Targets appear to be democratic president ial candidates, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and prospective candidate beto orourke. The attacks are in the form of misinformation posted about the candidates, you guessed it, on twitter and other social media platforms. Politico reports senator Kamala Harris is among the most targeted. A tweet attacking the senator with racist and sexist stereo types was seen by 8. 6 million people. Elizabeth warrens case, politico reports a, quote, false narrative surfaced alleging that a black face doll appeared on a Kitchen Cabinet in the background of the senators Instagram Live stream. This troubling report comes just after weeks after the daily beast reported on staffing cuts to groups fighting election meddling at the federal level. The task forces were formed in response to russias election in into interference into the election in 2016. Remember we had asked are they taking these groups apart and replacing them, putting them together . There was no clear answer. In capitol hill testimony, that stood in stark contrast to President Trump last month. The National Intelligence director dan coates crystallized just how bad the threats are. We assessed that foreign actors will view the 2020 u. S. Elections as an opportunity to advance their interests. We expect them to refine their capabilities and add new tactics as they learn from each others experiences and efforts in previous elections. The kremlin is stepping up its campaign to divide western political and security institutions and undermine the post World War Ii International order. We expect russia will continue to wage its information war against democracies and to use social media to attempt to divide our societies. All right. Joining us now is politicos natasha who wrote that report and nbcs ben collins who tracks online disinformation efforts. Welcome to both of you. Thank you for being with us. Explain the method behind your reporting. What kind of posts did you see and how did you track them . Well, we saw posts that really attacked 2020 candidates on a range of issues. But really racially charged posts, sort of a more outright lies, outright disinformation. You mentioned the warren black face doll. That was something we tracked. Actually one of the first things we saw. We saw that on one platform and we saw it on a different platform being amplified. But through the course of our work, we worked with a group tech group called guardians a. I. Out of new york and they are a group of data scientists who did this report last year that showed there was this distinct cluster of accounts that had been involved in the 2018 midterms. Well, those were the same, very same cluster is up and running and amplifying negative memes and disinformation related to many of the 2020 candidates, but in particular the four that we mentioned. And im not asking you to reveal how you get how you trace this back, but in broader terms, yes, were seeing similar characteristics, similar accounts. How does that take you back to russia . Well, you know, that part of it i will say briefly that theres no conclusive evidence saying that its russian interference. There is probable patterns that indicate that that is the case. And for that we rely on many different people that we interviewed and this Extensive Research that the guardians a. I. Did, and that was mainly looking at similar patterns that they were finding with spiking, cospiking around this group of 200 accounts amplified by tens of thousands of other accounts. And they were seeing similar patterns that they had seen and in the Digital Community had agreed that this was a type of activity and patterns exhibited by russian interference in 2016. So, ben, try and quantify this for us. As natasha said, its about patterns. Given what we know about 2016, what are these patterns indicate and how do you quantify them . Basically they start off on these really small spaces. They start off on fortunate or discord, online spaces unmoderated. People take us back. Walk us through what for chan is. Its an unmoderated website by a guy in japan now. Basically its completely anonymous. People can post whatever they want on there and their user name is a string of numbers and letters. They take it to other platforms, reddit, a little more moderate and seen, those things get blasted out onto facebook and twitter in a coordinated fashion. That can be russia. That can be iran, which has done this before. But it can also just be regular people and can be people jumping in, you know, what you call useful idiots, pushing a narrative that wouldnt be there, totally artificial. Natasha was saying and i dont know if you come to the same conclusion, you cant determine where its from. The pattern looks similar to some of the things that were put forward by the Internet Research agency, the troll farm, russian troll farm in 2016, but its not clear where its all coming from. Right. They slip up usually. They log into they forget to use a thing called vpm which hides where youre coming in from. And they accidentally log in from the Internet Research agencys actual computers and then twitter and facebook can see that network and pull it down. That sort of thing takes months. That sort of thing happens retroactively. We can sort of sense the feeling of these same things. We can see talking points, we can see syntax, and have that feeling confirmed or denied later on. Its hard to track in real time. This is a problem. We unfortunately need to lean on these networks, twitter and facebook. They have no standards or loose standards. Natasha, in putting together this report have you heard from social media platforms . Are they saying anything . Theyre very aware of these issues. Theyre sensitive to whats happened in the past. And both twitter and facebook say theyve put in many security measures. Theyve produced different data sets to make it easier for researchers to look at what theyve taken down from foreign actors. I should add that there are definite signs that a lot of this is domestic activity as well. Its not just foreign actors. But certainly both of the two major and facebook, of course, runs instagram. But if you talk to these campaigns, privately theyll say twitter is still in their minds the wild west. They dont feel like they can really monitor whats going on. They feel like there is a lot of suspicious inauthentic accounts and a lot of behavior already i mean, theyre already seeing it and we just have started the 2020 race. Given everything that we know, given everything that facebook knows, given what twitter knows, given what you two know, is there some likelihood that the effect of this is going to be muted in this or amplified . Both. Theres so much garbage out there it turns into white noise . Or maybe people have learned to clean up their feeds. I hope so. A lot of this comes at the Civic Engagement level. Assuming a lot of garbage. If youre consuming a lot of garbage we should give up on facebook and twitter are going to help the situation. They are not going to do it in the amount of time we need to do it. We need education at a basic level, not just for kids, but for everybody to say, look twice. Really, look twice at these things because facebook, while it does want to stop this stuff, its new initiative is called groups on facebook. We asked them last week, what are you doing to stop the same problems that you had with news feed last time where all this disinformation was abound . They said nothing. Were not going to do anything this time. And its like theyve learned nothing at all. So we cant were not really selfpolicing, were not really cleaning up our groups, are we . Of course not. Eight oh, my god, facebook had such a terrible year. No they didnt, they killed this in earnings. They didnt lose advertisers. Its not costing them. Theyre kicking it. Until it actually starts to hurt their bottom line, its not going to change anything. We need to change things on a one to one level between people. Maybe it can force pressure on the tech companies. If i could add one thing, if you look at the 2020 campaigns, it does seem just broadly that theyre pretty unprepared at this point. Thats definitely true. They dont theyre focusing on getting their message out. Theyre focusing on fundraising and, you know, these videos with their pets and whatnot. But if you really try to dig in on security and what theyre doing specifically to prevent what happened in the past, they are really behind. And educating people individually, you can try that, but i think even studies show that you can present somebody with fake news, tell them what it is and not to Pay Attention to it and it still penetrates. Really quickly, Brad Parscale who ran the digital for trump 2016, he knows how effective it is, it won. There is no equivalent on the left. On a personal level, if people see fake news, it supports what they already believe, they suck it in. Theres a saying that if page six writes something but you, oh, my god, this is a complete lie, right under that, an article, the guy next to you, oh, my goodness. Its just human nature. Good to know weve learned nothing. Thanks to the two of you. Thats not true. Well, they have, but maybe the consuming public, the campaigns havent. Our government has not been particularly aggressive about this. Look what the u. K. Is doing. Europeans are doing about these things. We hold hearings where people dont understand why things show up on their phone. Just saying. We have another election coming up. I do seem much taller than you today. You know what, youre just a great man. Thats what it is. Or maybe i just have to adjust my seat a little bit. Next, were going to look at americas Student Loan Debt crisis and your money, money, money. A new republican plan would have student loan payments come right out of borrowers paychex. Well break down the argument for and against this controversial plan. First, ruling on commerce secretary wilbur ross from the governments top watch dog. The office of government ethics says ross earn ag rattinaccurat hiss stock holdings. He said he thought he sold the stocks in question. When he realized his error, he disclosed the sale. The stocks were worth 3,700, below the threshold of conflict of interest. Isnt it stunning, a man who spent 50 plus years as an investment professional continues to basically make mathematical errors 3700 bucks. This guy is worth, what, 37 billion . Hes worth a lot of money a. Remember, according forbes he was not honest about how much he was worth for years because he was trying to inch his way hes worth at least 37 million. Im just saying, small. Small potatoes. Youre watching velshi ruhle live on msnbc. Itnessed, but i can tell you Liberty Mutual customized my Car Insurance so i only pay for what i need. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. If your adventure keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips you may have overactive bladder, or oab. Ohhhh. Enough already we need to see a doctor. Ask your doctor about myrbetriq® mirabegron . It treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. Its the first and only oab treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. 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This is moving day with the best inhome wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. And this is moving day with Reliable Service appointments in a twohour window so youre up and running in no time. Show me decorating shows. 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. All right. Were back with your money, money, money and a controversial republican plan to deal with americas Student Loan Debt crisis. This is a very big problem affecting approximately 44 million americans. Student loan debt has been steadily increasing over the last nine years to 1. 5 trillion. That could reach 2 trillion collectively by 2022. One in five borrowers are in default on their federal loans according to the National Consumer law center. Now, a new proposal from republican senator tennessee senator Lamar Alexander calls for an update to the Higher Education act. Borrowers currently have several different repayment options, but this new plan is going to cut that down to just two plans that call for mandatory wage garnishments. Loan payments would be taken directly from your paycheck like taxes, social security, things like that. Lets break this down. The first plan would be a standard tenyear repayment plan where borrowers monthly bills could be capped at 10 of their discretionary income. The second is a pay as you earn plan, spreads payments out over the span of a a decade. Employers would be responsible for withdrawing the funds from employees paychex and sending those funds to the government. Whats the problem here . Opponents of the plan believe borrowers should be able to prioritize their expenses and debts themselves, but backers of this plan say it helps borrowers from falling behind on their payments and could lower their risk of going into default. Oh, goodness. Joining us now joanna darcas, attorney at the consumer law center. Joanna, help us understand this. Why is this so bad for students . Those are the borrowers were talking about here. Or exstudents. We share the senators concerns with making sure that Student Loan Repayment is truly easy and affordable for students who had to borrow to get that education. What we are very discouraged about and frankly afraid for is the consequences of taking away from student loan borrowers the right to prioritize their expenses. Lets talk about the real cost of living and make sure that we give students and borrowers the ability to feed themselves, to house their families, and to pay for their medical expenses so that they can continue to earn and make money that will enable them to repay their Student Loans. Alma okay, but heres the thing. Folks expect when you borrow for something, you pay it back. Whats the actual problem with figuring out a way the people pay back their stieudent loans . Here, the innovation is automatically deducting the student loan payment from wages before the borrower gets their paycheck. That means that, like taxes, were taking out a portion of the funds that that borrower earned, that they then must apply to their Student Loans even before they have the option of paying their rent or their mortgage or buying groceries. That is a very big change to the Current System in which borrowers have a whole month to budget, to tarke care of their utility bills, to pay for School Uniforms and child care for their children. Here, a chunk of each paycheck would be taken. Thats very different. So, instead of giving borrowers the option to time payments on critical bills in accordance to when income comes in and when it has to go out, instead, wed make borrowers forego a percentage of their income out of every paycheck before they have the option of even applying it to something crucial like feeding their families or paying for lifesaving medication. So, proponents of this bill, im sure theyve heard the exact criticism that youve made right there. Whats their response to it . I think proponents of this bill are conflating making payments affordable with making payments automatic. Its important that we can address the issue of student loan default and, by and large, default is terrible. It has terrible consequence for clients like mine, lowincome people who are trying to make ends meet. A disproportionate number of whom are people of color because people of color borrow Student Loans at a higher rate and often borrow more just to get through college. So its important that we address affordability without limiting the choices that borrowers have, and that the choices they need to make about what to pay first. These borrowers want to repay their Student Loans, but they also need to make sure that they can stay current on their obligations, like keeping the lights on and feeding their families. So here, we have other ways to make Student Loan Repayment seamless for those borrowers and to ensure that their Monthly Payments are affordable. We should use other tools to accomplish that. Joanna, thank you for joining us. Joanna darcas is an attorney with the consumer law center. This is an important thing. Please Pay Attention. The velshi ruhle tax cut tracker. Many American Companies benefited big time from President Trumps tax cuts. Were going to break down how they spent their savings. Its all about stock buy backs. Well tell you which companies benefited the most. Speaking of taxes, we are getting more information on the refunds some of americas companies are r