[Jake Tapper, Cnn Anchor:] Welcome back to THE LEAD. We have more breaking news for you now, this time about 2016 election. U.S. government officials have been reluctant to publicly the Russia agencies or Russian government as the definitively the culprits behind the widespread hacking of political organizations here in the United States. But that just changed. The U.S. government is formally now naming names. CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto is in New York and brings us the story. Jim, U.S. officials have been debating whether to do this for a while. Today, the Obama administration formally said they're, quote, "confident" that Russia is behind DNC and other hacks. What changed?
[Jim Sciutto, Cnn Chief National Security Correspondent:] Well, Jake, one, you want to get the intelligence right and get that level of confidence. Fact is, though, as you know, officials have been telling us on background for sometime, and even in some public comments pointing their fingers, if not directly, with a lot of hints at Russia. So they have seemed to have had the intel for some time. Then it becomes a policy decision. I've been told this debate has been going on in the administration for some time. One of the factors has to be, frankly, the overall decline in the relationship. You look at Syria, you look at Ukraine. Not a lot of benefit to holding back right now. There's also a positive reason for this. Meaning that we're getting very close to the presidential election here and they want to make it clear to Americans that they know where this is coming from, who is directing it, and at the same time to give confidence to Americans that even though this is happening, and this was in the statement, that the U.S. system is big enough, it's resilient enough that even with these hacks, the election will go on and you can be confident in the results.
[Tapper:] I guess the next question, Jim, is will there be consequences for United States or for Russia for this action, of publicly naming and shaming Russia?
[Sciutto:] Well, in the menu of options when there is a hack like this, publicly naming and shaming is to some degree a consequence. It's something that the U.S. has used in the past with great degree of conservatism, only when they know it for sure. They've used it with China, publicly naming and shaming China. They used it with North Korea after the Sony hack. You speak to U.S. intelligence officials, law enforcement officials, they'll say that when you publicly name and shame, when you catch someone red-handed that those countries often pull back, remains to be seen if that's going to be the case with Russia. You have other options, the possibility of economic sanctions that hasn't been decided yet. You also have the possibility of offensive action, right? But that's something the administration is very reluctant to do because they are worried about a tit for tat that could escalate into something much bigger.
[Tapper:] All right. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much. Donald Trump did something he hasn't really done much of this entire campaign, or at all. He said he was sorry. What for? That story next.