Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20170113

Lets get right to Academy Awardwinning director Michael Moore back with me now. And were going to talk about what i just mentioned in the open. The Justice Department announcing its launching a probe into the fbis investigation of Hillary Clintons private email server. What do you think theyll find here . Is it too little too late . We dont know what theyll find, obviously. I dont know. All my contacts within the fbi have dried up. Did you hear what i just said . [ laughter ] go on. Im still on the air. Youre on the air. Listen, obviously this had a huge impact in the final week of the election. Its not the only thing, though. And so im glad theres this investigation. But i doent i think that democrats are doing themselves a disservice if they just focus on the comey thing and not on all the other reasons this happened. Its really its disgraceful, if i could use a donald trump word, that twice in 16 years the democrats have won the popular vote and somehow lost the electoral college. That they would let this happen again. That nobody did the math, nobody thought this out. Everybody knew what the law was. That hillary didnt go to wisconsin for what, seven months. You know, these sorts of things its her own fault and democrats own fault you said in a major way. But i want you to look at this but, yes, this had something to do with it, though. All right. Good. Lets talk about that. These are the polls. And these are cnn poll of polls, which means its a number of different polls, a snapshot of where the race stood nationally on february 28th, the day james comey released his letter on the hillary excuse me, october 28th. Released his letter on the Hillary Clinton investigation. Hillary clinton led donald trump by six points. 47 to 41. On november 5th, including polls taken after the comey letter dropped, her lead was cut by half to just three points. Democrats say comey was the major or a major factor in Hillary Clintons loss. Do you agree with that . Yeah, i think he was a factor. On what you just showed there, she went down one point. He went up. It says three points. Right. But heres what i think i dont think people all of a sudden decided were going to vote for hillary, im now going to vote for trump. I think what it did was it depressed their vote for hillary and a lot of people just threw their hands up and said im not voting, im staying home. And it energized certain people who maybe werent that excited about trump but said okay, ive heard enough of this, i dont want another eight years of clinton, so im going to go out and vote for trump. Is it going to matter because is it too little is it too late to have another probe into this . No. After january 20th cant he just shut it down . Well, he could. What would that look like for him . You think he cares . It doesnt matter. The American People care. I mean, if they dont and if people who voted for hillary dont rise up and raise a ruckus over this, and if it turns out that there is something funny going on here, that the people within the fbi knew that comey was i mean, the fact that he would release that information but not the fact that there was this other information about the russian hacking and this other stuff, it really if you were an outside observer of this you would say he was playing one certain side in favor of them. And everybody should be outraged by this, and not sit back and take it. But of course liberals and democrats are very used to going oh, geez, we lost. Not the other side. If hed won by 3 million popular votes, believe you me, you and i would be having a different discussion tonight. I say you think he cares because he does what he wants to do. And he has said i dont want to hurt her. Thats why im saying do you think he cares. He may just say it doesnt really matter right now. But he cares what people think about him. He cares deeply. Okay. What people think. I mean, theres a terrorist incident in europe can and five hours later hes tweeting about alec 3w5u8d winn and saturday night live. He cares a lot about youve been talking about accountability here from the American People. I want to play this is just another moment. Its from the press conference yesterday with donald trump. Here it is. Zp the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters. Theyre the only ones. But no, i dont think so. I won. I mean, i became president. I dont think they care at all. I dont think they care at all. Do you think people care at all about accountability . He said hes winning and this is sort of his its just about winning. Were americans. Its just about winning. I won. People dont care. Right . His opinion of us, his fellow americans, is we dont care about accountability, we dont care about honesty, we dont care about the fake news that he started in 2011 by making up this and remember, he had intelligence. He had sources. Remember this . He was quoting some nefarious unattributable source that he had that he knew obama was not an american citizen. He started this whole thing. And if he thinks we dont care, i think hes in for a big surprise. Because the majority of americans did not want him. Not just the 3 million difference between hillary and him. Theres another 7 million that voted green and libertarian. They also said they didnt want donald j. Trump as their president. Thats over 10 Million People who voted that didnt want him as president. He should care. If he doesnt care he should care. He should care deeply. And im glad that you and other journalists are not going to stop doing your job, stay on this story. Its an important story. And his whole thing watching anderson last night on this network was just beautiful. It was like and kellyanne are, whats happened to her . Its just amazing. But anderson would not let up. That is the job here at cnn and all the other networks. You cannot let up. The American People are pretty upset at how trump got into this and was not at the beginning treated in the way he should have been treated. Got to say things. Got to phone into shows from bed. Would you ever let me be on this show from bed . Depends on if youre running for president i might let you. First of all, get that thought out of your head. If you were running for president might let you do it. Really . Yeah. Dont. If i ever run for president dont ever let me phone in from bed, don, don, hows it going, don. Im in my gold plailted b ee ee. No, this is the media fell down on the job at the beginning. Not doing it now. This is important that everybody does their job. The American People are listen, i agree with you. And i think thats as you know, i know its going to be hard for people to believe because they just dont im not a partisan person. Im neither a democrat nor a republican. Im registered as an independent. Not registered with either one. I think theyre all politicians. Right . And they all work for us. And they all do what they have to do to be politicians. And i understand people like Kellyanne Conway and other folks, when they come on here, its their job to spin. Its not their job to lie to the American People but its their job to spin and that part is very frustrating. But also i have to push back and tell you that if Hillary Clinton had called from bed from chappaqua or from wherever she was running to be the leader of the free world into this show and she wanted some air time to talk about issues that were important to the American People i would have taken her call and put her on as well. With a doctors note. If she had pneumonia and she was in bed with proof. And we asked every single one of them to do it and they said no. And you know who said yes . Donald j. Trump. What . That he so thats not his fault that others were not on the air when he was. Right. But he yes, but if youre running for president you should have to show up. How do you conduct an interview with somebody i dont disagree with you. You dont disagree. No. And by the way, lets remember the historic night. If i was teaching journalism, i would pull up the tape. I cant remember the date. But i was watching you. It was 10 45 p. M. And you were in a i dont want to call it a brawl. But you were doing your job as a journalist and Kellyanne Conway did not like what you were doing. I know exactly what it was. You know what im talking about . It was the night he gave the speech i think it was in minnesota or minneapolis or somewhere and he gave a speech on race. Okay. And she proceeded to tell me that the speech was not about race and not about africanamericans. Right. But what she didnt tell us, and this is the first time im saying this on the airs she was invested in that speech, probably had written some of it, and the next day she was going to be the Campaign Manager. So she she knew that she knew that while she was sitting here but we didnt know that. Because she got up like she had been somehow maligned by you. Of course. And in fact you were doing your job. And then the next morning shes the Campaign Manager. Yeah. And i thought wow, that was an interesting people at home dont know that, though. Well, they do now. They do now because i was on here as your confessor and you were able to im just telling the truth. The truth is the truth. More of that, right . Because as they said, i dont know if you knew but it said the media and different people knew about this story, the unsubstantiated story. Everybody thats been around town for a long time. But what happens is when people come on, and im not just saying her but anyone, whether its democrat or republican, whatever, when they come on and they dont at the time American People truth and they continue to sidestep questions, it doesnt help the audience or the viewer to even have them on because its just more misinformation and it doesnt help. So it doesnt behoove anyone to even have them on anymore, i think. Thats how i feel about it. Wow. So what are you going to do now . Just continue to do what i do. In terms of these guests that come on and they just come on here and they look you straight in the eye and you know they know what theyre saying isnt really the truth. We tell them its not the truth. Thats all we can you have to do that. You have to say that. Thank you. Thank you. Youre getting me in trouble. But i like it. I could get you in more trouble if you have 30 more seconds because id like to Say Something in Donald Trumps behalf in favor of him. Can i have the 30 seconds . Go ahead. The unsubstantiated report which we are not going to discuss here on cnn because you know, i too have been a victim of buzzfeed. I get why you didnt link to them. But the story that everybodys wondering about, and im not going to discuss it here, but trump, i mean, its american by not talking about it its maybe even more salacious in some ways that its been portrayed as a sex story. Its not a sex story. If anything, it is a story about we dont want to go into the details. Im not going to go into any details. Im just saying its something a 12yearold prankster would do, would come up with an idea, if its even true. And to his favor, to his to be respectful of him as a human be being, nothing should be reported about donald trump that isnt true. I agree. And the only reason cnn reported the existence of this story is because we need to know if the person whos going to sit in the oval office could potentially be blackmailed or for them to have something on them thats why the intelligence people did what they did thats why you did what you did. We did no different reporting about wikileaks. We report bd wikileaks but not the specifics of what theyre saying. And now look at wikileaks if we had not reported on wikileaks we would have been remiss in our duty as journalists. And in the same way that you reported for five years trump repeating over and over again that our president wasnt an american citizen. Thank you. God bless you. Please be well. Well be right back. Our breaking news, multiple Officials Say fbi director james comey briefed donald trump one on one last week on the twopage synopsis of unsubstantiated claims that russia may have compromising information on him. Here to discuss cnns senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and defense attorney alan dershowitz, the author of electile dysfunction a guide for unaroused voters as well as many other. He is a very prolific author. Thank you very much for joining us. And so is jeffrey, by the way. The nine. And whats your new book . American heiress. But i am always Alan Dershowitzs student. Thats my chief claim to fame. So then well start with you, then, jeffrey. Vice President Joe Biden confirms to cnn that cnns reporting that he and president barack obama were briefed by intelligence chiefs on claims that russia had compromising information about donald trump. Biden says Intelligence Leaders felt obligated to tell obama because they were planning on informing trump. And sources tell cnn that fbi director james comey also verbally briefed trump on the twopage document. What do you make of this . Well, i mean, its a fact in the world that they were briefed. And this is a developing story. And i dont know where its going to go. I mean, i just you know, we at cnn have been very careful to report what we know, which is that this briefing took place. But what we dont know is what the nature of the relationship between russia and donald trump is. It remains perhaps the greatest american mystery at the moment. Alan, what do you make of this . I dont think its true. On its face it seems totally, totally false. The idea that donald trump, whos not a stupid man, would go into a hotel room in moscow and do something that he could be videotaped and blackmailed for well, alan, were not talking about the specifics. I know were not talking about that. But were talking about the fact that there was a hotel. I dont think its true. And i dont think it should have been reported. I think yes, they should have told him about it, had him give them evidence that it didnt happen, which apparently he did. And its not something thats i think newsworthy at this point. I think newspapers have to be careful about reporting undocumented, unproven and likely false allegations of this kind. Alan, here is general james mattis and mike pompeo, nominated for the department of defense and cia, speaking highly of the Intelligence Community at their confirmation hearings today. Senator, i can tell you that in my many years of involvement in the military i had a close relationship with the Intelligence Community, i could evaluate their effectiveness at times on a daily basis, and i have very, very high degree of confidence in our Intelligence Community. I have great confidence in the men and women that work out there. So do you think trumps cabinet appointees may improve his relationship with the Intelligence Community . I do. I think so. And i think hes going to learn to appreciate both the Intelligence Community and their fallibility. They make mistakes but theyre decent people and i dont think they try intentionally to skew the evidence one way or another. But remember, theyre relying on sources, many of whom are unreliable, some of whom are double agents. Its a very tough game out there, intelligence. And you have to appreciate the efforts that theyre undertaking but you also have to view it with skepticism. John kennedy learned that lesson very hard after the bay of pigs and stopped really giving as much credibility to intelligence. And i think a president has to be both respectful and skeptical at the same time. And if i can just add one thing, when you look back to major intelligence failures in american history, it is usually the politicians who are cooking the books, who are trying to skew the intelligence toward their political agenda. This obviously was a very big deal in the leadup to the iraq war. The intelligence professionals themselves tend to be more cautious and less certain, whereas the politicians are the wun ones who tend to push the intelligence beyond where the facts lead. The Justice Department Inspector General is launching an investigation into how the fbi handled matters involving Hillary Clintons private email server. What do we know about this and how is this going to work . Well, this is i think a very important and valuable function for an Inspector General. What inspectors general do is they investigate possible wrongdoing within their own departments. Here you have james comey violating the longestablished standards of the Justice Department to make these bombshell announcements on the eve of the election. He said he had a justification. Its a very controversial thing. This is something that an Inspector General should investigate. Its not going to change the outcome of the election. But i think for historical purposes, for the purposes of government ethics this is something that the Inspector General should investigate. Alan, heres i want to play something. You can respond. But i just want to play what Hillary Clintons Campaign Manager, former Campaign Manager robbie mook told cnn earlier tonight. And then you can respond. The leaks that were coming left and right from the fbi were so slanted against Hillary Clinton. Director comey also claimed that he needed to send that letter to the hill because he was worried it would leak out. Well, we cant punish candidates because of the bad behavior, the improper and unprofessional behavior of bureaucrats. Its just unacceptable. So alan, in your response why investigate this now . At this point just days before President Trump is sworn in. Well, it wont happen days before hes sworn in. It will take weeks and perhaps months. Of course the president could stop it by firing the Inspector General. I dont think hes going to do that. And democrats ought to be of two minds about this. On the one hand, obviously they want to be able to argue that this may have had an impact on the election by the way, the Inspector General wont say that. All hell say at most is that it has the potential of having an impact on the election. But second, i think the last thing, particularly liberal democrats want to do, is see President Trump be able to put his person in as head of the fbi. I think comey for all of his faults really does have a very good reputation for being balanced and objective. I think the report may finally conclude that it was lowerranking rogue agents who were leaking this material and who forced comeys hands because they threatened to leak these facts unless he made a disclosure which he tried to make in a balanced way. It didnt turn out to be balanced. It turned out to potentially have a major impact on the election. But i think were going to get a report that will be nuanced and will distinguish between comey on the one hand and perhaps some rogue agents on the other hand. Final thoughts on this, jeffrey. I just think this is a moment to let the chips fall where they may. This is a very important moment in american history. It needs to be investigated. The facts should be aired out. And if they help comey, if they hurt comey, i mean, i dont think the political fallout is what matters. This is part of history that we should know something about. Thank you. Always interesting when we have you on. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it. When we come right back, a republican president , majorities in the house and the senate. Are republicans ready for the power they now have in washington . Z282uz zwtz y282uy ywty my advice for looking get your beauty sleep. And use aveeno® absolutely ageless® night cream with active naturals® blackberry complex. Younger looking skin can start today. Absolutely ageless® from aveeno®. President elect Donald Trump Takes Office in eight days, and he appears to have a good working relationship so far with republicans who control congress. Will that last, though . Here to discuss cnn politics executive editor mark preston, political commentator ryan lizza, washington correspondent for the new yorker. And richard painter, who was chief white house ethics lawyer under president george w. Bush. Gentlemen, i appreciate you coming on. Mark preston, im going to start with you first because youre there tonight at that town hall that cnn just had with speaker ryan. He had an uneasy relationship during the election season with the president elect, but he is on board now. Tell us what he said about working with this new administration. Well, a couple things, don. He was very honest about his relationship with donald trump, acknowledging that he was the target of those Donald Trump Tweets when as we all know so well, when donald trump doesnt like what he sees he goes after you and attacks you pretty viciously. And paul ryan said that he was used to that during the campaign. You know, he did say that he has been having several conversations with donald trump when it comes to such issues such as entitlement reform, how theyre going to repeal and replace obamacare. But there were some differences, though, don. When it comes to the issue of a Deportation Force, something that donald trump talked about on the campaign trail, paul ryan said that thats not going to happen. When the issue of russia was discussed tonight, he went directly at vladimir putin. He described russia as a global menace. He said that russia does not share our interests and in fact they violate their neighbors. Now, we dont hear this type of rhetoric from donald trump. And on the issue of intelligence, which i thought was interesting, he walked a very fine line. He tried to tell, you know, the audience here that in fact as time goes on donald trump will begin to start to understand these intelligence officials that are providing him with this information. However, he did come back and he said he was not supportive of the idea that this unsubstantiated report was added into this intelligence briefing and given to donald trump the other day. He certainly showed, paul ryan certainly showed, don, that there were going to be differences with donald trump but clearly is willing to work with him certainly in the days ahead. And the gop of course, lets talk about them working with, you know working in washington with president elect. The gop this is to ryan. The gop had a nickname, the party of no. Now they have full power to say yes to anything they want moving forward. Were they expecting to have that, and are they ready . Well, no. Like everybody else they were expecting Hillary Clinton would win. Nobody expected trump to win, right . But i think that the accommodation that republicans have made to trump which i think has surprised some of us, even the fiercest critics on the hill have are basically silent in the face of, you know, some of the more outrageous things that went on this week. And theres a reason for that. I think a lot of republicans see trump as malleable on the big issues and flexible maybe is a nicer word, and hes going to be a pen that will sign into law a lot of legislation that has been bottled up on the republican docket for the last eight years with obama as president. So i do see following up to what mark said about paul ryans appearance tonight, youre seeing with trumps nominees and youre seeing with republicans in congress trying to hem in trump on some of his more outrageous proposals during the campaign. Right . So whether its torture or even parts of building the wall or the Deportation Force or his sort of very kind words toward putin. Youre seeing both republicans and trumps own nominees saying, well, that was really Just Campaign rhetoric, we dont agree with that, thats not going to be what the Trump Administration is all about. So you know, obviously trump will have some input on that. But you do see a little bit more of the white house and republicans reverting to a more traditional conservative agenda and trumps agenda not looking quite as different as it did during the campaign. Yeah. Richard, you have been open about the ethics concerns that you have about the president elect and his conflicts of interest. Do you believe that the republicans in Congress Share your concerns or will the president elect be given free rein . Well, what ive seen today is that the United States house of Representatives Oversight Committee is swinging into action to defend the president elect against the concerns of the office of government ethics. The chairman of the committee wrote a letter to the director of the office of government ethics starting an investigation of o. G. E. The United States house of representatives investigation of o. G. E. Alleging that o. G. E. Is politicizing the process merely because o. G. E. Is taking the position that the president should divest his businesses, which is exactly the position that i and many other republicans as well as democrats have taken. And the office of government ethics is taking that position. And now the house of Representatives Oversight Committee has also made a veiled threat to pull the appropriation for the office of government ethics. So it could get shut down next year by the house because the office of government ethics is doing its job and insisting that all officials in this administration including the president be free of conflicts of interest. And i think thats most disturbing that that has happened. And this is the same committee that posted jim comeys letter up there on the internet a week before the election and helped hand the election to president elect trump. Its a very politicized committee, and i think it has zero credibility at this point, the house Oversight Committee. House Oversight Committee the chairman you mentioned, thats jason chaffetz. Mark, do you have a response to this . I mean, look, this is a very tricky issue right now for republicans on many fronts because at a time when were facing so many very important issues with the nation, whether its domestic or certainly the foreign threats and you have congress right now dealing with these ethics issues right now, it seems a little bit silly. In fact, paul ryan tried to prevent his caucus from defunding the office of congressional ethics as their first issue right out of the gate. But yet was almost powerless to do so. In the end they decided not to do it. And they stepped back. Ive got to tell you what. Its not very smart. Specifically when you have donald trump coming in right now, who has all his own ethics questions, talking about draining the swamp here in washington, don. And don, could i just interview you on this . This is one where i have pretty strong opinions. There was a lot of news this week and i think this has gotten a little bit buried, but you have this guy who runs the office of government ethics. This is the sleepy agency that in most presidencies you never hear about, right . What this guy does is he works with nominees to make sure that they comply with all of the complicated ethics laws. And a lot of his job is going to very wealthy people who are asked to join the government and saying look, mr. Rich person whos going to join the obama or Trump Administration, you have to sell all those assets because its going to create a big conflict of interest, right . So this guy from day one, the director has been trying to tell donald trump and the people around trump, mr. President , these are the things you need to do so your administration is not swallowed by conflicts of interest. And we know from foias and some of the things the director said yesterday that they just wouldnt listen. And we had an extraordinary event yesterday. Donald trump laid out his plan to allegedly avoid conflicts of interest, and the director of the office of government ethics looked at it and said this is wrong, he cant do this, and went public. This guy, the director of that office never speaks to the press, never goes public. He felt so strongly about it he went to brookings, you know, a think tank here in washington, and did a press conference and said nothing in this plan prevents conflicts of interest. So ive been covering washington a long time. Ive never seen a pib servant go before the cameras and call out the guy whos going to be his boss in a few days the way that the director did yesterday. And i think thats something that we in the media need to pay more attention to and of course well be following it here on cnn. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate it. Thanks, don. Up next, in his final days in Office President barack obama surprised his vice President Joe Biden with a very high honor. Biden is so surprised and moved he has to turn away to compose himself. [ applause ] for millions of baby boomers theres a virus out there. A virus thats serious, like hiv, but it hasnt been talked about much. A virus thats been almost forgotten. Its hepatitis c. One in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most dont even know it. Thats because hep c can hide in your body silently for years, even decades, without symptoms and its not tested for in routine blood work. If left untreated, hep c can cause liver damage, even liver cancer. But theres Important Information for us the cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested for hep c. All it takes is a simple onetime blood test. And if you have hep c, it can be cured. Be sure to ask your doctor to get tested for hep c. For us its time to get tested. Its the only way to know for sure. Rex tillerson put exxons interests before americas. Im not here to represent the us governments interest. Instead, tillerson sided with putin. With billions in russian oil deals. He opposed us sanctions on russia. For war crimes forced to pay hundreds of millions for toxic pollution. Putting profits ahead of our kids health. Tell your senators to reject rex tillerson. And protect american interests not corporate interests. And theyre absolutely right. They say that its hot. When really, its scorching. And while some may say the desert is desolate. We prefer secluded. What is the desert . Its absolutely what you need right now. Absolutely scottsdale. A high honor today and a big surprise for vice President Joe Biden. Lets discuss now with carlos watson. Hes founder and ceo of ozzy, a daily digital news magazine. Also cnn political commentators kayleigh mcenany, krirkt to the hill, david answered lik assistant editor at the washington post, and simone sanders, former press secretary for bernie sanders. Im so glad to have all of you. Carlos at the white house today. President barack obama surprised the Vice President with the president ial medal of freedom, the highest civilian honor. Lets watch. For the final time as president i am pleased to award our nations highest civilian honor, the president ial medal of freedom. [ applause ] [ applause ] and and for for the first and only time in my presidency i will bestow this medal with an additional level of veneration, an honor my three most recent successors reserved for only three others. Pope john paul ii, president ronald reagan, and general colin powell. Ladies and gentlemen, i am proud to award the president ial medal of freedom with distinction to my brother, Joseph Robin Biden jr. A lot of love. Your eyes are moist, don. You know, when you have a friend, someone who is a friend, and Something Like that happens, when a friend gets married or they get an honor, whatever. Can you imagine . Theyre best buds. And to have being able to do that. And you can see that was completely genuine. Do you know of another relationship like that between a president and a Vice President . Its hard for me to think about one that was that close. Certainly you saw cheney and w going very different ways, including even after it. Clinton and gore were good but of course clinton didnt campaign. So it was a special one substantively as you said personally. I was with the Vice President a couple months ago and he teared up even while he was talking about running with then candidate and then senator obama. And you know theres been a lot of love, a lot of big decisions. Even the decision to go after osama, the raid, bailing out detroit. Health care a lot more. Hes got a lot of admiration. They just like each other too. Did you have to call me out that i was tearing up . They started on a wide shot. You cant help it. Didnt you when you first saw it . I love that kind of relationship. And i think no matter where you stand politically everyones going to miss the class of the obamas. Simone, he called me out. And listen, regardless of where you are where your politics are, you can tell that was a genuine moment. He said he didnt deserve it. But that just speaks to the kind of person that joe biden is. It is. And i mean, everybody loves, you know, quote unquote uncle joe. Joe biden is one of those guys that you feel like you can sit down and have a beer with. You can tell your hopes and dreams to. So it was a welldeserved honor did you tear up . I bawled like a baby when i saw it. I was in an uber on my way home, and i was in the back of the uber. So it was well deserved. He was very surprised. And its just an honor. Im definitely going to miss the obamas. I know Kayleigh Mcenanys very emotional. Im sure she cried as well. What did you think, kayleigh . I didnt cry. But what i will say is that is a special relationship and i hope that president elect trump and mike pence are able to maintain a relationship like that because not every pair has that. You look back at the clinton days and there was some friction between al gore and Hillary Clinton and some power struggles. You never got that sense with joe biden and barack obama. They were definitely an enviable pair, and we would be lucky to have a Vice President and president who have a similar closeness in the white house in the coming four to eight years. Well said. Well said. David, of course you know the elephant in the room, what many people were wondering watching, what would have, what could have been if joe biden had been up to the emotional and physical job of running for, you know, the white house after losing his son beau to cancer. Yeah, don, i am one of those who thinks that both Vice President biden and or senator Elizabeth Warren would have given president elect trump a better run for their money than secretary clinton. But just to talk about biden for a minute and that nice moment, take it back to 2007. Biden was the guy who said about obama, you know, when they were running against each other in the president ial primary, he was the first africanamerican bright, clean articulate guy. You know, he got in trouble for it. Not only did obama say look, were senate colleagues, let it roll, move on, a year later he looks around and says i want this guy to be my Vice President. In some ways to me biden is like the first black Vice President. Look, he rode shotgun with obama through some tumultuous times, and it ends up today with obama giving him the president ial medal of freedom with distinction. And as everybody else has said, these guys are best friends. This is a very generous night. And davids feeling good, you know. Mlk days right around the corner. And theres a lot of love thats being offered. By the time i say well be right back this will already be on the blogs and written about. We will be right back. 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. As after a dvt blood clot,ital i sure had a lot to think about. What about the people i care about . Including this little girl. And what if this happened again . I was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me . So i asked my doctor. And he recommended eliquis. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. Yes, eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Both made me turn around my thinking. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Plus had less major bleeding. Both made eliquis the right treatment for me. Ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. The first black Vice President of the United States according to david, joe biden. But i want to talk about this family because we also saw the first Lady Michelle obama. She was on jimmy fallon last night. And of course there was president obamas Farewell Speech in chicago this week. This president and his family are really leaving office quite popular with the American People and with a unique place in american history. Isnt that at odds with this bitter partisanship that we have been seeing, David Swerdlick . I dont necessarily think so. We could sit here and have a really indepth discussion about everything going on in our world politically right now, but in terms of the way people perceive the obama family, whether or not they were perceived this way at the start of president obamas tenure, the vast majority of americans, even people that didnt vote for president obama, that dont agree with him on issues, see this family as i want to use the word regal. Upstanding, so emblematic of american values, of the spirit of a generous, inclusive nation. You know, president obama and mrs. Obama are just handsome, warm people. You know, people are going to come at me on twitter and say im too glowing about president obama. But again, im not talking about the politics. These people represent some very high ideals in terms of what people aspire to and look up to in this country. Its hard for people to separate sometimes the politics from the truth of the partisanship, they cant see it because theyre too close to it. Do you agree with what he said, kayleigh . I do. I think sometimes its important to put aside your partisan affiliation and just to try to see the good in the other side. And something that i will always admire about the obamas is their marriage. As a person whos a christian in this country and cares about marriage and cares about family units and stability, i look at them and i admire them because to go through eight years of scrutiny, intense media scrutiny, ups and downs of the white house, for that family unit to stick together, its an example. Its an example that i think we on the right can look at and prize and say that is the family unit that we hope all family units look like in this country specificationly their commitment to one another. Let me ask you this. Eight years ago remember when barbara and jenna bush wrote a letter to malia and sasha obama welcoming them to the white house. I dont know if you guys remember that. Now they have written yet another letter about life after the white house for them, and i want to read just a bit of it. Symone, play close attention to this. They say now youre about to join another rarefied club, one of the former first children, a position you didnt seek and one with no guidelines. But you have so much to look forward to. You will be writing the story of your lives beyond the shadow of your famous parents, yet you will always carry with you the experiences of the past eight years. You have lived through the unbelievable pressure of the white house. You have listened to Harsh Criticism of your parents by people who had never even met them. You stood by as other precious as other precious parents were reduced to rnlz as your precious parents were reduced to headlines. Your parents who put you first and who not only showed you but gave you the world. As always, they will be rooting for you as you begin your next chapter, and so will we. Those were very, very kind words, symone. Thats an example of putting partisanship aside and just being human. I absolutely agree. And ive had the opportunity to meet barbara bush and Jenna Bush Hager and they are absolutely lovely people. The time i met them at a luncheon at girls inc. They talked about writing the first letter to the obama girls and why they did it. They talked about such a special club and that there are no guidelines, there is no road map for this, and they want to help as many people as they can who understand their experiences. So i think this is a good lesson for america really of getting back to the human aspect of our politics and remembering were all just people, we have shared similar experiences regardless of color, creed, or background. And this is where carlos, we were talking a bit about this, about race, when they say that race is worse in this countries. And you look at this as an example. This is obviously something thats very special and this is rarefied as the bush girls put it as a first family. I dont buy it when people say Race Relations are worse than they were eight years ago. I think they are actually better than they were eight years ago. Yeah, i agree with you. I think theres no doubt about it. You and i both grew up in different parts of the south at a time when it wouldnt have been imaginable that that tl would be not just a black president but a black family in the white house. Thankfully, mrs. Obamas mother was with them for a good bit of time. That was part of the overall narrative across not just one term but two terms. So very healthy, very good in that. Now, are there clearly problems . I think black lives matters and others have pointed out things we need to talk about and dont always talk about well. I think they have. One of the interesting questions for me, don, will be will president obama jump back in the political arena sooner than most expresident s given the potential repeal of something he cares so much about, obamacare, which for him is not just a political point but is a moral point. A fascinating conversation. I appreciate it. Thank you all. The only one who isnt afraid of me getting them sick was carlos. Strong one. Kayleigh left town because of it. Thank you, guys. Have a good one. Thats it for us tonight. Thanks for watching. Ill see you right back here tomorrow. Good evening. Thanks for joining us. Tonight new developments in the russia trump story. Cnns reporting of it. And the conflations and fact fudging by the Trump Transition Team surrounding it. This began with cnns exclusive reporting that mr. Trump last week was reported with classified documents alleging that russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and Financial Information about him. We did not report any of the unverified, unproven claims. Not a single one. That is the fact. This exclusive story about the briefing was led by a team of experienced cnn correspondents, anchors, producers, backed up by multiple trusted sources. The news today is vice President Joe Biden confirmed intelligence chiefs