clint watts. clint is a senior research fellow at george washington university center for cyber and homeland security. he recently examined the rise of social media influence publishing his first book entitled, messing with the, enemy surviving the social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news. you covered a lot there. his research and writing focuses on terrorism, counter-terrorism, social media influence and russian disinformation. from 2014 to 20, 16 he worked with a team to track and model the rise of russian influence operations via social media leading up to the u.s. presidential election in 2016. this research led clint to testify before four different senate committees in 2017 and 2018 regarding russia's information warfare campaign against the united states on the west. before coming a consultant, clint served as a u.s. army infantry officer and fbi special agent, as the special executive officer of the batting -- as an insult to the fbi's counter-terrorism office and t

clint watts. [applause] me in welcoming dr. clint watts. [applause] clint: thank you for having me today. brad talked about this topic in 2016, nobody was too interested. i'm not sure if you're aware, russia interfered in our election. talk toy, i wanted to about something other than that. i thought a good way to put contacts on it and to think about the dilemma you all face in each of these states, which has different political and social interests. you have different populations looking at different information sources. i think that is where i would like to start. orleans and i had not been there and 25 years. -- in 25 years. that inced an audience was harry connick jr.'s stock movie had just cannot -- stopped double, because the movie had just come out. four, we set up a would have left it off. 10 years later, you would've immediately had mobile information at your fingertips. 2016,t happened today in what people believe what they saw on the internet or what they believe me -- would they believe me? posted a bunch of stories about harry

whether iowa and new hampshire should be first and another conversation and that's what i want clint watts. clint is familiar to this time slot. he's a former fbi special agent and msnbc national security analyst and author of "messing with the enemy survival in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news." and your concern, clint, is sort of secondary to you about whether iowa is first and new hampshire is second. it's actually about you can't run any sort of election process that isn't secure, isn't properly tested, doesn't have proper paper backups. let's just solve the easy to solve problems first. >> right. once you put technology into the mix, you're adding a lot of variables. so, what is the idea of technology. we can record easier and faster. we canning ing aggregate the red each piece of that makes it a little more complicated which allows for not just changing the votes, manipulating the votes or loss of data, denial of service attack. suddenly the power goes out at a polling place and those people don't get to vote and it also makes it so that disinformat

back with us again tonight clint watts, former fbi special agent, author importantly of "messing withnemy, surviving in the social media world of hackers, russians, fake news" and a distinguished research fellow at the research institute. clint, you're not with the cdc, but formerly with the fbi. how does the threat of a pandemic intersect with your world and your life's work? >> yeah, so what's fascinating about how this had played out in recent days is you have had this spread very, very quickly. you have seen the reactions that have come out there. i think italy is an interesting case to compare against china. you are seeing grocery stores cleaned out, water cleaned out. think about what our response is what a coordinated effort is. any time you're in government, the u.s. government, what we're known for is having a coordinated effort with competent leaders who know the task at hand and provide a response plan or a coordinated plan. would that happen today? i think in this current era where we have seen the white house really go after large budget cuts and large -- and in parts of

clint watts. >> thanks to everybody for having me today. it's a change from when i talked about this topic in 2016, nobody was too interested. i'm not sure if you're aware, russia interfered in our election. we haven't talked about it much for the last four years, but today, i wanted to talk to about something other than that. i thought a good way to put context on it and to think about the dilemma you all face in each of these states, which has different political, social, and financial interests. you have different populations looking at different information sources. i think that is where i would like to start. i was in new orleans earlier this week and i had not been there in 25 years. it was july 4th weekend 1996, and i convinced an audience that i was harry connick jr.'s stunt double because movie had just come out. if we had set up a four, we would have left it off. 10 years later, you would've immediately had mobile information at your fingertips. if that happened today in 2016, what people believe what they saw on the internet or w

clint watt. [ applause ] >> thanks to everybody for having me today. it is a pretty remarkable transition from what i talked about 2016, no one was too interested. not sure if you are aware of russia interfered in our elections. we have not talked about it much for the last four years. today i want to talk to you about something other than that. a good way to start it off and think about the dilemma that you all face out there in each of these states which has different interests and financial interests and different population that are looking now at different information sources. i think that's kind of where i would like to start. i was in new orleans earlier this week. so i told the story, july 4th weekend and i convinced audience that i was the stunt double because of the movie. had i done that five years later, somebody looked at the internet and told me it is impossible. we would have select it off. we are talking about 2006, you will have multiple enable information. you would be like this is not true and okay, i will buy the beer. like we just

. >>> let's turn to natasha bertrand, national security correspondent at politico and clint watts author of the book "messing with the enemy." clint, i'll go to you on this first. you know, it's one thing for donald trump to have his own sort of phycological reasons for not wanting to accept he was assisted by a foreign adversary to get elected. it's a next level for him to get enraged when he's told through the intelligence community that it may be happening again or when congress is told that. i am concerned that republicans are not showing resistance to donald trump's way of thinking here. for the republicans in that house intel committee to also get angry at the intelligence community rather than be enraged that russia was trying the same game again, that is a next level of disturbing to me. what about to you? >> yeah. joy, why would we have 17 intel agencies that we spend billions of dollars on to only tell political leaders what they want to hear? that doesn't make any sense. the role of the intel community is to inform policy-makers whether they be the legislative or the executive

joining me clint watts former agent and msnbc analyst. > what's interesting, mainly a communicator. over in germany. he's been a very contentious ambassador over there. the german press has gone after him very hard. he's been seen advancing agenda of conservatism even in europe, which is a very different than being the ambassador of the united states. what we look for with dni, can they manage a very large beaurocracy. we're talking 17 intelligence agencies, the biggest beaurocracy in the country, the united states, billions of dollars. can he manage that. his experience doesn't really match up with that. the other part, what is his career with intelligence and intelligence assessments and briefing accurate intelligence assessments. if you look at the history of dni from negroponte, clapper all these different dnis that had experience on how to manage and communicate intelligence. that's not what this nominee is. this looks like somebody who is the equivalent of attorney general barr for trump on the intelligence side but the intelligence

. >> now we turn to a national security correspondent at politico and author clint watts. it's one thing for donald trump to have his own psychological reasons for not wanting to accept he was assisted by a foreign adversary to get elected. it's the next level for him to get enraged when he's told through the intelligence community that it may be happening again or that when congress is told that. i am concerned that republicans are not showing resistance to donald trump's way of thinking here, for the republicans in that house intel committee to get angry at the intelligence community rather than be enraged russia is trying the same game again. what is it that to you? >> we have intelligence agencies that we spend billions of dollars on to only tell politician what is they want to hear. that doesn't make any sense. it to inform the legislature or the executive branch, the president, give them the best information they can so they make decisions about protecting the national security of americans. that's the whole reason for them. they're trying to give them an honest asse

matt miller, clint watts, thank you very much. >>> coming up, a made for tv state of the union, an acquittalong speech, how history may remember this whirlwind week. lwind week only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. lwind week con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ as parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. (vo) why the aceves family chose verizon. we all use our phones very differently. these two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. and my oldest is learning to be a pilot. we need a reliable network because i need to know he's safe. 'cause as soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. mama! (laughter) (vo) the network more people rely on, gives you more. like plans your family can mix and match starting at just $35. so, everyone gets the plan they need. and apple music on us. plus, iphone 11 on us when you buy the latest iphone. that's verizon. ( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medi

take and if it is already working former fbi special agent and msnbc national security analyst clint wattsformer cia chief of staff larry pfeifer, currently the director of the hayden center. larry, so russia's attempts to get into our election, i think you got to look at it two ways. long term and short term. we have the 2020 election upon us. national security sources say to me that short term there is not the intelligence that can say definitively there's a preference for donald trump but rather there is a preference to undermine our confidence in our system at whatever cost. >> well, katy, ultimately that is their primary goal. they want to disrupt our democratic system. they want us fighting amongst ourselves, focused inward rather than externally for them to make the gains that they have made in the last three and a half years. the -- frankly my view is american people need to stop worrying about which candidate they are or are not supporting and focus on the fact that they are attacking the democracy and fight against that. >> how do you become more aware of that? there's an apparat