who gained an international following on twitter pleading for help as investigations out of aleppo are thrown into chaos. >> i'm afraid they kill us. let's start with politics and the team of reporters. chris jansing is at the white house briefing room. with me are hans nichols and msnbc political correspondent kasie hunt. chris, let's start with you. will president obama talk about this russian hack? if so, what do we expect him to say? >> well, i think the question will be very pointed and it will be what are you going to do about it? it's clear from everything we have heard from this administration including from the president himself he's ready to take action. we heard from hillary clinton. apparently last night according to the "new york times" talking to donors saying this was an attempt to undermine our democracy. here's a little more of what the

president said when he did an interview with npr. take a listen. >> i think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action. and we will at a time and place of our choosing. some of it may be explicit. and publicized. some of it may not be. >> already there's been criticism about why something wasn't done sooner. there was talk about executive actions before the election. there was concern obviously within the white house that it would be seen as somehow trying to influence the outcome of the election. so now essentially the president feels that the pressure is on. he knows the questions are being asked on both sides of the aisle. we heard an escalation at the podium when josh earnest talked about this yesterday. he said clearly in an escalation again of what we have heard from him before that trump obviously

knew that russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity and more, the kinds of questions that he raised yesterday being responded to by trump calling him a foolish guy. anything that we talked about having this as a smooth transition obviously is going out the window with this war of words and what may soon be a war of actions with this cyber attack that's now firmly laid at the feet of russia. >> this hacking is not the only corn policy that president obama probably will be touching on. hans, i want to ask about what's going on at the china sea now. the chinese were able to steal an under water drone from a u.s. naval vessel. >> they seized it. the u.s. ship was there in international waters. they were about to pick it up and a chinese boat went in there and seized it. this is an under water drone

about the size of a rowboat. you are getting two views on how big of a deal this is. first that there is a seizure of american equipment. the other and there is contact going on they are asking was this provocative? the definition is usually did the senior military leadership in beijing know this and was it pl planned? if this was directed from the top and it was provocative it escalates into something what's more described as an unprofessional naval operation. >> intelligence forces say these things happen during a transition for foreign governments to test how smoothly the transition is going and potentially test the next administration before they get to office. back to the hacking story which is obviously dominating the headlines. kasie, i want to ask about our

own nbc news reporting. i will read from a report we put online last night. this was why didn't obama do more about the russian hack? they didn't want to appear to be interfering in the election and they thought hillary clinton would win and a potential cyber war with russia wasn't worth it. that's why the obama administration didn't make a bigger deal of it at the time. are they second-guessing that now and are democrats second guessing it? >> sure. privately democrats are saying why didn't we say and do more about this as it was happening? there were a number of factors that contributed to that. some of the reporting from our nbc news colleague explaining a little bit about how the white house handled it. you will remember there was an issue with north carolina where they put out an intelligence community statement and the president had prescheduled press conference. he went aggressively after north carolina in the prochess conference. that didn't happen this time

because it was the same day as the access hollywood tape was released. when the president went to the podium that was the focus. hillary clinton's campaign spent the last few weeks of the election banging on about this over and over again. they were frustrated they didn't get more traction. even hillary clinton, there is new audio to the "new york times" where hillary clinton said, hey, look, the press is finally catching up. this combined with what james come did, part of the reason why i lost the election. there is a lot of hand wringing going on. >> what are the president's options? >> if he escalates and says he can have a proportional response and it was a provocative action by the chinese we'll see where it goes to in diplomatic channels. >> no, no. what are the president's options when it comes to hacking? >> they can decide whether or not to do it publically, privately. they have a strong predi lex

they won't publicize and telegraph what they have done. then if they go directly after putin, the folks close to him. we'll get an answer shortly. whether or not we fully know, we have had vice president joe biden say it. in general the white house doesn't like to respond and let everyone know what they are saying on cyber. the key word is proportional. they keep talking about proportional response. >> let's talk about president-elect trump. he's pushing back on the reporting. questioned the cia. he's refusing to acknowledge it. today in a tweet he sort of acknowledged it. he acknowledged the content of it saying it showed that the dnc was working for bernie sanders and talked debate questions. what are republicans doing with this and if they are taking it seriously as we have seen a number of them come out and say, how much influence can they have on the next administration? >> well, i do think, one, on

trump, you are seeing and you obviously know this well. he's trying to have a conversation about topic b while the focus was over here on topic a. to the degree he can succeed in shifting to topic b, the content of the hacks is something obviously his team would consider a success and he's done it effectively over time. where he's going to run into an issue with republicans in washington is his criticism of the intelligence community. you're already seeing that with mitch mcconnell and richard birge saying this is what the intelligence community will do to investigate. they are both saying, hey, we are not going to impugn the credibility of the cia and intelligence community. that serves as a warning to donald trump and how he talks about this. >> last question to you, chris. what recourse does the president have now that he could announce today that would move the investigation more into a public

sector as opposed to just behind closed doors and say the house or senate intelligence communities? >> specifically when you're talking about -- >> can the president come out and call for some sort of investigation beyond what congress has already first talked about now. >> they believe there needs to be something further looked into here. no doubt about it. they have made the statement clearly. i think the question is how publically does any kind of response to the hacking happen. you know, does he go after what nbc news investigative unit says is about $85 billion in assets that somehow putin controls in one way or another various entities he has. do they go into cyberspace to look for ways to retaliate and then the key question and hans touched on this. does he make it public? those are questions that are out

there. we'll see if we get answers today. this might be the last chance we have to get these questions of the president. he's leaving later today for hawaii. he has a farewell speech he'll work on while there. his speech writer is going with him. there is no guarantee he'll do a final press conference in january before leaving office. the answers we are looking for at least as a public group of correspondents today mean the last opportunity to do that. >> we'll see if we get answers. chris jansing, kasie hunt and hans anile cos, thank you very much for being with me. donald trump's controversial pick for and to israel. will a man who supports west bank settlements ignite a powder keg in a volatile region? that's coming uchl. farm. the vault to man's greatest wonders... selfies, cat videos and winking emojis. speaking of tech wonders, with the geico app you can get roadside assistance, digital id cards...

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. donald trump has nominated attorney david friedman as ambassador to israel. the far right positions spurring outrage among left-leaning jewish organizations. he advocates reindicating the u.s. ambassador to jerusalem from tel aviv and supports new settlements in the west bank. this summer he compared members of j-street, a jewish lobbyist organization who back a two-state solution to jews who aided the nazis during the holocaust. this is what he said in october. >> i think the evidence is such that she does have ties to the muslim brotherhood. she grew up in saudi arabia. >> joining me, executive director of jewish voice for peace. i know you're not super excited about this pick. but tell the viewers why this is a big deal, moving the embassy

from tel aviv to jerusalem. >> thanks so much. this appointment really confirms our worst fears about the trump administration's approach to israel. what he's doing with the appointment is empowering the elements far to the right of prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the policies mentioned are about annexation. it is about israel, contrary to international law, contrary to decades of u.s. policy taking over the occupied territories and ending the hopes for freedom and equality for peace loving israelis. >> why is it a big deal to move the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem for viewers who may not understand the region and the econsequences that may have. >> sure. for decade it is united states kept the embassy in tel aviv. that's standard for governments around the world. both palestinians and israelis see jerusalem as the capital. that's a sticking point in negotiations for decades.

this is an attack on the aspirations of palestinians for freedom. it could be a powder keg in the region. >> there is outrage among jewish liberal organizations like your own. it shouldn't be a surprise. listen to donald trump said in may. >> it was never properly treated by our country. do you know how devastating that is? >> he's saying israel wasn't treated properly by the united states, advocated moving the embassy to jerusalem during the campaign. this was on his agenda, part of his platform. we knew it would happen. why come out and sound the alarm now? >> i think we all need to sound the alarm. these are absurd positions. israel gets the largest aid

package from the united states of anywhere in the world. we need a strong voice for palestinian rights and israelis working hard for peace, this appointment will be terrible for everyone. it's bad for palestinians. it's bad for israelis. it's bad for american jews whose views aren't represented by david friedman. bad for muslims attacked by him based on race and ethnicity. it's bad for u.s. policy. >> it was reported this month the kushner family foundation donated tens of thousands of dollars for projects to settle in the west bank. do you think they could be behind the pick and what sort of consequences will that have? >> donald trump himself said he was hoping that jared kushner, his son-in-law would be helping with the approaches to peace in the region. i think it is clear that both the kushner family and david friedman who was raising money for extreme settlements, they

have clear interest not about everybody in the region. they are in favor of settlers in favor of the farthest right of the israeli public. this is not even handed. >> settlers being jews settling in the west bank which has been palestinian. donald trump has said in the past that they believe jared kushner -- or he believes jared kushner could be the one to negotiate peace between israel and the palestinians. we'll see. rebecca, thank you so much for joining me. >> thanks so much. >> up next, a young syrian girl's direct plea to michelle obama. >> hello, mrs. obama. please help us. >> nbc's exclusive interview with the 7-year-old who has been tweeting about life in war-torn

aleppo and appealing for help. you will not want to miss it. stay with us.

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fears that a peaceful surrender could fall apart. one 7-year-old girl and her mother are capturing the attention of the world with their pleas to first lady michelle obama. >> "please help us." what do we know about bana, her father and are they potentially

going to be safe soon? >> we don't know. her last tweet was two hours ago. we know she's 7 years old. they say they are in a rebel-held area of aleppo. that's her tweet from two hours ago. we haven't heard from her in two hours. that's probably on indication she's moving. she's 7 years old. they say they are in the rebel-held area of aleppo which is just a few blocks. in those few blocks you have orphans, the elderly and wounded. as you said, cease-fires off and on again. they were supposed to evacuate a group today. that hasn't happened. she's worried it seems to me eel be targeted. she's been politicized. some say it's a fake account, that the tweets aren't real and she's worried she will be killed. listen.

he's one face of the slaughter. the others are the orphans on screen. they tried to get out a few hours ago but they couldn't. they have returned to the orphanage. >> let's hope the cease-fire takes hold once again and they can get out. cal perry, thank you very much for joining us. in less than an hour president obama's final news conference of the year, hopefully he'll address what's going on in syria. likely one of the biggest topics is his own response to the

russian cyber hacks. joining me now, he's almost here, malcolm nance. msnbc terrorism expert. also the author of this year's book "defeating isis, who they are, how they fight, what they believe." thank you for joining me. >> and the plot to hack america. >> talk to me about the news conference president obama is about to have. should he have come out stronger sooner to say the russian hacks weren't only a big deal but could be affecting the outcome of the election. >> i think the president made the announcement on the same day that the billy bush video came out. >> should he have continued to talk about it? we listen regardless of what's happening in the world. >> president obama truly is a no drama guy. when he says i don't want to interfere with the electoral process and relies on the good

will of americans he does that. he didn't want to get in the way of the election. >> hillary clinton was thanking donors last night. she said it was more than just an attack on her. let's listen and get a reaction after that. >> he is determined not only to, you know, score a point against me, which he did, but also to under mine our democracy. >> is that his point? under mine democracy? >> vladimir putin? absolutely. it is designed to under mine democracy. he was going specifically after hillary clinton. but more than that. more than just under mining democracy he wants to push russia to a position where they are now the cleverest of all the nations ruled by dictators and autocrats. >> there is a divide between the cia and donald trump. now donald trump and some

adviser advisers, john bolton. >> insane. this is the hardest core of all neocons. he wants nothing more than to invade and nuke iran if he could. i don't understand where all the people who are hard-core ex-soviet union anti-russian heads are now part of the cabinet and all are fine with russia and have no problem with what vladimir putin has done. >> we'll find out how the president responds to this. coming up, malcolm nance, thank you very much. we are about 45 minutes away from president obama's annual year end prochbs as we were talking about. we'll bring it to you live when it happens. brian williams picks up coverage after the break.

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good day from new york as we count down to what will be president obama's last scheduled news conference of 2016. we do not anticipate that it will be the last of his presidency. but he is facing a short year of 2017 before inauguration day and his departure from the white house. obviously that's the white house briefing room in the west wing as technicians are talking there. the podium in the background. the press core in front. the flags set up. about 45 minutes from now we'll hear from the president. because the subject of russia has been in the news leading the news of late it was of high interest this morning when npr's morning edition aired an interview with president obama before we preview what we are

going to hear from the president let's listen again to part of what he said on this morning's broadcast. >> i think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing. some of it may be explicit. some may not be. mr. putin is aware of my feelings about this. i spoke to him directly about it. >> that was at a summit meeting. chris jansing will be covering it for us. we can anticipate entire subject areas, bodies of questions today from aleppo, everything to the russian hack. it is clear the president was

being cryptic there. he may not want to go into a lot of detail about retaliation. >> it would be surprising, if he did, if history is a guide on this. but it's clear he's escalated what he has to say about this. it was interesting to note when you listened to the interview he did with npr he didn't go as far as we have heard from the cia which suggested the goal was to elect donald trump. he did go further than before saying this created an atmosphere where for months on end nothing else or very little else was focused on in terms of the campaign between hillary clinton and donald trump. while he wouldn't say this is how or why the loss happened he did say the words it clearly had impact. you heard him. reference the meeting with vladimir putin that was about a 90-minute meeting at the g-20.

at the time there were questions about whether or not there would be speculations of if they were trying to interfere with the election. we'll see how far he goes today at the lectern behind me you know so well. we did hear an escalation of the rhetoric yesterday from josh earnest who said it was clear that donald trump knew what was going on. there was malicious cyber activity that helped him and hurt hillary clinton. hillary clinton saying she ables there was a personal beef against her by vladimir putin. the questions about the cyber hack that affected the dnc, john podesta cho, by the way, is here today. the chief of staff is doing a

trags here, inviting chiefs of staff including reince priebus the incoming chief of staff. but john podesta is here who penned an op-ed in the washington post about this subject. >> i'm sure we'll see it again but if past performance is a guide it's at this event where the president can get quite expansive at the end of the year. he has often taken more questions and led to a longer discussion than any other of the average press conferences during the year. >> yeah. this is an opportunity for him to weigh in on this in the post election atmosphere. he tried to temper what he had to say clearly in the days and weeks leading up in a formal capacity except at the rallies he did on behalf of hillary clinton. we don't have a situation where he's, i'm going to be blunt,

where he's got a timetable where he has to get out of here. we have seen times he had places to go, people to see. he's leaving for hawaii tonight and will work with his speech writer on his farewell speech. we won't see it for hours after this is over. marine one lifting off. he reichs to take questions. he is often expansive in answers. i have no rp to believe he would be anything different today. >> chris jansing in the friendly confines of the west wing briefing room. that door behind chris is where we'll see the president again we hope under 45 minutes from now. cynthia mcfadden is with us in our new york studios. if you have been watching, following the news for a couple of days it's been her reporting that provided the fresh lead in news parlance and set the agenda

for coverage and that's the personal involvement of vladimir putin in the entanglement that russia caused in the american election. for people who have not been following, all of the incremental developments in the story, where does it stand? bring folks up to date. i know you are anxious to talk about the timeline. what we knew and when. >> i think our report on wednesday was based on intelligence forces telling us the u.s. government had assessed to a high level of confidence that vladimir putin was personally involved in directing the use of the material that was actual actually the routine espionage the russian government does. we, the u.s., do it around the world as well. once they saw what they had, vladimir putin directed how it

would be used. we read in the "wall street journal" they also made an attempt but not a successful one on the rnc. let's go back in time a little bit. sort of what the u.s. government knew and when. back in june of 2015 the u.s. became aware that russians were hacking in the form of cozy bear and fancy bear. we have heard about them snm explain to people who cozy bear and fancy bear are. >> they are russian hackers who are known to have a certain cyber signature. it was determined by u.s. intelligence that they were, in fact, hacking systems in the u.s. that was back in 2015. by april of 2016 it wasn't just russians, but the russians. that means the government involved in this. that the russian government was behind various hacks in the u.s. by this summer, u.s. intelligence had determined that vladimir putin was running this

show. so that's a sort of -- by the way, also worth noting that in august julian assange from wikileaks and i'm pretty much quoting that wikileaks would be able to affect the election with some of the leaked material they were going to start putting out there. that's a little bit of a timeline to understand the context in which this has happened. >> when we talk about a hack that was personally overseen or richard engel used the word managed by vladimir putin. what's that role mean? >> okay. how this intelligence had been gathered was going to be used. was it to be distributed widely? was it to be used in a blackmail attempt? how was the intelligence they gathered through routine cyber warfare, how would they deploy it if at all.

and thursday night it was reported that the reasons what they were trying to accomplish and u.s. intelligence is united in one thing. this began as a vendetta against hillary clinton. vladimir putin was outraged by hillary clinton's challenge of the authenticity in 2011. she said things like this is a tough man with a thin skin. vladimir putin had a vendetta against hillary clinton. this began before donald trump was running, before donald trump was the nominee. the cia made an assessment that electing donald trump was part of the operation. it certainly was secondary if you look at the binary operation.

this began as a vendetta against hillary clinton and morphed into something else to discredit the united states with allies around the world to say look how ugly their democracy is when you lift up the rock. those were the starting points. >> thank you for that. i invoke the name of richard engel who i'm told happens to be listening to the conversation from his listening post halfway around the world in moscow. what would you add to what you have already heard? >> it's difficult to know what the motivations are specifically for vladimir putin. i think cynthia said they are multi faceted and i believe they are. it goes back to a sense of

vendetta against hillary clinton in particular for her stance in 201 2011 and 2012. there were street protests against elections some thought weren't free and fair in this country. hillary clinton and then secretary of state was also questioning the election process. and many thought the kremlin that vladimir putin himself felt hillary clinton was encouraging the street demonstrators. he denounced her at the time. it is not just a vendetta. there is a sense that the united states has long been meddling in the political processes in russia's sphere of influence. just today it was said if the u.s. is complaining about meddling in elections they should apologize to victory

yanakovic, the ukranian president run out of town by street demonstrations in kiev during the sochi olympics. that many in miss cow believed were encouraged by the state department, not hillary clinton hillary clinton. i would say this is a long standing vendetta, animus that russia feels it hasn't been treated fairly by president obama. it's trying to expand the sphere of influence, the area of domain, if you will. and that russia feels it can do this much more effectively under president trump. >> richard engel in moscow. we last spoke to richard just after 11:00 eastern time last night. it was dark prior to sun rise. the sun doesn't show its face for long these days.

evening has fallen there. we'll take a break here. when we come back, more of our preview of what we are expecting from the president's year-end news conference. we expect a formal statement to begin things and then that the president will take an array of question questions from the lectern in the west wing. there is no typical day.

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just serve classy snacks and bew a gracious host,iday party. no matter who shows up. do you like nuts? we are about 30 minutes from the start of president obama's final scheduled news conference of calendar year 2016. you see members of the press corps starting to fill in the seats. much more intention interest in this end of year press conference than there would be in other years because of the tempo of the news we have been covering of late. let's continue our discussion

with two of our best. andrea mitchell is in washington, d.c. our chief foreign affairs correspondent. and katy tur who covered the trump campaign from start to present day is with us in new york. andrea, to you, beginning with what hillary clinton did and said last night in new york. and why it's jermai -- germane the lead up discussion. >> this is audio the "new york times" obtained from an event in midtown manhattan last night at the plaza hotel with donors and supporters, democratic supporters and as part of the thank you to them she went into this. we verified that this is authentic. let's watch. >> this is something every american should be worried about. >> no kidding! [ applause ] >> you know, we have to recognize that as the latest reports made clear, vladimir

putin himself directed the covert cyber attacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me. >> now, it's very interesting she spoke out this way. this does somewhat complicate the president's mission today because he's been trying to keep this cia assessment, the intelligence community assessment away from politics. there are a lot of politics including the clinton camp who think he should have been more aggressive the way he was when north korea hacked sony and he came out to make it official. it was mike rogers for the community on paper pointing to the highest levels of the russian government back on october 7. so, yes, before the election. but not the president himself and not on camera, not very overt. it was, we are told, because the

white house wanted to avoid, try to put their thumb on the scale. they didn't expect that donald trump would win. they didn't want to weigh in with the president himself that close to the election. of course it all turns out differently. there is some democratic distress at the present. he's still trying to separate himself from what the trump transition team and the president-elect himself believe is a democratic-inspired attempt to twist the intelligence and delegitimize his victory. that's what barack obama wanted to avoid. a couple of quick things here. the senator from north carolina richard burr issued an unusual statement saying they will also investigate what happened. he makes it clear in his statement that this was active measures by the russians. he is also signing on to that, a separation from where donald trump is so far. and he also closes with a paragraph about the sacrifices of the intelligence community,

the men and women of our intelligence services. he's making it clear he doesn't cotton to the criticism that we have heard from the president-elect about the intelligence agencies. >> andrea, one more any time you hear of a recording, were there ground rules or the anticipation that was going to be just us folks or off the record or did she go into there with the expectations that someone was going to record her remarks? >> that's a good question, brian, during the campaigns, there were a lot of meetings of donors and we did not get access, only one. september 10th, that was when she said basket of deplorable. it was unusual.

i don't know if she knew this was going to leak. he of course, the former chief of staff in the clinton's white house and rather in the obama's white house and the fact is john podesta had gone public for the first time today in the washington post talking about the shocking behavior of the fbi and not blowing the whistle when they discovered the russian hacking of the dnc. it was the new york times reported and we confirmed the fbi guy and right down the streets from the dnc, at fbi headquarters called the help desk of the dnc. that's when they brought in shawn henry and experts to shut it down. seven months, the russians had access of all of that as john

podesta claims today, shocking. >> as promised here, katy tur, is here in new york. walk us through where is donald trump on the record and has there been any change of the message or furtherance of that message today. >> donald trump has not been happy of this idea that russian could have hacked into our american system so he's been force full in denying this for quite sometimes and today he's not necessarily denying it but he's talking about the content of what it was released. so to bring us up to date with

donald trump's tweets, that's generally how we can follow the president-elect trump because he has not had press conference with reporters now for over 130 days since the middle of the dnc which he did call for russian to hack into hillary clinton e-mails and release them. today he's tweeting about the hack saying not not necessarily running against that russia was behind it. he's not disputing the cause, he's disputing the content. that's a bit of a break from what we have seen in the past where he was disputing the cause saying that russia could not have been involved and nobody knows that they could have been involved and that it could be china or somebody sitting in the baksme ba basement and new jersey. the campaign, they're starting

to admit that russia could be behind it after a number of gop senators have looked at the evidence, yes, they believe that russia is behind it. this is a major story that president-elect trump is not taking it seriously that vladimir putin could direct it as the cia says. his operatives to reveal information about hillary clinton's e-mails to affect this election. >> it is a huge story in the kind of suspended animation. >> yet, the people following this are fixated on it. the news media are fixated on it currently so and leaves us in a suspended animation.

we are not sure what's going to happen. if it does stay there, it could be the torture report which the american republic did not learn too much about and declassified american public can no what really happen and they want this to happen before the electoral votes get certified. it is unclear of the time line and if it can happen that quickly. trump is fighting against this believing that in some way this will delegitimatize his win and take away of his authority as the next president of the united states. >> i want to bring in a career foreign service officer, a veteran former ambassador.

>> he is an experienced hand in this area and ambassador, first of all, what do you make of the notion of a putin vendetta against hillary, do you concur that this was the germ that all started? >> thanks for having me, brian, i do appreciate being on. look -- i have no idea how this all sorts out. that's why we are going to have an investigation. i would make the points though this is obviously very serious. it is cyber war. but, russia cannot degrade our democracy. they cannot under mind our system, only we can do that.

the way this discussion have been carried so far both from the white house and the trump team, we are doing a fairly good job of discrediting ourselves so i would really hope that both the trump people and figure out how we pursue the way we pursue of the world's greatest democracy. >> they have to find a warm tree now that the cold snaps have settled in the east. what should be in your mind and should we ever know what it is. for part of the response, we don't know what it is.

it is so important. we have not been here before. this is a new field of battle. >> we have to figure out which weapons to use and how to use them and i would certainly much rather know an exchange of the white house. president-elect trump is going to be involved with this. it is not going to move that rapidly i would expect for a war, we have not been in before, we are going to have to think it through carefully and i just hope and pray that behind all the accusations and confusions, that kind of discussions are taken place between the two teams. >> our friends in the military is calling this shooting war a

connecticut war. do you equate them other than the fact of fatal lethal weapons are used, do you equate them as a kind of warfare? >> clearly, there are differences. but, in terms of the wait of all of this, yes, i would call it a war of the weight of all this. again, that's not entirely new. that's why we have a cyber command that -- that general rogers heads up. you don't create commands unless you feel that you're probably going to be at war. the analogy is relevant. >> given your service in the foreign service, what effects will this have on all of our career folks serving all around the globe at postings far away who want to serve obviously the united states under a unified

government and one flag, they're hearing this and seeing this obviously. >> yes, indeed, they are. >> what's the effect? >> um -- well, as far as our men and women in our foreign service are concerned, they'll continue to do often conditions of great hardship and risks. what they have always done. pursue the american agenda abroad and to ensure that w washington is kept aware of development abroad that can be crucial to us. i have presided over several different elections and inaugurations as an ambassador over seas. it is always been one of my proudest moments. in the after math of the election, traditionally, that's when we come back a