Rage with this . And saying farmers are saying its okay, we can take these tariff, the hitter that getting, i havent heard a farmer say that. Says the guy with a 757 jet. And it can be revoked by congress they have a voice to play here if they want to play it. If they hate this Trade Policies so much, they can do something about it. And every day, we see people cowering in the corner, we see someone like the commander who told the truth in front of the Senate Committee and in front of america. And as long as we have one person telling the truth, every day, getting that news out, we have a chance. That does it for us this morning, Stephanie Ruhle picks up the coverage. Thanks, mika, joe. Hi there, im Stephanie Ruhle. Facebook says it has found dozens of fake accounts, all part of a Covert Campaign to attack the American Democratic process. Surprise, surprise, just before the 2018 midterms. Was it the russians again . And what can actually be done to stop it . That has everything but the kitchen sink in it. It will be the sanctions bill from hell. And it is all about the base. The president rallies his faithful in florida, Playing Loose with economic backs. But guess what we have got more factcheck. China had others, remember this, have targeted our farmers. And you know what our farmers are saying, its okay. We can take it. And the skys the limit. Ceos cash in thanks to the president s tax cuts. New numbers this morning on who that tax cut is benefitting and whether or not its trickling down. Were going to begin this morning with that new attack on the american democracy. Facebook uncovers yet another attempt at foreign influence, pages pushing divisive and damaging political rhetoric, this time leading into the 2018 midterms. I have a great team here to
break all of it down. But first, i want to remind you what has been uncovered in the last 24 hours. Facebook says its identified a Covert Campaign meant to create political discord across the country. It removed 32 facebook and instagram accounts. Accounts nearly 300,000 followers ran hundreds of advertisements. That means facebook gets paid across the platform. And creates about 30 different events. Facebook did not so as far as to specifically blame russia, but the platform did acknowledge, quote, some of the activity is consistent from what we saw from Russias Internet Research Agency before and after the 2016 elections. James clapper the former director of National Intelligence under obama hes holding up and back. Listen. Facebook should be commended for being open and transparent about this, as soon as they discovered it. Even though they apparently werent prepared to make the call, you know, its actually
the russians. Im pretty confident it is. Walks like a duck, Aqquacks Lika duck sort of thing. Now deleted pages and accounts were connected to organized protests like unite the right sequel to last years shauls charlottesville rally. While facebook did divulge the information about the campaign it did not skriek some of the most divisive rhetoric, declining to release the depth that some of those pages went to stoke racial tension. J jolene centkent joins me now. I will not go as far as James Clapper and commend facebook. This is the first time theyve said anything but also theyre backed into the corner gimp the
scrutiny journalists have on it. Thats right. What we did on the Business Team here at nbc news, we ran a web archive search. What it turned up was rhetoric which was much more decisive, were talking about soaking racial tensions, all kinds of partisanships popping up. And used in this particular case. But what were seeing right now, its not just happening on facebook, this is also happening on instagram, steph, as you mentioned. And what is really the most interesting part of these accounts and pages and ads are the fact that these events are being planted in real life. And facebook acknowledged to reporters yesterday that there has been real life activity, real people, interacting with these socalled fake events. And theyre not able to assess whether or not they actually happened in person or not, but it certainly raises a lot of red flags. So as much as Facebook Says theyre being more transparent,
theres a lot theyre not sharing. Theyre not pegging this to a certain country, not even the russians. Even though they say theres a huge resemblance to the ira back in 2016. The most interesting twist at least where i sit on this front is theyre covering their tracks better. Theyre working on this, using vpns, theyre going through third parties, theyre trying to disguise themselves. Its a gargantuan problem. Hearings the good thing, facebook has a gargantuan network. Whats in store, i got to be honest, when we saw Mark Zuckerberg testify, it was humiliate, not for him, but for those questioning him. It was as though i was watching my crazy Uncle Grand Pa asking how that facebook machine works. Yeah, there were certainly a lot of questions that came off
as extremely unprepared. Hopefully, members of congress have come to their senses i know a lot of my sources have come to educate Congress Asking tougher questions next time around. Youre going to see new faces highly influential people. The coo of facebook, Cheryl Sandberg will be. And the google ceo, hes dlt a lot with youtube as well, as our report shows theres a lot of conspiracy and misinformation happening on that platform. So, he has a lot of questions to answer for it as well. You can expect hopefully a better grilling. Well definitely be there to be asking those executives the harder questions. A grilling, Lindsey Graham wants to put together policy. You know what happens in 98 days. An election. I want to bring my panel in, jeff darvis, hes a professor as
well as a blogger. Elise jordan, former aide to george w. Bush and my dear friend senator bob sortorsi. Jeff, to you first, if i bran beyer aspirin, and there were contaminated aspirin around the country, you know what id do, pull all of the aspirin offer the shelves until we figure it out. Most of what happens on facebook is good. Most of the aspirin in Grocery Stores are okay. Look for your feed and tell me where you find the nazis. We have to switch around, facebook did finally get its act together. Facebook is our best ally in this fight. We have the head of dhs saying, oh, i dont see any russian stuff going on. Facebook is our best defense, thats where we are. So, they are they took ad dollars from these outside influences. They take ad dollars from a lot of people. So do Media Company and so do all of us. If we want to look at an outside influencer, three blocks away at Fox Institution and rupert murdoch. Lets try to get perspective on where this goes. Facebook had a big problem, theyre finally addressing it late, but theyre coming to the party. What we need to do in journalism, media, is help in this to try to identify things. Theyre not the enemy, russia is the enemy. I think its positive that facebook is coming forward, theyre starting to be proactive and communicate with intelligence officials, communicate with Law Enforcement officials so they can be moral proactive. And its harder for people in government, other elections individuals with partisan agendas to deny theres a problem. Elise, high up in facebook, theyre very frustrated because government isnt sharing anything with them. Government isnt because they dont want to. No one selfpolices. Unless there are clear regulations and guard rails do you really think theyre going to find the right path here . In the Banking Industry if you werent going to get in trouble with doing business with unsavory counterparties, there are people who would do it. I do not trust the Trump Administration to set these guard rails. I have what i call the info wars which facebook failed. They just succeeded. They finally finally, i think that theyve got to have tougher standards where Mark Zuckerberg is not responsible for free speech in this country. Mark zuckerberg runs a private company where he can say this belongs on my platform and this doesnt. So, yes, i agree, theyve got to set Higher Standards for Human Behavior there. But keep in mind the scale, zuckerberg said at a Developers Conference a few months ago they kill 1 million fake accounts a day. Its not as though you have some humans saying that looks russian doesnt happen,
inaffiliating our democracy. Because our government is complicit, thank you, with that propaganda. As i say, theyre our last hope. I agree with the senator. Theyre a slippery slope. Its not about facebook. Its about facebook setting the standard for Human Behavior. Im in stephs bar, steph says, jeff, im not going to serve you because youre a bozo, get out. Mark zuckerberg has the level to do that at some level. He has the right at some level, and youre comie ing offe week when the white house kicked a journalist out for doing her job. If Mark Zuckerberg gets to say youre a bozo, get out, the president wants to say youre a bozo, get out to any journalist factchecking his daily lives . Well, theyve had a tough relationship. Its generally been to the benefit of both to coexist. And the president doesnt necessarily see the benefit of that established relationship. So, hes basically exerting what he has he does he has the power to do that. Is it right . I dont think so. He does have a pruublic responsibility . He being the president . Yes. If i had a chance of deciding what gets into the american discourse who runs the risk of foreign ones, getting heard, thats a tough choice and i think id take my risks. Youre in the multimilliondollar company that does that, media has always done that. Whats so wonderful about the internet, i thought, is that we were getting away from free speech. Costs A Billion Dollars to get in the game. Exactly. And we were going to have extraordinary america speak. Thats whats so wonderful. Now, were losing that. If youre going to set up u. S. Corporations or the u. S. Government being the ash sister of speech, its really gone. I agree. The problem is we have manipulators ahead of the game realizing how to play into the weakness of the system. Lets just say, against all hope that the Trump Administration actually stepped up, defended the country and went to the russians which is too expensive to do which they should. Many saying the same thing the same things for a variety of reasons we cant discuss, theyre coming in anyway. The way you destroy irresponsible speech is you drown it out with responsible speech. I agree. The other way you do it you start to set standards. Now, we have this loosening ever emotions on the internet where anybody can say anything. At some point, you have to say to your friend, did you really mean to do that . Exactly. This ultimately gets involved not by corporations, it gets solved by the American People. Amen. We win and lose our democracy
ourselves. Amen. Last word. Yeah, im not that confidence. People love their crazy speech on the internet. I dont see them toning it down. One of the things i learned in my political career, when i started, id read something and say, oh, my god, the world. Then you come to believe, people do have a filter. And yes, somebody may. But you cant react to everything you read or see. People are not as stupid as they appear. I think this is a lincoln line, if you see the individual american, theyll scare the life of you for our democracy, but there is a collective wisdom to it. Also, if you sit down facetoface with someone, people arent evil. They want to live their best lives. When you go out there a trump supporter and you say those people are ignorant, this and that. They wanted to live a better life. And the system they were living in isnt serving them. Exactly. Those Arent People Born out of hate and want to create violence, no. Hardest problem we have is
win bingo. So, bingo so i think about mouthfeel. I dont think about the ink card. I think about nitrogen ice cream in supermarkets all over the world. I think about the details. Fine, i obsess over the details. Think about every part of your business except the one part that works without a thought your ink card. Introducing Chase Ink Business unlimited with unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase. Chase for business. Make more of whats yours. Business partner rick gates whole they say embezzled millions with his firm and cooperating with investigators to save his own skin. Nbcs ken delanian is at the courthouse. What are we expecting to see today . Reporter okay, stephanie, today, were expecting to hear from another consultant who worked in the campaign for Paul Manafort. Explain how it is these americans are overseas working for foreigners, how they get paid, what they do. The first witness yesterday was tad divine, a democratic local strategist, and he worked, he testified that his firm worked for manafort for the ukrainian elections for many years. Paid 500,000. Plus a 1 million success fee to help elect in the election. And jankovic would not have been elected in 2010 bout his help. Washington. Reporter youre absolutely right, stephanie. This is the ultimate swamp story. How ironic that john podesta, hacked by the russians, a key part in this investigation, his brother, tony was a Lobbyist Working for Paul Manafort on this ukraine lobbying. Hes now under investigation for allegedly failing to register as a lobbyist for a foreign government. A foreign entity. And only him, greg craig, a former lawyer in the Obama Administration and vin webber, a former member of Congress Also caught up in this. Mueller has decided to hand this off to the Southern District of new york for investigation because this is beyond the scope of what hes looking at. And its an effort by the government to step up, what they believe, is sort of a habit of people failing to register when working for foreign lobbyists. Theyre under investigation, stephanie. Ken, i hope you brought your note book and a couple of pens, i have a feeling youre going to
run out of paper. Coming up, florida frenzy. The president rallies his base in tampa, promoting his tariffs against china as good for farmers. But if the tariffs are working why on earth did the president have to announce a 12 billion bailout for farmers. Uhoh. Olay ultra moisture body wash
to 1 , a 94 decrease. Neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the day after chemo and is used by most patients today. Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta if youre allergic to it or Neupogen Filgrastim . An incomplete dose could increase infection risk. Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious Lung Problems allergic reactions, Kidney Injuries and Capillary Leak Syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, Trouble Breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. Ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. Pay no more than 25 per dose with copay card. Welcome back, im Stephanie Ruhle. The president he was in rare form in tampa last night, tossing out Applause Lines about a imaginary attack on christmas and needing to use i. D. S at the Grocery Store. That makes no sense. Lets put that aside and learn what it means to focus on americans. The telling them to support them even if it hurts. China and others, remember this, have targeted our farmers. Not good. Not nice. You know what our farmers are say . Its okay. We can take it. Weve helped rebuild china. We cant do that anymore. We cant do that anymore. And our farmers understand it. And our workers understand it, and frankly, our Companies Understand it. Heres what we do know, according to cnbc, the administration will propose raising the tariff rate on if 00 billion worth of chinese imports from 10 to 25 . The proposal could be announced as early as today. Those tariffs would be in addition to tariffs already in place, or slated to go in effect in coming weeks. Ultimately, u. S. Tear rivariffs more than than 500 million worth of exports. The chinese promised to retaliate with their own tariffs. The question now, who blinks first . Right now, it looks like china is hurting more than the United States. The chinese currency is down against the dollar. In fact, beijing is now talking about taking targeted measures to ease the pain. Last night, the president said his Trade Policies are working. Thanks to our powerful Trade Policies, the trades deficit is falling and falling and falling, and boy, did it fall this quarter. The Daying Of Plundering American Jobs and american