situation. a top trump aide is dismissing the sanctions and limiting the president-elect s options. here is kellyanne conway on cnn. these retaliations put forward by president obama and his administration, some seem largely symbolic. even those sympathetic are saying part of the reason he did this today was to quote box in donald trump. that would be unfortunate if that were the motivating factor here. we can t help but think that is true. cnn s athena jones is with president obama in hawaii. she has more on the sanctions. reporter: good morning, joe and alison. the president is calling the steps necessary and appropriate. said they are coming after repeated private and public warnings to the russian government. he said all americans should be alarmed by russia s actions. he repeated the assertion that
what s fascinating they both have a vested interest in being chummy with each other. barack obama has his legacy on the line and how donald trump responds to this really and how he responds to barack obama in the months to come, i think, really will set barack obama s legacy for years to come and how we look at it historically whether he repales everything and turns back everything barack obama accomplished. likewise, it s not in trump s i want to be annoy president obama. he needs president obama to sort of be respectful of him while he s in office. but it s their egos and they are not able to sort of contain them enough to where it s responsible for either side to do what s in their best interest. they must have had a premonition of what you just said. they had a phone conversation this afternoon. listen up. we had a general conversation. i think the secretary s speech
what s fascinating they both have a vested interest in being chummy with each other. barack obama has his legacy on the line and how donald trump responds to this really and how he responds to barack obama in the months to come, i think, really will set barack obama s legacy for years to come and how we look at it historically whether he repales everything and turns back everything barack obama accomplished. likewise, it s not in trump s i want to be annoy president obama. he needs president obama to sort of be respectful of him while he s in office. but it s their egos and they are not able to sort of contain them enough to where it s responsible for either side to do what s in their best interest. they must have had a premonition of what you just said. they had a phone conversation this afternoon. listen up. we had a general conversation.
reporter: good evening. in a major u.s. policy reversal, the obama administration was going toç abstain from voting against a resolution critical of israel, breaking with the israel position on this for quite some time here. this is all according to reuters. usually the united states will protect israel from these types of votes. this particular resolution would have demanded israel halt settlement construction in east jerusalem and elsewhere. an associated press reporter tweeted john kerry was planning to make a long awaited statement on the middle east peace stalemate at 11:30. that never happened after egypt pulled the resolution and announced an indefinite delay in the vote. reuters reports pressure from israel and the potential to alienate the trump administration forced the delay. despite the report the state department refuses to say how the u.s. would have voted. we just don t preview our
done what it looks like he was going to do, which is to have the u.s. abstain, the resolution then passes. and it will never be reversed. because in order to be reversed, you gotta get security council to vote to reverse it. the chinese and russians would exercise a veto. this would have been one last shot at israel, and particularly at israel s prime minister from obama. an act of kind i don t know if it s ideological, but personal revenge. what trump did was unprecedented. for a president-elect to step in to publically oppose it and essentially to tell egypt that introduced the resolution, you better withdraw this or you won t have a friend in the white house at a time when egypt needs a friend in the white house. it was extremely effective. and extremely daring. you don t normally get that from a president-elect. what do you make of that? as charles said, there was the public and private with the president-elect reaching out to egypt s president.