Trump team to try to disavow the report or argue with the main conclusion; Big political fight is brewing this week for the incoming Trump administration
BROWN: Top Donald Trump babe Kellyanne Conway deflecting questions this morning about the Intel report, detailing how Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered cyberattacks to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump during the campaign. And here she is on "STATE OF THE UNION with Jake Tapper.</s>KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR/GOP POLLSTER: I don't want any of your viewers to be misled into thinking that somehow the Kremlin and the Republican Party -- that they had -- the Kremlin was dealing with any of the hackers in bringing that information back to Moscow and that somehow anybody who allegedly attempted to interfere our elections actually did.</s>BROWN: So while it is unclear whether it is actually swayed the election in anyway. The Intel report did make it clear that was the intention on the part of Russia. Joining me now, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO and former undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns. Thank you, ambassador, for coming on.</s>NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Thank you.</s>BROWN: What do you make of the reaction to this report from the president-elect and his inner circle?</s>BURNS: I don't think that this is not a smart strategy by the Trump team to try to disavow the report or argue with the main conclusion because it's an extraordinary report. When you have the FBI and all the major intelligence agencies of the United States government agreeing that Russia did interfere with the election, I think the far smarter course for the Donald Trump and his team is to accept it and to agree that there should be further investigation by the Congress and by the U.S. government. And there has to be some response by the United States. President Obama has expelled 35 Russian intelligence agents from our country. Donald Trump ought to want to strike back at Vladimir Putin in a way to gain the advantage over Putin as Trump takes office.</s>BROWN: What do you say to this argument though from some in your world who say, maybe Donald Trump, maybe this is a strategy, he as helping Vladimir Putin save face so that perhaps the two countries could work together and he will not continue the same kind of behavior moving forward when Trump is in the White House.</s>BURNS: Well, I would say, the first thing you have to understand about Vladimir Putin. He is not sentimental. He's not just going to try to get along with Donald Trump and suddenly disavow position that the Russians have taken, say I'm Ukraine or Crimea or NATO. And certainly you can't expect honesty from Vladimir Putin about his open interference in our election. So I think the smartest strategy here would be to do in George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan did, Republican presidents, that's strengthen NATO in Europe, make sure that the United States is superior militarily, politically, economically as we are to Russia and deal from the position of strength, but not a weakness. And I fear that the Russian government probably sees Donald Trump as rather weak right now. And that is no position that you want the American president to be in.</s>BROWN: In your view, because the report made clear that Vladimir Putin had a grudge against Clinton going back for years, why do you think that Russia would want Donald Trump in the White House beyond is claim that you're making that you believe they view him as weak?</s>BURNS: Well, Secretary Clinton had been very tough minded with president Putin over the issue, certainly of Ukraine, she spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine and the occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014. When she was in office prior to that, she dealt in a very tough way with the Russians and they remembered that. And then, they saw this American presidential candidate Donald Trump who refuses to criticize Russia under any circumstances, not even for their barbaric bombing of civilians in Aleppo. Not for the theft of Crimea. He didn't even speak up for the NATO ally. So I think the Russians looked at these two candidates and saw a completely different set of situations with Donald Trump than with Hillary Clinton. And that appears to be part of the motivation what the Russian government did when they interfered in our election last autumn.</s>BROWN: And here's what President Obama had to say ambassador about his handling the Vladimir Putin in an interview with ABC this week. Let's listen.</s>BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I don't think underestimated him, but I think that I underestimated the degree to which in this new information age. It is possible for misinformation, for cyber hacking and so forth to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating.</s>BROWN: So what do you think Ambassador? Do you think that the president underestimated Vladimir Putin? And do you think he should have come out earlier waited publicly and send a stronger warning to Russia rather than waiting until after the election months after he knew Russia was behind it.</s>BURNS: Well, I think President Obama made an interesting point there in the clip you showed. And a very interesting part of this intelligence community, FBI report, was this wasn't just Russia hacking the Democratic National Committee's email server. It was also a very sophisticated planning of fake stories and news reports, in Russia television, which is shown in the United States on cable, spreading absolute bald faced lies about the United States, it was a very sophisticated and comprehensive operate. President Obama said - has said that he didn't want to, in essence, interfere in our election by making these statements about Russia during the election. He is taking action. And now I think is incumbent upon Donald Trump to defend our country. If you think about it, the most important responsibility of our president is to defend the United States. We have been attacked in cyber war by the Russians and therefore we have to respond to make sure that it doesn't happen again.</s>BROWN: But you make the point and President Obama said, look, he didn't want to interfere in the election, but if the Russians have this massive operation to push out fake news to sway the outcome, why wouldn't the administration come out more strongly earlier to alert the voting public about this? And point the finger directly at Russia, we know there was a statement made October 7th, but shouldn't this have come out sooner?</s>BURNS: Well, this was done by General Clapper, the director of national intelligence. The most senior intelligence official in the government actually made a press statement on October 7th to warn the American people that the Russian government was trying to interfere. I think that was probably the right call. For the president to have come out, I think were subjected to President to charges that he was in essence favoring Hillary Clinton, as of course he was in the election, but trying to tip the balance by using the presidency in the oval office. And I think he made the right call. But the pertinent question now is not to replay what happened in October is to think about January 20th and Donald Trump taking the oath of office. He needs to defend us. He needs to speak up for NATO. He needs to criticize the Russian government for what it did. And not think as to somehow an attempt to delegitimize his election. He won the election fair and square. He is going to be our president. But he now needs to act presidential and he needs to rally the west, because the Russians are going to try to interfere in the French elections in April, and the German elections in September. And we have a responsibility to those allies as well as to all Americans to protect our democracies from an anti-democratic country and authoritarian government, the government of Vladimir Putin.</s>BROWN: OK. Former ambassador Nicholas Burns, thank you very much.</s>BURNS: Thank you very much.</s>BROWN: Coming up, spotlight time for several of the president-elect's top cabinet picks. Democrats on Capitol Hill have a long list of complaints, but are any in real danger of not winning confirmation? We will discuss it live in the CNN NEWSROOM.