i want to bring in clint watts, former fbi special agent. he was with us from the beginning he was supposed to be on the show for something unrelated and this happened. you and i talked about whether or not this might be a targeted killing of journalists. we don't have that information right now. what we do know is that the n.y.p.d. deployed kou counter-terrorism units to media organizations in new york. the president of the united states has said the media is the enemy. asked about the president's criticism now, just on his way back from wisconsin the president and his staff, sarah huckabee sanders, said the president and his staff do not believe violence is acceptable in any situation, and we stand by that. but, clint, let's just call a spade a spade. the press is under some pressure. and for the moment, you can't put out of your mind the fact that this was a shooting at a newspaper. i don't know what i wish it to be. i don't want it to be a domestic situation. i don't want it to be somebody with a grudge against their boss. but we cannot

and clint watts joins me now. >> thanks for having me. very much. nt to get to today in a second but let's go back to 2014.t you're investig terrorists and even talking to some terrorists and that's when you first encounter russian trolls. tell us aboutt. t >> russian trolls were different from normalrolls. everybody gets trolls if you're on social media but they tend to not stick around, forev they're motivated usually whenever you're talking but this was continuousn . wu looked at the accounts, they were sharing basically the same message, they will share the same content or links and they also look to be almost uniformly spread around the world and they would talk all hours of the night. it's the first time i saw a sustained and persistent campaign that looked larger buto when you gohe core of it was just a few small actors and i knew i t was ono something different from the terrorism field i was looking at before. >> fast forward to 2016, russia launched what you called the most sophisticated hacking hmpaign in world history but they weren't onk

clint watts is an msnbc national security analyst, former fbi special agents. as you look at the situation, what comes to mind. >> it is a pretty massive response and it's overwhelming. i think obviously the outcome is going to be pretty damaging and negative. what you saw there were people being escorted out from the area. they did not seem to be running. it seems like the police are very much in charge of the situation and have a solid response plan. >> a dog that is now sniffing all of the cars in the parking lot. >> i think it's evidence of what is the nature of common practice now in our country which is responding to an active shooter situation. if you remember back five or ten years ago the approach that law enforcement oftentimes was a wait and see, let's develop the situation. that has since changed. now you see overwhelming response used. eliminate the threat, go after the shooter very aggressively. i'm hoping what we are seeing here is that either the shooter has been apprehended, identified or somewhere removed from the situation so it's not really

clint watts, former fbi special agent and author of the new book "messing with the enemy, surviving in social media world of hackers, terrace, and fake news." stewart,ming up, corey most republicans don't want him to run. they are running away from him, but is he still running? he says senator tim kaine hates america. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ shery: this is "bloomberg markets: balance of power." i'm shery ahn in new york. kevin: i'm kevin cirilli and washington, d.c. by corey stewart, trying to unseat summit -- senator tim kaine. republicans are running away from your candidacy. why? corey: i beat their guy. i beat their guy and virginia. they took the best shot they could. the president is behind me, and we are going to win this thing. it will be more competitive as the president said. kevin: he tweeted about you. did anyone from the administration call you? corey: we think we will be working together. kevin: has it steve bannon call you -- called the? -- called you? has he offered to help your campaign? corey: clint: i can't discuss that. kevin: the kochrothers, a dominant force, in te

joining me clint watts author of "social media world" and msnbc security analyst. t, very good to talk to you. i want to get right to it, is this going to abe gift for the president whose birthday is on thursday. or critical in a way that is not useful to the president? >> i think it will be what the politics of either side makes it out to be. and i think it will be told in a couple different ways. what we haven't really addressed, whether this inversion, or even right now with special counsel most election is the interactions between the attorney general and the department of justice and the fbi. we've been talking about recusal since the election and how did director comey handle things with lynch in terms of the hillary clinton investigation. so, that's what i'm looking for, whenever the report comes out, is why did director comey decide, he claims he wanted to have that public press conference. and ultimately that was the justification used to fire him. so, i'm curious as to what the report says about that interaction between the fbi and department of justice be

at the foreign policy research institute and author of the new book, "messing with the enemy," clint watts applause )

me now, stephanie douglas of the fbi national security branch who worked with robert mueller and clint watts, author of messing with the enemy, surviving in the social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians, and fake news. i want to start with you on this, clint. to pete's point about peter strok. i don't know this guy. i don't know why he sent the text he sent and i don't know what his biases are. but it's an interesting argument that his lawyer makes, in a decision whether you turn up the heat on the clinton e-mail investigation at that point in the political cycle or the russia investigation, he seemed to have come to the judgment that the russia investigation is more important. i'm sure the agency was pivoting in an aggressive way to look at hey is russia trying to influence the u.s. election, are they trying to penetrate campaigns? that would have been top priority across the board. i think it's legitimate. what we have learned is u.s. government personnel speaking on their government cell phones all of that is ultimately going to be out in public. not only did strzok say disparag

attorney in the southern district of new york and msnbc national security analyst clint watts. talk about a timely book. congratulations to you. first to you, prosecutors do not like witness tampering. this could be a serious deal for manafort. >> absolutely. it's not just that prosecutors don't like witness tampering, judges don't. this is something that judges take very seriously. and you know i really think assuming that the facts are proven to the judge, which it sounds like they will be. sounds like they have very good i think at's probably why they waited even though this started back in february. they obviously wanted to get all their ducks in a row to really be able to show the judge this happened. a judge is going to be, i think, very leery of leaving someone out on bail who has not just witness tampered, attempted tamper with witnesses but done it in such a brazen way while already on electronic monitoring, while asking for looser bail conditions. he has shown himself to be reckless. that is something a judge will consider is he isn't someone who can be trusted to abi

. >> for more on the probe and the president's power, i'm joined by contributor clint watts, former fbi special agent author of the new book "messing with the enemy," and bob bauer, professor at the n xwr u school of law. as a former white house counsel, i know the pardon decisions came through that office after it went to the pardon attorney. what do you assess is going on with the president's pardons right now? >> this is an area he believes mistakenly he has absolute discretion to act as he wishes. that's what he thinks. now there play it be other things going on, sending messages to people caught up in the russia investigation he's a pardon happy president and he can make them happy. there's also the possibility that he's just having a good old time because this is something that he can do and his lawyers told him he's unrestricted in doing it. i want to emphasize he's mistaken. >> why? >> there is absolutely no support for his position that it is clear absolutely clear and everybody agrees that he can self-pardon, for example. moreover, there's no support for the position and i'll

nistal and glen who retired days ago and you're out here and working on a sunday afternoon and clint watts, msnbc security analyst and former fbi special agent and author of a new book which i think just came out a couple of weeks ago, right? >> last week. >> "messing with the enemy." you've got to read it. >> everybody, let's get started and unbelievable stuff, and i'll start with you, glen, since you just retired out of the gate here. admitting here that -- that the president basically dictated the memo about donald trump jr.'s meeting with trump tower to the new york times here. what do you make of that? >> at first blush, it seems like it might be blockbuster evidence and i'm not so sure it is and here's why. because he wasn't president at the trump tower meeting and others provided me information, i took in the information and all i really tried to do was help word smith his statement. i think it's troubling. i think any time we have these flip-flops and we've seen them over and over again that it's reason tbe concerned. i think bob mueller will be extremely interested in it, and howe

. >> clint watts, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, who we are, and how we got here. jeffrey brown takes a time- traveling look at how modern researchers e using the latest d.n.a. sequencing technology to understand the movements and interactions of very ancient humans. it is the latest in our weekly science series, "the leading edge." >> reporter: it's a trip into the deep human past, in a lab at the harvard medical school. disposable tyvek suits, gloves, headgear-- all requid avoid contamination of the ancient bones being sdied here. >> the bones we're looking at right now are about 5,000 to 6ea,000old samples from italy. and we're trying to understand ptropulatiosformations in italy over time. >> reporter: david reich, who h this lab, is at the forefront of a revolution in dst.n.aies now providing new insight into human history as old as 40,000 years. >> we can open up an ancient skeleton from 10,000 years ago, seence its genome, have as much information from that andncientidual as we would have from a person living today. >> reporter: and tell a story about them

. >> i'm joined by clint watts. he's a national security analyst and author of the new book "messing with the enemy: surviving in a world of hackers, russians and fake news." i'm also with glen hirschner. he spent 30 years in washington, d.c. and worked for bob mueller. clint, i want to start with you with what we've been learning throughout the course of this hearing, and particularly those text messages that have come to light as part of this inspector general's report. specially peter strzok, one of the agents involved, suggesting via text that he would do something to prevent president trump from being elected in the course of his back and forth as these investigations were ongoing. obviously, republicans have seized on this, even democrats in that hearing. you heard senator dick durbin there saying, no one is defending what he did. he was trying instead to make clear that this didn't ultimately impact the investigation, but how damaging is this revelation to the fbi and their credibility? >> i think it hurts, a

investigation and the actual threat moscow may still pose, we are joined now by former fbi special agent clint wattsy. congratulations on the book, very timely. let's pick up on this idea of the president'spowers. the republican party has been reluctant until now to cross the president on a whole host of issues. when the president says he is basically above the law and can pardon himself, are we seeing that as a red line that republicans would cross? yes, this is way beyond the norm. to the president's credit, he has pushed his own power until it has been checked. and until we see congress, which it is now, starting to say, we are not going to say you can pardon yourself or that you are above the law. so the president has pushed all the way up to what are some red lines and you are starting to see his party pushback. the subtitle of your book is surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news. why hasn't united states or populations in europe done enough so far to protect themselves against the kind of threat that russia posed in the 2016 election and subsequent elec

in addition to senator cruz and rubio, former fbi special agent clint watts, who has testified before the senate intelligence committee, also identified russian efforts to undermine the presidential campaigns of senator graham and florida governor jeb bush. he ensure the kremlin did not and does not simply help to shape the outcome of a general election. the kremlin also hopes to shape the outcomes of primaries, thereby denying americans their right to choose, their own political leaders, free of interference or coercion from foreign powers. the kremlin is interested not only in a candidate who stands the best chance of winning, it would be valid for moscow if it can influence how campaigns are framed, what direction a party takes in from letting its platform, and undermining public trust in those who win the election. the threat to future american elections is of course not limited to russia, or even to state actors. the foreign threat is broader and the danger is even greater if americans are willing to encourage support, coordinate, or conspire with foreign agents, being willing is

. >> polit reporter for axios, and the author of the new book "messing with the enemy", clint watts.n. >> i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters. >> well, the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani seems to hearken back to those comments in an interview just released by the "huffington post." giuliani said, quote, if he shot james comey, he'd be impeached the next day, but giuliani said in no case can the president be subpoenaed or indicted even in the case of shooting comey. i'm not really quite sure where to go with this. except to say they have been trying to argue that the president can't be indicted. and he seemed to be using an example, well, okay, if he shot james comey, he could be impeached but doesn't mean he could be indicted for murder. >> he manages to extend every story. you know, the president wanted him out there mixing it up. he's getting that. but yes, that is what he is emphasizing here, is that the giuliani's interviews, there were a number of them today, in which he said the president cannot be indicted and cannot

joining me now our zerlina maxwell and danny cevallos, clint watts and jameel smith. thank you for being here. let's take the viewers back to that infamous donald trump jr. statement about that trump tower meeting. he wrote in that statement, it was a short introductory meeting. i asked jared and paul to stop by. we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children that was active and popular with american families years ago and was since ended by the russian government but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow-up. and then sarah huckabee sanders says in august 1, 2017, she denied that trump dictated this statement. let's take a listen. >> he certainly didn't dictate, but, you know, like i said he weighed in and offered suggestions like any father would do. >> danny, i have to come to you first on the legality of all of this. we now know in a confidential memo back in january, jay says that the president dictated a short but accurate statement legally, what are we looking at here? >> take the underlying facts. this whole ru