Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. They will appear before lawmakers just, at that point, less than two months before the election again, i understand theyre going to ask some more questions, some more hearings. What is congress prepared to do to stop this, to say were do everything you possibly can to make sure there is not outside influence in our elections . Well, Lindsey Graham told me this shows we need an olive government approach. Introducing this legislation in part. Trying to get the president to joinest. He wants to see more pressure being put on russia. Were also hearing that some of these pages have been identified, and russia is an equal opportunity offender here. That our Political Leadership not to necessarily follow the rabl trail that the russians are
from the white house on this issue. Donald trump had his First Ever National security meeting the other day devoted to this subject. Didnt make any statements, didnt give any orders as far as we know. The fbi has a Foreign Influence Task force. The nsa is trying to step up its game in cyberspace. What officials tell me is theres no unifying strategy and theres no leadership from the white house and theres certainly been no steps taken to deter russia from this behavior. There are things that the United States could do to respond. It could release embarrassing information about putins corrupt billions that he has stashed away in bank accounts. Were not doing it. The president has elevated this as an important issue to be concerned about. Even though the director of National Intelligence about a week ago gave a speech, said this is happening. Exactly what facebook is describing today, dan coates said is happening on a daily basis. The russians are meddling in our politics. He says the system is blinking red and it was almost a cry for
executive Branch Leadership we have not seen, chris. Let me get your reaction about the ads, the timing. Here we are, 98 days out from the midterms. Yes, in terms of the timing, what we find is usually they try and infiltrate audiences on social issues so that later they can drive them on political influence. So this is a tactic we saw in terms of both the left sort of leaning accounts and the right sort of leaning accounts back in 2016. Weve also seen mentioned, you know, theres been two different daily beast reports in the last week that have said that two different senators were targeted in terms of hacking or spear fishing or different baiting campaigns and that is if you want an influence in the election year, you target them with hacks in the year before, which was 2017. So what this shows is a very consistent pattern. Even when the social media
companies change their term of service or knock these accounts down, russia, other state sponsors, are going to continue to use this technique because its very effective. Its very cheap. You can do it from afar. And the u. S. Has not responded in any cohesive way to this sort of russian influence. When you saw some of the republican senators go to moscow on that Fourth Of July trip, they even said, well, everyone does this. This is essentially giving a free pass to any country around the world if they want to do political influence, go to social media inside the u. S. Facebook put out a statement and one of the things that they say in it is these bad actors have been more careful to cover their tracks. When you look at the whole statement, you realize the complexity of what theyre trying to do to continue to track them down in real tie, to prevent whats going on. How difficult is this . How difficult is it to say in the next 98 days, theres going
to be significant progress made so when we look back on it, well say there was no real overriding influence in this election. Well, all it takes is money and effort. And they have to be willing to spend the money to clean up their platform. It looks like theyre also reaching out to outside groups to partner with them in fighting some of these bad actors. They cited this outside group the atlantic counsel Digital Forensic lab. I think thats a positive development for facebook. This is a big change, isnt it . Just the fact theyre out ahead of this now. Yes, this is actually kind of different. Were used to seeing them with their head in their sand, denying responsibility, really downplaying things. Here, they really seem to be stepping into the line of fire. It seems to go along with several different business moves weve seen them take, you know, their stock dropped 20 last week and part of that was saying were going to spend extra money to clean up the platform thats here in ten years instead of being turned into this total mess. So this and the
communications shop, so we are seeing a different facebook. But is it going to be different enough, soon enough, to help us in these midterm elections. Tony, during the Earnings Call last week, i understand facebook kind of sidestepped whether it had already found election interference. Assuming they are announcing that they found something, why wait until today . Well, in fact, in june, facebook officials were telling us that they hadnt found anything and i think for a lot of folks when they heard the news today, they thought back to when Mark Zuckerberg said it was essentially crazy that russia could have interfered and produced information on the platform which is obviously a position he since has withdrawn there. But, you know, as you guys pointed out this is going to come down to capitol hill and what theyre willing to do to hold facebook to the fire or whether they or others in government are willing to secure the regulations that could stop this sort of thing. Well see facebook on the hot seat tomorrow when members of congress and the Senate Intelligence committee hold a hearing on social media and what
can happen in the 2018 midterms and again in september when we expect the Chief Operating Officer to testify. So this is just the beginning for facebook. And, you know, just to the point of the stock price, one of the other reasons that stock price dropped is because facebook was facing the threat of regulation. Folks thought maybe facebooks Privacy Problems had finally caught up with it. Now the question investors might have to ask is has this issue around disinformation caught up with facebook, only adding to the regulatory threats. Let me follow up. Because obviously septembers going to be huge. Sheryl sandberg is probably one of the best known faces in business today. Lets go to tomorrow and the key questions and how whats being revealed today might change that. Facebook is and isnt the one testifying tomorrow. Theres no rep from the Company Going to be sitting there facing lawmakers. You can expect democrats and republicans to land on the company and its peers in social
media for failing to do enough. Were talking about disinformation right now. Sort of things that might affect how americans view political issues. This is just actually one smaller slice of the larger issue about hate speech and a because and other kinds of bad things that sometimes tend to proliferate on social media. Theres just a general apprehension and dislike by the part of members of congress right now with how these social mediay s aies are policing what appears there, whether election relate order not. So fueled members of congress to do more, to regularly the more what happens on social media. Let me go back to something thats in this statement that came out from facebook. It reminds all of us of just how inexpensive it is to do whats being done. They ran about 150 ads for approximately 11,000. 11,000. When were talking about campaigns that cost millions, multimillions of dollars. Paid for in u. S. And canadian dollars. First ad created 2017. Last created in 2018. Again, you dont need to have huge financial backing to run an operation like this. Right. Theyre really getting their bang for their buck. This is exactly what these systems are designed to do is, you know, take messages that are manipulate our emotions and get us to stick around facebook and get it to the right people the quickest. The problem is now that foreign actors in russia have figured that out and theyre using this very system to drive those to the people at a very low cost. I remember who said this exactly, someone said that now with the social media tools like facebook, twitter, you can take over an entire country for the cost of a helicopter. Clint, thats a perfect lead to give you the last question. As people are watching this trying to absorb exactly what this new information means, what should they know . I think the good thing is that facebook is watching these accounts now and these efforts to do manipulation. So thats a positive thing. Weve seen a lot of changes made on the platforms. I think the thing to always remember is what are you getting your information from . Social media is not reliable for political and social information, especially when things get passionate. Whether youre russia or any other manipulator in terms of politics or social issues, social media is the great way to dupe you into reading and sharing something that may or may not be true or authentic. Whether Facebook Changes their Terms Of Service or not, theres always going to be a manipulating behind the scenes that is going to try to achieve what their goal is. This is the most Cost EffectiveInfluence Machine ever made in World History and its highly effective. So tony, for people who want the opportunity to separate fact from fiction, whats the best advice you can give them . Well, you have to go to good news sources. I know im a little biyalsed in
saying that but it comes down to figure out who you follow and why you follow those accounts. The News Networks that you happen to watch. It really does at some point fall on the consumer to make better decisions which is an uncomfortable truth these days. The same thing goes whether youre on facebook or elsewhere. If youre following accounts on twitter, you have to be more mindful about the kinds of things youre sharing. That being said, its a very hard thing to do. We mentioned at the top of the segment the bit about trying to stoke protests. There was an account that was trying to get folks to turn up at an alt right rally in washington, d. C. More than 2,000 people rsvdd to that event. Just to give you a sense how easily these things can be passed along and how easily consumers can be duped. My thanks to you for scrambling to cover this Breaking News. Great reporting, thank you. Also Breaking News on white house Chief Of Staff john kelly. The request the president made
about his future plans. A new mission for nba star lebron james. Education. He just opened a school in his hometown of akron, ohio, for at risk third and fourth graders. Kids there have a longer class day, a longer school year, and it offers on site food pantry for Student Families as well as resources for moms and dads. In an interview about the school, lebron got pretty personal. He talked about the state of race and division in america and also the role he thinks President Trump plays in that division. Hes dividing us and what i noticed over last few months, that hes kind of used sport to kind of divide us, and thats something that i cant relate to because i would say sports is the first time i ever was around someone white, you know, and i got an opportunity to see them and learn about them and they got an opportunity to learn about me and we became very good friends and i was, like, oh, wow, this is all because of sports, and sports has never
been something that divides people, its always something that brings them together. In 5th grade. We got married after college. And had twin boys. But then one night, a truck didnt stop. But thanks to our forester, neither did our story. And thats why well always drive a subaru. Booking a flight doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. For the best savings on flights, go to priceline. Investigation is a witch hunt. Even though none of the charges involve manaforts time with donald trump. The trial was expected to last about three weeks. Well keep you posted on jury selection. Weve got Breaking News involving the president s Chief Of Staff john kelly. Nbc news has learned that kelly plans to stay at the white house through the 2020 election. Nbcs Kristen Welker is live at the white house with the latest. I mean, after all these months, kristen, of rumors that john kelly was on his way out, what are you hearing now . Well, this is a significant development, chris, my Colleague Peter confirming according to a Senior Administration official that john kelly on monday told his staff that the president sktd h asked him to stay through the 2020 election and he agreed. Its significant for a range of different reasons. John kelly was brought in about a year ago to try to bring order and stability to what was then a very chaotic white house. A lot of people felt as though he was successful. To some extend, he obviously stemmed the flow of people coming in and out of the oval office. He couldnt stop the president from tweeting, no one can. Look, he did have an impact here on the white house. Publicly, he had had some controversies with the president. Broken with the president for example several months ago, that roiled President Trump. And it was broadly thought his influence here was waiting. And he was eyeing the exits at his one year mark. Now that one year mark has passed. And hes still here. So it is significant. And the fact the president has asked him to stay through 2020, a sign the president who was thinking at one point about having no Chief Of Staff at all has decided he wants to have a Chief Of Staff, that a Chief Of Staff is necessary and significant and plays a Critical Role here at the white house. I think the Big Questions and the Unanswered Questions are just how much influence he will have moving forward, what will his relationship with the
president be. It has been up and down. Clearly it seems as though the president has decided to keep him so things are on pretty good footing at this point in time. They celebrated his First Anniversary on the job and they put that picture out there, so well see going forward. We know things, the more they change, the more they stay the same. In this white house, its the more they stay the same, the more they change, right . Great to see you. As we celebrate andrea together. Absolutely, i loved your story at the top of the show, that was perfect. True, shes unbelievable. Plastic guns printed at home easy to make, nearly impossible to track. The new effort to stop the texas man from putting the instructions online for just anyone to see. This is your wakeup call. If you have moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. Ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. Humira can help stop the clock. Prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. 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. Help stop the clock on further irreversible joint damage. Talk to your rheumatologist. Right here. Right now. Humira. No matter how much you clean, does your house still smell stuffy . Thats because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. So, try febreze fabric refresher. Febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics and cleans them away as it dries. Use febreze every time you tidy up to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. Fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. Make febreze part of your clean routine for whole home freshness. Republican party writ large where trumps picks have recently won their primaries and whats most important, how loyal does the modern day republican have to be . Check out a clip of this new commercial from desantos. Everyone knows my husband ron desantos is endorsed by President Trump but its also an amazing dad. Ron loves playing with the kid. Build the wall. He reads stories. Then mr. Trump says youre fired. I love that part. Thats a real commercial. Here to break it down, nancy cook, White House Reporter for political, phillip rutger, the Washington Post. What do we make of it . I mean, its not your everyday Run Of The Mill political campaign, but it also, i guess you could argue, does what commercials is supposed to do, which is grab attention. Yes, and it makes people talk about it.