Few hours. To permanently fix the infrastructure deficit and we can do it. But some conservative members of his own party are already expressing shock at the big price tag. And attack of the bots. A striking new report reveals russianbacked social media accounts ramping up the propaganda, trying to influence lawmakers and Media Organizations in the weeks leading up to the releaease of e controversial nunes memo. Their next target, the midterms. We begin with the administration once again having trouble getting out of its own way. There is lots they would like to be talking about including immigration and infrastructure. Heres what they are talking about. Certainly what they did all weekend long on the shows and of course on the phone with reporters. Chief of staffs john kellys handling of rob porter, his mess, and why trump keeps finding a way to defend men accused of violence against women. That is not a pattern most people want to have. I have a great team here. Starting with nbcs Peter Alexander live from the white house. Peter, im not even going to say are they having any luck putting the rob porter situation in the review mirror. Theyre not. Theyre stepping on their own story. President trump putting out Mick Mulvaney and others with one message on tv when you and i both know thats not whats happening inside that house of chaos. Youre right. The president at least for the first couple hours this morning avoiding some of those selfimposed distractions hes had in the past when hes trying to rule out policy items. Like today, infrastructure. The beginning of another infrastructure week here. Heres what the president tweeted early this morning. He wrote, this will be a big week for infrastructure. He adds after stupidly spending 20 trillion in middle east, it is now time to start investing in your country. The last time they launched an infrastructure week, that went off the rails when the president was tweeting about other things. At the time it was a feud with londons mayor. After a terrorist a tack in this country. No matter what the president tries to focus orngs itn, its the white house will defend john kellys handling of the saga. And frankly the president s Public Comments about it as well. On friday, the president given what amounted to a public letter of recommendation for a man who was formerly one of his most trusted aides. Heres what he said then. It was very sad when we heard about it and certainly hes also very sad. Now, he also, as you probably know, he says hes innocent, and i think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that hes innocent, so youll have to talk to him about that. But we absolutely wish him well. The president then doubling down a day later on twitter after the ouster of another staffer. That was a speechwriter who was left resigning after some new Domestic Violence allegations. The president tweeting, peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused. Life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as due process . Whats striking for me, stephanie, here at the white house today, you can see the white house officials here trying to sort of change this narrative, to try to reframe the conversation, reporting over the weekend from several people that have spoken privately to the president that the president privately is telling them he thinks rob porter is sick, that hes outraged by these allegations and is heavily concerned about it. One of his Deputy Press Secretaries saying, it struck me that the president said in the past he thinks Domestic Violence is grotesque, that theres no place for it in this country. I cant think of multiple places where hes said it and the president hasnt said it out loud for us to hear. I want to bring my panel in. Axios executive editor. Mike allen. Former democratic senator, one of my faves, from the state of new jersey, robert torricelli, and matt welsh, for liberty magazine. The quote over the weekend, the white house cant get its story straight. Your teammate Jonathan Swan wrote, quote, even in a white house that is famous for chaos, ive never seen anything like it. Swan wrote, john kelly might be sending his team out with one message of what happened but they consider john kelly a liar and from those who i speak to in the white house, theyve said to me, hes standing alone. No one is going to back john kelly except the president here. This is day seven of the white house answering questions about rob porter when they wanted this to be infrastructure week. A guy who we never heard of a week ago. And budget day. But theres still no specific time line and even this weekend, the Administration People out saying slightly different things. So, stephanie, over the weekend, jonathan and i talk to associates on both sides of this. Someone who talked directly to general kelly, the white house chief of staff, about his story, and associates of rob porter, and were told very different things. The associates of rob porter told us that he said that people in the white house had urged him to stay and fight. And he said that he had never misrepresented anything to john kelly. A member of congress who talked to both the president and chief of staff about this said no, that the general asked rob porter specifically about this, and rob misrepresented it. He said that this story would say that the marriage was messy. And that there was maybe emotional and verbal abuse. But in no way indicated the severity of what was to come. All right, senator, could this be a matter of confusion or you think someone is deliberately lying to cover up what went down . Theres always that argument the cover up erup is worse than th crime. We didnt know who rob porter was until he went to rosa me xi cana for dinner and now its all were talking about. President trump is actually losing support of women over there. If you strip out the he said she said in the entire matter youre still left with these facts. Kelly allowed senior people in the white house to remain with access to information making critical decisions with no security clearances. Somewhere along the way, someone should have said why is this guy still here and why is he in all these meetings without security clearance. Take the politics away, take the tone deafness away about abused women, youre still left with mismanagement. Thats the strongest case against kelly but its also what the message is to the world. Kellyanne conway said over the weekend that privately the president has given aid and supported many women. It doesnt matter what the president has done privately. Hes a public figure. Couldnt one argue the 130 grand check cut to Stormy Daniels would be considered private support . Its what you put out to the world what youre comfortable with. I want to share what Mick Mulvaney said. Based on a lot of our reporting, mulvaney is a guy who wouldnt mind taking john kellys job. Someone we know and trust came to the chief of staff and said look, im being accused of these things, they are not true. For the president , the chief of staff, to give that person the benefit of the doubt is probably a very normal and human reaction. As soon as rob porter was proven wrong, proven he was not telling the truth when the photos came out on wednesday, he was gone almost immediately. Okay. So i understand that, give someone the benefit of the doubt. We heard trump surrogates s ov the weekend said there was no due process. Due process is a wonderful thing its an important thing. We should never downplay it, particularly in the middle of a me too moment in which some people are going to get torched unfairly. The editor of the Detroit Free Press i think has gotten unfairly maligned here. But were talking about a guy who is handling memos that go to the white house. This is a background check. This is not a criminal case. Its a different standard. In order to go out there and say on tuesday what john kelly said. This is a vile Smear Campaign. Youre basically saying two different women who spoke to the fbi under penalty if you lie to the fbi, thats a crime. So youre saying its more likely that they lied as part of a vile Smear Campaign than the truth. The overriding thing here is that there is no real gap between what kelly said on tuesday and what trump said on friday. If youre talking about hes going to go because of all of this, it doesnt really smell right to me, right. I mean, if donald trump is looking at how john kelly dealt with this, how is it any different than trump himself has dealt with this particular case this week. Okay, and listen, ive heard that senior members of the gop also want john kelly to stay in this position because he runs the white house better than Reince Priebus did. Doesnt it go beyond if the president has confidence in john kelly . Heres what Kellyanne Conway said yesterday. Actually, i want to share the quote where she said in a meeting with Staff Members mr. Kelly said he learned of the true situation less than an hour before he removed him from his job. Two people familiar with the comments said that most of the staff appeared incredulous. One person said several people in the room knew that time line mr. Kelly had presented was false. So Kellyanne Conway says the president has absolute confidence in john kelly. But twofold, most other people in the white house dont. And the public doesnt. So many people in the public dont. So doesnt it get bigger than the president saying hes my guy . I mean, the president said bill oreilly, hes my guy, and we know how it turned out for him. Part of your job when you work in the west wing is to have political antenna. To have political radar. To sense how things are going and how things are going to play. Going back to the first moment that people in the white house knew about this situation, there was a failure to recognize how this was going to play. Like the stakes here. Let alone the environment that we are now in where theres now more rightful attention to these issues. You add on to that the l. A. Times today reporting that several people on the white house staff buttonholed reporters to say that they feel that general kellys not telling the truth and is urging them not to tell the truth. So thats the problem with having this, like, no specific time line. And as a result, stephanie, a lot of the good general kelly had done in restoring order in the white house is now gone. And now its back to being like in the early months, where you have the realtime leaking. Where you have the factions trying to take advantage to each other. Or you have the president musing and mulling to people on outside about changing he might make on the inside. Youve got bros covering up for bros. Ivanka and jared while maybe not officially, ive heard behind closed doors theyre making calls all weekend long, who would be a good replacement for kelly in the event trump decides its time to go. Can john kelly survive this . He is now going to pay for all of his sins in organizing the white house. Everybody who has been kept out of the oval office, put aside, theyre all going to come out now to get him. I dont know if he can. I dont know the man. I probably could not find an issue in which i agree with him. I regret hes i regret that many of the decision hes made. But right now given the north korea situation, given problems in the middle east, the risk of donald trump taking this into a downward spiral of chaos, oddly, despite those feeling about him and his policies, i hope he does stay. I dont think we can afford the chaos. All right, well, this is one of the issues with President Trump. This weekend, he tweeted about due process. Due process as we just said is so important and accusers should always be believed but they shouldnt excuse me, they should be listened to but it doesnt mean they should be believed straight out of the gate. There must be due process. When the president says it, when the president says peoples lives are being destroyed by mere allegations, you have to remember not once did he mention porters exwives who are potentially the victims here. We got to take a step back and, remember, President Trump might not know rob porters exwives but you have to look at President Trumps history. Lets go through the list referring to rob porter. He said, quote, very strongly that hes innocent. We know trump defended roy moore saying he denies allegations of Sexual Misconduct with minors. When Corey Lewandowski was accused of grabbing a reporters arm, trump said how do you know those bruises werent there before. Trump defended roger ailes by saying he helped some accusers in the past. And saying bill oreilly was a good guy, after he faced Sexual Harassment allegations. Bill oreilly had one single settlement with one woman for 30 million bucks. Get your head around that. Yikes. Trump even defended bill clinton. Back in 1998, saying clinton was the victim in the lewinsky scandal. So of course here we are in the midst of the me too movement. I turn to you, mike allen, are there realworld consequences for President Trump continuing to take the position, cant be this good guy, hes one of my buds . Well, youre right, the New York Times had a front page tutorial on sunday talking about how the republicans cringe when they see this. This is one of the missing pieces humans cringe when they see it, not necessarily republicans. People whose common decency is somewhere in their bloodstream. I think theres a lot of people who see those comments and see the notable omission in what the president said when he came out and talked about this. This is one of the pieces thats missing in this white house. Usually when a ceo or president comes out to talk, theres a huddle before it, and you say, sir, dont forget to mention the larger issue of Domestic Violence like youre a moral leader of the country and of the world and dont forget to mention the victims. And somehow that piece was missing and i just have to add an asterisks here. Theres lots of speculation. People are speculating inside and outside. I would say that axios reporting at this point shows theres no imminent danger to general kelly. That the president is talking about potential replacements. But people inside as of last night, early this morning, said they dont believe there will be a change, that kelly will stay in, partly because the president recognizes that that will be even further disruption to his ecosystem. I agree with that, based on who i spoke to last night. People said to me theres no job opening in the white house for the chief of staff, at least not as of last night and today. One other thing missing, ivanka trump, who prides herself on being an advocate, a passionate advocate for the advancement of women and girls. Melania trump who said she was going to lead an Antibullying Campaign mission when she became first lady, we have not heard from either of these women. We have to take a quick break. You probably need a nap because you worked all weekend long. You should apologize to whoever you had plans with this weekend. Axios is always on, stephanie. I feel that. All right, thank you. Coming up, the white house preparing to roll out the president s highly anticipated infrastructure plan in just a couple of hours in front of a conference of mayors. One of those mayors joins me next. Going to be asking those mayors to come up with money they dont have. First, heres a great stress reliever for you this monday. Dodzens gathered over the weekend in san jose for the annual great valentines day pillow fight. Feathers were flying. What better way to show someone you love them by smashing them over the face with a pillow. Thats lovely there. If anyones ever had more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. Today were bringing you americas number one shave at lower prices every day. Putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. 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Dont let another weekend pass you by. Get the lowest price when you book at hilton. Com in just a couple of hours, the white house is set to release its long promised infrastructure plan. President trumps 1. 5 trillion plan over ten years will focus on repairing countrys dilapidated roads, bridges and airports, especially in rural areas but it is dependent on city and state money and Public Private partnerships. This morning, the u. S. Congress of mayors is gathering to hear the president s proposal. Mayor of columbia, south carolina, Steve Benjamin joins me right now. He will be in that meeting with the president. Good morning, mr. Mayor. President trumps plan is going to be offering 200 billion bucks of federal dollars. Now that leaves a huge amount, the bulk of the 1. 5 trillion to state and local governments and private investments. What are your initial thoughts about his plan . Well, im going to wait until we actually see the plan. Take nothing for granted. The reality is this, miss ruehl, the u. S. Needs about 5 trillion in infrastructure to make us competitive on the world stage. Of whats being currently spent across this country on infrastructure, 75 of it is being spent by state and local governments. Thats important to note. Primarily using municipal bonds. Currently, were baring at least 75 if you talk about water and sewer infrastructure, the federal government spent about 2. 5 billion. State and local governments spent about 106 billion. So as we go forward, its so important to know the vast majority of not only whats being done in infrastructure now but the vast majority of americas gross domestic product, 91 of it, is being created by cities in metropolitan economies. We just hope whatever we do here, whatever comes out of congress, is a reflection of exactly where the action is, where the Economic Activity is happening and we have a plan that actually makes sense for longterm infrastructure investment. Take the dollars out of this for a moment. We know the president wants to streamline the approval process to get permits down to two years. So even if that doesnt affect the money, is that a starting point you could work with . We know being in a log jack of approval process is tough. Sure. Well, certainly. Obviously the ability to get projects shovel ready and get them out of the ground sooner rather than later is always a great thing. We must keep our eyes squarely on environmental concerns. Making sure were not just building to building fast without any regard for our obligations to our Environmental Needs across this country which i would say are at a great peril over the last year or so. Amen to that, we need some thoughtfulness and longterm planning, not just building. The president tweeted just a few hours ago, this will be a big week for infrastructure after so stupidly spending 7 trillion bucks in the middle east, it is now time to start investing in our country. What would a tweet like that resonates with a lot of people. What will you be able to offer the president in order to move forward on infrastructure . Tell the president in columbia, south carolina, we finished 5 of the last 7 years with a budget surplus. We have a balanced budget. We had the same tax rate we had ten years ago. After eight years, we tut taxes by 2 millions and restored them only to fund our Police Department with more resources. Weve driven private sector capital into our city by creating an environment where private sector capital is welcome. Weve done it against the backdrop of spending 500 million on new water sewer infrastructure. Well increase that by about 300 million and another 90 million on storm water infrastructure. We are building great Competitive Cities on the world stage. And i would encourage a president to dialogue with americas mayors, some of our governors will be there today in the room with us. Dialogue with us and we can show the white house, Show Congress how you can actually build strong solid economies. But we only get that by working together. Columbia, south carolina, go gamecocks. Thank you for joining me. Coming up, were just moments from the stock market opening after an extremely volatile week. Thats a nice way to put it. Will things calm down over the roller coaster . Cedric, i couldnt even bowl with my grandkids cause of the burning, shooting pain in my feet. I hear you, sam. Cedric, i couldnt sleep at night because of my diabetic nerve pain. I hear you, claire, because my dad struggled with this pain. Folks, dont wait. Step on up and talk to your doctor. Because the one thing i keep hearing is. Im glad i stepped on up. Me too, buddy. If you have diabetes and burning, shooting pain in your feet or hands, step on up and talk to your doctor today. Hnew litter . Lled this step on up no. Nobody has its unscented vo new tidy cats free clean unscented. 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A savings for everyone in your stateroom when you book now, during the Celebrity Cruises sail beyond event. Welcome back. Im stephanie rule. Time now for your morning primer. Everything you need to know to get your day started. We begin in puerto rico. Several municipalities are once again plunged into darkness after an explosion at an electrical substation. No one was hurt in the explosion. And authorities hope to have power restored this afternoon. The cdc announced on friday that the u. S. Is now facing the worst flu season since 2009. At least 63 children have died from the flu this year. And 71 people were killed when a plane went down outside moscow on sunday. Five minutes after taking off. Russian officials said theyre investigating all possible causes of the crash. And new York State Attorney general Eric Schneiderman has filed a civil rights lawsuit against harvey and Robert Weinstein as well as the Weinstein Company alleging that employees faced, quote, pervasive Sexual Harassment. A lawyer for weinstein said schneidermans investigation will show that many of the allegations against the former producer are without merit. Note, he said many. A group of republican senators are expected to introduce legislation mirroring President Trumps immigration proposal. The bill offers a pathway to sit stepship for up to 1. 1 million dreamers, restricts familybased migration and authorizes 25 billion towards a border fence. It is not expected to pass. And happening now, we are watching wall street as the new week begins. The opening bell just rang. The markets are up. Boom. In just 50 seconds, already up 250 points. The question is, will we continue to see the volatility we saw last week, which was marked by the dows two biggest single day losses ever. Cnbcs dom chu joins us live. The first thing to remind our viewers, stop looking at your 401k six times a day. That money should sit there in the long term. Dont ever lose sight of your longterm goals. But for those who are looking at it by the minute, by the day, whats to come of this week . Well, i mean, the trading action this week has all been driven by either fear or greed. Least for today, its about the greed aspect of the markets. The market did fall by enough for some folks to come out there and say maybe things are not enough to step in there with a little bit of my money and buy some stocks out there. To your point, a lot of the volatility weve seen lately has been the result of a lot of different factors. Are people getting scared . Should people be tapping or trading or day trading their 401ks or i. R. A. Accounts . The answer is no unless you have some kind of imminent need for the money. Oftentimes, reminding clients that risk in the market is inherent but how much risk you have overall is a big part of your financial plan. If youve got 17 year go like my daughter does before her college savingings are needed, maybe the stock market volatility doesnt matter that much. If you are a retiree who needs that cash next month or next year, you probably shouldnt have as much in stocks as you think you should. Giving a shoutout to your baby girl. In terms of volatility, we saw so much of it last week because of the market technical. The massive amount of investors who, for really the last couple of years, have been betting against volatility, kind of got chewed up and spit out last week. Have the reverberations of that kind of liquidation made their way through the system and were back whether its up or down, to more of a slow and steady move . So you bring up a great point. A lot of these technical factors driving the marketplace are a little tough to understand. What you said is correct. A lot of folks out there made money by betting against market volatility. Its almost like taking the under if youre betting on a game. A lot of points were scored in terms of market volatility. Time will tell. For right now, we cant bet on just this positive open being a positive close. The one thing we learned is this market volatility has seen all kinds of weird reactions at the close so we see how the next couple hours plays out. Well see if the white house learned the market is an irrational force might not be the best idea to hang your hat on. Following the money. Thats what we do here. A new podcast called trump inc. Taking a close look at President Trump and his family business. Has the president actually stepped away from the businesses as he promised . And is it illegal if he doesnt . Remember, he always said his sons were going to run the business. My confusion is the sons are talking politics all day every day. Do you see how much don jr. Tweets . Which egg tastes more farmfresh and delicious . Only egglands best. Which egg has 6 times more vitamin d, 10 times more vitamin e, and 25 less saturated fat . Only egglands best. Which egg is so special, id never serve my family anything else . For me, its only egglands best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. You or joints. Something for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. Tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to time to bask. In low prices find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. Refreshing, isnt it . Tripadvisor. And i recently had hi, ia heart attack. It changed my life. But im a survivor. After my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. Its for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. Brilinta is taken with a lowdose aspirin. No more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. Brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. In a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. Brilinta reduced the chance of having another heart attack. Or dying from one. Dont stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor, since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. Brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. Dont take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. Slow heart rhythm has been reported. Tell your doctor about bleeding new or unexpected shortness of breath any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. If you recently had a heart attack, ask your doctor if brilinta is right for you. My heart is worth brilinta. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. Wemost familiar companies,s but we make more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. A Coconut Water company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. We are the cocacola company, and were proud to offer so much more. Time for my favorite part of the show, money, power, politics. A brandnew podcast, trump inc. , taking a deep dive into the president s businesses. And the lingering questions over conflicts of interest that still surface more than a year into the trump presidency. Our guest is the Deputy Managing Editor of pro publica. These people work hard. He repeatedly smiles, looks at the camera and says there are none, is he right . I dont know that hes right that there are no conflicts of interest. What he is right about is the government never anticipated there would be a situation like this. Where a businessman has an active business in the oval office. We can say divesting from companies is the norm for trumps predecessors dating back to the 70s. Even if the government didnt ever predict we would have someone like donald trump, the law is what it is. Can he keep on trucking and say i cant have any conflicts of interest . And by the way, would you lobbyists like to have a party at the trump parties . I think the law is an open question. How is the law an open question . The law is the law. Well there are lawsuits going through the system right now that are challenging trump on continuing his businesses, continuing to have business, for example with states, with foreign governments, but the question fundamentally is yes, there is a legal question, but there is also a question of accountability and transparency. Right. But theres not because the president already Kellyanne Conway likes to say the president s taxes have been litigated. They havent been litigated. He did win, though he didnt provide his taxes. People still want them. The president has chosen not to be accountable. And people voted for him. I mean, he said, my sons are going to run the business. And d. J. T. J. , donald trump jr. Many people have made the decision that these things dont matter. The only way it will matter is how people vote in the midterms and if the law gets involved. So will the law get involved . Is there a way the law can get involved . You can watch richard painter scream about how unethical this is, but unfortunately the president keeps smiling. All we can do as journalists is put the facts out there and try to find the facts. One of the things we are flagging is that there are lots and lots of facts still to find. All right then. Well, what is your main goal with the trump podcast . I love youre doing it. Its great to get this information out. Are you trying to get it out . Are you trying to get questions answers that you cant yet . We are trying to get both things going. So the fundamental thing were doing here is calling it an open investigation. By open investigation, what we mean is there are so many unanswered questions. And we have spent a year digging into this stuff. As best as we can. Were not bad at this. Youre great at it. And yet there are all these fundamental things we dont know. We dont know who his partners are. We dont even know if hes taking money from his businesses. By he, i mean the president , right. So what we are doing is saying we are opening this to everybody. This is the kind of it takes a village model of investigation. Where whether it be other journalists, whether it be you sitting at home, we want everybody to join in, to dig in and help us find answers. Wow, crowd sourcing investigative journalism. Well, good luck to you. Trump inc. Is the podcast. You want to listen in. But probably while youre parked. Because if youre driving, you might drive off the road. All right, they are back, russian bots working overtime to influence americans and lawmakers on social media. And new warnings that they have their sights set on one thing, you know what it is, the 2018 midterms. Heres a question, what are we doing about it. Oh, thats lovely. So graceful. The corkscrew spin, flawless. His signature move, the flying dutchman. Poetry in motion. And there it is, the baby bird. Breathtaking. A sumo wrestler figure skating . Surprising. Whats not surprising . How much money heather saved by switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. I thought i was managing my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. But i realized something was missing. Me. The thought of my symptoms returning was keeping me from being there for the people and things i love most. So, i talked to my doctor and learned humira can help get, and keep,uc under control when other medications havent worked well enough. And it helps people achieve control that lasts so you could experience few or no symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, control is possible. We are now back with disturbing new research that shows russians again interfering in our politics. The Research Shows this time it was russian bots and trolls fueling release the memo campaign ahead of that controversial republican memo alleging the Justice Department abused its surveillance powers. We talked a lot about this in the context of the 2016 election. But according to your reporting, this is still going on. We got to focus on the midterms. Its going on, its going strong. What we see is its happening again. These russianbacked accounts, these bots, if you will, are trying to influence the conversation. You may remember about a week or two ago, the release the memo hash tag seemed to go viral organically but new research is showing it was russianbacked accounts that tried to drive that conversation and now this new data is showing us that these accounts and this content is the idea of it is to stoke anger and breed conspiracy. I think what were dealing with is information warfare. As the Republican Campaign to release the gop memo heated i, the hash tag suddenly started trending. A peering hundreds of times on twitter, often from manufactured accounts. What we saw is it basically went from zero to 100 in a condensed period. Over 24 hours, we saw it promoted heavily by accounts that weve seen historically associated with russian disinformation campaigns. Jonathan morgan is the ceo of new knowledge. Digital media experts who monitor the internet looking for things like suspicious hash tags to help online communities defend themselves from outside manipulation. His team saw release the memo picked up so much momentum that it began capturing the attention of a major Media Organization in part because of bots or automated accounts. Id go so far as to say the release the memo hash tag was more important than the memo itself in creating this air of suspicious around the Mueller Investigation and i think thats ultimately the goal is to create the idea that something might be wrong to give people the impression that where theres smoke, theres probably fire. Reporter now with the men yoel old news, researchers say russianbacked accounts are on the prowl, searching for the next hash tag to manipulate. First, President Trump and the white house. The hope through social media influences the conversation and guide trump towards a russianbacked agenda. Ultimately the president is trying to speak to his base. And if he believes that his base is interested in this ridiculous memo controversy, then hes going to amplify that conversation. It does mean theyre being influenced by this conversation manufactured on media. Reporter the candidates already on the campaign trail. Im frankly very concerned about the conversation going into 2018 and the midterms. If we cant believe in the authenticity of these conversations were having with our friends or with strangers or with people who we think we share some sort of, you know, common belief system or common ideology, then i dont know how our democracy functions. Reporter some researchers say twitter and other social Media Companies should ultimately be responsible to stop this from happening and control what goes on on their platforms. Twitter did not comment but said in a letter to democrats on the house and Senate Intelligence committees, we performed a preliminary analysis of available geographic data for tweets with the hash tag release the memo. Our initial inquiry based on available data has not identified any significant activity connected to russia with respect to tweets posting original content to this hash tag. Oo earlier this year, twitter says it notified 1 Million People who engaged with or followed a russianlinked account in the leadup to the president ial election. Twitter says it is deeply committed to the democratic protest, protecting that in what they often call the open Market Square of discuss on their platform. They hope to strengthen and continue to fight these malicious accounts or bots as weve been reporting over past year, stef. All right, thanks so much, jo. I need my panel to weigh in. Bob torricelli, matt welsh. President trump tweeted just the other day, the had a political long response memo, which they knew because of sources, methods and more would have to be heavily redacted and blame the white house for lack of transparency. Told them to redo and send back in proper form. Release the memo was pumped out. Devin nunes got it out there. The democrats memo, nope, not okay. And they are getting away with it. A different standard for the republican memo and the democratic memo. If you say it enough, and you say it long enough, loud enough, it moves on. Thats what happened here. Here is the core of the controversy. Put the nonsense aside. Somehow the fisa request doesnt have credibility because it came from a private source. Information from the clinton campaign. Federal investigations always come from private sources. You get a warrant against the mob, its probably a mobster. Insider trading, its from somebody on wall street. The government doesnt generate their own leads. Of course its private. This is a controversy about nonsense. If everything came from a political o pon entd of donald trump, that doesnt mean it isnt credible or sound for investigation. Even if its nonsense, the president and the republican part are going hard after the fbi and it seems to be working. Its not working at all. Trey dowdy, the only person who saw the underlying warrant came out the next day and said, yes, i looked at this. Devin none nunez didnt. This doesnt credit the Mueller Investigation. Boom. Fizzled on impact especially after the release the memo build up. If anything, the expectations about what a bombshell this was going to be, compared to what it looked like when you read it released the energy on it. The grassley memo is actually interesting and more damming, but nobody cares anymore about this. I wish i agreed with you. Im not sure i do. Their strategy of wearing down the credibility of mueller and the fbi, at least in the trump base is now set. If they fire him or if charges are brought, they have a base for an argument out there about the fairness of the investigation. I think there is a base for the argument, but not in terms of firing mueller, in terms of how do you receive what mueller comes up with. They are laying the base for a political argument. On friday night, we saw the number three person leave the department of justice. We saw rod rosensteins number two, rebecca, rachel . Rachel brand announce she is leaving. She is going to walmart. This gets us one step closer. The president doesnt like the investigation, get rid of rosenstein. Who replaces rosenstein . Brand. We have brand. Forget mueller. This is President Trumps playbook. Is it working . We spoke of this in the past. Its a surprise to see them go after the department of justice and the fbi. This is the lead story of the day. If we go six months down the road, the Mueller Investigation is over. Charges brought. Congress has to act. All of a sudden, sessions is not making decisions. Rosenstein may be gone. This person is going to make the critical decisions to prosecute the president and bring the case. That job is empty. I dont know miss brand, but american democracy is ordinary people stepping up and taking responsibility in critical moments. Leaving this job to go to walmart, its a metaphor for everything is wrong with america. When you know the presidency and american democracy is at issue, im sorry, i dont know you, but its your responsibility. They dont say whats going on here. Did she get pressured . Did she have a nice offer from walmart . I dont sit in judgment. How can we judge the choices people make in their lives . We have a right, when you see your democracy is troubled and clearly, we are months away from a major crisis with the president of the united states, expect ordinary americans to step up. Ordinary americans, ordinary republicans, who for years, have been on the side of the law. The law and order party are letting the president and posse dump on the president every day. The ironies of this are almost unbelievable. This is an fbi which bugged the phone of Martin Luther king, harassed antiwar protesters, took Monica Lewinsky into a room without counsel for hours, subpoenaed her roommate in college. We have gone through years of this and the Republican Party was never offended by the fbi. Now, they are offended because of this, with donald trump. Finally, you got religion after all these years. The ironys just abound. Abound. All right, we are going leave it there. A twofer from the white house. President trump unveiling his 2019 Budget Proposal and longawaited structural plan. A plan with no money. Im going to invite cuba gooding jr. Hes going stand in the door and say show me the money. Well have details on both straight ahead. Earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. With the united mileageplus explorer card, youll get a free checked bag. Two united club passes. Priority boarding. And earn fifty thousand bonus miles after you spend three thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months from account opening plus, zerodollar intro annual fee for the first year, then ninetyfive dollars. Learn more at theexplorercard. 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Prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium; serious infections, which could need hospitalization; skin problems; and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. If your bones arent getting stronger isnt it time for a new direction . Why wait . Ask your doctor about prolia. Welcome back. No matter what, before we go, we got to share good news. Theres always good news somewhere and we think it rules. If you didnt see this, a norwegian skier had a comeback. Slipped and fell during his first lap of the 30 kilometers race bringing two russian competitors down with him and breaking a ski pole. It looks like a car crash. Rather than sit there and wallow, he got up and thought, thought, thought, passing 67 other skiers to win the gold medal. I urge you to watch this race. If it is not a story in perseverance, determination and hard work, i dont know what else is. Even though im team usa all the way, certainly love that move. That wraps us up this hour. Im stephanie ruhle. See you at 11 00 with ali velshi who is not an olympian or skier, but he is a great guy. I hand things off to steve kornacki. Are you a Cross Country skier . I am not. But i watched that and have never been more riveted. It was like a car crash in the beginning. He wasnt going away. It was a great story. Good morning. Im in for hallie jackson. Right now, infrastructure week is in for a rocky start. The white house is struggling to produce a consistent story on the scandal rocking the west