Dozen times over the weekend calling the russia probe a witch hunt, hoax, democrat scam. Is the special counsel, want to interview the president . Good luck. Youre saying no way . Theyre a joke. Over my dead body. If the republicans and the democrats get together, we are going to end up with Incredible Health care which is the way it should have been from day one. Its an awful, awful ruling. Were going to fight this tooth and nail. The implications if this ruling isnt overturned hurts everybody. Mulvaney to serve as the president s righthand man has had harsh words for his boss in the past. Do i like donald trump . No. Was he a role model for my sons . Absolutely not. I think hes a terrible human being. A lot to get to today. Theres new evidence that russias attempt to manipulate americans in the 2016 election far more extensive than we thought. Nbc news is releasing two reports providing the sweeping analysis yet of russias Disinformation Campaign around the 2016 election. A campaign that was designed to help donald trump win and to hurt Hillary Clinton. The facts are irrefutable. Researchers combed through millions of posts from facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube that were created by the Internet Research agency, the st. Petersburg firm, troll farm, if you will, run by an ally of Vladimir Putin who have been indicted on charges of defrauding the United States of its democracy, of its election. The report found the operation used every major social media platform to enflame rightwing conspiracy theories and suppress the vote of leftleaning groups including of africanamericans. Twitter responded to the report saying, quote, our singular focus to improve the health of the public conversation on our platform and protecting the integrity of elections is an aspect of that mission. We have made significant strides since 2016 to counter manipulation of our service, including our release of Additional Data in october related to previously disclosed activities to enable further independent Academic Research and investigation. Facebook has yet to respond and google has declined to comment. Joining me now, the man reporting this story out for us, intelligence and National Security reporter den delanian and analyst malcolm nance. Malcolm is author of the plot to destroy democracy. Ken, you have been reporting on this new knowledge report. There are so many interesting key findings. What stands out to you . Well, as you mentioned, we knew that the Internet Research agency had been doing this and laid out in a Robert Mueller indictment and the reports lay out the scope and the scale to an extent that we havent seen before and what number stood out to me. More than 256 million engagements with this propaganda on facebook and instagram. Thats not the number of people because a person can have more than one like or share but facebook had initially said that 120 Million People saw this propaganda. The researchers think its more than that. The targeting of africanamericans, we knew that that had been going on and this shows the extent of it and not just on facebook and twitter and instagram but on youtube. For example, the researchers found ten youtube chams that posted 571 videos related to Police Violence, brutality, targeting the black lives movement. Why . In part to suppress the black vote and we know that Hillary Clinton recorded one of the lowest performances among africanamericans in modern history for a democrat and these researches cant say for sure it contributed but theres a threeprong effort to, for example, provide misinformation of the polling places or timing of votes to undermine Hillary Clinton. There was also an undermining of the news media. Just a massive undertaking under the noses, ali, of the social Media Companies and seem powerless to stop it and the u. S. Intelligence community which late in the game figured out what was happening. Malcolm, you have written a book about this. One of the earliest people to study this. Some of it is hard to prove a negative. You cant prove who didnt vote as a result but one of the things of the report the efforts were more integrated than we originally understood and theres no ambiguity of the troll farms supporting. Yeah. Youre absolutely right. When i wrote my first book on this just about six weeks before the election i estimated that the Internet Research agency which we called an Information Warfare management cell whoould have between 300 and 1,000 people. Now that looks minuscule compared to the integrated way that they used and weaponized every social media platform that america had, all of the big ones, and then took freedom of speech itself, the thing that we cherish the most, and used it to shove their narrative of what they wanted the American Public to see. They ran racial groups against each other. They pit political groups against each other and they pushed one candidate while tearing down the other. All i can say is this. As an intelligence professional, none of this happens in a year or two years. This effort began at least three to five years before and they had to have known who they were going to be dealing with and thats how we saw as early as 2012 the russians had contact with donald trump related to his election and that six years seems better timeline to come up with set up something that in these reports. Ken, i want do go back to this targeted of africanamericans. Theres some i want to read from your reporting. The russians set up 30 facebook pages targeting the black community the researches found and 10 Youtube Channels with 571 videos related to Police Violence against africanamericans. What was the intent . It appears, ali, voter suppression, fomenting distrust in the system, whether clinton or trump is elected the police will still kill africanamericans and clinton doesnt care much about that. Very sophisticated effort. It appears to have played some role if suppressiof suppressing. They knew which swing states to target including states that clinton didnt know she was vulnerable in like wisconsin, ali. Remarkable. Ken, thank you for your reporting. Maam come, of course, for being on top of this since before the election. Joining me now, nbc news legal analyst mimi roacha and larry. Mimi, you said earlier today, the degree to which the Trump Campaign and the russians or trump and the surrogates and the russians using similar tactics targeting similar groups with the same ends. You said its what prosecutors call circumstantial evidence with the same goals and similar methods. Right. Exactly, ali. Look. There are differences but you cannot ignore the fact that we now know definitively despite trumps xlams claims to the co russia was trying to get trump elected. Trump was trying to get elected. The goals are the same. Not everything that the campaign did was underhanded. But there is a similarity in the approach to attacking the media, the truth is not the truth. Undermining our institutions. Dividing different kinds of different groups within our society and pitting them against each other. Those are very similar. Not just one. Its many. The reporting now goes into great detail about that. And i think that when you look at similar goals, similar methods, you know, you do have to think, well, was this a coordinated effort . Were beyond thinking it. Its being investigated but i feel like every time it comes up that sort of strikes us in the face, it should be obvious. We need to point it out and call it out. We are not seeing new reports. This is a comprehensive one, done with the senate researchers in one case. Two different reports. With outside bodies. Harry, it is the new knowledge report and it said that the russian social media effort was intended to reinforce tribalism, polarize and divide and normalize points of view advantageous to the russian government from social issues to political candidates and it was designed to exploit societal fractures, blur the lines of reality and fiction, erode our trust in media, in government, in each other and in democracy itself. You have characterized this as the most serious attack on the u. S. Since 9 11. Look. I think thats right. Its like a its akin to a statesponsored terrorism going to the core democratic institutions. It is a 21st century style terrorism. Imagine russia figured out how to lean in to Voting Machines and change the votes. It wouldnt have been all that different. As ken points out, its a little bit imponderable how successful it was. It was somewhat successful certainly and just the p perniciousness of going at the desire to vote and affecting the franchise and try to exploit the sorts of worst impulses that even, even trump or others in campaign cant exploit as i think mind bending. Mimi, one of the findings that the is that the russians sought to convey that the Mueller Investigation is a hoax. This goes well beyond the election, continued after the election, that the Mueller Investigation was a hoax and corrupt and that the emerging russia stories were a weird conspiracy pushed by cry baby, liberal cry babies. At some point, i read that long response of twitter. We havent got one from facebook. Google said they dont have one. This is very, very serious stuff. Right . That they have allowed their platformed to platforms to be manipulated. How should we be thinking about this . A legal problem. A regulatory problem . I think its both. I mean, and more than that. Right . Its also a National Security problem. You know . Obviously these Companies Need to do more, need to do better. Our intelligence agencies, law enforcement, you know, they discovered it after it happened but we need to do more in prevention and people to not politicize this. Thats part of the problem is donald trump by saying by saying this same talking point about this being a leftwing conspiracy is politicizing this and so not letting the American Public accept facts as they come out. But trying to put a spin on them and thats hes doing it for his own personal reasons and so dangerous. Thats part of the problem, right . Trivializing of this. The trivializing of the Mueller Investigation, in particular. Doesnt matter where you stand, the concept that we have a group of people starting with the president of the United States trivializing a Serious Investigation that it is in our interest to get to the bottom of it. This is what underlies, some ways more serious than even the question did the president commit crimes. This is an attack of sort of incalcuable gravity and the mocking and bobbing and weaving of donald trump and Rudy Giuliani on tv of the Mueller Probe suggests its silly or partisan and its anything but. This is really a kind of thing that a 9 11 commission or a kennedy commission, some bipartisan national effort, should be immediately taken up to figure out what happened and how to stop it. I imagine thats what the Senate Intelligence committee will be doing. One can hope. They did make a point of saying that the findings are not representative of the members of the senate. Thank you, harry and mimi. New developments connected to Donald Trumps former National Security adviser michael flynn. His Business Partner and a turkish man charged with covertly and unlawfully trying to influence u. S. Politics to extradite a turkish cleric from the United States and charged with conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government. We should note the other man also worked on the white house transition team. This man. Bijan kian coming one day before flynn is sentenced on charges of lying about his communications with russian officials. Next, President Trump says Mick Mulvaney will be the next white house chief of staff. Well break down who he is and why he got the job even though he once called donald trump a terrible human being. That was on video. James comey is testifying again behind closed doors and keeping an eye on the markets for you once again. Another down day as you know. All major markets are now in the red for the year. The dow down 250 points. That is 1 . 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This is staying connected with xfinity to make moving. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and twohour appointment windows. Click, call or visit a store today. There will be a new acting chief of staff in the white house. Mick mulvaney. Currently serves as the director of office of management and budget. The white houses budget office. Throughout 2018, hes also served as the acting director of the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau which was basically put in place to dismantle. Prior to joining President Trumps cabinet, he spent six years representing south carolinas 5th district in the United States house of representatives and there he aligned himself with the Tea Party Caucus and a Founding Member of the Freedom Caucus and the voting record is a clear picture of the values. Opposed obamacare. The Affordable Care act. Voting to repeal as republicans did. He supported an amendment to prevent samesex marriage and opposing gun control. He also supporting eliminating federal regulations which is a favorite of the Trump Administration from this record and his work in trumps cabinet it appears that they are aligned on many issues. But that may not be the quest n question. A lot of people in the country are aligned with donald trump. Can he be a good chief of staff . Joining me is chris whipple, author of the gatekeepers. Chris, i have been waiting to talk to you about this. To get your view on whether this is going to be the guy whos going to be useful to donald trump as a chief of staff. Well, its good to be back. Look. You know that i was extremely critical of john kelly during his tenure as chief of staff but this is the wrong fix. You know . I heard our friend and colleague andy card this morning on the radio saying he thought mulvaney might be a good choice. I love andy card. Right. He is the Eternal Optimist and we could talk all day about the reasons this will not end well. Number one, mulvaney really is a trump sycophant. Thats how you go from a budget hawk to signing off on a tax cut that will balloon the deficit to 1 trillion. Right. He as a congressman would not approve of a tax cut. Joining the Trump Administration it was a completely different story. Thats the last thing you need as white house chief of staff, malleable, not tell donald trump hard truths. Now, you know, people talk about his having said that trump was a terrible person. Equally famously, he once said that he never met a lobbyist who hadnt previously paid him. Specifically said in april of 2018. He made a speech f. Youre a lobbyist that never gave us money, i didnt talk to you. If you gave us money, i might talk to you. Thats i understand that might happen. Its definitely not a princeipl espoused by the chief of staff. He doesnt have the judgment. He may come from capitol hill and not liked on capitol hill. And, you know, you have also got the problem of he wants to be omb director and chief of staff at the same time. Anybody who was omb director and then became chief of staff, you know, like jack lew would be the first to tell him, josh bolton, and others, you cant do that. You cant do both jobs at once and being acting chief of staff is also a recipe for failure because youre Walking Around with an Expiration Date on your forehead and people will not take you seriously. You know, there are many other things we could talk about but another huge problem is that this president is headed into a world of trouble, a series of investigations that will make al hagues final days look l