great americans who deserve to be honored. please, tweet us a at #velshiandruhle. my colleague ali velshi will be back tomorrow. right now i turn you to andrea mitchell for "andrea mitchell reports." an nbc exclusive on what happened just before the secretary of state called president trump a moron. top sorturces revealing that donald trump asked his team for a tenfold increase in the united states arsenal, which would go back to treatys involving ronald reagan and the cold war. >> the pentagon, nothing like it. the job they do, absolutely incredible. >> we'll have the president's reaction to our story, coming up. stars aligned. some of the biggest actors in

hollywood including gwyneth paltrow and angelina jolie as they speak out against the hollywood mogul, harvey weinstein. >> please, come on, i'm used to that. >> you're used to that? no, but i'm not used to that. and inferno. 20 fires out of control in california have 17 people dead, driven another 20,000 from their homes, destroying entire communities. >> our car is gone! our house is gone, guys! oh, my god, our house is gone! it's gone! >> and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. with the latest reaction to our new nbc exclusive reporting, stunning comments made by president trump.

calling for a surge in america's nuclear arsenal during a july meeting at the pentagon. according to three officials who were in the room with the president, a review of worldwide u.s. military forces and operations veered into a debate over the size of america's nuclear stockpile after a slide showing the reduction of weapons over the last five decades prompted the president to push for more fire power. our reporting also revealing that secretary of state tillerson referred to the president as a moron shortly after the july briefing ended after the president had left the room. today mr. trump already responding harshly on twitter. joining me now, kristen welker, national political reporter carol lee and international security reporter. kristen, first to you. let's talk about the story and why this would be soo beyond th pale of legally binding treaties on the united states.

kristen? >> reporter: that's exactly the issue, andrea. just the backdrop, what prompted this, president trump during that july 20th meeting was shown a graph of the united states nuclear posture, a history of it, if you will. peaking in the late 1960s, more than 30,000 nuclear weapons. the president looked at that and said, why isn't our nuclear arsenal more like that, essentially calling for what amounted to a tenfold increase. he surprised and stunned some of his top advisers in the room. not everyone taking him literally, but according to three officials who were in that meeting, we know that briefers explained to him why this wouldn't be feasible, the fact that it would break with decades of nuclear diplomacy and also be a violation of a number of treaties going all the way back to ronald reagan. it is important to underscore, andrea, the fact that there are no plans to increase the nuclear arsenal.

we do know that the trump administration is modernizing its nuclear weapons. that's something from the obama administration. this is clearly something that got under president trump's skin and he called this entire story fake news, andrea. >> we'll get more on his response in just a moment. but courtney, from a military perspective, why would we not even need these numbers of weapons? >> so there is a very delicate balance that exists between the conventional force and the nuclear force. for the most part, the nuclear force is really used more as a deterrent than actually something that's used in military operations as evidenced by the fact that the u.s. hasn't ug used a nuclear weapon in 70 years. there is a strong conventional force that weaver seen 've seen afghanistan, and libya. the other force is treaty

obligations. the new s.t.a.r.t. treatart tr.e new bilateral treaty that limits the number of weapons each nation can have. but one of the things we're told in this meeting, that the military and leaders who were in there in the joint conference room with the president, one of the things they said was we have this force and that's what we use in a conflict. the nuclear weapons are more of a deterrent value. >> and the context being, carol, that the day before had been the afghan review meeting in the white house. the president had sounded off again general in this canichols. and he said, you can't own afghanistan. i have a friend at the 21 club and he owns the restaurant. so it had been building. >> it had been building for weeks and this july 20 time

frame is turning out to be sort of a reflection point for the president. it was not just this afghanistan meeting that you referenced which his advisers found rather extraordinary, then you have the next day this meeting at the pentagon, and amidst all that, the white house was in turmoil. you had a press secretary that was exiting and a new communications director that was very briefly in the white house. there was a turnover at the chief of staff. meanwhile rex tillerson is threatening to resign because he's having policy and personality differences with the president. >> and, in fact, kristen welker, the president has responded, as you said, calling it fake news, but he went a little beyond that -- quite a bit bit eyond t. he said, fake news made up a story that i wanted a tenfold increase in our u.s. nuclear arsenal. pure fiction, made up to demean. nbc equals cnn.

he went on to say that with all the fake news coming out of nbc and the networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their license? bad for country. talk about challenging the license is something i don't think has happened from the white house since richard nixon's team threatened katherine graham's ownership of post-"newsweek" broadcasting. >> reporter: it is extraordinary, andrea, and hopefully we'll have a chance to ask him about all of this. he's going to try to turn the page today. he's headed to talk about taxes. you're right. this is taking his criticism of the media a step further. this is not calling the media fake news, stories he doesn't like, this is a strategy we have seen him deploy in the past. but it also seems to be the strategy that he deploys when he doesn't like the story. so, again, he's going to try to put the focus on tax reform, his

domestic agenda, something he very much needs. he very badly feels he needs a win with his legislative agenda largely stalled, so that will be the key focus from his perspective for the rest of the afternoon. but we'll certainly try to ask him about those comments, andrea. >> let me put something else in the mix. i was in aspen at the security conference. there was a pete williams interview with john kelly. still at that point the homeland security secretary, and that was exactly at the same time -- i believe it was that night when the president had his interview with the "new york times" in the oval office and basically trashed attorney general jeff sessions. it was so startling that it was completely the buzz of various dinners we were having and meetings with top officials in aspen, including cabinet-level officials, kristen, who were stunned that the president would take on his own attorney general that way. >> reporter: take on his own attorney general, and of course this reporting suggests that he's been taking on his secretary of state in the wake

of rex tillerson calling him a moron. o our reports about that, yesterday he told a magazine interview, look, i think it's fake news. but if it is true, we should have an iq contest and i would undoubtedly win. i asked him about those comments yesterday, asked him if he was effectively undercutting his own secretary of state. he disputed that characterization, but andrea, these conflicts he's having with not only members of his own team but lawmakers on capitol hill as well, senator corker leaving this president increasingly isolated, andrea. >> and a day after this controversial meeting, sean spicer, quote, exited, quit, was fired, whatever. so there was even more turmoil there. carol, very briefly, this is not the first time the president has raised eyebrows as a candidate whenever he talked about nukes, whether it was the triad, or

suggesting saudi arabia can get them, why not, it's going to happen, in a. he has displayed a lack of understanding of the nuclear triad and the arsenal all along, but one would expect at this point with the showdown with north korea and iran that a nuclear decision coming tomorrow or the next day, that he would have a better grasp of it by now. >> it's just really inconsistent. that really rattles american allies, it gets americans nervous. that happens with the backdrop you just mentioned, exiting iran. >> thank you all. a lot of challenges on all sides. congratulations to all of you. joining us now, adam kissinger serving on the affairs

committee. i want to ask you about what questions is raises for his allies and political allies on the hill. we've seen senator corker's difficulty in dealing with the president on national security issues. >> reporter: yeah, i think, with the story when i initially read it, i thought -- and i'm not sure what the actual answer is -- a lot of this information, frankly, should be kept behind closed doors but nbc reports it when you get it and that's your right responsibility to do. but it's different if the president says, quote, i want a 10% increase in weapons and he says why doesn't our arsenal look like it looked in 1960. presidents have advisers for a reason, to advise them. i guarantee if you could get president obama, president bush, president reagan's, any of their cabinet meetings, there might be questions that raised eyebrows. i think the president has a great team between secretary tillerson, john mattis and

pompeo at the cia that can really point him in the right direction and discuss what the nuclear arsenal is and why it needs to be modernized but we don't need to increase it tenfold. >> fair point, i guess. but back in august of 1978, the president said they had already modernized the arsenal, and yes, he signed an exec order -- that had been launched by president obama. it happens and there was already a huge effort. he was wrong back in august when he said it was done and one of his achievements. he needs briefing, and secretary tillerson is repeatedly being undermined by the president of the united states. the iq contest comment yesterday was the latest example.

>> i really actually see the iq comment as kind of a dry joke. i know president trump's humor. regardless, though, what i don't like is these public fights between officials in the administration. even if this was a democratic administration, obviously i'm a republican, i wouldn't want to see it in a democratic administration. i think airing the country's dirty laundry, so to speak, should be done in private. every administration has competing forces, battles back and forth, people get let down or some people are happier someone else. i think it's best to keep it off twitter or keep it out of the public's cheer. now we're dealing with iran and not just syria. for the democrats and republicans and frankly for the country. >> within 24 hours, we're going to hear the president's decision. i am told it is to decertify,

that iran is not living up to the the spirit of the deal. just yesterday teresa may, in a very tough comment about her conversation with the president, argued strongly that the nuclear deal, aside from iran's other behavior, has made the rouges and the world safer. you've had briefings. obviously he'll do that. i think when he makes the speech and announcement of what he's going to do, you'll see a very broad, comprehensive approach to iran which is their destabilizing of the. so i think if, in fact, this is decertified and i don't know what the final answer is, it's a chance to work with our europ n

european. they can continue making their ballistic type weaponry, like we see in north korea, but that knowledge is not going to go away. >> given what they did in syria, lem lemon, don't have nuclear weapons and they are constrained for getting the resources for nuclear weapons for a lot longer than that. >> yeah, and again, when the president makes the discussion, there are just pieces that people know about this. we'll see whether someone agrees with his position or not, the broader -- look, a nuclear detail that works best for everybody would be good. sometimes iran sending in its own soil inspections to the iaea so there is a lot of gaping holes we need to fix.

it' >> fair enough. thank you for coming on. we told you when story first broke and you were still willing to come on. >> thanks. blockbuster allegations. two of hollywood's biggest stars adding their names to the growing list of women who say they were sexually harassed by harvey weinstein. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do.

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new sexual harassment charges emerging against movie mogul harvey weinstein. people magazine now reports weinstein's wife announced she is leaving him. two of hollywood's biggest stars angelina jolie and gwyneth paltrow saying weinstein harassed them. paltrow said she was just 22 years old when weinstein put his hands on her and suggested they go to the room for massages. she said, i was just a kid. i was petrified. ten women accused weinstein of sexual assault. ten other women s three other women say they were raped. a model reported weinstein to police. >> i'm very uncomfortable right now. >> please come in now, in one

minute, and if you want to leave -- i'm used to that. >> you're used to that? i'm not used to that. >> the new york district attorney declined to press charges against weinstein. the new yorker article was written by an msnbc contributor ronan farrow. >> there is very little upside for them to relive these experiences. >> the weinstein company board said, these alleged actions are antithetical to human decency. weinstein said, any allegations of non-consensual sex are

unequivocally denied by mr. weinstein. we have megyn kelly here. where do you stand on this and how could this have gone unacknowledged for decades? >> you know, andrea, one of my main takeaways from 2016, everything that happened in that campaign, is that we as women have a long way to go, a long way to go. and this is further evidence of that. you know, it's like how many of these do we have to go through before industries become introspective? why did the press have to break this? why wasn't it someone at the weinstein company? if they didn't know, why didn't they know? how many more do we have to go through? how many women is it happening to right now until we can affect a real sea change? we might be at the beginning of that, but i don't think we're even close to the middle. >> it's not as though it was such a secret. here's a couple of clips. one is seth mcfarlane from the

emmy nominations back in 2013, ask then there's a five-year-old clip from "30 rock" written by tina fey. >> oh, please. i'm not afraid of anyone in show business. i turned down intercourse with harvey weinstein on no less than three occasions. i'm five. i know how former lovers can have a hold on you long after they're gone. in many ways i'm still with a pent-up harvey weinstein and thanksgiving. >> you ladies no longer have to be attracted to harvey weinstein. >> that should have started a conversation in the board. it had to have. >> there is no way, with all of these powerful actresses now coming out and saying, me, too, me, too, me, too, that this was not an open secret as has been alleged. it's either nobody was talking or everyone was afraid, and i would submit to you that it's clearly the latter. he was a titan in hollywood, he controlled a lot of films, they

were worried there would be backlash if they spoke up against him. this is a pattern that we see in all of these cases, and i think what we're seeing -- you mentioned the women i had on my show the other day, lauren savan. she was a local reporter in long island when he did this to her. he cornered her in a vestibule and exposed himself. she didn't want this. she met him in the restaurant that night. she was thinking, who do i speak out to? but when she told the story, andrea, another woman came out and told the same story, and another woman came out. it looked at the end of the day like an m.o., right? so when we hear each other come out with these stories, we feel empowered in our own right to tell our own stories because women, i think too often, and it can happen with men, too, they blame themselves. they think, i should have tried harder to get out of there, i should have done something. what was this woman going to do, call up every member of the weinstein board and say, he did this to me in a restaurant? she was afraid. >> one actor julianne moore was

on yesterday. let's watch. >> i have never had a personal experience like this. i haven't. i was shocked. i think no one was aware that he had settled with different women, and as we know, different cases keep coming forward. this to me is completely egregious and shocking. these women were very young when these incidents occurred. it's very difficult to be 21 2rks21, 22 and 23 and feel like you have any additional power. it's different when you're 45. >> we shouldn't pretend it's just hollywood because every profession has its own dynamics. i remember covering the clarence thomas hearings in 1991 and what the reactions of the senate judiciary committee were and ted kennedy and joe biden and others, and members of the committee, some still in the

senate, were very eager to shut it down when polling on this critical weekend showed that american people, for whatever reasons, believed what he said rather than what she said. >> and that was the first we really started hearing about sexual harassment as, like, a thing. >> exactly. >> obviously i'm new over here in the nbc family and i come from fox news and fox news' problems on this front have been well documented and well publicized, but it isn't just fox, either. i hope our own industry looks at itself and does a cleaning of house and gets honest about anybody in their companies who they've had to pay out repeated settlements for. because at this point if that gets unearthed, if there is such an executive at these other companies, it's on you. you're on notice to go clean up your house, figure out who you've got there. if there is a trail of settlements, andrea, and the cost of business involves some lawsuits that are b.s., we know that, but if you've got eight settlements -- and i bet this

will be more. the "new york times" reported on eight, but where there's eight, there's probably more than eight. you have a problem about management, and if you don't know about it, you need to. i call on these industries that are male-dominated to get honest with the fact that sometimes the lawsuits do have merit and get settled not because of nuisance value but because there is something there. it does take a lot of courage for especially the young women to come forward against a man as powerful as this who they know very well could crush them in their career, not just at one shop but across the board. and we have to be open-minded to the fact that not every man accused of this is guilty, but also to the fact that it's very difficult for young women to come forward and say when they've been put in this position. >> and we should just add, and we've got to go, but we should just add that this has become a political problem for democratic politicians who have been big recipients of his largesse, and also for the clintons and the obamas who took four or five

days before they spoke out to criticize his alleged behavior. there is a lot more to take a look at on all fronts. megyn kelly, i know you're a very busy person. thanks so much for being with us. of course, you can watch megyn kelly today, every day, at 9:00 a.m. eastern on nbc. be sure to read brzezinski's column on harvey weinstein called "think." we'll be right back. with flavor. like new savory grilled mediterranean shrimp, topped with a blend of green onions, tomatoes, and herbs. and your favorites, like garlic shrimp scampi. now's the only time to try as much as you want, however you want 'em. so hurry in today.

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president trump's twitter reaction to our nbc news exclusive reporting, including this. "with all of the fake news coming out of nbc and the networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their license? bad for country." joining me now, political analyst chairman michael steele, and ron mcclain, senior administrator of the obama administration. you are a lawyer who worked on the hill as well. >> yes. >> so you know all the legal ramifications of what the

president was tweeting. for the last time, i was just saying when i heard anything like this, jorichard nixon was the white house. i wasn't here yet. i was a kid reporter wannabe, but he was threatening catherine graham for taking away all her stations around the country. >> now we know what twitter would have looked like had it existed at the time, because we're looking at the lawless presidency that richard nixon did, but with the added factor that donald trump doesn't even try to hide it, he just puts it out there on twitter for all to see. he's a bully, he's trying to intimidate the news media, trying to intimidate football players and trying to intimidate anyone who disagrees with him and this is a test for us as a country. will our institutions be robust enough to stand up to him? people stand up to him and insist that our democratic principles stay in place.

>> i actually think it's that or the emphasis on the people. the bullying of the network is not so much for the sake of bullying the network. it really is sending the dog whistle out there to remind the strong base of his that this is the enemy. reminding constantly who the enemy is in trump world. >> calling us the enemy, the people back when. the fact is a tweet now from the committee to protect journalists which works around the globe. "trump's assertion that nbc's license could be challenged emboldens other governments to embrace authoritarian tendencies. there have been talks of holding licenses globally. it used to be republican and democratic secretaries of state. it was part of the folder of global democracy that you would travel around the world, bring

the press corps and project that there needs to be an exchange. in fact, we often were asked to come in and help brief iraqi or afghan journalists on how to be a journalist and to confront your government in a responsible way. >> yeah. and the more you deemphasize that, the less the united states is seen as a leader in that regard and more of an advocate for the kind of lawlessness or authoritarian tactics around the globe. the more you're going to see a rise in that. we've been that voice in the past and the expectation is we will be going forward, but that's not necessarily on the agenda for this administration. >> indeed, quite the opposite. in fact, we're forming a geopolitical alliance with authoritarian regimes around the world. the president's affection for putin, his affection for other leaders that come to the white house, the philippines. he is forming a global alliance with people who are against freedom, and that is the exact opposite of what his

predecessors, democratic and republican, have done since world war ii, and that should be something that's upsetting to all americans. >> there's also the subject of the nfl. we're heading into another nfl weekend and the game tomorrow night. this tweet, the president against the nfl, "it is about time that roger goodell of the nfl is finally demanding that all players stand for our great national anthem -- -- respect our country." the fact he is making it about the country to a protest against police issues, police abuse and minority communities. >> i'll just say it again. for the record, this is not about the flag, this is not about being against the military. it's none of that. in fact, one of the more respectful ways to protest is to genuflect, to take a knee in that sense.

if you really want to be disrespectful of the flag, there are so many other ways to do that. if you really wanted to throw down against the military, there are so many other ways colin kaepernick can do that if that was the cause. this is not the cause. the administration knows that is not the cause, but the president has won the politics on this. he's backed everyone into the corner he wanted them to be in and he's playing it out every single weekend now with another tweet, and, you know, the very embarrassing use of the vice president was also. >> we're going to have to take a break. >> i don't think he's winning with politics. he's approval is down why? fires in california, disaster in puerto rico, jobs lost for the first time in seven years. he's not doing his job as president. he's focused on the nfl. the american people are focused on doing things to fix our country. >> we'll have to leave it there. thanks to both of you. speaking of wildfires, coming up, the deadly wildfires, the death toll climbing. those missing as firefighters

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the wildfires are burning on both ends of california. at least 17 people are dead. more than 2,000 buildings have been destroyed. entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble. this is 100-year-old charles rippey and his 98-year-old wife sara's home. the couple was married for 75

years. they were both killed in the blaze. the couple's caregiver tried to get them out of the house but ran out of time. >> all the windows started to explode and smoke and heat and all that everywhere, and she just couldn't find them. >> nbc's steve patterson is in napa, california. steve, this devastation is just horrific. is there any forecast for lower winds and for some improvement as the firefighters try to control this? >> reporter: unfortunately, no, andrea. we're still in a red flag warning, and believe it or not, days later the fire fight is still in a rescue and preventive phase, trying to save lives still days later at this point. they're not worried about containment numbers at this point, they're still trying to do the work of making people stay out of zones like the one behind me. meanwhile, 25,000 people still under mandatory evacuations. many at road blocks frustrated

because they're trying to figure out what the condition of their home is. unfortunately, many conditions are just like the one behind me. this is one home in a neighborhood full of scenes like th this. in front you may see some electronic equipment, maybe a golf cart in back, staircases, a shower stall. signs of life that used to be there now in tattered ruins. crews worry about what may happen when the sun goes down and the winds start up and cause even more trouble. andrea? >> steve patterson, thanks so much to you and your team in the fire zone. turning now to the deadly oid cris opioid crisis having an effect on our schools. they all try to cope with tragedy. kate snow has this series "one

nation overdosed." how do you handle it when every student is affected in class? >> there is a real opioid problem. in east falmouth elementary, six parents have died. clair poole is a counselor that helps students who lost a parent and here's what she told me. >> you have something called a memory chain. when do you use that? >> when a child has experienced a loss, whether it's a sibling, a parent, a cousin, when they experienced a loss and they need a place to put their grief, we will make what we call a memory chain. this is one we started. this is all different memories, and each time we come up with a new memory about this person they have lost, we will add a link to the chain with the memory, like, he took us trick or treating. pancakes on sundays. playing video games with me.

>> all happy memories. >> all happy memories and all a way for children to fill that void they're feeling with those memories they now know they can keep with them forever. >> this year that school has even had to hire a counselor for the kindergartners, because among the five-year-olds coming in, they were seeing an increasing number who were born dependent on opioids. more than 20 kids in that elementary school live with grandparents, others in foster care. several teachers have taken it upon themselves to bring children into their own homes because there aren't enough foster homes in that area. >> clearly these teachers are working not just overtime but giving their all to help these families in crisis. tell us about the next part of the series you're working on for "nightly news." >> that's at dayton's children hospital where we spent a day. every corner, and this is in dayton, ohio. every corner of that hospital having to change the way they do things because of the opioid epidemic. already this year dayton fire medics tell us 31 children have

overdosed on opioids. i talked to the head of the emergency department about that. here's what he told me. >> kids are exploring at the age of two, three, four. they find a baggy on the floor. smells good or looks interesting, i'm going to put some of this in my mouth. many times we don't know it right away. >> reporter: how do you figure it out? how do you know a child is out of it because they're on opioids? >> autopsy. >> sadness but also some good news there at the hospital. they have a follow-up program, andrea, and we're going to introduce you to a little boy who is doing really well right now at the age of two. he was born addicted because his mother used heroin during the pregnancy, but they're following these kids to make sure they develop appropriately, and this little two-year-old is doing great. so there is some light. >> well, thanks for all of this. it's such an important and revealing series. thank you, kate snow, for coming on. coming up, cultural hacking. how russian agents preyed on

americans' emotions to influence the presidential election. that's next on our inside scoop. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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today about russia's covert social media operation to try to influence the 2016 election. "the new york times" uncovering new details on how exactly russian operatives exploited social media platforms to spread disinformation to millions of years. let's get the inside scoop from nick, "new york times" political reporter and msnbc contributor who wrote the story for "the times," ashley parker, washington reporter and msnbc contributor. nick, take us through it. what exactly did russia do it and how did they work the social media platforms? >> andrea, i found the enemy and it's us, in large part. what the russians did was to look at american social media platforms, find content that was already there, news stories and youtube videos of police beatings, conspiracy theories posted on popular conservative websites. they took that and they would put it and lightly edit it maybe or just take it whole hog and

put it on their own facebook pages and pay facebook to push dot content to more americans. they got into our own cultural bloodstream, found the things we were passionate about, angry about, demoralized about, hold us a mirror and show us those things over and over again. >> weave confirmed, ashley, that facebook's c.o.o., chief operating officer, sheryl sandberg is expected to meet with adam schiff and mike c conaway. not a meeting under oath but a private interview w the co-leaders of the house intelligence committee. so, what does this all mean, with the president denying and saying it's all fake news, that nothing here has happened, with devin nunez going off on his own with subpoenas even though he's supposed to be recused. will we get to the bottom of it? >> people hope we get to the

bottom. one thing it proves it's not fake news. just because russia was doing this as intelligence agencies addition u.s. intelligence agencies have long said and there's more evidence that is sort of dripping out every single day, including in nick's great story, it doesn't necessarily mean that the president's campaign colluded with the russians, but you are seeing on all of these social media platforms from facebook and twitter and google that russia was being quite sophisticated with what they were doing. one thing i'm struck by -- i used to cover political media. what they were doing is best practices in a way of what these tech giants would advise political campaigns how to reach your voters, how to amplify an issue. this just happens to be, of course, a foreign government. >> nick, when we look at these committees, we look at mueller, mueller has all of these top-level prosecutors following the money. that is an important strain. but proving that anything happened between russia and the campaign is going to be a lot

more difficult. >> correct. there are certainly some bread krums here in terms of policies advocated by now president trump, platform changes that his campaign pushed at the convention last year. so, there are certain ways in which the president was very attuned to russian needs. it's possible we'll discover evidence of collusion in that direction. on the tech side of it, as ashley pointed out, a lot of what the russians were doing at a certain scale was just what these tech giants actually want us to be doing. and what companies do every single day on facebook and youtube and on google. these are basically common practices in corporate advertising. it's not clear to me that the russians needed a ton of help from the campaign to figure out how to do this, but, of course, we're not sure where the targeting data came from. there's a lot more to the story, i think. >> and, in fact, ashley, ours is not the only campaign that russia has been involved in.

they were very deeply involved in the french campaign. we don't know of any involvement in the more recent german campaign. but this is a global effort by russia now using social media and, clearly, with a great deal of sophistication. >> yeah, that's exactly right. and one of the things is -- again, this is one of the things the tech giants sort of pitched to their clients is you can do this very sophisticated targeting very much under the radar. unlike a tv ad where you may be trying to reach a certain group of people in virginia but, you know, everyone in that demo sees it and everyone in other states has access to it, this stuff is very hard to track and i think that's one of the reasons why. as nick said, there are these bread crumbs but this is an effective way for russia, if they want to try to influence elections and politics in other nations without getting caught. >> well, thank you very much. obviously, this is a long investigation, but little by little they're getting closer to the truth. we'll see how these silicon

valley giants respond after having been in denial for months and months. ashley parker, nick, thank you very much. and more ahead. we'll be right back. my experience with usaa has been excellent. they always refer to me as master sergeant. they really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life.

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and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online on facebo facebook and online at

andreamitchellreports.com. craig melvin in new york. an nbc exclusive. we learned president trump wanted america's nuclear arsenal ten times bigger. the president, as you might imagine, has weighed in on that reporting. also spiking the football. the president taking credit for a new rule to require all players to stand for the national anthem. the nfl responds saying, there is no new rule. and the president is wrong. if the league were to require players to stand for the national anthem, what would the likely response be from players? and from fans as well? plus firestorm. those historic fires continue to burn uncontrollably in california. 17 people are dead. 185 more have been injured. thousands of homes and businesses decimated so far. the worst may still be to come. we'll take you to the fire zone where firefighters are