and so was was his wife. michelle was her most important surrogate. a vote for hillary clinton is a vote for my legacy. he s looking to blame anyone, blame the voting booths, blame the russians, blame the russians again and now think of what he gets to do with the u.n. resolution, he gets to take a shot at netanyahu and donald trump. and this one, blame vladimir putin, and also taking a shot at donald trump. another two birds with one stone. killing four birds with two stones. and the problem is like you talked about and kellyanne conway said this last night, is this a situation where they re trying to box in, and she was referencing the the new york times article saying this might be a little bit of political shenanigans on part of the president obama, like you mentioned, to try to force a play and some kind of showdown between putin and donald trump, making it very difficult for him
Said about the trump administration. thank you so much congressman, happy new year to you. thanks. fascinating interview. u.s.-israeli relations hitting fair to say rock bottom after the u.s. abstained from a u.n. resolution condemning israel s expanded settlements. can the incoming trump administration repair the rift? what will that look like? we re going to speak with a former israeli ambassador next. t the market. but through good times and bad. .at t. rowe price. .we ve helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.
Mitch mcconnell saying the sanctions are overdue but they re appropriate. you have folks like arizona senator john mccain who called for hearings next week on the cyber attack issue so this is a point where trump seems to be at odds with members of his own party. fred? athena jones in honolulu, thank you so much. let s bring in our panel. cnn military analyst retired lieutenant general mark hertling. david cramer, former deputy assistant secretary of state for russia and senior director for human rights and democracy at the mccain institute. also joining me, john nixon, former cia senior analyst and author of debriefing the president, the interrogation of saddam hussein. gentlemen, thanks so much for being with me. john nixon to you first. russia took an unpredictable route. the predictable route would have been this tit for tat, perhaps matching sanctions, expelling people. what s your interpretation of why vladimir putin took this
Republicans in congress, they have said that this is too little too late. in other words they aren t saying this step by obama yesterday should not have been taken, they are arguing that it should have been taken much sooner and, in fact, much tougher so the risk, i think that president-elect trump faces when he assumes office is a growing divide between his views on russia and his interests in buddying up and becoming pals with putin and republicans in congress who do see russia and putin as a thread, the hacking as a major attack on the united states and the need for a much tougher position vis-a-vis russia. so in other words, the pressure is on that donald trump after swearing in would have to take this further to satisfy all of those parties. david cramer, john nixon, general mark hertling, thank you so much, gentlemen, appreciate it. next, was president-elect trump boxed in on u.s./russia relations just days before his inauguration as he and his advisers are saying? we ll have
Who shared a nobel prize for forging a peace deal. it was the closest abbas and netanyahu came to talking publicly in years. in time we ll find out if president-elect trump can change that. president-elect donald trump brings an outsider s perspective to the israeli/palestinian conflict, that of a businessman not a politician and maybe, just maybe, that s exactly what the conflict needs. but presidents who have handled or worked on the conflict have done so generally with more sensitivity than trump has shown. either way, trump lch his chance in just under three weeks. oren lieberman, cnn, jerusalem. next, two russian compounds on u.s. soil have been effectively shut down in the wake of the obama administration s against russia. are they essentially spy head quarters? plus 35 russians being expelled. we ll discuss next. plus, vladimir putin is responding to president obama s sanctions with a holiday card and an invitation to the