in 2015 when we really started to see them do influence and social media, they focused on social issues. that s what you re seeing from these facebook disclosures. race, religion, rich versus poor, police violence, bundy ranch standoff, jade helm, military exercises, second amendment rights. that s how they stack up. they find those audiences that are receptive to their message and when it comes election year, that s when they start pushing these themes on candidates. so, what you re seeing now is every social media platform is finally getting around to the data. they re using each other s data and we see these disclosures each day. and whether it s facebook to twitter, now twitter to google, you re seeing them reveal different parts of these networks and that is a built-in strategy from the kremlin. their active measures are meant to be distributed so they have plausible deny ability. they ll try all the techniques. they double down and triple down and that s how the system works acro
facebook account that was removed by facebook in august. joining us now, clint watts, former fbi agent and senior fellow at the foreign policy research institute. he s also an msnbc contributor. and, clint, so now we are finally seeing the russian-backed material. it seems pretty crude. right. that example is extremely crude and one i doubt moved a lot of the american minds. but what the russians do that americans don t necessarily do is they try everything. you know, they ll try every platform, they ll try every message. in 2015 when we really started to see them do influence and social media, they focused on social issues. that s what you re seeing from these facebook disclosures. race, religion, rich versus poor, police violence, bundy ranch standoff, jade helm, military exercises, second amendment rights. that s how they stack up. they find those audiences that are receptive to their message and when it comes election year,
every one of us has a constitutional right to protest and speak our minds. but we don t have a right to use force and violence on others. it is our hope that the protesters will stand down peacefully. our prayers are with those in law enforcement that are risking their lives right now, that they be safe. but there is no right to engage in violence against other americans. joining the panel now, richard cohen. a real change of tone for ted cruz on this one remember the bundy ranch standoff involved members of that malitia group pointing rifles at federal agents. part of the reason we re seeing them return to form here, out of their own state against the wishes the picture is one of the most pictures from that nevada standoff. he did not get arrested for
supporting and once again in an armed standoff with the federal government. the thing that s incredible, the sheriff asked them to go, the family asked them to go. i m not sure what i that ear trying to accomplish. are they seizing the federal land? and if so, for whom? is this a reaction to the way things were handled in nevada? i think joy is absolutely right. the bundy family saw themselves as heroes. they were lionized by people like cruz, trump, carson and rand paul. you know sean hannity extolled their virtued every day. and when no one was arrested the malitia world said courage is contagious. and the number of militias in our country have grown considerably since that time. what we re seeing is the predictable result of the failure of law enforcement to crack down because of what happened at the bundy ranch in april of 2014. let s listen to what marco
their virtues every day. and when no one was arrested the malitia world said courage is contagious. and the number of militias in our country have grown considerably since that time. what we re seeing is the predictable result of the failure of law enforcement to crack down because of what happened at the bundy ranch in april of 2014. let s listen to what marco rubio said about it today. you cannot be lawless. we live in a republic. there are ways to change the rules of the country. we get frustrated with it, that s why we have elections and have people we can hold accountable. and i agree there s too much federal control over land, especially out in the western part of the united states, states for example like nevada that are dominated by the federal government in terms of land holding and we should fix it. but no one should be doing it out of the way of the law. responsible commentary by rubio and ted cruz s change of tone and content on this one,