the news continues right now with gigi stonewood. >> i hope you do, i'm waiting on the edge of my seat. >>le loy, everyone. i'm gigi stone woods. crucial conflict. president trump says he knew nothing about the infamous trump tower meeting with a russian lawyer, that is not with a what liz former fixer michael cohen says. what it could mean legally for trump and others if it turns out he did know. the house freedom caucus members back off on the effort to impeach rod rosenstein. they say their fight with the justice department is far from over. be my guest, president trump tries to distance himself from vladimir putin. the same day the russian president invited him to visit moscow. why another meeting any time soon is off at this hour. president trump unusually quiet on bitter this saturday. the president is facing more

questions on the russia investigation, and the now infamous 2016 trump tower meeting with a russian lawyer. nbc news is reporting trump's former lawyer claims the president knew about the meeting in advance, but the president continues to deny that. i did not know of the meeting with my son. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. all of this as vladimir putin invites trump to moscow. >> they say i'm friendly with russia. russia's not happy about what i did. >> trump referring to his demands that nato leaders boost their defense spending. >> joining me now to talk about all of this, jeff bennett. thanks for being here, the president and his lawyers have been increasing their attacks on michael cohen. does this indicate they're growing increasingly worried about cohen? >> great do see you.

we've seen the trump camp escalate its counterattacks against michael cohen. president trump insists he did not have prior knowledge about this trump tower meeting that took place june 2016. separately, i'm told michael cohen's transformation is really rattling, really unnerving for president trump. it's one of the things that accounts for this real shift this dramatic shift in the way the president himself has referred to cohen and tried to characterize him publicly. take a look at how rudy giuliani has talked about michael cohen a couple months ago as compared to what he said this past week? >> no, i expect he is going to cooperate. i don't think he'll be happy with it, because he doesn't have any incriminating evidence about the president or himself. the man is an honest honorable lawyer. >> he's been lying for two years.

if his back is up against the wall, he'll lie like crazy, he's lied all his life. >> he can provide credible evidence that what he says is true. and that his son donald trump jr. is the one who told him about it, donald trump jr. could face perjury charges, as you well know, donald trump jr. told a senate panel that he did not tell his dad about this meeting in advance. so as the russia investigation, the cohen investigations continue. the president is faced with an immediate political problem. you have his long time friend and fixer undercutting the message that the president has tried to push all along. not only that there was no collusion. but the russia investigation is a witch hunt. >> the plot thickens. jeff bennett, thank you. >> joining me to discuss all of this is benji and jordan fabian.

white house correspondent for the hill. we have the president, his family, his legal team, they always denied that trump knew about that 2016 meeting we were talking about with a russian lawyer. watch this. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> did you know at the time of the meet something. >> no, i didn't know anything about it. >> the president said he knew about it right before this came out. >> it must have been a very unimportant meeting, because i never even heard about it. >> this is all of it? >> this is everything. this is everything. >> michael cohen now says trump did know. from a political perspective how

damning do you think cohen's allegation is? >> this is a damaging political fight for the white house. >> republicans i talked to would rather the president be focused on things like he did on friday. when he gets out in front of the cameras and talks about how great economic growth is. they don't want him to be embroiled in a messy political public fight with his former personal lawyer, in the short term, that's damaging, in the long term, this is a battle over credibility. who does the court believe. who does the legal system believe is more credible. and that is very tricky to figure out right now, it's not clear if michael cohen has evidence to back up his you claim that the president knew about this meeting. >> certainly stealing the spotlight away from the midterm elections as we approach. >> they've been essentially calling each other dishonest, calling each other liars all of a sudden, a lot of changing

stories here, who has more perceived credibility at this point? it's a tough call. what do you think? >> well, that's a good question, i don't think either one of them does. president trump says things that are untrue all the time. he has about this very anecdote because the new york times reported a year ago he helped create a false statement about this meeting. don jr. most likely told his father about this meeting, it's not plausible that he wouldn't have. michael cohen doesn't have credibility. rudy giuliani doesn't have credibility. i think what this does, we don't know again if this is collusion, if collusion is a crime. if this is actually an impeachable offense. we'll wait for mueller to figure this out. whether or not there was a direct act that could be

translated from collusion to conspiracy. but i think what this does is, with michael cohen seemingly turning on the president, it exposes him with regard to his business dealings at the trump organization. that's what the trump allies are worried about. if michael cohen has decided he can no longer be loyal. in he has roads to take investigators down in terms of a potential financial crimes by the trump organization over the years, that's going to be extremely problematic for the president. >> this could be just one piece of the puzzle, the information he's putting forward. >> the president has uncharacteristically not spoken to reporters since this cohen tape leaked. sources are saying trump has had a difficult time with what he sees as a huge betrayal on the part of his fixer. what does the president's silence indicate to you now? >> this is a pattern we've seen before, when there's difficult news, especially in a case where

there may be a legal liability involved. the president retreats to media, sean hannity, the white house took an extraordinary measure this week. and we learned the washington post had a story indicating this pretty much came from the top, the president has been asking his aids to consider banning other reporters who ask questions that he deems unfriendly, there's a bit of a siege mentality here. >> and silence on the tweets too. now, following cohen's accusation, democrats are ramping up accusations that trump included with russia, of course. watch what eric said on the rachel maddow show last night. >> it's not about what donald trump did with that meeting, i think what is significant is what he did not do.

if he knew that the meeting was to take place, he did not tell his son to cancel the meeting. he did not tell the fbi about the meeting, and if anything, he further encouraged and emboldened the russians to hack. because he went out and said, russia, if you're listening, which was two years ago from today, you would be rewarded for hacking hillary clinton's e-mails. >> it's an interesting time line that gives us more of a picture of this mosaic. what do you make of the congressman's comments. >> you really see this defense that trump has laid out is very -- rests very much on him not knowing about this meeting. one of his own talking points has been, why didn't the obama administration do more to publicize the russia threat. if you knew that was rush yaz was actively trying to help your campaign by peddling dirt. why didn't you do more?

why didn't you go to the fbi. you see the kind of rabbit hole this leads into here. the white house can't sustain some of these earlier defenses. >> and then we have this almost comical reversal from giuliani. what do you make of giuliani pivoting from calling cohen honest and honorable and then saying, he's lied all his life shortly thereafter. >> it's a damaging shift from a legal standpoint. rudy giuliani is going to have to bring this up in court at some point. the fact that he's completely changed his tone on someone who can be a key witness in this case is not good for his credibility. and he really -- i've talked to some legal experts in reporting this out the last few days. they were making the case that he should not have taken a definitive tone on mikal cohen to begin with. he should not -- you should step back from the public position he's taken.

that being said, the strategy from the trump legal team seems to be to fight this out in the court of public opinion. that's what rudy giuliani has been doing over the last couple weeks. >> that is the political strategy the president has insisted on. >> i want to talk about this coziness with russia. trump is open to visiting the kremlin after receiving the surprise invite from putin. it's been a confusing and shocking relationship, especially since the helsinki summit. where do things stand in your opinion? >> it's interesting to concerned republicans throughout the government and outside of government that it took days for us to learn from the president of the russian federation, that they had discussed president trump going to moscow. now, it's one thing -- the only thing worse that putin coming to the white house, where you heard congressional leaders in the president's party say he would

not be welcome in the congress, that would be quite a frosty visit in washington. but the only thing worse is for president trump to go to moscow. that's not in the best interests of this country. they can keep talking at g 20 meetings or get together in some way, on neutral ground. it's not a good idea for the president to go to moscow. if you're looking at the next couple weeks and months, and the midterm elections coming up, you're going to see continued push back from republicans who want this whole idea to go away. shocking we found out about it days after the two hour meeting that no one knows anything about between president's trump and putin. >> not in the best interest of national scout. probably best that it's been postponed. thank you for sharing your insight. next up, legal jeopardy, how michael cohen's bombshell allegation puts president trump and others in a pretty uncomfortable situation. stay with us.

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there is a new key figure in president trump's legal battles. allen wiesel berg is a much bigger fish than michael cohen. because he knows far more than cohen. wieselberg has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in cohen's probe.

he was prominently mentioned in cohen's secret audiotape, regarding a possible hush money payment to karen mcdoug el. listen. >> i've spoken to allen about how to set the whole thing up with funding. >> yes. and it's all the stuff. all the stuff, you never know where that company -- >> gets a direct hit. >> correct. i'm all over that. >> financing. >> we'll have to -- no, no, no, no, no. i got -- no, no, no. >> that tape was released to cnn earlier this week, by cohen's attorney which sparked new questions on whether trump may have broken campaign finance laws. joining me now is barbara

mcquaid thank you both for being here. by a flub of accounts 37 wieselberg has a lot of answers. this is a pretty big deal, what do you think the significance is of his subpoena and what are federal investigators looking for here. >> the subpoena is particularly significant because it comes in the investigation in the southern district of new york into michael cohen. what it suggests is, there is a link to the trump organization and perhaps president trump himself in that investigation. they're now looking at trump's finances. i think it's an opportunity for them to look at, were there fraudulent payments, bank fraud, money laundering. as his long time chief financial officer, wieselberg has access

to all this information. i heard him described as the human tax return. this could be a real gold mine for investigators. >> he was involved when the trumps, when trump's father was at the elm. what legal danger could the president face if it's proven he did know about it? >> well, certainly other facts are going to matter to find out context and other things. it suggests the possibility that president trump could find himself facing conspiracy charges if they're able to prove there was an agreement between russians to do a number of things. we've already seen the indictment against russians to defraud the united states out of fair administration of elections. president trump could be added to such an indictment. there could be charges for violating the computer fraud and abuse act as has been alleged in the other indictments. there's also concern here about

some sort of obstruction of justice. we have donald trump jr. saying he didn't know about it. president trump has said he didn't know about it, i don't know that this standing alone makes out a criminal case, you add it to all the things president trump has tried to do to divert attention from the investigation into coordination with russians, this could be a powerful evidence of obstruction of justice. >> the challenge for mueller will be to find that truth, that proof. cohen reportedly claimed several people were in the room when trump was told about this trump tower meeting. corroboration can be everything for prosecutors to make their case. how could that change things for the president if there were other people there. >> there were two ways it could change for the president. one is corroboration, if other people are persuaded to tell the story that does appear to be there. you don't need the corroboration, you have the ability to examine what happened

before and after that meeting. you have phone records. there's no doubt in my mind bob mueller had before we were talking about this. you have all the financial transactions that the financial crimes network processes. bob mueller has access to all of that information. as these walls are closing in on all of these fronts. many things on the russian ya investigation front. it encourages more people to come forward and tell the truth and cooperate. this is a snowball effect that probably isn't going to end soon. >> when donald trump jr. testified, he was questioned about a blocked number he was in contact with while arranging the meeting, he testified he didn't know whose block number it was. what if any questions could he face if it turns out he lied about this? >> this seems to be the kind of thing he's speaking before he thinks through the consequences of it, not knowing the blocked

number you were in contact with, it strains credibility a bit. given the number of false hoods that have been stated, he's not putting himself out there as a good fact witness for himself. many of the things he's mentioning, there are ways of finding out whether it's true or not, that's the real issue, saying something doesn't mean it's true. with the other evidence coming in around him, he's putting himself in jeopardy, and closing in the walls around his father as well. >> we learned this weekend, special prosecutor robert mueller examining tweets and negative statements made by the president for possible obstruction. his tweets seems sometimes pretty innocuous, how can they help the investigation here. this is interesting? >> it is really interesting. and certainly a new form of technology, new form of communication that hasn't been used much before for this kind of thing, it can demonstrate what's necessary in a case like

this, these aren't secret communications which often is the case when you're trying to obstruct an investigation. you told some witness you better lie for me or else. this is putting public pressure on jeff sessions and jim comey about the investigation. was he trying to nudge them in a certain direction? stand ago lone, i don't know that any one of these tweets would make a case. to prove that corrupt intent, they could provide a real window into president trump's mind, when you see what it is he's tweeting. >> when i briefed bob mueller the intelligence report every day. i saw the way his mind worked. he left no stone unturned. if there was something that could give insight, he did not hesitate to ask and follow it up and chase that fact until he had it. there's no doubt in my mind that he's incorporating these tweets into the time line of potential obstruction of justice. >> they certainly can give us an

indication of the thoughts that were going on at that time. david and barbara, thank you for sharing your insight with us. saturday a major push by republicans to keep control of the house and overcome a pretty difficult electoral map. we'll have a live report from chicago. trade wars, the political risk as president trump's tariffs start to hit home for people in his base, stick around. i'm ray and i quit smoking with chantix. i tried cold turkey, i tried the patch. they didn't work for me. i didn't think anything was going to work for me until i tried chantix. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke. i needed that to quit. when you try to quit smoking,

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welcome back, republicans are sparing no expense in the fight to retain control of the house in november, now, this weekend, a republican super pack is deploying thousands of volunteers. here's a look at the math. republicans currently have a 43 seat advantage. defending 42 open seats. democrats need to flip 23 of those seats to take control of the house. shaquille brewster is watching one of those races, it's long been held by a republican now rating is a tossup by the cook political report.

this is a hotbed of political activity. why is that particular seat vulnerable to a democratic takeover. >> we're in an upper middle class area, and democrats believe if they flip this seat in november, they have a chance, a better chance of taking over the house of representatives. that's why these volunteers are behind me right now. they're door knocking, it's not a campaign, it's a super pack, their main target is to protect the house republican majority. they're going knocking on doors. we're in imil's sixth congressional district. peter ross come has won re-election in the past. he's facing a tough competitor. these are tight districts and districts like these all across the country. there group is trying to contact 400 users today alone.

i spoke with courtney alexander when i was in the phone making area earlier today. listen to what she says about the voters they're targeting. >> what kind of voters are you targeting? >> voters that might note that extra touch to go out and vote in the midterm. here in illinois, talking about the great lakes. we're talking about salmon hatcheries. in florida, we're talking about the everglades. >> that shows you a little bit about what these outside groups are doing, and how seriously they're taking the midterm elections. this is not a campaign it looks like a campaign operation. this is a super pack. they can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. raise tv ads, play tv ads and

hand out mailers as they're doing now. operations like these are happening all across the country. about 100 days away from the midterm elections. >> it's an illustrative mic microcosm. republicans in the midwest could face a backlash to president trump's policies. today agriculture secretary sonny purdue told this to reuters, farmers will receive money from the $12 billion aid package as soon as september. that money is designed to help farmers affected by the administration's aggressive tariff policies. the president could already be paying a price politically. trump is losing support in the midwest. his job approval in michigan, minnesota, wisconsin is now in the 30s. he deserves to be re-elected.

as you remember, trump won wisconsin and michigan by pretty slim margins. joining me to talk about this is former iowa governor tom vilsak. president and ceo of the u.s. dairy export council. >> thank you for joining us. >> great to be with you. is this bailout helping farmers? it doesn't seem to be what they want. >> they want markets, they want to be able to earn money the right way. very dependent on export markets. soybeans are down 20% sales have been stopped in china. and we're really dealing with the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of had income. a $1.8 billion loss over the last several weeks. it's a fairly significant

opportunity and challenge that farmers face because of these tari tariffs. markets that were open, markets that had momentum are now being shut off. >> to explain this better, china buys most of the u.s.'s soybeans which are now being supplied by brazil and other countries that are ramping up production. that's been hurting the u.s. >> the reality is, the retaliatory tariffs increases the cost of our soybeans to chinese purchasers. they're not competitive. they're not competitively priced. that makes it easier for south american soybeans to be closed into china. mexico is our number one market for cheese. our cheese used to be financially advantageous to the mexicans. the refail ya tory tariffs by mexico, makes it -- we have a logistical advantage, at the end of the day, the tariffs have

made it difficult for us to make the financial case. >> we have these tariff issues as well. the eu made some concessions depending on who you ask. is trump right that farmers are getting a raw deal from previous u.s. trade policies, in your opinion? >> it's interesting. because we had the highest farm income in the history of u.s. agriculture, the highest export numbers in the history of u.s. agriculture, it's difficult to make the case that the trade issues directly affect negatively the farm community. farmers benefit from exports. we happen to be on the front lines, the casualties of this trade war, which is why the president and his team put together this aide package. politically advantageous, prior to the president's visit to the midwest and prior to the november elections. farmers acknowledge that they need help, but what they would like to see is nafta

renegotiated as quickly as possible and this chinese situation resolved as quickly as possible. >> there are questions about whether the president himself fully understands the complexity of some of these trade issues, trump tweeted, tariffs are the greatest, a country that has treated the u.s. unfairly on trade or it gets hit with tariffs, it's as simple as that, and everybody's talking, remember, we're the piggybank that's being robbed, all the will be great. during trump's meeting with the european commission president this week. the eu leader used a dozen cue cards. how do you assess trump's approach to trade. how does it compare to president obama, of course. >> i think president obama took the view that we benefit from global trade as a nation that we create relationships with nations that make us a more

secure nation. in agriculture in particular, we had an advantage, there are issues with reference to china, the problem is, is that when you go after china, you go after china alone as the sole nation, we didn't build a coalition many if we had another number of nations join us. it would have been far more difficult for them to reail yat in the way they did against u.s. agriculture. the problem isn't that they're raising questions about china. it's how they've approached it by going it alone. we put a bull's eye if you will on u.s. agriculture. and they're paying a steep price, the problem with the bailout, it provides some additional help now, it doesn't guarantee we get markets back that we lose as a result of these tariffs. this is a difficult situation for farmers, they're anxious about this. >> tom, we appreciate your very informative insight on this topic. thank you for joining us. >> thank you.

>> republicans table their plan to impeach rosenstein for now.

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or eye pain while taking anoro. ask your doctor about anoro. ♪ go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro.com. welcome back, the push to impeach rod rosen stein is on hold for now. rosenstein overseas the mueller investigation. he's under fire by conservative freedom caucus members.

they claim he's stonewall iing. congressman mark meadows is leading this fight against rosenstein. he will give the justice department more time. >> one of two things will happen, we'll either get the documents that we're entitled to, or there will be some type of action in september. >> it's an effort to undermine mueller's investigation. joining me now is michael singleton, and adrian elron to break this down. >> thanks for being here. meadows says he may consider a contempt vote instead of considering impeachment. why this change of heart? >> i think for the freedom caucus, they recognize that for their base, which is the same base as president trump's. this is something that resonates

particularly with those political voters. i'm extremely disappointed with the fecklessness. i have to ask, why aren't they focused on protecting our elections. they have a guy who's a republican, who was appointed by the president. it doesn't make any sense to me. >> jeff sessions continuing to back his deputy, however, take a listen. >> my deputy, rod rosenstein is highly capable. i have the highest confidence in him, you probably know, not only did he go to the wharton school of business, but graduated from harvard right here in this area. so what i would like congress to do is to focus on some of the legal challenges that are out there. >> very to ask you, adrian. what do you think is really behind this move by the freedom

caucus. and all the stuff we've been talking about? >> it's two things, the freedom caucus is trying to do everything they can to undermine the mueller investigation, they're going after one of their own. he's overseeing the mueller investigation. this is what their base wants to hear, there have been some reports that have come out this weekend that there are people in american who are staunch supporters of trump who are glad that russia interfered in the election, because they wanted to make sure that donald trump won. the freedom caucus, jim jordan, mark meadows, all of their members are doing what donald trump's base and their base wants. >> let's talk about our relationship with russia. putin invited trump to moscow. john bolton says the summit is being put off until next year, when the witch hundred is the

over. is it clear that the mueller investigation is over, what do you think the postponement of this meeting possibly indicates? >> i don't any of us has an idea. i think more than likely, knowing him, he will probably wait until after midterms, because he doesn't want to impact the election whatsoever. as it relates to russia and putin, i have no idea what the administration is attempting to do here, there isn't a coherent strategy. i don't see how inviting putin to the white house benefits -- i mean in a classical sense, there's a lack of courage and a lack of magg in a minitti we have expected with all of our presidents of the past. for some odd reason, the republicans, a party that respects tradition, that respects norms have flown all of those things out the door and for what, it's not going to

benefit us in the long run. i don't know what the president seeks to gain out of this. >> seems like an apt word to describe the relationship with russia. some foreign policy experts agree with trump that he's been tougher on russia than the previous administration, why is there disconnect between policy and trump's reluctance to criticize putin and what we're seeing. >> i'm not sure who those experts are, or their credibility. it's not true, donald trump is buddied up to our biggest adversaries out there, north korea, russia, china to an extent. and at the expense of our democratic allies, he's alienated some of our closest allies, candidate to put at the top of the list. bust i want to go back to something that john bolton said, the fact that the national security adviser of the united states of america is actually

calling the mueller investigation -- which is looking into the interference of russia, calling a witch hunt in the official white house statement is, i can't believe this is actually happening, i guess we can't -- there's nothing that's shocking any more. i think it's important to realize, this is the national security adviser who made this statement, this is a person who's in donald trump's ear, constantly advising him on all matters of national security, we're going down a dangerous road here. >> certainly interesting wording. >> michael singleton. thanks for being with us. >> thanks so much. >> still ahead, we're going to be talking about facebook. what led to the social media giant's one day, $120 billion market plunge, if you can believe it. liberty mutual accident forgiveness means

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tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. don't let another morning go by without talking to your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. welcome back. rocked by scandal this year, facebook now dealing with the aftermath of its worst week ever in history. the social network thursday lost nearly $120 billion in the largest one-day drop ever in wall street. to put that in perspective, in one day, facebook lost roughly the entire market capital of mcdonald's, give or take a few

billion. so founder mark zuckerberg himself lost $17 billion in that sell-off. the company blames slow growth in the afr management of the whole cambridge analytica -- aftermath of the whole cambridge analytica controversy. facebook admitted data from 87 million users may have been shared with cambridge analytica which used the information for political purposes. not what they bargained for. joining me, nbc news senior business reporter ben popkin, and elizabeth dwaskin, silicon valley correspondent for the "washington post." thanks for being here. ben, how did facebook get here? $120 billion loss. we knew that they couldn't withstand those sky-high valuations and live up to them. but no one expected the hit to be this big. >> right. i mean, this has been a hyp hyper-growth company, 40% growth for a long time, and planning for it. facebook told everybody, you know, hit the brakes, we're switching to being a 20% growth company. they're increasing margins,

they're spending money, spending more money to crack down on some of these behaviors. data scandals finally coming home to roost, finally hitting their bottom line. cambridge analytica, russian interference, fake news, info. wars, all these things are clustering together. they're finally having to pay the price. and it's really -- you know, why it was so steep was because investors, what analysts told me, they didn't expect this to come so quickly. they thought maybe six months from now it will kind of taper down to 35% growth. maybe go and trend down. it was so hard and so fast, and that's why it got hit with that 20% massive historic ding. >> really surprising. so elizabeth, i wanted your take. mark zuckerberg warning his investors there would be a hit to profits because of investments made into security. doing the right thing was going to cost them. but isn't that an easier story to tell than the fact that they're having this big problem with user growth? >> no, i think you're absolutely right. look, it's what's -- as a tech reporter, you're looking at the

story. he said that profits might be dinged about a year ago, agent months ago. he -- eight months ago. he said it, and as a reporter you think when is it going to catch up to them. all in one day it did. it's not really the user growth. one piece is they lost about three million users in europe, a big deal. their growth has basically been flat in the thu-- in the united. it is growing in the developing world but not as quickly. there's still a lot of people who could still come on facebook. there is still room to grow there. i think it's more about the cost of some of the privacy features that they're building, and like for instance, you know you can clear your browser, you can clear your cookies? facebook recently introduced a clear-history tab. it's one piece of the toolkit they're releasing to reduce the data they can collect. and that's going to reduce their margins. i think that's what they're really talking about. >> and a big question is zuckerberg's role in all this.

he laughed off accusations two years ago that his company allowed a platform for misinformation that could have impacted the 2016 election. take a listen. >> personally, i think the idea that fake news on facebook of which, you know, it's a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way i think is a pretty crazy idea. >> so he apologized after that. he faced testimony on capitol hill. is he going to survive this latest hit in your opinion? >> well, there have been growing calls for ways to limit his power. he's chairman and ceo. he has these sort of super shares that give him massive control over the company and limit investor voice. there are calls for him to step down. from what it looks like, you know, facebook will continue. this is not the end of facebook by any means. but it is definitely a

significant turning point where they have to change their strategy. let's face it, facebook at its core is based on violating your privacy. it's based on getting you -- tricking you into giving up as much information about yourself as you possibly can so they can give it to advertisers, so they can deliver you highly targeted ads. all these steps that they're doing to make facebook safer, make it easier to use, giving you tools, that limits their ability to invade your privacy. so their problems are completely contrary to their core business models. so they're really at this -- at this crux. and they're going to keep having problems. their business model creates the problems. simply spending more money, adding 5,000, 10,000 more contractors to pull away this crazy inflammatory content, that's not going to stop another russia hack, some other kind of even more, worse misinformation from bubbling up again. that's what facebook really has to contened with. >> right. these are not the problems that mark zuckerberg and others in

silicon valley, billionaires, signed up for when they started these things. face it, facebook is still a massive profitable company, and it will do just fine. it just has some growth -- growing pains to go through. ben, elizabeth, thank you for sharing your insight with us. >> thanks. tonight, msnbc presenting a special look at some dramatic efforts to rescue those 12 boys and their soccer coach from a cave in thailand. you'll hear firsthand from members of the rescue team. they took part in the 18-day mission. watch "inside story: thai cave rescue," tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern only on msnbc. and it's a fascinating tale.

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that's it for me. i'm gigi stone woods. the news continues right now with my colleague, david, who's been tweeting this whole hour -- >> constantly. thank you very much. great to see you. good afternoon, i'm david gura at msnbc headquarters in new york. we start this hour with president trump who is spending the weekend at his golf resort in bedminster, new jersey. the president ending his week touting friday's economic numbers. second-quarter gdp growth of 4.1%, that is the fastest pace since 2014. he's not been able to change the subject, avoiding all questions about the latest revelations from his former personal attorney michael cohen who nbc news reports is prepared to tell investigators that president trump had prior knowledge of that now-infamous june,