Trump Risks Adversarial Relationship with Intel Agencies; ExxonMobil CEO Brings No Diplomatic Experience to White House
HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm George Howell. Donald Trump and the U.S. intelligence community are off to a rough start. The president-elect's team has mocked a CIA report, claiming that Russia tried to steer the election toward Donald Trump --</s>HOWELL: -- comparing that report to the agency's misjudgments over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq years ago. Former CIA operative Robert Baer says if the agency can prove that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, then the U.S. should vote again. Russia, for its part, though, has demanded evidence of any involvement. A source says that the review of foreign hacking ordered by President Obama will not look at whether Russian interference affected the outcome of the election; rather, the source says it is solely about lessons learned. We have more now from our global affairs correspondent Elise Labott.</s>ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Donald Trump's comments, questioning the quality of the intel provided by the intelligence community about Russian hacking, could set up an adversarial relationship with a commander in chief, who's going to rely on the intelligence community to make monumental decisions about U.S. national security. If it's an isolated incident, it could be worked out. It seems as if President-Elect Trump is very sensitive to any charges that he didn't win the election fair and square when, in fact, the intelligence community is really only looking at whether Russia did try to interfere in the U.S. election. And about 17 intelligence agencies did conclude that they did with high confidence. If there's a larger question about whether Donald Trump does not have confidence in the intelligence community, in the intel that he's getting in his daily briefing, that could set up a much larger issue. Now the investigation that the Obama administration is engaged in is not about whether Russia affected the outcome of this election. Administration officials tell me it would be impossible to know what swayed a voter. The investigation is really about looking at past practices of all foreign states, not just Russia, but other foreign actors, perhaps in 2008, 2012 and in the 2016 election, to see what kinds of techniques they used in their hacking, in cyber attacks, to use that as a lessons learned for the next administration. But it would also give credence to any measures that the Obama administration could take on its way out the door. Officials tell me that there are a wide range of measures being considered against Russia, such as sanctions, other types of cyber measures that we probably wouldn't know about. But if this incontrovertible proof is made public, it would be very difficult for President-Elect Trump, once taking office, to question that. And if President Obama does impose measures and Donald Trump overturns them, that could -- he could face a lot of heat from members of Congress, not just Democrats but Republicans, who are very skeptical about Russia and say they're going to lead investigations. As one senior administration official said, there would be a real price to pay once the president-elect takes office -- Elise Labott, CNN, Washington.</s>HOWELL: Elise, thank you. Now let's bring in our senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, live for us in Moscow this hour. Matthew, Russian officials seem interested to see the findings of this investigation, saying, if there is evidence, prove it.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this has been the response of the Russian government since these allegations were first floated several months ago at the height of the U.S. presidential election campaign, that Russia engaged in hacking and the releasing of those Democratic National Convention e-mails, which sort of damaged potentially the standing of Hillary Clinton. And, you know, they have a point in the sense that, look, these are very serious allegations, that Russia may have been involved in trying to tip the balance in the U.S. presidential polls. But what we've not seen at the moment is anything other than anonymous sources, people who are speaking off the record in the sort of dark passageways of the U.S. security services. We haven't seen any concrete evidence. And that's something that the Russians are looking for and, of course, many other people are looking for as well, that want to see these very serious allegations backed up by some kind of concrete proof. Now whether or not the Russians are involved in it, though -- and, of course, they've denied that they have any involvement in this hacking -- certainly the Kremlin will be extremely happy with the outcome. For months, now we've been reporting that Donald Trump is the favored candidate of the Kremlin, not least because he wasn't Hillary Clinton, a figure who is seen as being very anti-Russian here in Moscow. And, of course, now Donald Trump is picking his team and that team looks like it will have a lot of experience, shall we say, and a lot of high-level contacts with Russia as well.</s>CHANCE: And so from a Kremlin point of view, this is looking like a very positive election outcome in the United States.</s>HOWELL: And the Kremlin in this case, deferring to Donald Trump, who, again, has slammed U.S. intelligence, pointing back to misjudgments with weapons of mass destruction. So seemingly the Kremlin having an ally with the president-elect in this particular investigation.</s>CHANCE: Yes. Look, one of the reasons the Russians, you know, like Donald Trump is that he voices opinions which are very similar to the Russian official position on issues like NATO. He's expressed doubts about the alliance. On issues like Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Trump during the campaign said, look, he'd look again at recognizing that and he made a priority in his campaign, the idea of building a bond, yet re-establishing good relations with Moscow. So, obviously, the Kremlin is very supportive of that and is very satisfied that Donald Trump has come to power. It's really interesting now to look at the choice of secretary of state, because Rex Tillerson has emerged as the latest possibility to become Donald Trump's secretary of state. He's, of course, the CEO of Exxon and he himself has very, very close ties with the Kremlin. He's done a lot of business in Russia over the years. He's actually been ordered, given one of Russia's most -- highest civilian honors, the Order of Friendship by the Kremlin, because of the business dealings he's had in his country. So it could be a very pro-Russian administration about to take office in the United States.</s>HOWELL: We want to talk more on that here just in a moment. Matthew Chance, live for us in Moscow. Matthew, thank you so much. Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, he's narrowing it down. It seems to be that he's reaching a conclusion for Rex Tillerson at the top of the list. He's a major name in the oil industry, who may be America's next top diplomat.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's looking more and more like President-Elect Donald Trump is leaning toward ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state. CNN's John King reporting that Tillerson left a meeting on Saturday at Trump Tower, feeling confident that he would be named to the post; Trump telling Chris Wallace from FOX that Tillerson's global business interests and his ties with countries around the world make him a very strong candidate.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you about Rex Tillerson.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of ExxonMobil. Why does a business executive make sense as the chief diplomat?</s>TRUMP: Well, in his case, he's much more than a business executive. I mean, he's a world-class player. He's in charge of, I guess, the largest company in the world. He's in charge of an oil company that's pretty much double the size of his next nearest competitor. It's been a company that's been unbelievably managed. And to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company, not for himself, for the company.</s>NOBLES: Now some of those same attributes that Trump views as positives have some concerned, including Republicans like Senator John McCain. McCain told me that he would want answers from Tillerson about his ties to Russia and his view of the world as it relates to the country before he gives him his vote in a confirmation process. Republicans hold only a four-seat majority in the U.S. Senate. So Donald Trump will likely need almost all those votes if he is to get Tillerson confirmed -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Baltimore.</s>HOWELL: Ryan Nobles, thank you. We are now live in England, where Scott Lucas is a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, live via Skype with us, to talk about the latest in the Trump transition. Let's talk about this likely pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. We've heard there Senator John McCain expressing some concerns with Tillerson's ties to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.</s>SCOTT LUCAS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Oh, I think that's just the start of the concerns. Tillerson, as your correspondent noted earlier, received the Order of Friendship from Putin in 2013, one of the highest Russian awards. ExxonMobil is deeply entrenched in relationships with Russian companies, including the large energy giant, Rosneft. Its attempt to develop those relations have stymied by U.S. sanctions with Russia. So expect that if Tillerson becomes secretary of state, that he and Trump will try to lift the American sanctions that were imposed, for example, over Russian support of the breakup of Ukraine in recent years. So like I said, the -- concern is a mild word for what might happen but there's a bigger concern here. And simply put, Rex Tillerson is a businessman. He is not more than a business man; he's a business executive. He runs a very large company but he has never been involved with U.S. foreign policy, he's never been involved with U.S. diplomacy.</s>LUCAS: I cannot recall in recent history a business man heading up the State Department. Whether there will be a conflict of interest between Tillerson's companies and between U.S. diplomacy, I wouldn't venture to say. But I would say it's extraordinary to put diplomacy in the hands of someone like a Tillerson rather than a career diplomat or a politician who has experience in foreign policy.</s>HOWELL: We heard Trump just a moment ago, though, pointing out that that business background is the key reason that right now he's at the top of the list, that that would be considered a pro and a fresh approach to the job. Your thoughts on that?</s>LUCAS: Well, that's Mr. Trump's approach but that approach is troubling in itself. Look, American diplomacy is not just dollars and cents and getting the best deal for a private company. American diplomacy is trying to deal with conflicts, such as the Syrian conflict, where Russia is involved; such as the Ukraine conflict, where Russia is involved. It's dealing, for example, with a changing European Union, which Mr. Trump has actually welcomed with the British departure. It's dealing with Americans' relations with Latin America, an area where Mr. Tillerson has no experience. So, no, I find no reassurance in the president-elect's statement.</s>HOWELL: Soon to be president, though, January 20th. Scott Lucas, live for us in England, Scott, thank you so much for your insight. We'll stay in touch with you. This is CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, ISIS may have just been dealt a setback to Syria's military. We'll have the very latest on new fighting in Palmyra coming up. Plus, rare footage from inside Eastern Mosul. The battle to take the city from ISIS has raged for almost two months. We'll show you the toll on civilians and on soldiers -- still ahead here.