in the islands huge efforts to air lift people out, air lift relief in, including islands to depend on tourism. huge portions of the caribbean need gasoline, power, food, water, equipment to clear debris. tonight's multi network marathon raced $14 million in 60 minutes. it will go to victims of hurricane harvey and irma. thank you for being with us. good night from nbc headquarters in work. snienchts you know, it has been announced that two of the best and most best investigative reporters are about to colab rate. they are about to do a book

together on the trump russia investigation. one of these reporters is famously the one who got the monica lieu inski story, the other one happens to have broken the news about the trump russia christopher steele dossier, he broke the 47% news during the mitt romney campaign in 2012 as a team, these two investigative reporters wrote the definitive book on what the u.s. government lied about in the leadup to the iraq war and how the u.s. government sold the country on the iraq war even though the premise for that war was false. they got an incredible track record of turning stuff up as a team and now, that same super power reporting team is going to get back together again despite the fact they write for different news outlets, they are getting back together again to write a book together again because right now they have got the trump russia story in their sights. so that was just announced today.

that will end up being a big deal, i promise you. one of those reporters is here tonight. as the attorney general, jeff sessions comes under renewed pressure over his own denials that he had contacts with russian officials during the campaign. the president himself is also having some new trouble with one of his own statements denying a connection with russia. that statement now falling apart under new scrutiny. we got that story ahead including a visit with one of those investigative reporters and the daily beast here as that publication breaks the news about a new level of russian involvement. in last year's presidential campaign this is activity by the russians here inside the united states that we didn't know about before today. that report is coming up here tonight, as well. i want to start off tonight, though, with a report that aired tonight on "nbc nightly news." last night on the show you might remember we had the governor of the u.s. virgin islands here on

the show talking about the devastation that the u.s. virgin islands are facing after hurricane irma, but tonight ron mott is there in the u.s. virgin islands. >> reporter: this afternoon in puerto rico, a coast guard loading up with supplies heading for some of the islands irma hit hardest. on board bringing everything they can to keep this relief effort going. there are tsa officers on board with a goal of getting the airport in st. thomas back up and running. virgin islands whipped with category five winds. >> for a place once completely green and lush, everything now looks dead and bleak. >> reporter: tonight, still largely cut off, no cell phones, limited fuel. >> long line right here. this is a gas station and everything. there are so many people. >> reporter: the devastation on the u.s. virgin islands of st. thomas and st. john almost unbelievable. >> you could not even see the street in some areas because it was covered in trees and roofs and just every kind of debris

imaginable. >> reporter: from the air, stunning images emerging. pieces of hill on hillsides. boats piled up. >> this section of my mom's room, the roof came off. >> reporter: you can see it from space, st. martin before and after irma came blowing through. buildings flattened, cars crushed. tonight, the urgent need for relief aid is growing. residents struggling to get by. >> we need water and food. it not no maybe, it's for sure. >> reporter: others trying to get out. the kentucky national air guard evacuated more than 1,000 americans and royal caribbean is using cruise ships to puerto rico. left behind a tropical paradise desperately trying to pick up the pieces. >> important reporting from ron mott where the destruction is becoming a significant humanitarian concern now. the three major islands in the

u.s. virgin islands are st. croix, st. thomas and st. john. st. croix as we heard from the governor last night appears to have weathered the storm well. st. thomas less well and st. john appears to have weathered it not well at all. eyewitnesss in st. john estimate that three out of every five homes on st. john had the roof ripped off by the storm. we're getting reports that none of the wooden homes on st. john are still standing, none of them. one nurse at the local hospital in st. john tells us that fellow residents have been donating their own personal supplies of diesel fuel to keep power running at the hospital. which is now running on generators on diesel power. this is day six since the storm wiped out this part of this american territory. it the responsibility of the u.s. government and u.s. virgin islands. there is news tonight the state department will be starting emergency evacuation flights out of the british virgin islands and st. martin as of tomorrow

morning. but the situation in some of the u.s. virgin islands really does appear to be quite bad and there hasn't been that much news about it really. we've been talking to people in the u.s. virgin islands just on our staff all day today. we've been talking to people on the islands trying to get a beat on this story over and over again. people said they felt like they are being forgotten by the u.s. despite these dire conditions and despite the fact that these are the u.s. virgin islands. so we'll have a live report from st. thomas in just a second. i think to be honest, part of the reason the extremely bad conditions in the caribbean or broadly in the u.s. virgin islands, part of the reason they are not getting more attention is because there is a crowd looking for attention on these stories. just in florida, this effort to try to recover, department of

if you look at electric power, we believe it to be the largest effort to restore electric power in u.s. history. hope land security says at peak 15 million americans had no power because of the storm. that number is slowly coming down as crews get to work but this is now at least a couple of days in for millions of americans not having power. you can get a sense of the challenges from satellite images showing florida before and after irma. now in pitch darkness until they can restore the power grid. florida power and light says electricity can be back for the east coast, the atlantic coast by this weekend but other parts may have to wait longer particularly in the keys. there is also concerned about the drinking water. in the keys. the florida keys authority says the transmission main that brings water to the islands appears to be in tact but in an abundance of caution they issued a boil water notice to anybody using tap water anywhere in the keys. there are notices in at least 23

other florida counties including broward county where residents are being told they can shower in unboiled water as long as they can be sure they won't get any water in the eyes or mouth while showering. again, 23 counties with boil water advisories right now. yesterday after the pentagon said that as many as 10,000 people might need to be evacuated out of the keys, a county official there pushed back and said no evacuation of that kind of scale is going to be necessary at all. but fema is is publicliest mating that one out of every four homeowners, one out of every four. homes in the keys have been destroyed they are saying of the remaining homes two thirds of them suffered what they are calling major damage. so the housing situation in the keys and livability situation on the keys right now is a serious matter. today local county officials started letting residents and business owners come back to the

upper keys, the keys closest to the florida mainland but that news arrived with a warning. quote, returning residents should consider that there are limited, and in other words come down if you need in terms of the ability. in terms of sustaining life and travel here. now u.s. sent black hawk helicopters for rescue operations. the navy using infrared technology to spot anyone that may be stranded overnight. u.s. abraham lincoln aircraft carrier is stationed off the keys, one of the helpful things it can do in a circumstance like this is produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day that may end up being a big deal, depending how long this goes on. in the caribbean, the world food program of the united nations is sending 20 tons of high energy biscuits, enough to feed 17,000 people for three days.

those emergency rationens are going to antiga and st. martin along with tarps and again raters and prefab indicated buildings and communications equipment. and as i mentioned at the top tonight, the u.s. state department has announced there will be evacuation flights for u.s. citizens leaving from st. martin and from the british virgin islands in the morning. state department says u.s. citizens who can get to st. martin and the airport to arrive no later than 8:30 a.m. local time at the airport and the british virgin islands at the airport, on tore tolla, the deadline for u.s. citizens to get to the airport tomorrow to get on a flight is 9:00 a.m. joining us from st. thomas in the u.s. virgin islands is suzanne carlson. she's a staff writer for the u.s. virgin islands "daily news." thanks for joining us. i know times are tough >> thanks for having me.

>> where were you during the storm and how have you been over the last holding up? >> i was at the newspaper's office during the storm and rode it out with colleagues and it was absolutely terrifying. i never experienced anything like that before. it was extremely frightening to hear what sounded like a jet engine. for hours on end things flying around and the building was shaking and roof was shaking. -- buckling. the building survived and we came through just fine. >> it's been hard to get a lot of information out of -- a lot of different places in the caribbean and understandable why. obviously people are in survival mode in some cases and communications infrastructure is down and hard to reach people and talking to the u.s. news media and the american mainland but given that i think it been hard to piece together a sense of how dire the circumstances are, even just in

the u.s. virgin islands there, can you just give us your assessment about how tough things are right now in st. john and particular and also in st. thomas? >> absolutely. i haven't been able to make it over to st. john myself but i've heard from people who were there and it sounds like the island is virtually wiped out. it sounds really devastating. st. thomas isn't fairing that much better. every single person here has been affected in someway. i have friends and co-workers that lost everything. their houses are gone. so there are some people who are doing better than others. some people their houses are fine. they are in good health but now the concern for everyone is keeping food and water and supplies stocked. gas has been a big issue. so it's going to be a long, hard road for a lot of people for months if not years. >> how are supplies of basic necessities? we talked to the governor who talked about a major effort to distribute for example bottled water but we hear people are

having a hard time getting access to food and water and very basics. >> it's been incredibly difficult for a lot of people. part of the reason not much information is coming out is we can't get it out. literally. this is a first time i've been able to make a phone call and have any confidence it would last for more than a few seconds. internet is still down. no internet in the office and a lot of people on the island that were already struggling before the hurricane hit. and now they are being told, you know, they are finding themselves having suddenly to walk in search of food, water, gas, you know, a lot of people with children trying to get diapers and supplies. it is extraordinary dire for a lot of people here and there are many people suffering tremendously. >> suzanne carlson joining us on the phone from st. thomas and u.s. virgin islands. appreciate what you and your colleagues have been through trying to live through and cover this. please keep us apprised as best

you can. we want to keep people informed as best we can. >> will do. thank you, rachel. we got lots ahead tonight. do stay with us. nick was born to move. 3 toddlers won't stop him. and neither will lower back pain. because at a dr. scholl's kiosk he got a recommendation for our custom fit orthotic to relieve his foot, knee, or lower back pain, from being on his feet. dr. scholl's. born to move.

can make anyone slow downt and pull up a seat to the table. that's why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. so that you can spend time on what really matters. marie callender's. it's time to savor.

march 1st, was a tough day for the new administration. they had already lost their national security advisor mike flynn because of his contacts with russian officials that he lied about. and then barely two weeks after mike flynn got forced out as national security advisor in that scandal, barely two weeks later they almost lost their attorney general as well for almost the same thing. on march 1st

new york magazine and "the washington post" reported despite his earlier denials he had any contact with russians during the campaign, newly minted attorney jeff sessions had in fact met more than once with the russian ambassador during the campaign. now, once those news stories broke, sessions responded initially on march 1st by continuing to deny it. continuing to deny he had any contact with russian officials. by the following day, by march 2nd, he was admitting to it. on march 2nd, that's the day he admitted he had contacts and announced he would recuse himself from any investigations involving any aspect of the presidential campaign including the russia stuff. now, reports at the time suggested that the president had not only told jeff sessions he shouldn't recuse himself, reports at the times suggested that the president went quote ballistic after jeff sessions made his announcement that he was going to recuse.

now whether or not that's personally true of the president, i don't know. i'm not sure whether any of us should care but in terms of what the white house did, they did right after jeff sessions' recusal, they did sharply turn on the russia investigation right after sessions announced his recusal, right after that they tried for the first time to go on offense on the russia story, to try to make the russia scandal into something somebody else should have to answer for, not them. two days after jeff sessions recused himself was when the president sent that bizarre now famous tweet saying that president obama was a bad and/or sick guy. [ laughter ] >> because according to president trump, he just learned that obama wiretapped him at trump tower during the campaign. now looking back on that now, we can recognize that as the first of several efforts by the white house to try to make the russia investigation into somebody else's problem.

they have since tried to make fired fbi director james comey into the villain and make the special counsel robert mueller into the villain in that story and tried to make former mi 6 officer christopher steel and fusion gps to collect the intel in the trump russia and try to make fusion gps into the villain and russian story. they tried it with a bunch of people. the very first time they tried this tactic of making somebody else the bad guy in the story, that was when trump blamed obama. trump said obama was the bad, sick villain for having wiretapped him at trump tower and there ought to be an investigation. the white house use that allegation at the time not only to try to divert blame and make somebody else the bad guy, they also used it to try to literally to try to stop talking about the trump russia scandal.

shortly after trump made his allegation that president obama had wiretapped him, sean spicer announced to his white house spokesman that the white house would no longer speak about this issue. the white house would not longer comment about matters until there had been a proper invest -- investigation into the obama's behavior of this matter and wiretaps. at trump tower. spicer announced there would be no comment on russia related until the obama investigation was complete. that was nice stunt, right? a nice try. you know, they were not able to avoid ever talking about russia matters ever again despite that pronouncement they would hence force seize to speak about it. for what it's worth, that investigation into the obama administration wiretapping trump tower, that investigation technically is complete now. late at night on the friday before the labor day weekend, the department of justice and the fbi submitted a filing to a d.c. court admitting neither the

fbi or national security division had any evidence to support president trump's allegation that he had been wiretapped by the previous administration. quote, both the fbi and the nsd, national security division of justice department confirm they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the march 4th, 2017 tweets by the president. late at night, on friday. before the labor day weekend. but still, they had to do it. that confirmation that president obama never ordered a wiretap that cop confirmation and president trump lied when he made that allegation, that confirmation was forced into the public record into that court filing by a freedom of information about demand filed by a group called american over sight. and you know what? tactically that was a smart use

of foya. elegant as a matter of public accountability. here is the president saying that the u.s. government had been directed by his predecessor to wiretap trump's phones. if that allegation were true, reasonably speaking, there would be records of that order or at least there would be records of that order being carried out so it's an elegant part of reliability to request any such documentation of the order being issued or followed up on and boom. it's a direct way of figuring out if it happened. now we know it never happened. again, that revelation was forced into the open by this watchdog group american oversight. and now today, american oversight is doing it again. because when jeff sessions, the attorney general had to retract his previous denials and admit that yes, in fact, he had met with russian officials during

the campaign, part of what that did is create a political problem for the white house with him having to take himself out of his attorney general role in terms of overseeing any russia investigations but also created a problem for jeff sessions himself. because one of the places he denied ever meeting during the campaign was when he was under oath during the confirmation hearings and also lied by omission in his sworn paperwork he submitted to apply for a security clearance. that application asked about your meeting with foreign officials. he did not declare any meetings with russians as part of the application. for security clearance how will he explain that? it took a few weeks after the recuse l thing happened but he had the justice department put out a statement giving him not exactly an alibi but at least an excuse for what he had done. in march he recused himself. in may, finally, you got the justice department to put out

the statement claiming that the reason that he had left his meetings with the russians off his security clearance application is because quote, the fbi investigator handling the back ground check instructed him not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected to his senate activities the reason he didn't expose it on the application for security clearance is because he says the fbi told him not to. of course he would have. he would be happy to disclose those things even though he lied about it to newspapers. for weeks afterwards. he'd be happy the disclose it. the fbi told him not to. he was following fbi advice. that the his excuse/alibi. that is checkable and today, the same artists who forced the administration to admit trump's wiretap allegation was false, today, they are at it again. today they failed a lawsuit demanding jeff sessions prove his alibi.

prove his excuse for lying on his security clearance application. people for the american way and oversight people today filed a lawsuit to force the justice department and fbi to back up that assertion, if they can. to disclose the instructions that the fbi gave to attorney general jeff sessions when he was applying for that security clearance. according to the groups that filed the suit, quote, if jeff sessions wants us to believe his excuse, he should prove it. these documents should be easy to produce and we look forward to receiving them promptly from the fbi. you know, benefit of the doubt, maybe the fbi did tell jeff sessions he didn't have to disclose his meetings with russians when he was applying for a security clearance. maybe they gave him that explicit instruction which is what he says happened. if so, the fbi ought to be able to prove that relatively easily and will turn out to be a strange piece of advice they gave him but at least, if that's

true, sessions will get sured up in terms of his excuse why he filed that false paperwork. if it turns out the fbi didn't give that instruction and his excuse is false, what will the consequences of that be? some day i swear, we are going to run down all of the cover stories and excuses and denials that have come out of the trump administration and campaign over the last nine months just on the issue of their contacts with russians. some day we'll cancel all other news and spend the whole hour on the show listing all of the times various members of the administration and transition and campaign said something denying contacts with russians that was later proved to be untrue. it will take a full hour to get through the full list and we'll have to kill commercials but i mean, it a pretty astonishing list that includes the attorney general, jeff sessions and former national security advisor

and paul manafort and mike pence jurd kushner and kellyanne conway and, and, and, and. to the extent there is a coordinated or uncoordinated effort by multiple people in the administration to cover up the extent of connections and dealings between trump and russia, there have been a lot of people in the administration and campaign who have participated in that activity. the most important person in any coverup would be the president himself and today david corn of mother jones magazine writes about a piece of the president's effort to cover up his own connections with russia, a piece of that is now being proven to be blatantly false and that story is next. for mom and dad. and every year, we split it equally. except for one of us. i write them a poem instead! and one for each of you too! that one's actually yours. that one. regardless, we're stuck with the bill. to many, words are the most valuable currency. last i checked, stores don't take "words."

some do. not everyone can be the poetic voice of a generation. i know, right? such a burden. the bank of america mobile banking app. the fast, secure and simple way to send money.

been trying to prepare for this day... and i'm still not ready. the reason i'm telling you this is that there will be moments in your life that... you'll never be ready for.

your little girl getting married being one of them. ♪ ♪

couple weeks ago we learned from the washington post donald trump was actively pursuing a multimillion dollar and potentially gigantic business deal in moscow. it would be called trump tower moscow. the point person at the trump organization setting up the deal the man named felix sater, this his business card. as you can see. shows him working at the trump organization, shows his title, senior advisor to donald trump. felix sater has a criminal record including spending good chunk of time in prison, lots of mafia o associations, spent time

as a informer for the mafia and over the years despite has role at the organization denied who he is and real estate business in particular convicted felon felon and so a little distance cob convenient. helping set up deals. donald trump not being able to recognize to be plausibly true if there were long periods and occupied and nothing to do with the trump organization and business wheeling and dealing for them went dormant for a time. but thanks to the recent reporting on the trump tower and october 2015, trump himself and moscow project, the one felix sater put together. weeks after that, in december

2015, a associated press report asked about his relationship with felix sate er trump told the ap the event weeks after signing that letter of intent one of the busiest of his life in moscow and weeks after satyr and quote and have to even think about it. i'm not that family with him. one whole side of this scandal reporting on it, of the investigation, investigating the trump russia investigation between trump and russia before, during and after russia was attacking the presidential election. to help trump win. the other side of reporting on this scandal increasingly is documenting and keeping track of the number of proven known

and russia that they have tried to cover up. that they have lied about and that means members of trump's immediate family, members of his campaign, members of his transition, members of his administration and yes, the president himself. in watergate they said the coverup was worse than the crime. in this one, it feels like the coverup won't stop. feels like we're all still living it now. joining us now is my friend david. washington bureau chief of mother jones great to see you, thanks for being here tonight. >> thank you. thank you for the very genius introduction. >> you're going to get more embarrassed as this interview goes on because i want to talk to you about this book project you are working on with michael but first i want to talk about felix sater. donald trump has lied about knowing felix sater in the past or at least he has suggested that he's had no recollection of him and tried to distance himself in the past. why do you think this time is more important? >> i think this is the most important time.

in december 2015, donald trump is the front runner for the republican presidential nomination that might be surprising to him as it was to a lot of political observers at the time. he's asked about felix sater and by the ap reporter, and said i don't know him. never heard of him. the same time as we now know but didn't know back then, felix sater was brokering a deal for him to build a trump tower in moscow. for 30 years, literally 30 years, donald trump tried to do business in moscow. many times he got close. but it never got over the finish line. he never got that trump tower in moscow built. here he was in the middle of a deal to give him $4 million up front into his own pocket, dealing with russia. what did he need to make the deal happen? the permission of the russian government. who is the head of the russian government? vladimir putin.

who is donald trump saying oddly positive things about throughout the campaign? vladimir putin. so to acknowledge felix sater in december 2015, would in essence be acknowledging he was in the middle of this deal when he was running for president, when he was telling the american public he would put america first, american interests over everything else when actually he was in no position to criticize vladimir putin because he and his organization were asking putin for help to build the project. this is in someways the most massive conflict of interest that we've ever seen in a modern presidential campaign and i think this is why, this is one of the most consequential deceptions of the trump campaign. imagine what would have happened in december of 2015. he said oh, yeah, i know felix sater. he's brokering a deal for me this very moment with russia and i knead vladimir putin on my side to make it happen. what do you think would happen to donald trump's presidential prospects right then and there?

he had to deny knowing satyr, he had to deny the deal. he kept the deal he hit this deal from the american public. >> david, i feel like i'm starting to feel like there is is this mountain of not just trump russia connections and trump russia deals and trump russia financial connections but this mountain of documented false denials and it includes this one from the president but it also includes, you know, jeff sessions saying he didn't have russia contacts. he did. paul man fort saying he didn't have russia contacts. he did. flynn saying he didn't have contacts, don junior, jared kushner. whether they said it out loud or they put it in sworn statements and applications for security clearances. over and over and over again the same thing going in the same direction. what does that add up to in the end? lying isn't a crime but consis -- consistently covering up

these connections, so many people doing it even after they get caught, where does that go in the end? >> even today they say over and over again, there was no collusion. when we have the june 9th meeting with donald trump junior and jared kushner. with emissaries from russia. they claim they didn't get any negative opposition research on hillary clinton out of the deal but they certainly tried. that is colluding by definition and say there was no collusion. my concern is that we have a lot of pieces, you know, but we look at this as a mosaic and often lose the big picture. because we look at one piece at a time. not you. you do a good job of pulling it together but media overall rush from one new tidbit or lie found out to the next one and you got to -- if you sit back and look at what he did in terms of not telling the public about dealing with russia, what they have done about colluding when they have colluded and, throughout the

campaign, donald trump kept saying that the russians had nothing to do with it. his own campaign advisers knew they were told that russia wanted to help. that's a big importance of the june 9th meeting. you put that stuff together. it's not smoke. it's fire. this is a cover-up, they've been stone walling again and again. donald trump was trying to do business with russia and then six months later, russia trying to help the trump campaign. it not very complicated. but i think in our current sort of one party rule in congress and the white house, they -- the political conversation conversation doesn't dig into the big pictures. and their implications. i think it's pretty flight ning at this point >> will you sit there for one other second? i have one other thing i want to ask you about? >> of course. >> we'll be back after this.

stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people...

...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images. and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch! build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required. gocentral from godaddy. find fast relief behind the counter with claritin-d. strut past that aisle for the steroid free allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes. and contains the best oral decongestant. live claritin clear with claritin-d.

i got some financial how'd that go?le ago. he kept spelling my name with an 'i' it's bryan with a 'y.' since birth. well, i happen to know some people. do they listen? what? they're amazing listeners. guidance from professionals who take their time to get to know you.

four years ago we did a documentary, maybe the most watched msnbc documentary ever. it was based on a book about how we got into the iraq war despite the false premises that war was based on and i think our documentary was good but the book was based on was freaking brilliant. and now today i read in the new york times that michael and david are getting the band back together. this time to write a book on the

trump russia scandal. david corn, when were you going to tell me? [ laughter ] >> i had to read about this in the new york times? >> i've been working on this for a long time with michael. we would rather do the work than talk about the work. >> can you tell us at all what the book is going to focus on? is it a historical book? is it a book about current reporting? >> a bit of both. we're looking at everything leading up to the russian hack, the history of russian intelligence operations, history of u.s. russia relations and what happened with the hack and how the parties and the campaigns and the white house responded to it and what was going on behind the scenes in the intelligence community at the time. >> david corn, mother jones d.c. burro chief announcing today he and michael are back together for a new book. thank you for being here. >> thank you so much. much more ahead, stay with us.

trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief.

♪ it's not just a car, it's your daily treat. ♪ go ahead, spoil yourself. the es and es hybrid. experience amazing. over the course of 9 days sthe walks 26.2 miles,.

that's a marathon. because he chooses to walk whenever he can. and he does it with support from dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort to keep him feeling more energized. so he even has the energy to take the long way home. keep it up, steve! dr. scholl's. born to move. gloria always went big.

so we helped her plan a memorial service that no one would soon forget. ♪ this one's for you, gloria. ♪ only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. find out how at sanfranciscodignity.com. today the daily beast got a fascinating new exclusive report. they dug this thing up out of information that other people could have dug into and found. but they were the ones who did it. and it turns out to be scary and worrying in terms of what we're going to find out next. this is their story. russia used facebook events to organize anti-immigrant rallies on u.s. soil. now we've been covering here the fact that facebook only recently admitted that russians used fake ads, or used ad money to try to

influence americans during last year's election. what's new from the daily beast today is that russia used facebook to basically try to remote control organize real-life protests in the united states, including one in twin falls, idaho. quoting from the piece, russian operatives hiding behind false identities used facebook's event management tool to remotely organize and promote political protests in the u.s., including an august 2016 anti-immigrant, anti-muslim rally in idaho. daily beast uncovered this facebook events posting promoting that rally in twin falls, idaho. it was called citizens before refugees. it was due the happen on august 27th. citizens before refugees. you can see there. that event was schedule for one day after breitbart news published a discredited story about a spike in tuberculosis cases being blamed on immigrants and refugees in that locality. that event was hosted by a facebook group called secured borders.

it's since been outed as a russian op, not as an american organization at all. it's been taken down describing it as a putative anti-u.s. immigration community that was outed as a russian front in march. at the time facebook took it down, though, it had over 130,000 u.s. followers. so russia was not just spamming us online with fake news and russian propaganda and promoting stolen documents they hacked from party democratic sources, they were also using american social media platforms like facebook to try to get americans go demonstrate against muslims and immigrants in real life in real american communities. joining us now is noah schactman, editor of the daily beast. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. >> at within level this is an incremental story about another thing that facebook was used for. on the other hand, i find this to be very chilling. >> me too. >> the idea that the russians weren't just promoting stuff in

terms of what we looked at online, but trying to get americans to do stuff in real life. >> no it's amazing. this is a real turn here. this isn't just fake news. this isn't just online propaganda. this is real world organizing. and i have a feeling this just the tip of the iceberg. facebook told our reporters late last night that they talked about multiple, multiple events. so i think we're going to start to see and more and of the stuff come out. >> and multiple events associated with this secured borders front group? or multiple events associated with lots of different groups? >> they were super coy about that. >> okay. so this is what is making me crazy. facebook spent months denying there was any russia involvement in their platform related to the election whatsoever. not only were they denying that they could be used as a platform for fake information, whatever. i understand that i have a business reason to deny that but denying there was any presence of russian money or russian operatives in their campaign, denying it for months, they now admit it. now they're willing to admit to you that yeah, there was maybe this event. but they still won't disclose

anything in terms of what other russian operations might have been organized through their platform. >> there is either two options. one, thaw don't know themselves yet, which is super weird for one of the internet's most powerful companies that has the most powerful facial recognition database in the world and has the most sophisticated algorithms for outing all kinds of objectional content. either they still don't know or know and aren't telling. both of those alternatives are not great. >> if they know hand they're not telling, it raises interesting questions about whether or not they're going to be available as a potential crime scene for investigators to look at for the russia investigation writ large, whether it's the mueller inquiry or any of the congressional investigations. if some of the russian crimes committed in the election or any american confederates helping them happened via facebook will, facebook allow investigators to follow the clues where they lead? >> my strong suspicion is they will. and thing is also another

interesting turn here, right. the first part of the russia scandal involves secret information, involved hacked information in the dnc, right? now the interesting part is part two, and maybe the more interesting part actually took place kind of in public on facebook and decoding what happened in public may tell us more about the turnout of the election than some hacked e-mails from dnc operatives. >> and when you look at what we know about the public information and what your reporters were able to discover in terms of tracing these things on facebook, what's your understanding about whether or not this could have been a purely foreign operation, or whether or not this was something where there was domestic component in terms of operators here working in cahoots with russian operatives who were working from st. petersburg or wherever to make this happen? >> i don't think we know yet. i don't think we know what's tail and what's dog yet. like i don't think we know when these seemingly loony tunes anti-immigrant, anti-muslim protesters are ginning stuff up,

are they taking direction from moscow? is moscow kind of piggybacking off of what they do? i don't think that relationship is clear at all yet. >> and do you -- is it your sense that that's a figure outable thing? it's one thing to not know now. it's another thing to know whether or not this sort of activity leaves breadcrumbs that anybody is going to follow? >> yes, this should be the online propaganda. a mixed metaphor. >> well, you helped to advance the story in a way that makes me feel super creepy, but also better informed. noah schactman, editor for the daily beast. appreciate it. all right. we'll be right back. stay with us.

you don't let anything lkeep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals... for the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. ensure, always be you.

it can seem like triggers pop up everywhere. luckily there's powerful, 24-hour, non-drowsy claritin.

it provides relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 different allergens. live claritin clear. senator mark warner is the top democrat on the intelligence committee. this is what he had to say the day after facebook finally confirmed that, yeah, there had been russian ad buys trying to affect the election. >> it was my belief that the russians were using those sites to intervene in our elections. and, you know, the first reaction from facebook of course oh, you're crazy, nothing is going on. well, we find yesterday there actually was something going on. i think all we saw yesterday in terms of their brief was the tip of the iceberg. >> tip of the iceberg. that was senator warner talking on thursday last week about facebook finally admitting that russian money had made its way on to facebook to buy ads to try to influence americans to try to

influence the election. today with that reporting we just discussed with noah schactman, we got a little more of what is in the iceberg when the daily beast reported that not only was russia trying to change what news americans saw, what americans heard about in terms of the election via information operations, they were also literally trying to organize americans to go to anti-muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-refugee rallies, because apparently russia saw it in their interest that we would start having rallies like that in places like idaho. the story of what the russians did in this last election, using everyday tools like your mom's facebook feed, it is getting to be a truly big deal in the trump russia investigation. and it's getting to be a very interesting question as to whether or not facebook and twitter and these other social media gigantic companies are going to cooperate with the investigation and help investigators figure out how they were used. today the democratic and republican leaders of the senate intelligence committee said they

are considering a public hearing with facebook in particular, but also other social media companies. they say they want to ask about the role of russian money and russian ads and russian bots in russia trying to tip the election towards donald trump. mark warner said about this today, quote, i question whether facebook has put near the amount of resources they need to getting us all the facts. that would be interesting to see on capitol hill. facebook testifying if they ever choose to do it. meanwhile, happy to say right here senator mark warner will be with us here on this show tomorrow night. i have a lot to ask him about. also, little reminder. we've got hillary clinton here in studio on thursday night for one of the first interviews that she is doing about her big new book. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word >> good evening. as usual, he will have to watch your show tomorrow night with senator warner so i can figure out how to handle this hour of television. because you will be breaking news. >> i'll send you notes as he says stuff that makes news. >> well, he will be watching. thanks, rachel. >>