When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Days after a senior republican senator referred to the white house as adult day care, the man that many believe is in charge of supervising the president , Chief Of Staff john kelly, was sent out before the press to shoot down reports that the president s tantrums are causing big problems. The day began as it often does with a president ial outburst on twitter. This one aimed at the struggling people of puerto rico. Who three weeks after Hurricane Maria are still suffering through an acute deadly crisis, many lacking access to safe water and food, and Urgent Medical care. Well have the latest from the island coming up later this hour. Today the president appeared to blame puerto rico for its current situation, threatening to cut off federal recovery efforts. I quote him here. Electric and all infrastructure were disaster before hurricanes. Congress to decide how much to spend. We cannot keep fema, the
military, and the First Respond hoarse have been amazing under the most difficult circumstances in pr forever. An Agency Spokesperson tweeting, fema will be with puerto rico, u. S. Virgin islands, every state and territory impacted by disaster every day, supporting throughout their response and recovery. Asked about trumps tweets the Chief Of Staff put a kinder, genter spin on the president s core message. Does President Trump believe that the people of puerto rico are American Citizens . Yes. Who deserve the same access to federal aid as people who live in texas and florida . Yes. What is his tweet about, then . Which tweet . The tweet where he says we cant be in puerto rico forever. I think he said the u. S. Military and fema cant be in there forever, right . He did, First Responders First Responders. This country, our country, will stand with those American Citizens in puerto rico until the job is done. But the tweet about fema and d. O. D. , read military, is exactly accurate. Theyre not going to be there
forever. And the whole point is to start to work yourself out of a job and transition to the rebuilding process. Kelly went on to deny a series of reports suggesting his efforts to contain the president , as senator bob corker put it, are cut putting kellys own job in jeopardy. According to the l. A. Times he and the president have engaged in shouting matches. Vanity fair reported kelly is miserable in his job, remaining out of a sense of duty to keep trump from making some sort of disastrous decision. None of that is true, kelly said. Although i read it all the time, pretty consistently, im not quitting today. I dont believe, and i just talked to the president , i dont think im being fired today. And i am not so frustrated in this job that im thinking of leaving. I will tell you this is the hardest job ive ever had. This is, in my view, the most
important job i ever had. The Chief Of Staff adopted the president s latest Attacks On The Press directed specifically at nbc news over a couple of damaging report in the last week, first that the Secretary Of StateRex Tillerson openly disparaged the president , referring to him as a moron. And then that the president wanted a tenfold increase in the u. S. Nuclear arsenal. The president reacted with what was even, for him, a fairly astonishing assault on the core concept of the first amendment. Threatening to revoke the networks broadcast license, which doesnt exist by the way, and shut down unwelcome coverage. Today his own Chief Of Staff took his own swipe at the press. My only frustration, with all due respect to everyone in the room, is when i come to work in the morning and read about things i allegedly said or things that mr. Trump allegedly said or people who are going to be fired or whatever. And its just not true. It is astounding to me how much is misreport the. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you are operating off of contacts, leaks, whatever you call them. But i would just offer to you the advice, id say you know, maybe develop some better sources. Amid looming confrontations with north korea and iran and growing concerns about whether the president s aides can restrain him from lashing out, kelly insisted the president doesnt need babysitting. I was not sent in or i was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president so that he could make the best decisions. I have found that mr. Trump, from the day i met him, does not is a decisive guy, hes a very thoughtful man i should say. Again, i was not sent in or brought in to control him. And you should not measure my effectiveness as a Chief Of Staff by what you think i should be doing. Political analyst who covers
the white house for usa today was at the briefing. What did you make of that today, heidi . We has had a brutal cycle, he being the president , and john kelly. If you remember, when kelly came in the headline was that all thats leaks were going to go away, he would instill discipline in this white house. Yet you have all these stories coming out about shouting matches, about kelly possibly even leaving. And so just like they did when nbcs story came out about Rex Tillerson, immediately hes pushed out to talk to the press and to shoot it all down. And to deny it. And he can do that. He can deny it. Because these sources are background. I will tell you, and you know this already, that theres no way we would get this reporting unless these sources were speaking on background. Because they would be fired for talking like this. It doesnt make that information untrue. In fact, itshighly unlikely that the information is untrue. And i guess its good at least that kelly said, i give you the
benefit of the doubt that you have sources. Instead of like his boss who just called it all fake. His boss, the president of the United States, the theory he says is its entirely made up. He accuses of press of totally fabricating this when hes not threatening to shut them down or revoke the licenses of newspapers, which also dont exist. We should note here, kelly is also doing, it strikes me, a similar job to what sean spicer had today on the first had to do on the first day of the administration, to come out in the face of a set of circumstances people can see pretty clearly and essentially deny the evident right in front of their face. He did. But i would say at least he didnt go so far as to say outright untruths. And he was actually quite charming in his engagement with the press in terms of at least keeping a pleasant demeanor, not coming out there angry and scowling at us, calling us the disgusting media, and essentially threatening the
first amendment. He basically, you know, is i think trying to make a bridge to a certain extent with the media. Its interesting today that i was in this Health Care Executive order announcement with the president and he actually turned around and thanked us all. Which i guess is not usual. So i think there is a certain part of this that theyre trying to immediately address some of these stories when they come out and put these people out in front of the media. But one of the things that kelly says, he called the president very thoughtful. It struck me that theres so many things you could say about the president , many adjectives. Even if you wanted to praise the president theres lots of things you could say, canny, great political instincts, incredible way of capturing peoples attention. Hes not a very thoughtful person by basically the determination of every Single Person around him whos ever talked about him. Thats an opinion. And hes welcome to his opinions. And i guess after having dealt with some of the previous individuals who have come out there and actually said outright
untruths, like verifiably untrue things that are not factual, at least hes not going youre going to say thats in the territory of a characterization, as opposed to just like it was the mostwatched inauguration. Heidi, thank you for joining me. Congresswoman Maxine Waters is a democrat from california. Congresswoman, theres been a story that kelly is a sort of restraining force, that people should be happy that hes there if theyre worried about the president s temperament or worried about the president s current condition, and that its good to have him there. Is that your opinion . My opinion is it wont last for long. This president will not get along with him for very long. This president has the kind of disposition that would cause him to confront, argue with, fight with, shout at, those people around him. And theyre only going to take
it for so long. If you notice what kelly was saying, he was saying he was not fired today. He was not leaving today. And i dont know if he was qualifying that or not, but i think that was instructive. That even he knows it cant last very much longer. At some point, kelly said something about the views of democrats on security and what he called open borders. I wanted to play that for you and get your response to it because he was characterizing the Immigration Views of folks like yourself and members of your party, take a listen. All right. I believe that honest men and women can disagree on anything, politically or otherwise. The one thing i draw a little bit of a line to is on the security of the nation. There are certainly people in our country that have the opinion that open borders, near open borders are fine, people should be able to come and go. There are others, myself included, you can bet the
president , but i think the majority of americans feel as though security on the borders is important. Do you think thats an open open borders is an accurate characterization of a large view of folks in washington, for instance, on immigration . Absolutely not. If hes truly concerned about security he should be concerned about the way the president is goading with the north korea situation. He and kim jongun are basically talking to each other in ways that corker has said could lead us into third world war. So if hes really concerned about security, he should be concerned about whether or not this president is going to continue the kind of talking and goading that hes doing that would cause this kim jongun, who we consider to be unstable, to launch a very devastating missile into our country with perhaps a nuclear war ahead. Theres reporting indicating
that the president , the decision which were expecting forthcoming tomorrow in which he decertifies the iran bill, that was essentially born of a fit of pique, that the president was angry, he felt cornered, that the experts had come to him and told him, no, theyre complying with the deal and he should certify it, the Washington Post reporting he threw a fit, he was furious, really furious, its clear he felt jammed and thats why the White House Security adviser, h. R. Mcmaster and others, supported this plan to kick it to congress. What do you make of that . What are the consequences of Making Policy on Something Like this in this fashion . Its just unseemly that the president of the United States would be Making Policy on his own. Hes been advised by everybody, republicans and democrats, that he should not be undoing the iran deal. We have other nations, six other nations, that are involved with us in this deal. And so for him to have america look as if it wants to undo the
deal, want to decertify them, he basically is saying he knows better than anybody. But of course during the campaign he said he knows more than the generals. He really believes that and its dangerous. For members of congress to sit back and watch what hes doing and watch the damage that hes doing in this country and to watch him just guide us into a possible war, and not speak up because theyre concerned about their reelection, is not responsible. I believe it is time for republicans especially to walk over to the white house and tell him enough is enough. As a matter of fact what do you mean by that i think he should be impeached. Al green was going to introduce a resolution, i was going to ask you if you would vote for impeachment knowing what you know now mr. When you say republicans going over and saying enough is enough what do you mean by that tangibly . What i mean is republicans should step up to the plate and
confront the fact that this president appears to be unstable that he appears to be taking us into war, that he has openly obstructed justice in front of our face, and that increasingly were finding that theres more and more lies about the connection with russia. I believe that there really has been collusion. And i do think that our special counsel mueller is going to connect those dots. But i think theres enough now that we all know and we all see and we all understand that we should be moving on impeachment. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, always a pleasure. Youre welcome, thank you. Ben howe, writer for red state, conservative political blog, and lonny chen, what did you make of kellys Performance Today . You know, i thought that it was a sincere performance. I think he did fine. I thought the most interesting thing about the exchange was, you know, this is a guy who has commanded large forces of soldiers. This is a guy whos been in war multiple times. Hes been shot at no doubt. And he said the hardest job hes ever had, the hardest job, is being the white house Chief Of Staff. That to me is indicative, i think, of the challenges that face this presidency and this white house. And the fact that kellys still in there i think is a testament to john kelly. Ben, the sort of going after the press which has been a kind of constant theme, an exchange where senator ben sass of nebraska rapped the president for his decertification, delicensing. Do you think theres broad conservative revulsion at that . Or do they generally feel, yeah, these people are our enemies . Its been interesting to watch, actually. I think a lot of conservatives in previous administrations, if a president was going to go after the press, one of the first things after their license specifically, i think they would have said, why is the government involved in Licensing Media anyway . Theyd talk free markets and things like that. Thats what i would have done. But instead they seem to play by what a lot of them call the new
rules. Which is the liberals made the rules, now were going to play by them. So even though it might conflict with what should be their conservative point of view, theyre going to end up taking the position, yeah lets take their license away, were just following their new rules anyway. There is a great story, lonny that to me epitomized part of the problem thats at the core of this presidency, particularly domestic politics. The president s trying to get this tax proposal done, hes been sort of working on that while this sort of awful news cycle has swirled hem with corker comments. This is what bloomberg reported. Months after the white house proposed ending a tax break for people in the hightax states President Trump grew angry when he learned the change would hurt some middleincome taxpayers. He keeps finding out what the actual substantive agenda is and keeps getting angry about it. What do you make of that . Tax reform is complicated and it turns out health care is complicate toot. All of these issues have multiple dimensions. Theres a reason why we havent done a big tax reform since 1986. And its going to be challenging in any situation. When the white house has had to answer this question about the impact of their tax plan on Middle Income Taxpayers, theyve had to say, we cant guarantee that every Middle Income Taxpayer is going to get a tax cut, we cant guarantee there wont be a single Middle Income Taxpayer that wont see a tax increase. Thats the reality. These are really tough issues and as they dig into it theyre finding out how difficult that could be. Trump is a terrible president who nonetheless has sounder political instincts tan anyone in the gop leadership, responding to the story from bloomberg. Trump who has in some ways political instincts about this stuff that i think is sounder than, say, paul ryans. Youve still got the ryan agenda and they cannot make the whole thing work. I think hes got great salesman instincts. And being a good salesman works well with the American People if you go past the media, go straight to twitter, things like that. I really think this whole administration would do a lot better if the people like kelly
wouldnt come out and try to translate for him and make it seem as though hes just this reasonable guy and has all these reasonable positions, when weve all got eyes, we can see how he is. And you know, if they would just be a little more honest, when they say hes a straight talker, he as straight talker, so embrace that and say, i wouldnt have said it but im not the president. I would say hes a weird mix of a sort of shockingly honest in some moments and incredibly, incredibly in your face deceptive in others. Theres sort of all mixed together. I think some people call that diarrhea of the mouth, yeah. Lonny, do you think the kelly is clearly out there because of the corker comments and because of the reporting about the background and because of tillerson, et cetera. I mean, do you think republicans are Behind Closed Doors saying, wheres this guy going . And concerned about that . Well, i think republicans feel like there are a number of folks in the administration who
are playing very important roles. I think Rex Tillersons one of them, jim mattis is another, certainly john kelly. The question becomes if those individuals end up leaving the administration for some reason, then what . I think there is certainly concern about the future of those individuals because i think a lot of folks feel like theyre the people who are there promoting in some ways i guess more traditional conservative viewpoints on a lot of these issues. Without them the question is, what comes next . Theres more uncertainty ask, that worries people. Ben howe and lonny chen, thank you both. Tonight, fed up with congress, the president signs an Executive Order as part of a continued and sustained effort to dismantle obamacare. What his latest effort actually accomplishes in two minutes. When you have a cold stuff happens. Shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength Alka Seltzer Plus liquid gels. Sign the order, he forgot. We will have Great Health Care in our country. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it, thank you. Thank you very much, thank you. Thank you everybody. Oh the most important thing. After that momentary lapse, the president did get around to signing the order which allows skimpier plans in some circumstances and could erode Health Care Exchanges by drawing away healthier enrollees. The new order only part what was has been a brought campaign against the aca with congress repeatedly trying and failing to pass repeal and replace legislation, the administration has worked to chip away at the law including gutting the
advertisement budget for enrollment, slashing Outreach Funds to help people enroll, shutting down the obamacare signup site for 12 hours and almost every sunday of Open Enrollment, and cutting that Open Enrollment period. Tweeting extensive how the Executive Order is another sabotage in the campaign, andy slavitt, good to have you here. Great to be here. You know this inside and out. Lets start with what do you mean i love the term synthetic repeal, whats that mean . Look, the Republican Party and trump ran seven years of raising nine figures of money on a promise that they would simply repeal and replace the aca. So going back as we go into 2018, an election year, oh, we cant do it, its not a possibility. So i think left to his own devices, theyre coming up with everything they can do to say, forget john mccain, hes a rhino, were going to be able to
do everything that we promised to do through this Executive Order and by cutting some medicaid through the tax bill. So i guess what does that mean for people . So the Executive Order today combined with what theyve been doing. What does that mean for the landscape of health care . Think about the major pieces of repeal. One of them was that they were going to remove the federal protections against preexisting conditions. According to the American Academy of actuaries who looked at the Executive Order as it came out today, thats exactly what this does. The other thing theyre going removes protections for preexisting conditions . It does it by essentially creating a second plan as you described to your viewers earlier. And that plan sitting alongside the aca essentially, with no rules, no regulations, is basically designed to allow young, Healthy People this is great for 28yearold males, can find cheaper policies as long as they dont get sick. But for Everybody Else brings their costs up. If you have a preexisting condition that not only brings
your costs up but according to the actuaries they think many insurers will leave entirely and there may not be the availability of coverage. I saw a wide variety of Health Care Groups today across spectrums and interests coming out against this. Theres a question how long this will take and if theyll actually do it. Theyve had a record of issuing Executive Orders. Dave day has tracked this, they issue an Executive Order then no one does anything on it, it sits there. Thats a really great point. If this scratches the president s itch to have done something, and then these orders go to treasury and to Human Services and labor and they take their time and put out some regs and water them down there here, we could actually and let the country move on to other issues, that would be a good thing. I think what people are fearful of, if you listened to his press conference, he said this is the beginning of a dismantling of the aca. I think were going to have to
figure out whether he means it or whether this is his rhetoric. The theme is the aca tried to create this marketplace where you had Healthy People and sick people and old people and young people, everyone pooling the risk together, smooth out the risk, you can charge premiums that are acceptable, subsidized by the golf. The theme it seems of everything theyve done on this legislation at the Executive Level is hiving off Healthy People, stopping the outreach to get them in giving them other options. Right. I think thats a function of it not being the aca. I dont think thats his political philosophy. Theres no political philosophy. Conservative think tank in 1993 battling hillarycare, they said lets create one risk pool, that would be the best idea possible. Youve got essentially a man who feels he needs to deliver something for his donors. Theres this fundamental conceptual promiscuousness where cassidygraham, three weeks ago, which would be 50 different state regimes, the opposite of take the lines off around the
states, theres no unifying principle here. I think if you give graham another few months, hes so good at the sunday shows, he might have come up with a unifying sounding theme. The problem is in reality when they say were going to give states more authority, you look at what happened. Oklahoma, minnesota. They submitted waivers to the trump administration. Think didnt get them approved. They didnt even get answers. Like they literally wrote to them and said, whats up . And got nothing. Its only federalism, you know. Thats really what were dealing with. An day slavitt, thanks for joining me. As desperation mounts on the numbers of americans dying on the island continues to rise, why on earth did the president of the United States threaten to pull federal Emergency Response out of puerto rico . Three weeks after Hurricane Maria the government puts the official 91 of people dead at 49. But two democratic members of Congress Want a federal audit on that number citing recent reports suggesting the death toll is much higher than is being officially acknowledged. While hundreds of people remain unaccounted for, the president implied that he is already ready to abandon the federal recovery effort saying in a Statement Released on twitter, we cannot keep team mafema and Military Responders in pr forever. White house Chief Of Staff explained the comment was exactly accurate, fema and the u. S. Military continue be in puerto rico doing Disaster Recovery for literal forever. That seems to miss the point. The president suged this 22 days after the storm made landfall in puerto rico. Fema was present in new orleans for six years after hurricane katrina. If the president pull s recover effort on 3. 5 million American Citizens, 85 of the island without power, 40 without clean drinking water. A cbs reporter captured images of cars lining up to get freshwater from a pvc pipe that tapped into a hillside stream. Heres a picture of a fema Flyer Instructing an area without internet or Cell Phone Coverage to call or register online for disaster assistance. The journalist who snapped that picture joins me next. Oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. Look how much coffees in here . Fresh coffee. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Do you wear this every day . Everyday. Id never take it off. Are you ready to say goodbye to it . Go go ta da a terrarium. Thats it. We brewed the love, right guys . all yes. Without pg es assistance, without their training our collaboration with pg e is centered around public safety. We could not do our mission to keep our Community Safe. Anytime we are responding to a structure fire, one of the first calls you make is for pg e for gas and electric safety. Its my job to make sure that they have the training that they need to make the scene safe for themselves and for the public. Its handson training actually turning valves, turning systems off, looking at different wire systems all that training is crucial to keeping our Community Safe and our firefighters safe. Together, were building a better california. Were currently in yasco, puerto rico. We have an urgent message to get out about whats really going on here in western puerto rico. Right now were only giving out to the people in the mountains one small meal and six bottles of water per family. That is all theyre getting. That was former Army Cavalry Scout jason maddie on the ground in a town of about 30,000. Molly crabapple just got back from puerto rico and joins me now. I know your dads from the island, you have friends there. You got outside san juan, Where Were You . I was in barrio mariana, a small village, the first place on the island that the hurricane hit. And what was how much federal presence did you see there in terms of military or fema or federal officials . I personally saw zero
presence. When i was there, the only aid that people in mariana had received was a municipal truck that gave people two small bottles of water, a pack of tropicalflavored skittles, a newt ra grain bar, and a pack of virginia sausages. I do know the military and the fbi came about three weeks after the hurricane and they did distribute mres and water. But that was pretty much it. In terms of how people are living their lives there, im assuming there was no electricity. None. And how were people how are people getting the bakes . Which is water, electricity, food . Some people had generators. But if you have a generator, your life becomes an endless wait on sixhour lines for diesel. To get water, you either waited fare hours and hours at costco using your scarce reserves of gasoline, or you went to a creek on the side of the mountain and collected it in a jug. So people were just getting rainwater off a creek . Or springwater off a creek, thats what i did. I brought a filter, wed purify it. This is very dangerous because disease is spreading on the island because there were all of these Animal Corpses that were left to rot. Its getting into the water. So it sounds like a nonfunctional situation. So its like sounds like whats happening is peoples days are taken up with the basics of survival. Theres nothing no ones going to work or doing the things that you would normally do. Exactly. Communication is so bad that even pharmaceutical companies, which are the biggest industries, are calling into the one Radio Station to tell their workers whether or not to come to work. Most people dont have the ability to get to their jobs. Their credit cards dont work. Their ebt cards dont work. Huge lines to access the atm. 200 maximum. That cash will run out. So its the struggle for survival. But the thing about puerto
ricons is that this is a very, very closeknit culture, a culture of family, friends, barrios, neighborhoods. And so people are taking care of each other. Its not the federal government thats taking care of people. Its not fema. Its people taking care of each other. In barrio mariana, the couple that i stayed with, christine and Luis Rodriguez sanchez, set up a Community Kitchen thats Feeding Hundreds of people. These Community Kitchens are happening all over the island. As people give up on help from fema and decide to take caring for themselves and their neighbors into their own hands. How aware will people of this sort of the president s comments, the president s perspective towards puerto rico, what would the feelings about the federal government and its involvement . One older woman i spoke to said, oh, trump came into the richest town in puerto rico and threw toilet paper at peoples heads, hes trying to humiliate us. In general its viewed as an
extension of the same racist, colonialist, stereotypical thinking that america has had for puerto rico since It Poll Noised it in 1898. Do you think do folks have hope that things are going to change in the shortterm . Or this sense that this adjustments weve made to eke out survival, which is food, water, electricity, diesel, that that is going to be the status quo for a while . Some people have accepted that that will be the status quo for a while and are trying to build on it. With these community efforts. Other people are sort of hanging on. One woman that i met, her mother who has alzheimers and dementia and cant speak, she was kicked out of her nursing home because there was no electricity. Doesnt have access to medicine. Shes trying to keep her mother alive in this crushing heat with no access to clean water. Someone like that needs help as soon as possible. They cant just adjustment. Molly crab apple, thank you for your reporting, thank you for joining us. Why a senior facebook
executive says owe the American People an apology. Plus tonights thing 1, thing 2. Its a good one next. That can fix itself . Is that the work of wizards . Yes. Technical wizards. Who, with the visionary engineers at ge, developed predix giving Plane Engines the ability to selfdiagnose problems, and alert those who can fix them. And thats no illusion. Magic cant make Digital Transformation happen. But we can. Thats the power of pivotal, part of dell technologies. So we created the only bed that adjusts on both sides to 9 out of 10 couples prefer a different mattress firmness, your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. You can even see how well youre sleeping and make adjustments. Does your bed do that . The most amazing part is they start at 699. Thats 200 off our queen c2 mattress during the final days of our fall sale. Ends sunday. Visit sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. Thing 1 tonight, senator Lindsey Graham gave a 33minute interview to golf magazine to defend his claim that during a round of golf on monday, President Trump shot a 73 in windy and wet conditions. That contention raised plenty of eyebrows because it would mean the 71yearold president would rank among the best senior golfers in the entire world. For some context, consider hall of fame golfer hale irwin, who turned 72 in june, has a Scoring Average of just over 73 in the seven Champions Tour events hes played this year. But in the course of attempting to justify his claim, the president shot a 73, president graham perhaps inadvertently gave away trumps secret for success on the course he cheats. Thats 92 in 60 seconds. Then we are told its braver to go it alone. But there is another way to live. A way that sees the only path to fulfillment is through others. In defending his implausible claim President Trump shot a 73 on the golf course monday, senator Lindsey Graham admitted to golf magazine the president likes to take gimme putts instead of finishing out the hole. We know what the president considers a gimme and it is generous. Sports writer rick riley told the Washington Post trump once called a gimme on what should have been a chip shot adding, when it comes to cheating hes an 11 on a detail 1 to 10. The president seen here driving his golf cart onto the green is a notorious cheater on the course and there are plenty of stories illustrating how he does it. Reportedly sometimes respond to a shot he duffed by playing a second ball and carrying on as if the first shot never happened. Tmz reporting after Trump Shanked his Shoot Out Of Bounds he drove down the course, turned his golf cart to block him as he tu
took a ball out of his pocket rolled the bat into the roof. Hes been called a cheater by alex cooper, samuel jackson, and de la hoya, who said trump hit a ball into the bushes then dropped another one three feet from the hole like it was there the whole time. The president denies all this of course. He forced former ceo Jeff Immedical to tell a very different story. Jeff actually watched me make a hole in one, can you believe that . Should you tell that story . Actually said i was the best golfer of all the rich people. To be exact. And then i got ahold of him. Y. You might be missing something. Your eyes. Thats why theres ocuvite. It helps replenish nutrients your eyes can lose as you age. Nourish your eyes to help keep them healthy. Ocuvite. Be good to your eyes. Particular russian troll farm. And reporting indicates the ads were targeted to certain groups, often focusing on hotbutton issues like gun rights or border security. If you look carefully theres a clue. Why do i have a gun . Because its easier for my family to get me out of jail than the cemetery. The spelling often a mistake by russians speaking english. With 3,000 ads reportedly reaching 10 Million People in the runup to the president ial election, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg went to meet with the House Intelligence Committee to address concerns about these ads and how they were used. The House Intelligence Committee plans to release the 3,000 ads to the public after the Tech Companies facebook, twitter testify before congress. Its particular facebook has created a system its struggling to control. Sandberg addressed it. What she said after this break. If youve been struggling with belly pain and constipation, and youre overwhelmed by everything youve tried all those laxatives, daily probiotics, endless fiber it could be wearing on you. Tell your doctor what youve tried, and how long youve been at it. Linzess works differently from laxatives. Linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. It can help relieve your belly pain and lets you have more frequent and complete Bowel Movements that are easier to pass. Do not give linzess to children less than six and it should not be given to children six to less than eighteen. It may harm them. Dont take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. Get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. The most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. If its severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. Other side effects include gas, stomacharea pain and swelling. Talk to your doctor about managing your symptoms proactively with linzess. She apologized and the benign platform defense. Were a platform where people express themselves every day and keep our platform as free of abuse as possible. Were a new kind of platform. In our heart, were a tech company. We dont hire reporters, no ones a journalist. We dont cover the news. But when we say that, were not saying we dont have a responsibility. In fact, were a new kind of platform with our size we think we have more responsibility. Coeditor of a platform in some ways and Senior Editor of new york magazine. They are joining me now. Its like, what are you . What are you . What is facebook . Its a platform, sure. Its also a community about 2 billion people, its also a publisher, an Advertising Company and also the most advanced Surveillance System on the planet and its all of these things at once and some of these
things have very mutually exclusive incentives and responsibilities. It strikes me that one of the things max said there is key. Its an advertising platform. The way that they make money is through surveillance and advertising, which is they figure out who you are and then they sell ads to target you and whatever theyre going to do is they are not going to want to do anything that cuts into that. Bingo. More than anything, facebook monetizes your attention in mind, the users. There was a time on the internet when we didnt have to go to these walled gardens to connect with our friends when we had websites that were sort of more independent. We all know that half of americans are so get their news through facebook. What People Dont Know is that news publishers, in order to get the news to you, to get their campaign to you typically have to pay facebook and when we talk about ads in this context, which Sheryl Sandberg mentioned, even
as she brought up a red herring with twitters handling of Marsha Blackburns campaign ad, she mentioned that in this interview, she talked about how twitter made a bad call in banning a political ad. And then she said blackburn and Everybody Else, essentially everyone knows that in order to reach your audience on facebook, you have to pay. My site boingboing. Net, you have to pay. Heres the thing. Sandberg said in that interview that it was traceable, the Russians Spyops campaign during the last election, so that was paid ads as well and they were paid for in rubles. So show me the receipts. If their in rubles, it shouldnt be that hard to track down and why not have facebook return that money, like everybodys
saying that Hillary Clinton ought to do with weinsteins money and everybody talking about the donations that Harvey Weinstein made and that the political beneficiaries of those donations should return it. I say facebook ought to return that because facebook is profiting off of this and they knew it when it was happening. Did they know it when it was happening . Thats the question, right . I think a lot about the parallel because ive spent a lot of time covering the financial crisis. A big question about the financial crisis is, were they done or be a borrow richist . Was It Huber Rift or aborist. And with facebook, do they not know or not care or want to make a lot of money . I think its both. They are so big and so widespread and so automated that they cant look at all of it all the time. Buying an ad on facebook is like getting a candy bar from a vending machine. You dont have to talk to somebody for it and its been great for small groups that need
it but its also great for russians who might want to buy ads on facebook and not have anybody know that they are russian. Do you think that the platform at the current size can continue in this way with the changes that someone like sandberg promises . Xeni . Absolutely not. What were seeing right now is Sheryl Sandberg on the most Earnest Crime Offensive crisis p. R. Tour of all time. I think they both know that what they are staring at is the possibility of Government Regulations and theyd very much like to avoid that. As i heard yesterday earlier today on msnbc, this is not about relitigating the 2016 elections alone, although the result of that election is something that feels very unstable and very scary to a lot of us adults. Right. But this is also about moving ahead. So if facebook, as i believe they did, was essentially
identified by russian intelligence as having some big, gaping security holes that could be exploited by russia for their own purposes, that has to be addressed in a much bigger way than just this sort of super well rehearsed pr event that happened today. Its not like questions were even rehearsed and i didnt hear an answer. I didnt hear real answers about, for instance, she was asked by axios, is it possible that the russian ad buy targeting and Trump Campaign overlapped . She didnt refer to it in government seeing it in due time. It seemed so disingenuous so not genuine and like a real insult to a lot of americans who have trust in facebook as a platform that Doesnt Profit off of pushing misinformation at us. And thats the thing. This is not about free speech. They are not a nonprofit and this is about are you free to profit and are you something that harms america when you know its harming america. Is it the silicon they like the Free Speech Argument and its something that we all intuitively understand and support and facebook is not a government. It might sort of seem like a state or a government but free speech works in the United States because we have a very lengthy history body of law and judicial warnings and ways to hold the government accountable and to fight back and to appeal rulings and facebook is a giant black box with a few people at the very top and their ideas about what should be allowed and what shouldnt be is somewhere in there and sort of filtered out into moderator contracts