Paul and top democrat senator clair mccastle. Im asking you to believe once again in america. America in transition. Can a divided nation unite under donald trump. From abc news its this week. Here now chief anchor george stephanopoul stephanopoulos. We have big stories breaking this weekend zeroing in on americas relationship with Vladimir Putins russia. The cia has concluded the russian hacking was aimed at helping donald trump defeat Hillary Clinton. A step beyond the Intelligence Communitys earlier finding that russia was trying to cast doubt on the integrity of our elections. The trump team hit back with a stunning rebuke of the cia, quote, these are the same people that said sue dam hussein had weapons of mass destructions. The president elect is likely to name a close putin to be secretary of state. Exxon coe closed a deal with putin in 2011 and in two years later he received the order of friendship. Senators from both parties raising questions about the pick but in an interview on Fox News Sunday trump called tillerson a world class player running the Worlds Largest company. Its been a company thats been unbelievably managed and to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players. He knows them well. He does massive deals in russia, massive deals for the company, not for himself, for the company. Lots of questions this sunday for the president elects incoming chief of staff reince priebus. Thank you for joining us again this morning. Good morning, george. Lets begin with the shot from the cia from your entrance significance that startled intelligence officials. How is trump going to work with intelligence agencies if he doesnt trust their work . He trusts the this is about 17 or so unnamed agencies in an unnamed report that base the report on something that is totally false. The rnc was not hacked. So the report is basically trying to make the case that the rnc and dnc was hacked and only emails were dnc emails and therefore, this is the conclusive report that the russians or whoever was doing the hacking you say he trusts the cia. Why did your transition why did you put out a statement questioning the cia . Excuse me george. The entire report is based on unnamed sources who are perhaps doing something they shouldnt be doing by speaking to reporters or someone talking out of line about something that as absolutely not true. The fbi we contacted the fbi months ago when the they reviewed our systems. We had hacking detection systems in place and the conclusion was then as it was again two days ago and we went back to the fbi to ask them about this, that the rnc was not hacked. Here we are now debating and talking about a story based on something that isnt true and were just in a fiasco about something not true. Thats only one element of the story. Perhaps the fbi told you the rnc wasnt hacked. Do you know where all your data was stored . Could it have been stored in other archived and are you confident some data wasnt indeed hacked perhaps email accounts . Im telling you as a source to you and the press because you have no source otherwise other than an unnamed source that also concluded that Everything Else was inconclusive. As a source, to the best knowledge and based on conversations that the rnc has had with the fbi, that i know of no instance that youre describing involving the rnc or the rncs data. So its hard for me to have a conversation about something that i have no evidence to the contrary to talk about. Do you know where all your data was stored . We know where our data is stored george. We do. And we have reviewed all of that data along with Security Experts along with folks at the fbi and they have told us that we have not been hacked. And when the story hit in the New York Times, our folks went back to not me personally, our chief operating officer went back to his contact at the fbi and again was assured we were not hacked. Talking about this story which by the way the story itself said was inconclusive. I dont know what to t it is unbelievable that the press would run with unnamed sources about something that they agree was inconclusive but ignore the fact that the actual people involved on the other side of this story are telling you its not true. This is on the heels of another report from the Intelligence Community. All 17 agencies did come to an agreement that russia was trying to influence the elections without describing a motive. When i spoke to president elect trump back in october he said he hadnt gotten the briefing. Has he been briefed now on those findings . Listen, im not by the way, george, as you know from working in the white house, it takes a long time im not the president. So the president has top secret clearance immediately. I dont. It takes time. Im not in those top secret meetings nor would it be appropriate. The president cant tell me whats being said in a top secret meeting unless i have top secret clearance. Look, the russians didnt tell Hillary Clinton to ignore wisconsin and michigan. This insane analysis. She lost the election because her ideas were bad. She ignored states she shouldnt have and donald trump was the change agent. This is very interesting but donald trump won in an electoral la landslide that had nothing to do with the russians. Nobody here is questioning the victory. I want to know why president elect trump doesnt believe the conclusions of 17 inteigence agencies. You dont have a source. Youre claiming that an unnamed report this is what i cant understand. I think that when hold on a second. No. Im talking about the finding in october that is public now of 17 different intelligence agencies saying russia tried to meddle with our elections. Thats before this weekend. Thats not true. George, you dont conclusively. The report also said that there wasnt agreement among the 17 agencies. When the fbi came out they came out, when there was a conclusion on the dnc, their conclusion was very clear. And they made it public. Now, if the thats precisely the conclusion im talking about. The president elect says he doesnt accept that either. They didnt conclude it was russia. Listen, i dont care if its russia or whoever. Were going to protect americans. We dont want these countries or whoever else these people are hacking our country, our parties. We protect our americans. We dont like it. Were against it. What i cant do is have an intelligent conversation with you about a report in the New York Times that is unnamed, inconclusive and based on something that isnt true. Im asking about the conclusions made public back in october. Lets move on. A statement out this morning from several members of the senate including the democratic leader Charles Mccain and Lindsey Graham, also a member of the Senate Armed Services committee writing that recent reports of russian interference in our election should alarm every american and they say democrats and republicans must Work Together to investigate this. Do you support that investigation in the senate right now . I support in anything that we can do including investigations or otherwise to protect americans from foreign interference in all of our good work that we need to do in the United States whether it be our elections, our businesses, our electric grids. We have to protect america. Im all for finding out how in the world this stuff is happening so that we can put systems in place to protect americans. Again, we dont like this. But i also want to make sure that when we debate these things that we actually have the fact that is are very clear in front of us to have this debate. I think we have those fact supporting this further investigation. Lets move on to the president elects im supporting anything we can do to find out how this stuff is happening. I think the president elect also supports anything we can do to put an end to these sorts of incidents from taking place in our country. If it turns out this investigation and the review order by president obama conclusively determines that russia was behind this, will President Trump retaliate . Look, youre going to have to talk to president elect trump about that. Certainly were going to do whatever that loaded word retaliate is, were going to do everything we can in order to prevent all of this stuff from happening ever again. Im sure appropriate measures will be exploished as to what to do if tha is concluded to make sure that number one, it doesnt happen again and make sure that we put systems in place that protect americans. Lets talk about the president elects likely pick for tillerson if that is true. The New York Times is reporting steve bannon think tillerson is in a Different League from the other candidates. Is that your view, too . Certainly i think hes an incredible businessman and American Patriot and somebody that i think has experience across the globe that very few people have. I also think we have got other great choices to make. The conclusion has not been made. Theres no announcement coming today as far as secretary of state is concerned. Its a little premature to be claiming that this is a done deal. But certainly Rex Tillerson is American Icon and businessman that i think is a pretty incredible guy. Is this the right time for a secretary of state who has close ties to Vladimir Putin . Look, i mean, hes in the business of exploring and finding oil across the globe. You have to go where the oil is at. With people like Vladimir Putin and others across the globe is something that shouldnt be we shouldnt be embarrassed by it. Something that i think could be a huge advantage to the United States. It doesnt mean were not going to be tough across the world, doesnt mean were not going to always put America First in everything we do. We have big problems in this world and i dont think we can solve these big problems by making believe that people dont exist. They exist. We have to talk to people. Reagan talked to people across the world and he was successful in communicating and treating people with dignity and respect. But putting America First in everything we do. Senators like ed markey and john Mccain Lindsey graham promising tough questions. Any concerns about confirmation . No. First of all, the pick hasnt been made. Ill say that again. No, we dont have we dont have concerns about confirmation. One of the world he built. Again, well find out whether its him or someone else on the list. Listen, its not a done deal. Its premature. But i will tell you i think this person is incredibly talentnd and could do a good job. We know president elect trump intends to keep his title on celebrity apprentice. Hes going to talk about how hes going to handle the conflicts with his businesses in the white house. Newt gingrich said this title is weird and it raises questions about possible conflicts. The fcc regulates nbc corporations can try to curry favor with the president by placing their products on the show, buying advertising. Isnt that an issue . I dont think its an issue. Look, its not going to be sitting there producing the apprentice. I can assure you that. Its something he owns, its a title he owns but im telling you hes going to be 100 focussed in the white house. Studio acting as the executive producer of the apprentice. I think thats mark burnett. He decides to reject the plan to divest from his business . Thats not true. Youll have to wait and see when he concludes the very complicated ethics review and puts up the walls that he needs to put up for the family. And the businesses and theyre working through that diligently. I can assure you of that. Isnt just some easy weekend project. When you have hotels and businesses and retail space across the entire world, it takes time to unpack that and to put this in a place that makes sense for him and the family. Mr. Priebus, thanks for joining us. Thank you. Lets get more from senator rand paul. Republican member of the Foreign Relations committee. Thank you for joining good morning. Lets begin with this issue of russia. We have president elect trump this morning calling the cia assessment that russia was trying to help elect him ridiculous and says he doesnt believe the earlier findings of all 17 intelligence agencies that russia was trying to get involved in our elections. You heard reince priebus. What do you make of all that . I think we need to get to the bottom of it and there should be an investigation because in order to defend ourselves against adverversarial countriee have to protect our information. What came out of the campaign was a high ranking clinton official sent their password by email and we need to learn how to protect our own information. What the government needs to learn from this and see if we can do a better job. I will tell you that donald trump got 70 in Eastern Kentucky and i dont think it had anything to do with the russia russians. Because in Eastern Kentucky we didnt like what president obama or Hillary Clinton wanted to do to our coal jobs. Nothing to do with the russians. They werent making anywhere conclusions whether or not it affected the outcome of the election. But what do you do as you continue to investigate this if the evidence continues to pile up that russia was trying to influence our elections . How should the u. S. Respond . You know, i think its premature to talk about response until we know exactly what happened but we should know what happened and know how to defend ourselves without question. This is an ongoing threat from a variety of sources around the world. Im not privy to it but all of the various country that is have the ability are invading each others computers all the time. We have to protect our data. Very important. How about this pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. We heard reince talk about his business experience. You have your colleagues like senators mccain and graham saying they want to ask him a lot of questions. Foreign relations committee. Do you have any concerns . I reserve judgment on tillerson. Ill ask him the same question, do you understand the historic lesson that the iraq war was a strategic mistake, thats what donald trump says. I dont know about tillerson but i know john bolton doesnt get it. He believes in regime change and still a big cheerleader for the iraq war and promoted a Nuclear Attack by israel on iran and wants to do regime change in iran. I think john bolton is so far out of it and has a naive understanding of the world. If he were to be the undersecretary im an out automatic no on bolton. He should get nowhere close to the state department if anybody with the same world view is in charge. Automatic no on bolton. But open mind on tillerson. What about tillersons ties to Vladimir Putin . I dont know that yet. The most important question is are you an advocate for the iraq war . Do you think that was a good idea . Do you think regime change . These questions keep recurring. Bolton is an advocate for regime change in libya, so was Hillary Clinton and donald trump said it was a mistake. I agree it was a mistake to do regime change in libya. Worse people took over afterwards. I also think regime change in syria is a bad idea. Its one of the reasons i endorsed donald trump. He thinks regime change is a mistake. John bolton thinks completely the opposite. They are die metric opposites. So ill do anything to try to prevent john bolton from getting any position. He believes were going to spread democracy and theyre going to elect thomas jefferson. Thats not the way it works. Its clear where you stand on that. How about the budget. We heard president elect trump say he wants a trillion dollar Infrastructure Program and repealing obamacare and according to the cbo repealing obamacare will add billions to the de government spending. Can you support a budget that adds to the federal debt . No. I wont support any budget whether republican or democrat budget that doesnt lead to balance. The current budget the republicans are looking at never balances. How can that be fiscally responsible and look at the public with a straight face and say yes we ran on balanced budgets and yet the budget were going to repeal obamacare with never balances. So im a no vote and all it takes is a couple of us. If there are few conservatives in the senate wing that will say no to a budget that never balances we could have the power to say we need a better budget. I dont know if it will happen but i will not vote for a budget that never balances. Do you have others willing to join you . Well see what happens. I dont think its known yet. Also, they havent put all the numbers into the budget. Is a budget that never balances and i wont support that. How about this question of conflicts of interest. We saw president elect trumps decision earlier this week, hell make a announcement on how hes going to handle his overall businesses if he keeps the businesses in the family, do you have any concerns that foreign interests, foreign organizations might be trying to curry favor by doing deals with the trump family . You know, i think when people voted for donald trump they realized he owned a lot of stuff with his name on it. The concern seems to be higher in the media than the public. People saying he has to sell his stuff. How would you possibly sell 700 companies in a fire sale and hope to get what they were worth . An unrealistic standard theyre trying to hold him to. He has to do everything he can to set up a firewall between him and his businesses. I think its unrealistic for people to say he should sell all of his businesses. Its not like stock. We have presid didnt know what their stock mix is and donald trump agreed he would do the same. Its a little different when you spend 30 years developing all the