Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. The senator from maryland. Senator, good to see you. Thank you for joining us. What do you make of that quite unexpected News Conference today . It did seem Like Full Court press, agreeing with the fact there was interference, there is interference, and i wasnt as confident that we know exactly what were supposed to do about it, but it seemed like everybody in that room seemed to agree this is something we have to deal with. First, its good to be with you. Youre exactly right, it was very clear that russia interfered in our 2016 elections and it was acknowledged that it was mr. Putin, the russian government, that was behind that. They acknowledged that this campaign is continuing both in trying to influence how voters vote as well as we are concerned that they may even go into our election apparatus. No evidence that theyre doing that yet, but they are certainly exploring that. That was very clear. And they laid out strategies for dealing with it, which are consistent with recommendations
you just used. Is it allgovernment without the president ish Press Briefing symbolic of an allgovernment approach or is it not there yet . You have to have the president on board for an allgovernment approach. It was encouraging. I thought they had a good command of what we need to do. The question is do they have the support from the president. Senator, good to see you as always, thank you. Senator ben cardin of maryland. Todays beefedup White House Briefing comes at the end of a week that was marked by election and Cyber Security headlines. Facebook revealed another campaign on its platform very similar to russias attacks in the 2016 election. Yesterday top Security Experts testified on capitol hill on the failures of the United States government to stop foreign influence. The 9 11 commission characterized the failures that preceded that attack as a failure of imagination. I believe the failure to detect and disrupt the russian governments weaponization of Online Platforms to be a similar failure to imagine, not just by
the government, but also by those who ought to understand these tools best, their creators. That was laura rosenberger. Shell join me later in the hour. First i want to bring in nbcs National Security analyst clint watts. Hes a former fbi Special Agent and the author of messing with the enemy, surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news. Clint, youve been with us through this whole thing, this whole unfolding of the mystery of russian hacking and the tacit and lacking in confidence embraces of this information. What does today feel like to you . Its remarkable that the institutions are essentially moving around the leader, their leader, to execute these policies. These are things that should have been done immediately after 2016. Ive been to many parts of the government since 2016. Ive talked to them. In each of those briefings, i kind of look and i go i hope youve got this. The room is very quiet. I dont doubt that our civil
servants, our Intelligence Community, our military people, want to move the ball forward and do whats right. So what i think you saw today was a Press Briefing where essentially each of the institutions said my duty is to you, the u. S. Citizens, to make sure your election isnt interfered with, that you have confidence in democracy and that no one is going push us around. We didnt get that. We got something that said were trying as hard as we can. Right. Obviously a Press Briefing like that cant happen without the president s tacit approval. And yet to what senator ben cardin just said, why didnt the president do that . Why Doesnt The President come out and say it in that fullthroated manner . It will still fail. This will fail today because its not integrated. Each of those agencies has a different role. Director wray said my influence task force is doing the following, because hes doing what hes allowed to do, but hes not there to police fake news that comes into the United States. Thats not his job. Whose job is that . Whos going to take that on . This has to be put together and it takes leadership. And the leadership has to come
from the top. Its got to come from a person that is called the president of the United States. There should be a strategy thats pushed out by the National Security staff and its pushed down to these agencies. That is not happening. The institutions know whats right to do with the people, theyre just doing at least what they can. Dan coats has used this example, lots of people have, the lights of blinking red the way they were in the summer whether 9 11. Right. And what we didnt do in the summer before 9 11 is figure out whether there should be one person or one entity coordinating all the different Government Branches that youre talking about. Do we even know what that looks like . Is there a position Waiting In The Wings thats like the director of Homeland Security or someone who coordinates fake news, actual physical Cyber Attacks on our infrastructure, all of the Different Things that could happen . When i testified in march of 2017, i tried to address that and say it needs to be a task force set up. Each of these agencies has a different role. One is hacking and defense, thats dhs. National security and cyber command. Fbi should be looking at hacks, investigating and looking for foreign influence in terms of persons. But who is responsible for this middle ground . It should be a task force set up. It should have a twoyear mandate. It should come from the white house. Someone needs to lead this effort and bring these pieces together and the white house refuses to put anyone in charge of that. I think what youre seeing is i think its admirable for each of these leaders because theyre under enormous pressure from the president to keep their mouth shut and not mention russia even in the white house. Theyre moving forward trying to restore confidence for the American People but its not the right way to do it and how our country should be led. Let me just say what the general in charge of the nsa said at the briefing. I wont discuss the specifics except to state that our forces are well trained, ready, and very capable. I have complete confidence in the forces under my command. We will work in conjunction with other elements of our government to ensure we bring the full power of our nation to bear on any foreign power that attempts to interfere in our democratic processes. Thats strong. Thats the message you want to hear from everyone. Im not sure that what we need is what paul nakasones forces are capable of doing. But thats a government official, happened to be in uniform, saying im ready, i know what i need to go after, im going to keep you safe. That wasnt even as certain as dni dan coats could get. And that is a great message. Were playing a Zero Sum Game with russia. Why would they stop doing it . They have met no counterpunch, theyre going to keep doing it. If the nsa goes and does an offensive cyber operation, who does that inflict casualties on inside the u. S. Cyberspace system. I dont mean literal casualties, but cyber infrastructure. Hacking attempts, is the fbi ready or our military ready for the blowback from this. This is cyber war that has to be coordinated from the very top and everybody is going to be on board. I wonder if these leaders are trying to coordinate with each other and, oh, by the way, dont mention it to the white house, we have to protect ourself. Clint watts, former fbi Special Agent. Author of messing with the enemy. Up next, brand new reporting on who Robert Mueller now wants to interview about that Infamous Trump tower meeting. Why he wants to talk to a russian pop star who once featured President Trump in a music video. Youre watching msnbc. Treba® r. Now im doing more to lower my a1c. I take tresiba® once a day. 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The meeting was about the Magnitsky Act, To Lift Sanctions on a list of very wealthy russians. But yeah, so he was and that was the first clue that it was a problem because the Magnitsky Act is something that only affects people basically in putins circle. These are rich russians who have had their assets frozen in the west. Thats right. So he now in theory, hes the answer to a lot of these questions. Why did you set up the meeting, what did you say you were setting it up for. I assume mueller has a lot of that information to start with. Thats right. And his father knows this lawyer. So in that initial email he said his father, one of the richest men in russia, met with veselnitskaya and she wanted a meeting with trump. Emin said his father called him
and told him to call don junior so hes right at the heart of this. What does this get us to . The idea is these guys set up a meeting because this lawyer either promised dirt on Hillary Clinton or wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act, the idea being that donald trump jr. And Paul Manafort cant say they didnt know what this meeting was about. Thats right and who connected Natalia Veselnitskaya with emin, was it somebody above emins father. And right now what we do know is that the lawyer is in discussions, ongoing discussions with muellers team about this potential interview. Its unclear if mueller can compel emin thats what i was going to ask you. Can he just say no . At this point in the reporting, we dont know. But whats clear is he is a key figure in setting this meeting up, which is central to muellers investigation. Anna schecter, nbcs investigative producer on this particular topic that we are
staying very, very close to. Top intel leaders came together at the white house today to brief and lining up their plan to make sure our elections are secure ahead of the midterms, but does their plan go far enough . Does it even mean something if the president isnt behind it . And is todays announcement actually going to change anything . Well take a closer look when we come back. Know what . No, what . I just switched to geico and got more. More . Got a company i can trust. Thats a heck of a lot more. Over 75 years of great savings and service. You cant argue with more. Why would ya . Geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. New laptop with 24 7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I think he might need some support. Yes start them off right. With the School Supplies they need at low prices all summer long. Save 200 on this dell laptop at office depot officemax. In regards to russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the United States. Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Free and Fair Elections are the cornerstone of our democracy and it has become clear that they are the target of our adversaries who seek as the dni just said to sow discord and undermine our way of life. Make no mistake, the scope of this foreign influence threat is both broad and deep. Way to go, white house. Everybody says we never say nice things about the white house. Were saying nice things about you. That was the thing to do. The nations top intelligence officials put on a united front today in the wake of concerns about the security of this falls midterm elections. Their joint appearance at the
start of the White House Briefing comes after a series of headlines on Election Security and one day after a Senate Hearing featuring experts and executives from social Media Companies talking about what could be done to prevent further interference. Joining us now to talk about this are two people who could have written their scripts for them. Laura rosenberger the director of the alliance for securing election and former Clinton CampaignForeign Policy advisor and roger mcnamee. Hes an early and current investor in facebook. Laura and roger, listen to the language they use. Christopher wray called it information warfare. Dni coats called it pervasive messaging. Kirstjen nielsen talked about democracy in the crosshairs. That was an amazing press conference. The head of the nsa, laura, spoke about how his forces stand ready to combat infiltration. Okay. Does it mean anything different than when we spoke about this 24 hours ago . Does this have teeth behind it . Because no one has seen the president and no one has seen a tweet from him. So, yes, ali, i think it is incredibly important that this happened today. I think it sends a very clear message. It is important that it happened from the White House Briefing room. It is important that you had the various heads of the agencies that are involved in countering this threat all sending a clear and consistent message about the threat, about the fact it will not be tolerated, about the fact that there will be consequences for such action and that they are willing to take the steps necessary to meet it. One of the things experts had been saying is so important is that there be a consistent message and that we be exposing this activity. I do think that it is important for the American People to hear from the president himself clear and consistently on this issue. I hope that is a followup step to the positive thing that we saw just now and that will come next. Or theyre all going to get fired. Roger mcnamee, chris wray said
something really interesting. He said he drew a really clear distinction between those people who say, well, no votes were changed. We dont know. We dont have evidence whether votes were changed. But we know there was a misinformation campaign, information warfare, and that thats what the problem is. Again, i think it was 24 hours ago, you and i had this conversation. Indeed, ali. I think that we face a couple of challenges. Im 100 with laura in how important this is as the first step. Theres more than one thing going on here and there is the potential for many, many bad actors, not just the russians. That playbook is out there and anybody can do it today. And everyone who does it is a threat to democracy. So this was an essential first step. The piece that they dont talk about and that frankly is the Elephant In The Room is im really worried that the scale of facebook, the scale of google and the scale of twitter today has exceeded the ability of the management teams of those
companies to actually effect the changes we need to protect democracy. It makes me very, very nervous, because we are trusting them with this midterm election. So at least at least everybody seems to be singing from the same hymnal here, but laura, to rogers point, Christopher Wray actually addressed the issue of whose problem this is to solve. Lets listen to what he said. Since january 2017, the president has taken Decisive Action to defend our Election Systems from meddling and interference. The