[Unidentified Male:] Harry or William?
[Barack Obama, Former President Of The United States:] William right now.
[Unidentified Male:] Suits or a good wife.
[Obama:] Suits obviously.
[Unidentified Male:] Great, great answer.
[Hala Gorani, Connect The World, Cnn:] That is it for kidding around. A warning, Barack Obama told Prince Harry without mentioning any names we should be careful about how some people use the internet to divide up. Also coming up. Living through scenes like that but facing death from their own bodies, children riddled with cancer, kidney failure, blood disease, finally being led out of rebel held areas in Syria. Why is it so few and why so late? That and more coming up this hour. Welcome everybody todays is Wednesday, December 27, I am Hala Gorani, well White House plans to unveil a multibillion dollar infrastructure plan in just a few weeks. You probably wouldn't know that from looking at President Trump tweeter feed. You are thinking of his two favorite targets, the FBI and Hillary Clinton once again over the investigative dossier that Mr. Trump says it quote, bogus and a pile of garbage. Now that is a tweet that echoes comments made by the president over the last few months.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] Didn't you spend $12.4 million on a dossier that was a total phony? I think it is very sad what they had done with this fake dossier, I think it is a disgrace, it is a very sad commentary on politics at this country. When you look at that horrible dossier which is total phony, fake deal like so much of the
[Gorani:] And that is Donald Trump over the last several months, now we should note, he is attacking the dossier and its contents, but U.S. investigators have corroborated parts of it. None of the charges relate to the dossier and that is something obviously we should point out as well. Let us bring in CNN Jessica Schneider, she is in Washington with more on Donald Trump and what he is choosing to share with the world via Twitter, Jessica.
[Jessica Schneider, Cnn Justice Correspondent:] That is right Hala, you saw it there the president has repeatedly railed against the Russian dossier, yesterday he tweeted that it was bogus, but I want to break it down for you, the bogus claim is not entirely accurate so first of all, it is true that the most salacious allegations contained in dossier, those had not been verified however the broadest in the dossier that Russia waged the campaign to interfere in the U.S. election 2016. That is accepted as fact by the U.S. intelligence community, plus it was CNN that reported earlier this year that other aspects of the dossier like communications between senior Russian officials and other Russian mentioned in the memos, those two actually took place. So, it is important to note that the FBI, I has not relied on the dossier entirely and its own investigation into Russian meddling in possible collusion with the rump campaign, in fact as you noted there, four of the Trump associative that had been charge so far they included, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos and former national security advisor Michael Flynn in all four of their indictments there's been reference to the dossier or its findings. However special counsel Robert Mueller's team did meet this past summer with the author of the dossier, that is former British spy Christopher Steele, and Hala it is possible that any information that Mueller's team may have gotten from Christopher Steele, that could be used as the probe continues here but we haven't seen any evidence of it in the indictments in those four Trump associates and we do know from our reporting that parts of this dossier you have been corroborated. So the president claimed Hala that this is completely bogus, well it doesn't exactly went through. Hala?
[Gorani:] Now, I got to ask this question though, the tax legislation the President Trump promise did go through, there is a plan to unveil and infrastructure spending plan, why is the president choosing to focus on the dossier on his old rival and opponent Hillary Clinton over twitter rather on what he said or his achievements?
[Schneider:] If I knew the answer to that question Hala, I will be a [inaudible] woman, that had been the continued question, that has been the criticism of this president throughout is administration, we are going on a year now and the president continues to go back and turned the focus on Russia. To tweet about the Russia probe, to downplay the Russia probe, to call it a witch-hunt, the question is with all these legislative priorities up until really on the tax bill that had stalled. Why doesn't the president pour more of his muscle and more of his focus into his legislative priorities, perhaps we will see that turn of the focus in 2018, but yesterday's tweet, if any indication Hala, he will continue to stay focused on the Russia probe. In fact our CNN team did some reporting just about a week ago were the president firmly believes that he will be exonerated in this probe and he believes not only be exonerated but he thinks he will actually get a letter from the FBI or from special counsel Mueller or from this congressional committees specifically clearing him in black and white, that likely will not happen since usually if you aren't indicted or clear in a criminal probe they don't usually send you a letter saying so, but the president, you are right Hala, continues to stay focused on it despite a lot more legislative battles to come in 2018, Hala.
[Gorani:] All right. Jessica Schneider thanks very much reporting from Washington. Now the investigation to whether Moscow was involved in the U.S. election is dragging into 2018 which is just a few days away. The Russian military from pushing ahead its maneuvers are becoming increasingly bold and as Barbara Starr tell that Washington is watching closely.
[Barbara Starr, Cnn Correspondent:] A British royal with a helicopters infrared camera tracks the Russian warship Christmas Day is itself close to U.K. territorial waters the latest in what the British government is calling an upsurge in Russian warships to close to its coastline. It is all part of the message from Moscow to Washington the Russian military will be a force to be reckoned with in 2018.
[Unidentified Male:] The Russian are certainly pushing the envelope, a lot of their activities in the naval and aerial arena are certainly hardedge to their design to push us to the limits.
[Starr:] The question now, how much confrontation will President Trump risk? He has taken an unexpected step allowing the export of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian back rebels in a country where pro Russia rebels frequently clashed with Ukrainian armed forces.
[Unidentified Male:] It is important for the United States to tell the Russia that we will support Ukraine's ability to defend itself.
[Starr:] But it's also a risky step.
[Unidentified Male:] If Putin decides that this is sort of a hostile act and a new U.S. policy to push back on Russia, Russia has everything from covert operatives across the region in Ukraine and they're able to push back and escalate very significantly.
[Stelter:] Vladimir Putin's military has also flown aggressively against U.S. pilots in Syria. The Pentagon openly calling it a deliberate violations of an agreement to prevent accidents. After that Moscow appears back off a bit. Putin personally challenging the President's new national security strategy.
[Trump:] We also face rivals powers, Russia and China that seek to challenge America's influence values and wealth. We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries but in a manner that always protects our national interest. UNIDENTIFIED MALE
[Starr:] There is some U.S. leverage. Moscow may be nervous that new back sanctions could be strengthened even further. Barbara Starr CNN Pentagon.
[Gorani:] Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow following this for us and Fred, this reset that people are anticipating and friendlier relationship between President Trump and President Putin, hasn't materialized. It doesn't seem like its going direction in 2018 necessarily.
[Frederik Pleitgen, Senior International Correspondent, Cnn:] No, I don't think it is going in that direction in 2018. One of the interesting things about what the Trump administration has done vis-a-vis possible interaction militarily with the Russians is that they really had an approach that was different as far as different theaters are concerned. One of the things that Barbara that report is that the U.S. has now said it will sell for instance anti-tank weapons to Ukrainians which is something that the Russians heavily criticized, obviously didn't like it at all. On the flip side of that, the Trump administration also decided not to back moderate Syrian rebels anymore which is something that the Russians do like. It certainly seems ashough it's not clear what exactly America's policy is towards the Russians, whether there's going to be a hard line. On the other hand, though, I think it is absolutely correct to assume that the Russians are going to continue to be very assertive and in fact are going assertive than they were before. Ukraine, but one of the things we all need to be looking out for and the U.S. will be looking out for is Russia's moves in the Middle East. If you look at Russia trying to get into bases in Egypt, trying then some of the things we've heard in the past couple days in Syria as well, that is something I think you are going to see the Russian army become more professional but also more assertive in the next year.
[Gorani:] Certainly, that is a very good observation. They're signing commercial deals with Egypt. A lot going on with Russia. Thank you very much we will get back to you very soon Fred Pleitgen in Moscow. The former American President Barack Obama has given his first interview since leaving office, he is getting the royal treatment literally taking questions from Prince Harry on BBC radio's today program. Up for discussion, politics whether the President referred "good wife" or "suits." Very crucial question, the TV show suits star the Prince fiancee Meghan Markle and the power of social media was also a topic of discussion. Let's take a listen.
[Obama:] The question I think really has to do with how do we harness this technology in a what way that allows a multiplicity of voices, allows diversity views, but doesn't lead to a balkanization of our society but rather continues to promote ways of finding common ground. I'm not sure government can legislate that. But what I do believe is that, all us in leadership have to find ways in which we can recreate a common space on the internet. One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. They can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases.
[Gorani:] Anna Stewart joins me live in the studio. He didn't mention Donald Trump by name. He was obviously referring to him. There were questions as well asked of Prince Harry about this upcoming wedding that everybody's talking about to Meghan Markle. What did he say?
[Anna Stewart, Cnn Producer:] This interview was filled with light and fun as well as you had there on the social media. They spoke about Obama's career. He misses and doesn't miss. He misses the motorcade and traffic. He doesn't miss the early morning get out. After the interview today when Prince Harry was being interviewed he asked will he be inviting President Barack Obama.
[Unidentified Female:] Well enough to invite him to your wedding?
[Prince Harry, Of Wales:] I don't know about that. We haven't put the invites or the guest list together yet. Who knows whether he is going to be invited or not.
[Stewart:] So diplomatic.
[Gorani:] They haven't put the guest list together? I don't know.
[Stewart:] T minus five months.
[Gorani:] Diplomatic about it. How did this come about? This interview was conducted a few weeks ago.
[Stewart:] the interview with Obama was conducted in September. That was before the engagement. A media storm about whether or not the Obama would be invited. It is not a state wedding. We are not expecting heads of state to be invited. We are not expecting President Trump to get an invite. They are friends of the Obamas. Will that be a snub to President Trump?
[Gorani:] Right, especially if President Trump is not invited, but not being an official state event means there no obligation to extend an invitation to heads of state, correct?
[Stewart:] Absolutely. No one would ever pressure Harry to invite or not invite anyone. This is his wedding it is his Meghan. This is all about them this will be very important driven. It's not a state wedding.
[Gorani:] Why did they hold on to it for so along if it was conducted a few weeks, months ago in September?
[Stewart:] We're not quite sure. They had teased ahead. We've been waiting for this for weeks. But we'll have to wait for the wedding.
[Gorani:] It was a fun listen. That rapid question rapid fire section.
[Stewart:] What are you going to say?
[Gorani:] I know really. He should have said the good wife just to figure the reaction. Anna thanks very much, still to come, Syria's civil war, Russia is claiming victory over ISIS while opponents of the Syrian President are suffering under a siege. We'll have that also.
[Unidentified Female:] We felt lonely. We were afraid of losing the fight until you showed up in our life.
[Gorani:] War, a battle field devoid of hope. Anything but the birth place of love. Next a story that defied all the odds, we will be right back.