cnn stands by 100 , was that this was in the material. Not the 35 page salacious unsubstantiated document buzz feed later put out by a summary about it. Thats what our reporting was. Just so were clear and we have good relations with the press here in the trump white house, if it turns out that the two pages are not true, do not exist somehow then cnn will take corrective measures about that . Because you released i certainly think they should. I think everybody in this business who stands by their reporting if they get it wrong, they should acknowledge that right away. I think the point that sean spicer thats important. The point that sean spicer and the president elect were trying to make today is simple. Its that many outlets refuse to go where cnn went and separately and buzz feed many outlets refuse to publish a 35 page unsubstantiated document, which is what cnn also did. Theyve also refused to say that cnn had this report, quote unquote, using the term liberally, that there was a two page appendix that somehow said something that was so important to the security of our nation that nobody bothered to brief the president elect and perhaps even president obama that not everybody has the same sourcing obviously. You know that. Some people have better sourcing than others. And cnn is standing by their reporting. Everyone has unnamed sourcing, though. Okay. Unnamed. This is political. Political. I respect you coming on and talking about this. My only point i want to get across is i dont understand i think its unfair to conflate the two and whether whatever the reasons yall are doing that im not sure. I have ideas but i dont think thats professional. Its not true. You should take that up with other journalists because those who mentioned this issue at all today mentioned both cnn and buzz feed together. In print, on twitter, on facebook. Anybody who conflated it as the same reporting, thats inaccurate reporting. Just like what sean spicer said is inaccurate. Weve got to take a quick break. Were going to have the rest of my interview with Kellyanne Conway, well bring the entire interview to you. With the xfinity tv app, anything with a screen is a tv. Stream 130 live channels, plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. You can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. Only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. Download the xfinity tv app today. Weve been showing my interview with Kellyanne Conway. I spoke with her just before air time tonight and pressed her to give specifics of what she found to be inaccurate in our reporting. Here is the final part of the interview. Then reaction from tonights panel. Those who mentioned this issue at all today mentioned cnn and buzz feed together, in print, on twitter, on facebook. Those people, anybody who conflated it as the same reporting thats inaccurate reporting. It was not conflated as the same reporting, anderson, it was conflated as the same series of events that led to this conversation. Look, the fact is that last week after he received allege intelligence briefing came out with a statement saying something clearly about who has attempted to hack us and they continue to attempt. They did successfully attack hack the dnc and that he moving forward wants to meet with his own Security Intelligence team and ask them for a plan within the next 90 days of taking office to come up with a plan that will improve cybersecurity enhancements. Because it doesnt seem like it was a priority until after people didnt like the Election Results. The idea that innocent people had their names dragged through the mud last night. Should be disconcerting to everyone. These folks who have never been in prague. People we dont even know. People who are not associated with the campaign. You got the party started. A lot of your journalists today feel that way because they were at the press conference and we hear from them. I want to give you a friendly piece of advice. Many people feel cnn went first and buzz feed went second and with the imprimatur of cnn going first and posting this and making it a huge centerpiece of tv coverage that then it allows a news outlet to go ahead and publish the rest of this story quote unquote and its fake news. As donald trump said last night. I agree its a political witchhunt. If cnn reports something and people on twitter, shady organizations or buzz feed or reputable organizations start then reporting other things, you cannot hold cnn responsible for what other people are doing. Theyre responsible for what they do. We stand by our reporting 100 . I think we both made our points but i appreciate i can hold cnn accountable for having the screaming headline that he was briefed on something if he wasnt. Thats what it says. It says intelligence chiefs presented trump with information russia efforts to compromise him. It doesnt say briefed. It said he was presented with information, there was information in the documents. In a footnote or sliding it under with a gum wrapper . Thats not what the headlines said. The information and the chirons and consultants and people who have been antitrump since the beginning and continue to be look, i think the more important conversation, maybe for another time, but lets start it tonight briefly, a more important conversation is were at an important Inflection Point about journalism. What are the standards here . How are we going to cover the president of the United States . I took a peek at what the headlines about president elect obama were eight years ago. Whew, talk about the worlds biggest disconnect. It was how should president elect obama go to oslo now and pick up his Nobel Peace Prize or wait until after hes sworn in . We get nothing like that. We get no respect or forebearance. This man is president of the United States. Weve covered allegations against president obama quite frequently and interviewed actually donald trump about his allegations completely unproven and fake against president obama. I dont know what that has to do with this. Youre talking about old headlines of president obama. We ran with that story a lot. At this time before he was president elect it was basically what will they wear to the inauguration and how historic in other words what will his inaugural address be . Im happy to talk about that but we cant when cnn and buzz feed and others are trying to release information sequentially on the same night. I was on several shows this morning. Our ip coming chief of staff, Reince Priebus was. We had a press conference. I understand other people loop things together. Many. We are not discussing the details of what buzz feed dumped onto the internet. Thats not you havent heard that on thats what cnn did today and i guarantee they will tonight probably on the show that runs after yours. We have been very conscientious in not discussing the details, the completely unsubstantiated and, you know, increasingly false apparently details of what was being reported by buzz feed or what was not even reported. Just being dumped onto the internet by buzz feed. And were not going to do it tonight. Certainly not on my program. Its all fake news. Its not all fake news. That ice disingenuous. In that report it is fake news. People use the word dossier like some fancy french word is going to imbue it with credibility. Its an internet report, not a intelligence report. Its a collection of stuff that came from political operatives. We agree. Who wanted a different candidate to win. If a business doesnt do well some year, they usually clean house and get rid of the people who embarrass them, who didnt meet their projection goals, who said things that were not true and made no sense. I dont see that at cnn and other plays. How are we going to move forward and have a relationship with News Organizations if everything stays and looks the same . My job is not to have a great relationship with you. I like you personally. And i respect you and anybody who is in the public arena and putting themselves out there and is a pluck servant as you all are. And i respect the president elect enormously for all hes done and all i hope hes going to do. But the job of the press is not to be buddy buddies and hang out socially. How about be fair . I agree. Fair and accurate. Thats been the case for president obama ive never wanted to hang out socially a lot of folks have. I agree. I dont go to the white house correspondents dinner. I went once. I dont want to hang out socially with these people. Thats not my job. Look, this is a larger. Im happy to have it to you. Briefly, thats right, but mike pence put it best today, he said introducing our president elect donald trump, he said that we all support a fair and free press. But with freedom comes responsibility. And he is absolutely right. I think people should not do this rush to judgment, have cop conclusions in search of evidence. We agree with that. The viewers and the readers. Totally agree with that. On the same page. Kellyanne conway, as always, appreciate your time. Thank you. Throughout the interview you heard Kellyanne Conway repeatedly claim cnn linked the buzz feed story that the trump team and others are taking exception with. The buzz feed story, which we have not reported the details on. You also heard me say repeatedly that is not true. About 20 minutes after that interview before we went on air, she, Kellyanne Conway, tweeted this screenshot of our reporting and what she claims again is a link to buzz feed in that article. Just as a matter of the fact, as facts do matter, it is not a link to buzz feed. It links to a story by cnns dillon byars about the controversy and his piece which ive read, does not link to buzz feed nor does it lay out the unverified, unsubstantiated allegations that the trump people rightly are objecting to. It mentions trump attorney Michael Cohen, only because Michael Cohen publicly denied what buzz feed his mention in the buzz feed i dont even want to call it reporting, the document dump. There is no link to buzz feed, full stop, hasnt been on cnn. The panel joins us now. Kirsten powers, and paul bernstein, frank saysno. Phillip mudd. Gloria borger. Jim acosta joins us. Jim sciutto. Along with carl bernstein. Jim sciutto, you heard Kellyanne Conway about the sours and the accuracy of your story. She would not say it was wrong. Your response. Ive listened to her, listened to donald trump today, a number of trump surrogates question our story. Im not clear on what facts they are questioning. Three essential facts of our story were, one, this material was included in the briefing to the president elect and president obama. Her answer in your interview there, she didnt deny that. She said they couldnt talk about it. The other two essential facts of our story is that the fbis investigating, they havent substantiated these claims, but they consider them serious enough that they are investigating. No mention today on that, no answer to that from Kellyanne Conway. Third, all senators consider these allegations serious enough to merit investigation. A probe among them. Senator john mccain who passed on a copy to the fbi directly. These are people who dont waste time. I know the Intelligence Community does not waste time of the president elect unless they consider that information if not substantiated at least germane to the conversation. I also want to make this clear. We spoke to numerous, as you noted, thank you, multiple times in that interview, more than a dozen of the highest ranking officials here. Again, who have no incentive to make things up. And nor do we. I have three kids. I do this job because i take it seriously. And my team, they take it seriously as do many of the other people at cnn who contributed to this reporting. Again, what facts in this story are they contesting . Thats not clear to me. Theres a lot of misdirection, there is talk about the problem of using unnamed sources. But as we noted in the story, the reason these high ranking officials were not quoted by name is because of the classified nature of the information, which happens in many stories in the news and has for many years. Its a fact of life with the way government officials talk about this kind of information. So thats all i can say. I can also say we have complete confidence in our sources and continue to have confidence in the story as we reported it. Carl, cnn is not reporting whats in the buzz feed all the things that they talk about. We have not been discussing this. Not in the least. Lets talk about what reporting is. Its the best obtainable version of the truth. Thats what that story is. The best obtainable version of the truth is that the chief intelligence officials of the United States of america saw this material, thought that it deserved investigation, thought it ought to be brought to the attention of the president of the United States and to the president elect. That is the best obtainable version of the truth. Another thing about Anonymous Sources, one of the great Anonymous Sources of our era is Kellyanne Conway. She does it every day. She has been an anonymous source for the last ten months particularly during this campaign when it suits her. And its time to talk about what we do as journalists and what propaganda ministers do and that is what she is is a propaganda minister. What weve seen here tonight is a deconstruction of the journalistic process. And we did our work and you can deconstruct it and it comes down to, look, the chief officials of the United States Intelligence Community believed they had something urgent enough to bring to the attention of the president and the president elect of the United States. That is a story. Is it politics that they are conflating all this reporting, you know, in the press Conference Today that sort of lumping everybody together . I think what we just watched was extremely dishonest. It was dissembling and i think also dangerous. Ive known Kellyanne Conway for a long time. Were not best friends or anything but ive known her professionally, she is smart. She knows what she is doing, she moes there is a difference between buzz feed and cnn. She knows that. The fact she kept conflating them intentionally. And particularly dangerous, this is a person who will be Senior Adviser to the president of the United States in about five minutes who is now claiming that reporters should be fired for writing a story that was critical of her boss even though she was unable to name a single thing wrong with that story. Every time she came back about you, it was about buzz feed, had nothing to do with cnns reporting. This is not the governments job to be telling News Organizations who they should be hiring and firing. If she doesnt like cnns polling, its not any different than the polling she was doing for donald trump because donald trump didnt think he would win. Jim acosta you were at the press Conference Today. Donald trump did not allow you to ask a question. It got quite contentious. What was it like there today . What do you make of what youve heard today . I dont think we have a case of fake news, anderson. I think we have a case of fake outrage. Donald trump and his officials came into that room today with the intent to go in guns blazing, to come after cnn, to come after buzz feed, any news media that got in their way. And heres the problem for donald trump and this Incoming Administration we are not going to go away. We are not going to stop doing what we do. If donald trump is going to insult and go after this News Organization repeatedly, we will try to ask a question, and thats what i felt was appropriate in this case. He attacked our Organization Time and again and he was trying to stand there and not give us the chance to ask a simple question. To me, anderson, thats just doing our job. Ive covered four president ial campaigns, covered president obama. I once asked president obama why cant we take out the bastards . I can tell you inside that white house, they were mighty pissed about that. They didnt like that language being directed at their president. Guess what, thats what we do. This is our job and if people dont like it, theres the button on your remote control. Change the channel. But cnn is not going to stop doing what we do. What we do is hold people accountable and thats what were trying to do, what my colleagues have been trying to do with their reporting. What do you make about the briefing if something is not presented in a briefing, which is what Kellyanne Conway seems to be insinuating, why couldnt one talk about i assume ufos werent talked about in that briefing. If i asked her about it, she could say no, they werent. Things that are not talked about, that is not classified information, right . Two points. If i were them i wouldnt talk about it either. Its not whether its classified or not. The president has a right to talk to his advisers whether classified or unclassified. That said, be clear the document is not classified. A private enterprise acquired information stamped sensitive on it. That is not information acquired by u. S. Government that becomes top secret. An excuse, if you do want to talk about it, that says we cant talk because its classified, who classified it . The u. S. Government didnt. Frank, what do you make of this . First thing is that the Trump Administration has declared war on the media with all the other institutions its declared war on. Its elevating this story past where it needs to be. Its a very straightforward story. As carl said, it is a legitimate story. Intelligence chiefs concerned about allegations and stuff thats out there, includes that in a briefing to the president elect and others. Whether verbal or not. Whether it was talked about or not, and you did your job, which was to find that out. A decision was made. This is what happens with big stories. Its important the public understand this. With big stories, News Executives and reporters and others sit around and say does this hit the threshold where the public has a right and deserves and should know this . The answer is with somebody whos coming into office if intelligence chiefs are concerned about this at this level, the answer is yes, so it was reported. So the trump folks go after cnn and elevates this and thunders this into a personal shoot the messenger kind of battle which elevates the story, creates conflict, and is really about what the Trump Administration is trying to do i think is inoculate themselves against the bad press that just goes with the territory. Theres another thing going on here. One thing to attack the media, which the incoming Trump Administration is doing, and we get it from lots of administrations. There should not be cozy relationships between the press and the white house they cover. Thats our job. The other thing thats going on that we heard at the presser today thats disturbing is attacking the Intelligence Community. And that is i think thats a real problem because you have an incoming president of the United States who is attacking Public Servants as partisans who work in the Intelligence Community. Now, maybe hes going to feel a lot better when he has his own people running all of those agencies. And, you know, hes entitled to have his own people and thats fine. And president s are allowed to push back and in fact should push back on intelligence. Thats their job because we know its not fallible. We know only too well after wmd, we know that it is completely they can be wrong. But when you have an incoming president daily going out and talking about the nonsense hes getting from the Intelligence Community or complaining about leaks that he says are coming from intelligence officials, we dont know where these leaks are coming from, nobody has told nobody has stated who their sources are here, then i think the American Public has to step back and say, wait a minute, we want the president and the Intelligence Community to Work Together because our National Security is at stake here. And its okay to ask questions but to disparage is a real problem. And im hoping that when he gets his own folks in there that he begins to trust the information that he is getting. Phil, you worked for fbi and cia. What do you make of that . Couple things. First, you cant help but be discouraged. I did 25 years in. You cant shield yourself from this even if we go into a situation where we have a new cia director, going through a confirmation process now, who changes the relationship. Beyond that, theres one critical professional piece. Forget about whats happened here, anderson. Were going into an environment where the president elect is going to hear about whether russia is complying with a Peace Process in syria. Does he want to hear it . Whether iran is complying with a Nuclear Accord . Does he want to hear it . Is he going to misportray that information when he leaves the office and put the Intelligence Community in position of defending themselves . Thats what id ask on the inside. What does this mean for four years . Whats done is done. How much is politics, that politically is it about inoculating the Incoming Administration . Is it about obviously the press has low Favorability Ratings as Kellyanne Conway points out . Is it about just setting up the them versus us, that they think works in their favor . I think there is an idea theyll delegitimize News Organizations that are critical of them. That way when theres a criticism they can say its fake news. Kellyanne conway said fake news. Donald trump said cnn was fake news today. But fake news is literally people making things up, not making a mistake. Which in this case didnt even happen. Fake news is actually intentionally misleading people and thats what theyre telling people that journalist are doing. To her point, if someone makes a mistake, they should acknowledge it and stand up to it and own it. And journalists do make mistakes, just like assistants to president s maybe mistakes. And theres plenty. Im sorry. There is plenty in what the news media do and the White House Press corps do that is ugly and flawed and a problem and should be fixed. Its appropriate for a president or his aides to push back against that as gloria said. We have to take a break. Want to thank everybody. Ask more the power of questions to spark change. Im interviewed in the book. Congratulations on the book. Thank you very much. Coming up at the top of the hour, van jones hosts another town hall called the messy truth. Vans report from detroit, talking to africanamerican voters about why democrats lost michigan this year. Now in the weeks since the election, van has been talking to voters in a number of crucial states, including michigan, a democratic stronghold that this this election turned red, but not by much. 80 of the residents are africanamerican. That is the highest percentage for a big city in the United States. Obama won detroit and michigan easily in 2008 and again in 2012. So the question for democrats is what happened this year . Heres what voters told van. How you doing . Im good, im good. Reverend charles thinks he has some information as to why the democrats lost michigan. Hes going to give me a tour of his town to help me understand what motivates black voters here, and what that means for both parties. Given everything obama did for michigan. Given everything obama did for black folk, why didnt detroit come out as strong for Hillary Clinton . I think theres a disconnect between what a white house can do on the ground and what we feel connected to. That connection didnt happen. What they didnt do is they didnt build an organization to actually talk to people. But the reality is that the Clinton Campaign spent a lot of money on data, and they had big data that showed they were going to have a big victory on election night. I would say to that, data dont vote. I mean, im serious, man. If you dont build an organization that is based on relationship, understanding the issues, then you can model and data and statistic your way through a losing campaign. And that is exactly what happened with the Clinton Campaign. I think a lot of folk in the Democratic Party thought michigan is in the bag. You know, we have this blue wall. I tell people all the time. As a matter of fact i told Hillary Clinton to her face when we met, i said, look, im, i appreciate it. Its good to meet you, but ive never voted for a clinton before. I know Hillary Clinton and bill clinton about as well as i know george clinton. But people back in the 70s and 80s. I got to turn to the oldies station to get to you. I mean, thats the reality. They had the infrastructure of a lot of old relationships. Where was the energy in the Democratic Party this time around . The energy was with Bernie Sanders. The fire was put out by the dnc. That energy was kind of cut off at the knees. Theres an ethos that was being built behind the Bernie Sanders campaign that felt infectious enough to actually touch people on these streets. And some people, they thought in their infinite wisdom, that we can just kind of shift that over to the Clinton Campaign, and it didnt happen. My next stop is here at whitlows. Barbershops help shape the political discourse in the community. Vonte whitlow has been here since barack obama was born. Leslie curtis is a lifelong republican who voted for obama in 2008, but this election, he voted for donald trump. And jewel jones is a democrat, 21 years old and just elected as the youngest Michigan State representative in history. Im looking at you, but over your head is a picture of barack obama. And it says this is our moment. Was the past eight years the moment that you expected it to be when you put that sign up . I was so happy and glad to see a black man run for president of the United States of america. I think hes united a lot of people across the country. In 2008, you voted for obama. But you didnt vote for him in 2012. Correct. What did obama do to disappoint you in the first term that you didnt vote for him again. The disappointment came when he didnt address black america. His focus was on the Lgbt Community and immigration and obamacare. When youre the first black anything you have to put it out there on the line, and i dont think obama did that. I dont think he put it out there on the line. I look at you. Youre the youngestelected state representative in the state, maybe in the country, maybe in the universe. We dont know. Obama ran into a lot of hostile fire. I mean, youre young, and youre hopeful. And i remember when obama was young and hopeful. Do you think that some of the resistance against obama had to do with the color of his skin . Black people have been doing so much for so long with so little. We can do anything. With nothing. After a while you learn how to play the game, how to navigate. Of course the color of skin was an issue. When you think about the trump presidency, how do you think thats going to affect you . I think its refreshing. Like the Democratic Party, i think we needed something to wake us up. Cause, for a long time, engagements really been declining over the years. I think this is something that could really open peoples eyes and tell them, like, its time to get involved. Im excited about it. Really fascinating perspectives, van jones joins me now. What struck you most about your time in detroit . I think first of all, that pastor that was driving me around. He said that he didnt even know who was running michigan for Hillary Clinton. He said he could call the guy from 2008 on his cell phone right now who ran michigan for obama, but he was never really invited to be a part. I thought that was a shocking thing, that this guy who has so much love in the community wasnt really included, because again, the data said that michigan wasnt even a factor. That was amazing. The other thing that was amazing was that youd expect the young people to be so distressed and distraught about trump, but the young, couple young folks i talked to said hey, great, bring it on. Trump is going to get people more excited and more engaged. Its just so different when you talk to real people than when you try to make sense of what the pollsters are saying. I love that he said data dont vote. Data dont vote. That should be on every he pun at this times pundits tshirt. We talked for 3,000 hours, trying to figure out what happened. And he get it is in three words. Data dont vote. I love it. Thank you very much. That does it for our program. Early start begins now. Breaking overnight. An extraordinary move after an extraordinary day. The director of national int intelligence calls the president elect. What he told donald trump on the phone hours after donald trump attacked the Intelligence Community over alleged leaks to the media. Also overnight, late into the night, republicans taking the first votes to roll back the Affordable Care act. Late night votes as democrats chan plead for a change of heart. The nominee for the secretary of
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