Putin Congratulates Trump In New Year's Statement; Officials: Russia Allegedly Hacked U.S. Utility Company
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, and happy New Year to Auckland, New Zealand at least. We're so glad to see you. I'm Christi Paul.</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN GUEST: And I'm Martin Savidge in for Victor Blackwell. How many times did I want to say happy New Year, Auckland. That's how we start with the fireworks there. Let's take a listen and enjoy.</s>PAUL: That's the way to make sure that you are up this morning.</s>SAVIDGE: They're already in the next year. We're still here.</s>PAUL: We're waiting, but we're on our way out, aren't we?</s>SAVIDGE: Yes, we're well on our way. Throughout the day, we're going to be bringing you the scenes of celebrations just like this one, from all around the world.</s>PAUL: We certainly are. There is certainly news, though, to get to as well. We want to begin with what we're learning this morning, new allegations of Russian hacking U.S. systems, this time the target is of a Vermont utility company. It's called Burlington Electric. They say they found a company laptop with the same malware Russian hackers allegedly used to meddle in U.S. elections. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy say hackers could disrupt vital U.S. systems.</s>SAVIDGE: The state sponsored Russian hacking is said to be a serious threat and this is now about trying to access utilities to potentially manipulate the grid and shut it down in the middle of winter. That's what we're hearing. All of this as Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated President-elect Donald Trump in his earlier statement. Earlier, he said that Moscow will not expel American diplomats. That in response to U.S. sanctions against Russia prompting this tweet from Trump, Great move on delay by V. Putin. I always knew he was very smart." But lawmakers from both parties are backing President Obama's sanctions against Russia especially Senator John McCain, who has scheduled a hearing next week on foreign cyber threats to the United States.</s>SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: When you attack a country, it's an act of war, and so, we have to make sure that there is a price to pay so that we can perhaps persuade the Russians to stop this kind of attacks on our very fundamentals of democracy.</s>PAUL: Now what remains to be seen is what Donald Trump will do about the sanctions once he becomes president on January 20th.</s>SAVIDGE: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty takes a look.</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONENT: Good morning, Martin and Christi. President-elect Trump has not yet said what he will do with the U.S. sanctions on Russia whether once he takes office, he'll reverse them or keep them in place. But the tone of the statement and the tweets coming from the president-elect is certainly sending a very distinct message.</s>SERFATY: President-elect Donald Trump is out with new phrase for Vladimir Putin applauding the Russian president for withholding retaliatory sanctions on the U.S. Trump tweeting "Great move on delay by V. Putin. I always knew he was very smart." But as the president-elect determined his next move responding further to Russia and the new U.S. sanctions, his advisers are calling out the Obama administration for what they see at politics at play.</s>KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP TRANSITION SENIOR ADVISER: We've been talking about this for a while. I think that, you know, all we heard through the election was Russia, Russia, Russia, whenever it came to anything Donald Trump said or did it seemed most days. Now since the election, it's a fever pitch of accusations and insinuations.</s>SERFATY: Trump transition officials are speculating that the administration sanctions against Russia are a distraction to undermine his win and tie his hands on Russia before he becomes president.</s>CONWAY: I will tell you that even on those who are sympathetic to President Obama on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did that today was to, quote, "Box in President-elect Trump." That would be very unfortunate if that were the moti -- if politics were the motivating factor here.</s>SERFATY: Since the sanctions were announced Trump himself has only issued a two-line blunt two-line statement Thursday night saying in part, quote, "It's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things." A posture he has taken publicly in recent days.</s>DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on.</s>SERFATY: But the president-elect has now agreed to sit down with the intelligence community.</s>REINCE PRIEBUS, INCOMING CHIEF OF STAFF: We just need to get down to a point ourselves where we can talk to all of these intelligence agencies and find out once and for all, what evidence is there, how bad is it.</s>SERFATY: That closed-door meeting will likely take place in New York next week where Trump will be presented with the evidence the intel community says points a finger at Russia for the hacks.</s>PRIEBUS: Maybe at that time or maybe later, he'll have a response. But right now, we're just not in a position to sit here and respond to all of the details before we have a full blown intelligence report on this particular matter.</s>SERFATY: In the past, Trump and his aides have publicly been skeptical of the intelligence community's conclusions.</s>TRUMP: I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?</s>SERFATY: And have attempted to deflect blame away from the Russians vowing during the campaign to improve the relationship with Russia.</s>TRUMP: Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with Russia and these other countries? Wouldn't that be a positive thing?</s>SERFATY: Once sworn into office in January, Trump has the power to reverse the sanctions or keep them in place. That decision still hanging in the balance.</s>SERFATY: And all of this continues to play out over Twitter after Trump posted that tweet last night. It was only a matter of minutes before the Russian Embassy and the U.S. retweeted that tweet. Of course, that being praise of the Russian president -- Martin and Christi.</s>SAVIDGE: Sunlen Serfaty, thanks very much. To discuss the Russian hackings and what this means once that Donald Trump takes over as president, let's bring in Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and political anchor for Spectrum News. Good morning, Errol.</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning. Good morning.</s>SAVIDGE: So Donald Trump and V. Putin seem to have this mutual admiration for each other. That is very, very clear. So what do you think this means for U.S.-Russian relations once he becomes president?</s>LOUIS: Well, it has been to their mutual advantage, up until now at least, for them to have that friendship. For Putin it's kind of obvious, the oil and gas sector, which is a vast majority of the import revenue that Russia gets and is really key to their economy has really suffered quite a bit. And so he wants better deals with western companies with lifting of the sanctions, with the easing with the pressure that the Obama administration has placed on them. For Trump, of course, it was a handy way to sort of beat up on the Obama and Clinton foreign policy over the last eight years. Things will in fact start to change, however, because there's a lot more on the table than just cyber security. There's a whole question of what to do about terrorism and Russia has an alliance with Iran. You know, I think the incoming Trump administration is going very quickly find that they are enmeshed in a web of different kind of statements and commitments and obligations. And it won't be quite as easy as it has been up until now to prettily sort of pat Putin on the back, do a little bit of his bidding, take some praise from Putin in return, and say that things are going to be better. Well, things are going to be a little more complicated than that. I think he'll find that out on January 20th.</s>SAVIDGE: We're already getting a hint. I mean, Putin's decision to not react to the U.S. sanctions signaling that he would wait until Trump takes office. Is that really a smart move as Trump tweeted?</s>LOUIS: Well, I mean, look, it's smart for Putin, I would imagine. It makes him look diplomatic and statesman-like. It further sort of creates in this triangle this notion that it is Trump and Putin versus Obama. And that Obama the lame duck who is going to leave office in a couple weeks is the odd man out. Here again, you know, once you sort of lay all of the pieces on the table, and again, that Iran nuclear deal, the Russian alliance with Iran in Syria, you start to put some of these other pieces on the table. And it starts to look a little bit more complicated than simply refuting charges about the espionage and the meddling in our election that the security agencies say took place. I think the president is also going to find that when Congress sits down, when John McCain and others start holding hearings and start sort of pressing these issues, it's not going to be something where he can sort of say, oh, it's time to move on. Let's get on with our lives. Let's move to bigger and better things. Keep in mind, Martin, that it wasn't just the presidential race but up to 12 congressional races were also sort of targets of Russian meddling. And the members of Congress are not going to overlook that. There's nothing bigger and better to a member of Congress than making sure that his or her election is handled in a free and fair way without outside of interference.</s>SAVIDGE: Then let me ask you this, say that Congress does bring up this issue and actively goes after even tougher sanctions for Russia, many people who voted for Trump, didn't vote for a battle with Russia. What they voted for was this new administration to focus internally, to focus on things like jobs or keeping jobs or improving the economy. So isn't there a chance that Congress could now get off on the wrong foot not just with a new administration but an electorate?</s>LOUIS: Well, you know, it's interesting there may be blowback, you're right, Martin. But it's not -- it won't be for economic reasons. We do very little. The United States does very little trade with Russia. There's not very much that would happen if relations were further strained. So, I don't think anybody is going to feel it on Main Street in America if we happen to have bad relations with Russia. I think it's really been more of a political issue that the president-elect has really sort of fought for, for months now. Saying that it was kind of a way for him to critique Hillary Clinton, his main opponent, as somebody who was not really good at maintaining international relations, which as former secretary of state, it was sort of a potent weapon to wield against her. And then I've got to say it because it keeps coming up and we don't want to overlook it, because we never saw his taxes, because we don't know the extent of the Trump Organization's financial relationships with Russian businesses and indeed with the Russian government, we really can't say what else might be lurking out there. You know, there are screen caps of it, you know, the Trump Organization said it was planning a major push into Russia, this is during the campaign. That it had a lot of different business interests. We don't know what those interests are. We don't know who he might owe money to. What kind of deals they might be planning. So, that's also lurking in the background.</s>SAVIDGE: There's a lot lurking back there and it's only a couple of days until the new administration takes over and then it becomes front and center. Thanks, Errol, very much. Good to talk to you this morning.</s>PAUL: Also breaking overnight, a massive manhunt underway right now in Pennsylvania after a state trooper was shot and killed in the line of duty. Authorities are searching for this man. I want to show you his face, Jason Robeson is considered armed and dangerous. State Trooper Landon Weaver was responding to a domestic related incident when that suspect opened fire. The Pennsylvania governor issued a statement saying in part, quote, "I have full confidence that the person who committed the senseless act of violence will be captured and brought to justice." Two people meanwhile were shot and killed this morning after Rapper Meek Mill's concert in Connecticut. Two other people in fact were injured. This happened in a parking lot outside of the Toyota Oakdale Theater in Wallingford. Connecticut police are investigating. The victims haven't been identified just yet.</s>SAVIDGE: A member of the Kennedy family could be headed back to prison. The Connecticut Supreme Court reinstated the murder conviction of Michael Skakel. The question now is what did one judge see that another did not?</s>PAUL: New Year's celebrations already starting around the world. This is a short time ago. A few minutes ago, in fact, Auckland, New Zealand, where the fireworks show just ended. I wish you a happy New Year, everybody. Thanks for spending it with us. We're back in a moment.