Faces at trump tower rolling on. Rick perry tapped top energy secretary. Hed be heading an agency he once tried to eliminate, and then theres kanye west. Probably the only person to visit trump tower in the last two weeks who doesnt want a job, maybe. I just want to take a picture right now. Okay. Lets go back to jim acosta in wisconsin for us this evening. J jim, good evening to you. Youre covering another socalled thank you rally, this one in wisconsin. How did it go . Reporter well, there are no kanye sightings here. There are some Christmas Trees behind me. I guess you can see that donald trump was in sort of the Christmas Spirit tonight, although i think he feels its better to receive election victories than he gobbled up about 22 minutes of this 50inout rally talking about his victory on Election Night. He also defended some of the decisions hes made as president elect. Most specifically, Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. He announced that earlier today, and he talked about tillersons presence on the world stage, his contacts with World Leaders. Even some World Leaders he mentions the United States does not get along with. Though donald trump did not mention one name in particular, and that is Vladimir Putin who has a long relationship with Rex Tillerson. Heres more of how donald trump put it tonight here in wisconsin. Rex will be a fierce advocate for americas interest around the world. And has the insights and talents necessary to reverse years of Foreign Policy blunders and disasters. Blunders and disasters. Very excited about rex. And you know, rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world that we dont get along with, and some people dont like that. They dont want him to be friendly. Reporter and as you know, don, earlier today donald trump did announce some other cabinet selection picks. Energy secretary rick perry. Thats the choice that donald trump is making for the energy department. And we also learned that line zinki a republican congressman from montana has been tapped for interior secretary, and we understand katrina pearson, a spokesperson during the campaign, she was at trump tower to talk about press secretary and other positions in the administration. Paul ryan was by his side tonight. Are they on the same page tonight, jim . Reporter on the same page, thats a tricky question. As we saw during the campaign, they were not on the same page. There were times when paul ryan had to Cancel Campaign appearances with donald trump. He did not want to appear essentially by and large with donald trump during this election cycle. But he was here on stage tonight. There were a few boos for the House Speaker here. There are some republicans here in wisconsin who are still upset with the speaker of the house for not fully embracing donald trump throughout this campaign cycle. And donald trump seemed to acknowledge some of those feelings in his own feelings about the House Speaker. There were times when they clashed publicly, privately, and in all ways. At one point during this rally, trump did praise ryan, though in somewhat of an unusual way. Heres what he had to say. Speaker paul ryan. Ive really come to appreciate him. Speaker paul ryan. Where is the speaker . Where is he . He has been ill tell you, he has been terrific. And you know, honestly, hes like a fine wine. Every day goes by, i get to appreciate his genius more and more. Now, if he ever goes against me, im not going to say that. Okay . Hes a great guy, and we have some Amazing Things in store. And were going to work on taxes. Were going to work on obama care. Were going to work on things, and hes going to lead the way, so thank you. Reporter and that was not the only mention of rivals from the past, don. At one point donald trump was talking about Hillary Clinton and her Election Night party on november 8th that he said had gucci fireworks waiting in the wicks for her victory. He described her fireworks there as gucci fireworks and at one point took a jab at her when he asked the crowd here whether anybody remembers her name. Even though its been morn a month since he was e lekded, hes still taking shots at Hillary Clinton and the news media. It is gucci brothers with an r, right . I think the fireworks, im pretty sure. I dont know. I sounded like gucci from where we were standing. Lets get back on track. Trump has chosen an interior secretary. What the k you can you tell us about him . Its the congressman from montana, former navy s. E. A. L. We were hearing the number four republican in the house Kathy Mcmorris rodgers, she had the inside track for that position of interior secretary, and then sort of late in the Selection Process ryan zinkis name was emerging as well as a congressman from idaho. It seemed to be between them. At the end they went with ryan zinki. They were pretty impressed with his interview. But one potential ramification from all this is there was some talk back in montana that ryan zinki was going to challenge the montana senator coming up. That would take that off the table. There might be Montana Republicans not particularly happy about that, but probably pleased to see one of their own in the trump cabinet given the assumption that everything should be just fine with ryan zinki being confirmed. Jim, thank you very much. I want to bring in fareed zakaria. Welcome to the show. Tillerson has no political experience. Hes spent his life working for big oil. Big oil is a political business. Theres no question with this nomination the guy is competent. He runs the Largest Oil Company in the world. They employ 80,000 people. Theyre in more countries than i think the state department. They have their own internal Intelligence Agency like the cia. Hes run a big organization. The state department is very large. He has all the attributes youd look for. He comes highly recommended. I think that this is a nomination where the debate will actually end up being something which one can look forward to. Its on the substance. Nobody disputes hes competent and has the experience and background that he would know how to run the state department and know how to negotiate. The question will be more about the substantive policies that he might pursue. Will they be too closely tied to what is good for exxon and not for the United States, and where does he stand on the important issue of russia. Well talk about russia, but i want to get in, several high ranking people in the Bush Administration have praise for him. Form secretaries of state, and james baker, gates and rice are paid consultants for exxon. Do you think theyll have an influence on the confirmation process . The one thing weve learned over the last few months or a year is that the republican establishment does not hold as much weight with the public as we thought they would. After all, think about how many of them came out against donald trump, and it made no difference. Condoleezza rice posted on facebook, and robert gates said donald trump didnt have the temperament you need for commander in chief. I dont know theyre going to make that much difference. I think here what youre moving so is theres an important moment for american democracy. The senate seems to be taking its role seriously including republican senators. He is controversial. Though democrats are critical. Three republicans on the Foreign Relations free, mccain, and graham and rubio said theyre concerned about his ties to russia. Rubio issued a statement. He said while Rex Tillerson is a respected businessman, i have concerns about his nomination. The next secretary of state must be someone who views the world with moral clarity, is free of potential conflicts of interest, has a clear sense of americas interest and will be a forceful advocate for the american goals and on the world stage. Could those three senators hold up the nomination . Three senators is all it would take. The interesting question is marco rubio, john mccain, Lindsey Graham are starting a very important conversation about what american policy toward russia should be. And what russia, what are russias goals right now . What we are witnessing with russia over the last few years has been a country that has decided to invade georgia, invade ukraine, interfere in elections in western europe, in eastern europe. We now know with some degree of certainty that in some way or other they try odd to get involved in the american political process and the election. Theyre trying to assert more and more control in syria. This is a russia on the move that is aggressive. Its ironic that Rex Tillerson is getting the job because that seems to vindicate one of the principle points of mitt romney when he ran for president in 2012. He said russia is our number one 1993 owe political adversary, and it appears to be thats the case. Now, can Rex Tillerson what has had close relations with putin, in fact, one of the reasons he was promoted to ceo of exxon was he had good relationships with the russians and could do deals. That doesnt mean he wont be able to represent american interests and American National interests, but thats the issue. Its not his competent. The question is where does he stand on what is likely to be americas principle gee owe political problem. How to deal with Vladimir Putin. And more on john mccain. Hes called putin a murder and a thug. He and he talked about the order of friendship putin awarded him in 2003. Listen to this. Frankly, i would never accept an award from Vladimir Putin, because then you kind of give some credence and credibility to this butcher, this kgb agent of being against sanctions after Vladimir Putin invaded, basically ukraine and partitioned it in violation of all International Law and took crimea, then that leads to me to question what about the issue of morality. There should be some certain standards, whatever business we are in, and, again, honoring having accepting an honor from Vladimir Putin legitimizes Vladimir Putin. You see my point in. John mccain, a respected senator. That seems like a high hurdle to clear. The way mccain described it, certainly. The only thing i would say is being a businessman and being secretary of state are Different Things. If youre running a big company, and you have dealings with russia, one of the two or three Largest Oil Producers in the world and youre doing business with them, i think thats one thing. The real question is can tize that in a geopolitical sense were in dangerous waters where its possible that the president elect wants to make some kind of deal with russia. Hes talked about it all the time. But in doing that, you would make insecure all of eastern europe. The polls, the baltic states, all these countries would be deeply insecure, think the United States was abandoning them. You would create an enormous amount of instability in doing this one deal with putin. So one would hope that Rex Tillerson would understand that. Theres no reason to assume he wouldnt. He was a businessman and protecting exxons interest. I dont fault him for that at all. The test he should be put to is can he now defend americas interests with the same zeal and intelligence that he defended exxon. Thank you very much. Always appreciate you. When we come back, donald trump is building his cabinet, but what do his picks tell us to expect after he takes the oath of office in 38 days . What time is it . Its go time. Come on. Lets go, lets go, lets go. Woooo hoooo yeah i feel like i went to bed an hour ago. Ill make the cocoa. Get a great offer on the car of your grownup dreams at the mercedesbenz winter event. Its the look on their faces that make it all worthwhile. Thank you santa now lease the 2017 c300 for 389 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Family road trip fun check engine. Not fun but, youve got hum. Thats like driving with this guy. All you do is press this, and in plain english, coolant, youll know whats wrong. If you do need a mechanic, just press this. Thank you for calling hum. And if you really need help, help can find you, automatically, 24 7. Because you put this, in here. Hum by verizon. The technology designed to make your car smarter, safer and more connected. Put some smarts in your car. After weeks of drama we now know Donald Trumps choice for his secretary of state, the exxon mobile ceo. Here to discuss, kiersten powers, salena deto. Thank you for coming on. Kiersten, i want you to pay close attention. A lot of new cabinet announcements tonight. Rex tillerson, secretary of state. Rick perry, secretary of energy. Heres how donald trump described his tcabinet earlier tonight. I believe were in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets, certainly a cabinet with the highest i. Q. I mean, these are seriously great people. Kiersten, do you think hes on the mark. Tremendous. Amazing. He is. Yes. Look, this is how he talks. So i think that hes putting together a cabinet that is one that would make conservative republicans very happy. Probably in some ways their dream team when you think about the type of people theyve wanted to have. Somebody taking on the epa. Somebody who is going to be possibly taking on the energy department. I think that they are looking at the kinds of people they never thought they were ever going to be able to have this cabinet positions. And donald trump is not a conservative really. You took the words hold on. Go on. I just think its interesting that republicans, i think one of the biggest reasons a lot of people opposed him is they didnt believe he would be conservative. The criticism of him, at least during the primaries was hes not a real conservative. Hes a democrat. And now kiersten said this is sort of the dream team for most republicans. If anybody thought that donald trump wasnt serious about what he was saying during the campaign, that he was just sort of mouthing words on a teleprompter, that there was just another show. I heard this over and over. We have no idea what hes going to be like. We cant believe anything he says. I dont think anybody has any questions now. As kiersten said correctly, this is a conservative cabinet. More conservative than any of the last three cabinets around the president bushes. And the people surrounding him. I was up at the tower the last couple of days. There are a lot of good, strong principled conservatives who are vetting the next round. Deputy secretaries, assistant secretaries. Donald trump made a promise to the American Public he was going to do certain things and he feels bound to deliver on that. And if you do, you need people to share in the vision. It sounds like Wayne Industries when you say that when you say the tower. What do you make of what Rick Santorum said, and how do you think the appointments are playing along voters . The basics are people wanted change. Thats part of why they voted for him. But they conservatives, like kiersten said, i dont think they thought that they would maybe get this kind of cabinet because there was no ideology ill differ with the senator there, no ideology with this guy. He didnt process to have any sort of set values on where his political lines were. Yeah. Salena, im going to disagree. Donald trump said that he was going to drain the swamp. He was going to cut back the regulations in this country. He was going to create opportunities for manufacturing and energy. He was going to have a reset when it came to our Foreign Policy that was going to be american first Foreign Policy on immigration. Look at jeff sessions, the justice department. Go down the list of things he campaigned on. Were very clear. Not all of them were traditional conservative. I agree with that. Do you think by appointing people tied to wall street, that that consistent with draining the swamp . There are few people tied to wall street. You have the treasure secretary which has been a long history of treasury secretaries. Its sort of a wall street kind of function. You dont want somebody who doesnt really understand the functions of the treasury to be your treasury secretary, but if you go beyond that, youre talking about a lot of good, solid americans who have great track record of accomplishment outside of government primarily. And i think thats what donald trump was looking for and hes giving it. A similar question to kiersten. Weve had this conversation. A lot of traditional folks, i mean, you know rick perry today, his former rival, do you think thats draining the swamp . Well, i think when he said drain the swamp, i think hes talking about the creatures of washington. So the k street lobbyists and people who live there all the time and make money off the government which has been ive been in washington between washington and new york and its been an ever expanding group of people getting rich off the government. Thats what i think he was talking about. I dont know that he was necessarily talking about not having a treasury secretary who is from goldman sachs. Bill clinton had one from goldman sachs, but rick perry is a politician, obviously. And hes but hes also somebody critical of trump. Ultimately came around and campaigned for him. Its interesting he would choose somebody to really came after him. Rick perry, secretary of energy. We all remember this moment from 2011. Its three agencies of government when i get there that a gone. Commerce, education, and the whats the third one there . Lets see. You cant name the third one . The third agency of government i would do away with education, the commerce and lets see. I cant. The third one, i cant. Sorry. Oops. That went on for much longer than that. We cut a little bit. It was so painful. It hurts right here when you watch that. He forgot the name of the department hes chosen to run. Its kind of ironic. Its almost as if the universe rewarded him. You get to have that because we played it so many times. The guy was just off a surgery when reran. He probably should have never run at that time. Im sure his mind just went weve all had those moments. He just has to have it replayed over and over again. Yeah. Yeah. And ive had those moments too. Rick youve had those moments, im sure. I was actually on the stage at the time. I heard you mumbling under your breath, so god. Rick perry is a great guy. And actually, we became friends. I didnt know him before the race in 2012, but we became friends through that race, and i stood there, and i knew that was the end of everything. And it was just tragic. And salena said, there are a lot of reasons for it, but the bottom line is now hes again, contrast with kiersten, look, rick perry is not a washington insider. Hes written books on federalism, how to get power out of washington, put it back to the states. Oh so if you look at the people hes put forward, some of them have some government experience, sure, but the government experience is how to get washington out of peoples lives and get more freedom and opportunity back to people. So its very consistent with the trump message. A lot more to discuss. Stay with me. When we come back, donald trump was supposed to be holding a big News Conference this week. His first in five months. So why did he postpone it . My lineage was the vecchios and zuccolis. Through ancestry, through dna i found out that i was only 16 italian. He was 34 eastern european. So i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors we thought was italian was eastern european. This is my ancestor who i didnt know about. He looks a little bit like me, yes. Ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com wevand here. Here. And here. The answer is 8. Bottom line, life is hard. Thats why godaddy created Website Builder. It makes creating a website. Easy. Build an awesome mobilefriendly, website. And its free to get started. Plus with the money you save, you can hire a math tutor. Get your free trial of godaddy Website Builder now at godaddy. Com ah, family holiday party, huh greg . At least with directv from at t, you can download then watch your dvred shows anywhere. That makes you more powerful than your gene pool. Ill trade you the candy cane for the eggnog. Deal. Or aunt jaxies lack of boundaries. Or uncle terrys overcommitment to holiday cheer. Pretty good hiding place, gotta say. Say that to the nanny cam. Its your tv, take it with you. Now you can watch your dvr anywhere, at no extra cost, with directv from at t. Did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back . Say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. Comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet thats over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. Say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. And add phone and tv for only 34. 90 more a month. Call today. Comcast business. Built for business. Donald trump hasnt held a News Conference in five months and now it looks like it will be six month yss, at least. Hes postponing the promised News Conference until january. Kiersten, he was supposed to announce his plans for clearing up his clon flikts conflicts of interest. Why did he kick the can down the road . Maybe he hasnt sorted out how hes going to deal with the conflicts of interest. He seems to be floating things, like saying there arent going to be anymore new deals made, and then that has come under criticism, because most businesses are always making deals. Heres what he said when you mention that. He tweeted out his Business Plan and said even though im not mandated to do so, i will be leaving my businesses before january 20th so i can focus on the presidency. Don and eric and executives will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term in office. Were just hearing about the no new deals part for the first time this week. This is also about existing holdings, how his policies as president could enrich hen az family. Thats a concern. Well, yeah. Its a concern that he should not have, obviously, any operational control of the company, but the fact of the matter is he has a tremendous amount of his wealth in this company. But i have no doubt that donald trump is going to do whats in the best interest of america. I dont think donald trump is ran for president so he could get rich or wants to be president so he can get richer. I think a lot of this is just pretty obvious that trump wants to be president because he wants to deliver to the American Public the success he has to a lot more people across this country. So im not as concerned about that as i think a lot of people are focusing the attention. I think donald trump will be focussed on whats important, and thats delivering what he said he would do for the American Public. Do you think delivering what you can do with the American Public, isnt that thats the point that its more important than business holdings. Even after hes president , he can be part of it after. Why not get rid of it now, do the job youre supposed to do, do what every other person before you has done and then go back to the business after. I think in large part hell do that. How you unwind it, i think its complicated. I dont have any doubt that donald trump is not going to have any operational control of his company, and i can tell you that im sure hes going to do everything, and the people around him will do everything to make sure that nothing he does is going to be seen as favoring the Trump Enterprises over any other enterprise when it comes to the decisions he makes as president. Salena, do you think hell have no idea whats going on with the business when his children are running the business and executives hes familiar with . Its hard to imagine. This has been his whole life. One of the things that trump has always excelled at is projecting strength and using that strength to leverage things. Its hard to imagine him letting go of that, even though he left the most powerful position, arguably, in the world. Yeah. Well, if i can, let me assure you, being president of the United States is a pretty busy job. I mean, its not like hes going to have a lot of time to be focusing on oh how his company is doing. Hes going to be involved with a lot of decisions on a daytoday basis. Ive had a couple opportunities to meet with him, talk to him, i should say, since the election. Hes very focussed on building his team. I have no doubt hes going to be an active president. Couldnt he i dont see the problem. Couldnt you have made the same argument about Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state. She was busy and didnt have time to be colluding with her husband over who was giving money to the Clinton Foundation. We were supposed to be believe she was somehow aware of everything going on over at the foundation, but now with the trump children well, the secretary of state travels more . Bill and Hillary Clinton were not rich before they got into politics. Bill and Hillary Clinton got rich in politics. People use politics to enhance themselves to get richer. Donald trump did not get rich because he was in politics. He made a sacrifice financially to get into politics. So its a completely different thing. Its exactly the same thing. No, it is not. Yes, it is. Clintons leveraged to benefit himself and themselves and trump basically used his business so he could have the opportunity to run for president. Not a other way around. The only way its different is that they were running a Charitable Organization helping people and the trumps are running a business to make money. In every other way its the same argument. And i think it was a correct argument. I think if shed become president , they could have to have stepped away from the foundation. You could not have them having im not arguing that he should not step away. He should step away and shouldnt be involved in the business. I dont think he will be involved in the business. But heres the question. Would you have said it would be okay for chelsea and bill to run i dont think you can ask someone to sell his business because hes president of the United States. Thats ridiculous. But they did ask the clintons to get rid of the foundation. Thats a fundamentally different thing. The Clinton Foundation was built up to support bill and hillary and their political activities. Thats a fundamentally different thing. Thats apples and oranges. I think theyre apples and apples. I disagree with you about what you just said. But even if that was true, how would that fundamentally change anything . The motives underlying it doesnt change anything. The problem is other people can be using this organization whether its the Trump Organization or the Clinton Foundation, to curry favor with people in power. Thats what makes it the same. Heres one way to look at the problem. We may never know if donald trump is making deals with foreign partners or borrowing money from foreign banks or using his office to help him or his kids get even richer. If it happens, would it go beyond conflict of interest to corruption . Yeah. I think thats a problem. If that happens and that scenario plays out, i think that ends up being a problem for trump. I think he needs to separate himself from the business. I think his family probably needs to step away or not have that Close Association in the white house that they are projecting right now. Right. Thank you very much. I appreciate all of you coming on. Just ahead, what kind of secretary of state will Rex Tillerson be if hes con officialed . Ill talk to a former colleague at exxon mobile and one of the tillersons Fraternity Brothers. Y idaho potatoes, americas favorite potatoes, and donating to local charities along the way. But now its finally back home where it belongs. Aw man. Hey, wait up. Where you goin . Here we go again. This is your daughter. And she just got this. Ooh boy. But, youve got hum. So you can set this. And if she drives like this, you can tell her to drive more like this. Because youll get this. You can even set boundaries for so if she should be here, but instead goes here, here, or here. Youll know. So dont worry, mom. Because you put this, in here. Hum by verizon. The technology designed to make your car smarter, safer and more connected. Put some smarts in your car. Youthats why you drink ensure. Sidelined. With 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy to get back to doing. What you love. Ensure. Always be you. To be secretary of state, hell with one of the trump administrations most visible and powerful officials. I want to bring in a middle east advisor to exxon mobile and james, a Fraternity Brother of tillerson. Its good to have both of you on. Thank you for joining us. James, im going to start with you first. You knew Rex Tillerson from his college days. You were Fraternity Brothers. What was he like . Oh, wow. What a great guy. Let me let you understand wasnt the fraternity like most people think of. We were a service fraternity. We were basically former boy scouts. We did Service Projects on campus or to other scout troops in the austin area or to the campus itself. So we conducted elections, did the registration of the students. We were very busy doing a lot of different projects. Thats how i met rex, was involved with that. He was a little younger than i, and he came on, pledged, and did all the things you have to do which is work extra 35 hours a semester and meet the active and do the other things you have to do to be a member of that fraternity. In addition to that, i want to point out hes also a member of the long horn band. Its a large organization, about 400 band members. He spent a lot of time working. All that said to be an engineer, be in the long horn band and be in the fraternity. He was busy and had to manage his time efficiently. Which he did tell. Hes an impressive businessman but has zero Foreign Policy experience. Are you surprised at all by the nomination . Well, i dont know about that. Ive been in the International Business myself, those of us in International Business spend a lot of time all over the world meeting a lot of people and having to do deals and comply with u. S. Law. I think wed be lucky to have a guy like that help us out. Most of us are in angst about elected officials. I think we should support him and see what he can do. Suzanne, youre a former exxon mobile employee who worked with people on tillersons team. What do you know about his style of leadership . He comes out of an environment in which results matter, an environment in which strict compliance with both u. S. Law and the principles of the companies, which focus on operational excellence, Strong Financial results, and a really clear ethical framework that are invaluable. This is someone who is has succeeded in a very tough industry and worked all over the world and has been responsible for actually getting projects done in very difficult environments, and i think that in a sense that gives him a different kind of a lens than we typically see in Foreign Policy leadership, but i think it can be a useful one. Can you share specific examples of that . What i think his most notable about his career is his long experience in building exxon mobiles business in russia. I think it was crucial to his elevation to the highest position in the company. Russia is not an easy place to do business, and while there are many who are focussed on the photo op with Vladimir Putin or a presumptive friendship that he must have with Vladimir Putin, i think its important to recall that particularly in a company like exxon mobile where there is such a dogged determination to ensure that the bottom line is solid, Business Opportunities and longstanding business doesnt happen out of some sort of personal affinity. It really reflects an ability to actually get things done and to do it in a way that as james just suggested, adheres to u. S. Law as well as to the sort of oh contra contra contractual environment. Thats important. This person managed to build trust and actually get things done in a difficult environment. And you mentioned russia. Several high profile republicans expre expressed concerns about his relationships with people in russia. Anybody who is a friend of Vladimir Putin must disregard the fact that Vladimir Putin is a murder, a thug, a kgb agent whose airplanes as we speak have been targeting with precision weapons, hospitals in aleppo, who have committed atrocities throughout the region, and has destabilized ukraine and other countries. The list goes on and on. Why do you think tillerson is the right person to lead . I dont know where people get the idea that hes a great friend of putin. It seems to me like he did business with him. I go to macys and buy a watch. That doesnt mean the salesman is a great friend of mine. I did a transition with him, and i realize the business he did is more long standing than that, but all of us who do International Deals to deals with people we dont necessarily love them or make best friends with them but understand they have interests and we do, and if we can align the interests and make a deal he got a friendship award, the order of friendship, that putin awarded him in 2013. That may be the reason for some concern. Well, you have to understand that our army gives out coins when you go to do Different Things that they think are noteworthy. In many countries, these leaders have these little metals they can hand out, and they got a great name for it, but this was given primarily because they were successful in making a large deal with exxon. It has nothing to do with rex. Hes just the guy in charge that got the deal done or the people hes working with got the deal done more likely, and so they gave him this metal. James, suzanne, thank you. Thank you. Up next, donald trump says the only way to identify hackers is to catch them in the act. Is that true . Ill ask a man once known has the worlds most wanted hacker. The real gift isnt whats inside the box. Its whats inside the person who opens it. Give your loved ones ancestrydna, the simple dna test that can tell them where they came from by revealing their ethnic mix. Youll save 10 and theyll have a new story to tell. Order now at ancestrydna. Com and save 10 . Afoot and lighthearted i take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. The east and the west are mine. The north and the south are mine. All seems beautiful to me. Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee Chairman corker plans to launch a new investigation of russian hacking. Who better to ask about this than a man who once was known as the worlds most wanted hacker. Kevin mitnick, the author of the art of invisibility and probably a good person to know. Thank you for coming on. Thanks. Great to be on your show. Donald trump claims it is almost impossible to determine who was behind the hacks during the election. He tweeted this, unless you catch hackers in the act it is hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasnt this brought up before the election . Why is he wrong . Well, first of all, most hackers are caught after a forensic analysis and an investigation. I have actually firsthand experience in dealing with this in my younger years as a hacker. Most of the cases are solved this way. There are some cases where they do catch people red handed. If you remember ross olbrit, the guy behind silk road they had him under surveilled answer at the San Francisco public library, and when he logged into an administrator account on silk road, thats when the agents nabbed him. Thats where the guide had his hand in the cookie jar, but in most cases a lot of the cases are solved after the fact. You write about it. Youre a former hacker who spent five years in prison for computerrelated crimes. Yes. What happened in your case in. Well, i ended up again, i spent five years in prison, got out, Congress Asked me to go to washington and testify in how the government can better protect their systems, and today i run a company that i do hacking. In other words Companies Hire me to try to break into their systems, and my team, to find their vulnerabilities so they can fix them. You know, it is kind of cool to be able to do the same thing i was doing before, but now it is 100 legal. So i would imagine hackers leave clues behind. Can you give us some exam proje exa examples what me might leave behind. The biggest thing they dont want to leave behind that they do is ip address. Once the investigator, athe fbi or local police, trace the bad guy to an ip address that belongs where theyre the subscriber or the family is a subscriber, then they could execute a search warrant, pull the computers, analyze the computers and determine, hey, was this individual the person behind the attack. What hangeckers do is try to launder their ip address. There was one using vpn service but were eventually caught. In more sophisticated attackers might break into a companys computer in china and leverage that system to break into other systems. If that connection is actually traced back, they get that Law Enforcement gets the cut out connection. So it really depends on the sophistication of the person behind the hacking, of how easy it is to capture them or to catch them or not. I want to read this because it is something that the New York Times is reporting tonight because sometimes mistakes arent so sophisticated. The New York Times is reporting that john podesta, Hillary Clintons campaign manager, was hacked when his aide who had access to his account noticed a fishing attack, flagged it, and one of them responded by saying, this is a legitimate email, john needs to change his pass word immediately. Now, the aide later said he knew it was a fishing email and he meant to write illegitimate, not legitimate. It is shocking, such a small error could have huge repercussions. How often does Something Like this happen . Most hacks today, don, actually begin with an email. It is called social engineering, and what this attack method is, is a junior high schooler could do it. They send malicious links or, like in this case, a fake gmail. We call this in the security world credential harvesting, in other words stealing peoples credentials, and this stuff is really, really common. I i dont think podesta knew, he would never have put in his credentials or his assistant, whoever put in his credentials was fooled by the attack. And this is the problem, is theres you know, there needs to be more Security Awareness behind the trade craft that hackers use so the public doesnt fall for these types of attacks. Hopefully my new book art of invisibility will help people with that. Nice plug. Thank you, kevin mitnick. I appreciate that. Thank you. When we come back, yesus and the president elect, kanye west meets with donald trump in new york. Im not making it up. It actually happened. Both of them blond, by the way, or something. At godaddy, our goal is to make you look awesome online. Lets chat in football terms. This is the goal post. The end zone. The goal of every team. We know you have goals. Like getting exposure for your idea or business. With godaddy Website Builder, you can easily create an awesome mobilefriendly, get you more exposure website. We call that. A Website Builder touchdown. Get your free trial of Website Builder now. From russia with love. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. President elect trump chooses a secretary of state with ties to Vladimir Putin. He calls russian hacking to influence the election ridiculous. Plus, talking about your celebrity apprentice. Trump says he and kanye west have been friends for a long time. Will kanyes star power help him with black american. Lets get to the latest stop on Donald Trumps thank you tour. Jim . Reporter donald trump took another victory lap at a rally here in wisconsin. He