russia. some of those folks during the campaign endorsed donald trump despite the fact that a central tenet of his foreign policy is we shouldn t be so tough on russia. president obama now facing questions from the rest of the press corps. you have surely set the table. what are your impressions of how he s wrestling with this, how much he can say. it s covert. he doesn t want to disclose what they are about to do or seem to be pushed around by vladimir putin as he hands off to the next president. yeah. he s being careful about what he says dauntd say. there is a smackdown here of vladimir putin who is scorned as someone who crushed human rights, democracy and frustrated aims around the world. there is a smackdown of the new wing of the republican party which followed president-elect trump in saying they have a positive view of putin.