they fear they don t have everything just yett. and they fear the companies have not learned the lesson, and they have to stop russia and other malefactors from friespreading disinformation only. he didn t think it really appreciated the threat and has done nearly enough to stop it. and instagram, we learned more as a result today. previously facebook talked about instagram being a spott, but it is more than we realize. we re talking 187 million likes. there is a fear they remain a trouble spot and in 2018 number one elections to come.
including from those who may themselves be the subjects of that investigation. this special counsel was appointed to thoroughly investigate the attacks on our electoral system by elements of the russian government during the lead-up to our 2016 general election. one would think there would be unanimous national resolve to get to the bottom of such aggression from an enemy foreign power. this is not a moment for our national leadership to be weak or irresolute or compromised in any way. but some of us in washington have seemed strangely incurious about just what the russian malefactors did to america in 2016. with the firing of it attorney general and in my view, the improper installation of an acting attorney general who has not been subject to confirmation by this body, the president now
interest of describing the actions needed to remove sanctions. and so, senator rubio mentioned the deter act. i guess my concern with some of this is that the definition of who might be meddling in an election in our country s not limited to russia. it could even include allies spending money on social media somehow in our country. it doesn t seem to differentiate between social media and actually hacking into our electoral system and changing thousands of votes. it also takes the power from the president and gives it to the director of national intelligence, this is the deter act we were talking about. i know you indicated that sanctions are probably a good idea to deter them but do you think it s a good idea to take the sanction power, give it to the dni and then sanctions in place for eight hours with the president not having any ability to decide whether there s been some kind of change in behavior by the malefactors? senator, without having seen the legislation, i do not think t
blamed senate majority leader mitch mcconnell for the obama administration s response to russian meddling in the 2016 election. the president asked four leaders in a bipartisan meeting in the oval office to join him in asking the states to work with us on this question. it took over three weeks to get that statement worked out, it was dramatically watered down, you can ask harry reid and nancy pelosi, even the speaker and it was watered down on the insistence of mitch mcconnell? yes. and nobody else. yes. okay, do you have any understanding as to why? did he not believe the intelligence? i don t. i don t. the new york times reported last year that mcconnell had questioned the intelligence around election interference and agreed to a softer version of a letter that spoke to malefactors but did not specifically mention russia. in response to mcdonough s comments, a spokesman for mcconnell wrote in an e-mail
this question. it took over three weeks to get that statement worked out. it was dramatically watered down. you can ask harry reid and unanimous nancy pelosi. and it was watered down on the insistence of mitch mcconnell? yes. that spoke to malefactors, but did not specifically mention russia. and a response to mcdonough s comments, they were asked about security, not russia. he called a letter, quote, ultimately successful. joining me on set once again, a former cia station chief who spent five years in