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		</div><p>The CIA&#8217;s outgoing director has said Donald Trump lacks a full understanding of the threat Moscow poses to the United States.</p>
<p>John Brennan delivered a public lecture that infuriated the president-elect and further highlighted his bitter relations with American intelligence agencies.</p>
<p>His pointed message on national television came just five days before Mr Trump becomes the nation&#8217;s 45th president amid lingering questions about Russia&#8217;s role in the 2016 election.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Now that he&#8217;s going to have an opportunity to do something for our national security as opposed to talking and tweeting, he&#8217;s going to have tremendous responsibility to make sure that US and national security interests are protected,&#8221;</i> Mr Brennan said on Fox News Sunday, warning that the president-elect&#8217;s impulsivity could be dangerous.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Spontaneity is not something that protects national security interests,&#8221;</i> he said.</p>
<p>Mr Trump has repeatedly called for a better relationship between the US and Vladimir Putin&#8217;s government and suggested in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday that he would consider easing the latest sanctions on Russia.</p>
<p>But Mr Brennan said: <i>&#8220;I think he has to be mindful that he does not have a full appreciation and understanding of what the implications are of going down that road.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Mr Trump, who has unleashed a series of aggressive tweets against the US intelligence community and his political rivals in recent weeks, responded aggressively on Twitter several hours later.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Was this the leaker of Fake News?&#8221;</i> he tweeted, referring to a recent document that contains unverified financial and personal information that could be damaging to the president-elect.</p>
<p>Mr Trump remained in his Manhattan high-rise on Sunday, as his team worked to answer questions about his plans at home and abroad once he is sworn into office on Friday.</p>
<p>His immediate challenges include the United States&#8217; complicated relationship with Russia, an affordable health care alternative that does not strip coverage from millions of Americans, and growing questions about the legitimacy of his presidency.</p>
<p>Without providing details, Mr Trump promised his plan to replace the nation&#8217;s health care law would provide universal coverage.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to have insurance for everybody,&#8221;</i> he said in a Washington Post interview.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can&#8217;t pay for it, you don&#8217;t get it. That&#8217;s not going to happen with us.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Meanwhile, civil rights legend and congressman John Lewis is among several Democrats who vowed to skip Mr Trump&#8217;s inauguration, saying that Russian interference in the 2016 election delegitimises his presidency.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;There will be many more members who join us in this decision,&#8221;</i> California Democrat Jared Huffman wrote on his Facebook page.</p>
<p>Mr Trump&#8217;s lieutenants pushed back hard on Sunday in a round of television interviews.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s incredibly disappointing and I think it&#8217;s irresponsible for people like himself to question the legitimacy of the next United States president,&#8221;</i> incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said of Mr Lewis on ABC&#8217;s This Week.</p>
<p>Mr Priebus insisted that Republicans did not question Barack Obama&#8217;s legitimacy, but later acknowledged that conservatives, led by Mr Trump himself, spent years questioning Mr Obama&#8217;s eligibility to serve as president, suggesting he was not born in the United States.</p>
<figure id="attachment_95194" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-95194" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/image-23.jpeg"><img src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/image-23.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="325" class="size-full wp-image-95194" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-95194" class="wp-caption-text">Presidential-Elect Donald Trump and Vice Presdient-elect Mike Pence</figcaption></figure>
<p>Vice president-elect Mike Pence told Fox News Sunday that he hoped Mr Lewis would change his mind and attend the inauguration.</p>
<p>Mr Trump has done little to encourage unity in recent days, instead inflaming tensions with his critics through a series of tweets.</p>
<p>The incoming president tweeted on Saturday that Mr Lewis should pay more attention to his &#8220;crime ridden&#8221; Atlanta-area district, adding that the civil rights leader was &#8220;all talk&#8221;.</p>
<p>Mr Lewis suffered a fractured skull when he led a march in Selma, Alabama, more than 50 years ago and has devoted his life to civil rights.</p>
<p>Current White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Mr Lewis &#8220;has literally fought, bled and gone to jail&#8221; during what he called his &#8220;remarkable life&#8221; and encouraged the incoming president to move past his criticism.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;That would be the kind of thing that would not only send a message to the American people that we&#8217;re prepared to work together, but would also send a message to the Russians that we are united,&#8221;</i> Mr McDonough told CNN&#8217;s State Of The Union.</p>
<p>Questions about Mr Trump&#8217;s relationship with Russia have dominated the days leading up to his inauguration.</p>
<p>Retired general Michael Flynn, who is set to become Mr Trump&#8217;s national security adviser, has been in frequent contact with Russia&#8217;s ambassador to the US in recent weeks, including on the day the Obama administration hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for the alleged election hacking, a senior US official said.</p>
<p>After initially denying the contact took place, Mr Trump&#8217;s team later acknowledged the conversations.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;The conversations that took place at that time were not in any way related to the new US sanctions against Russia or the expulsion of diplomats,&#8221;</i> said Mr Pence on Fox News Sunday.</p>
<p>Repeated contacts just as Mr Obama imposed sanctions would raise questions about whether Mr Trump&#8217;s team discussed &#8211; or even helped shape &#8211; Russia&#8217;s response.</p>
<p>Mr Putin, unexpectedly, did not retaliate against the US for the sanctions or the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, a decision Mr Trump quickly praised.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, US vice-president Joe Biden, on a last foreign trip before leaving office, has met with Ukraine&#8217;s president and called on the impending Trump administration to retain Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia. </p>
<p>Mr Biden&#8217;s comments at a briefing with President Petro Poroshenko came after Mr<br />
Trump indicated in a Times interview that he could end sanctions imposed in the aftermath of Russia&#8217;s 2014 annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;The Crimea-related sanctions against Russia must remain in place until Russia returns full control to the people of Ukraine,&#8221;</i> Mr Biden said.</p>
<p>Other US sanctions are connected to Russia&#8217;s involvement in the separatist war in eastern Ukraine. Mr Biden said that Russia must fulfil its obligations under the 2015 Minsk agreement on ending that conflict.</p>
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