clint watts, former fbi special agent, his latest, "messing with the enemy: surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians, and fake news." and shannon pettypiece, white house correspondent for bloomberg. clint, i have to ask you, if you came across the type of behavior we are seeing from the nation's chief executive in your old day job at the fbi, how would that alter your investigation? what would that do? >> it just adds to the pile. and it continues the timeline. i think several interesting things about this obstruction angle is, we're hearing some negotiation from the mueller team about taking written responses to questions and then sitting down for an interview. i'm sure -- >> isn't that just to get him in the door? >> it is. and it could play very much to the president's disadvantage strategically, because as we've seen, the president doesn't like to read very much. i doubt he's actually going to be the one crafting up all these statements. he'll be working with his legal team. >> that's probably correct, yes. >> he'll have to go in and understand and know wha

clint watts, thanks very much.king around. >>> enter stage left, the progressive democrats line up to speak at the netroots gathering. i got a little hint of it with my discussion with senator klobuchar. just as important, the democrats who weren't there. stick around. and best in-class torque the f-150 lineup has the capability to get big things to big places --bigtime. and things just got bigger. f-150 is now motor trend's 2018 truck of the year. this is the new 2018 ford f-150. it doesn't just raise the bar, pal. it is the bar. the full value oft wyour new car? you'd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that. with liberty mutual new car replacement we'll replace the full value of your car. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪ with my bladder leakage, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were very saggy. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with new sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. introducing more sizes for better comfort. new depend fit-fl

we've asked clint watts, former fbi agent to stick around.ess their motives and beliefs, what else should we know about them? >> unfortunately, you got it all right. there's not much to know. this is a conspiracy theory that donald trump is doing everything right. anything that looks like he's >> military people, i will tell you that. >> what storm, mr. president? >> you'll find out. thank you, everybody. >> calm before the storm. nbc news reporter ben cohen covers this and has been looking into the group and writing about them. we've asked clint watts, former fbi agent to stick around. ben, i guess their motives and beliefs, what else should we know about them? >> unfortunately, you got it all right. there's not much to know. this is a conspiracy theory that donald trump is doing everything right. anything that looks like he's doing it wrong is the right thing. they've misconstrued typos to make it look like he's in on it. at the end of the day this is a situation where people on the internet can't grapple with the reality of the situation.

first i want to bring in nbc's national security analyst clint watts. he's a former fbi special agent and the author of "messing with the enemy, surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news." clint, you've been with us through this whole thing, this whole unfolding of the mystery of russian hacking and the tacit and lacking in confidence embraces of this information. what does today feel like to you? >> it's remarkable that the institutions are essentially moving around the leader, their leader, to execute these policies. these are things that should have been done immediately after 2016. i've been to many parts of the government since 2016. i've talked to them. in each of those briefings, i kind of look and i go i hope you've got this. the room is very quiet. i don't doubt that our civil servants, our intelligence community, our military people, want to move the ball forward and do what's right. so what i think you saw today was a press briefing where essentially each of the institutions said my duty is to you, the u

clint watts. and he said something that's echoed in people's heads ever since. >> this is not new for the russians. they've done this for a long time across europe. but he was much more engaging this time in our election. why now? mr. watts? >> i think this answer is very simple and is what no one is really saying in this room which is part of the room active measures have worked in this u.s. election is because the commander in chief has used russian active measures at times against his opponents. on 11 october, president trump stood on a stage and cited what appeared to be a fake news story from sputnik news that disappeared from the internet. he denies the intel from the united states about russia. he claimed that the election could be rigged. that was the number one theme pushed by rt sputnik news all the way up till the election. >> as we look at another election, i want to bring in clint watts, he'ses an author of "messing with the enemy." i imagine that as a person involved in law enforceme

we've asked clint watts, former fbi agent to stick around. ben, i guess their motives and beliefs, what else should we know about them? >> unfortunately, you got it all right. there's not much to know. this is a conspiracy theory that donald trump is doing everything right. anything that looks like he's doing it wrong is the right thing. they've misconstrued typos to make it look like he's in on it. at the end of the day this is a situation where people on the internet can't grapple with the reality of the situation. it's to take out all of the disinformation. that's what you see here, they've accused people from celebrities to politicians of a sex ring. it's pizza gate. it's amped up with the help of people on twitter, reddit and facebook. >> you do your work as we do ours in a free society where it's hard to limit this kind of thing. it's hard to squelch or suppress it. look at the climate this is coming up in. >> right. going back two years ago we saw the kremlin pushing a lot of disinformation around the election. what we're seeing now is

and what we must work on every day as individuals thrilled to introduce our keynote speech and clint watts u.s. army officer military intelligence and counterterrorism background now for cyberand homeland security at george washington university and i think it is fair to say a foremost expert on the issue that will give us an excellent sense of where things have been but also where they are going clint told me in this book there is a chapter that they did not publish that was a bit of science fiction of how manipulation campaigns could play out and how technology could vet those things. with the personal security with those russian efforts to interfere and of course to testify to the senate about russian election interference now i will introduce clint watts to give us a talk with some q&a and then focus for audience questions. and we will ask questions into the microphone so people can answer questions. >> or in the tradition of misinformation to misidentify yourself. [laughter] as most of my career in recent years is this identification so that is where i will start today thank you for h

and also joining the pel, clint watts. welcome.to divide this panel up a little bit of politics and a little bit of tech. the con gtradicting or denying. the president is tweeting about the infamous trump tower meeting and he says here, fake news reporting, a complete fabric cation that i am concerned about the meeting m wonderful son, donald had in trump tower. it went nowherend i did not know about it. it is the president admitting that his son had aeeng with russian operatives to get dirto illary clinton. >> we spent a week, my colleagues and i reporting side the white house, talking to officials, the prclident's e friends and he may not be ncerned about what happened at the meeting but he is concerned about the legal scrutinyg com close to home. his son in the. spotlig you have all of these forces coming together as the president is facin mueller making moves, possible subpoena if he declines the interview. >> what is going on withhe president. >> we knew before that the president was concerned about the meeting, concerned enou

. >> i want to bring in clint watts. in a social media world, hackers and fake news, as a person involved in law enforcement, you don't get any personal pleasure. you go from being early and right about something that is such a massive problem. but the way you put it there in a serious setting to congress, that early on, was far ahead of where people were comfortable stating the problem that you said these russian active measures were put in place basically more effectively because of the way donald trump behaved. how does that context apply? >> it is a happy, sad moment. that is a briefing that should have happened in february 2017. president trump was briefed about this before the inauguration, we know now. and yet there was no response. and the person that should have been leading that press conference today is the commander in chief of this country. it is his job to defend all americans against enemies, foreign and domestic. and particularly when they come together. he should be trying to ensure the integrity of our

with us we have mike barnicle and jonathan lamir and former fbi special agent and contributor clint watts and national political reporter heidi. i say we are getting close and that may sound like an overstatement, but we're understating what we are seeing every day. ask someone like madeline albright whether what she sees here is the beginning of a very bad scene for this country that does not look like a democracy. >> a bad scene for a country, willie, if you don't have people pushing back. we talked about the commander that pushed back a couple days ago told the truth about warnings and we actually saw john cornyn and some republicans step out yesterday, susan collins saying, no, he can't do that. so, there was pushback and there will be push back. but, you know, we're talking about the white house and donald trump specifically provoking fights and violence towards reporters a couple days ago and then the white house comes out and says, oh, he never taukdlke about violence. then speaking of fake news, you have sarah huckabee sanders pushing a lie, the fake news about some report on osam

. >> clint watts, what should americans be looking for in their own facebook and twitter feeds?pposed to be able to tell what's fake, what's real, what's false, what's true? >> yeah, the big thing i tell people is to go to trusted news sources and those that have an editorial process around it. another thing you can always look at with social media, this is how the trick kind of has been played out in the past, if you get a link from a friend, you are trusting really your friend or your family member as the source of the information. but that's not exactly right because they may be passing you junk information. so always look at the information source and ask a couple things. one, have you ever heard of it, two, do you know where it's actually produced? if you can't identify the actual reporter, the person, actual location which the content is being produced, it is usually a good indication you might not want to trust that information source because it's easier for them to dupe you if you can't be held responsible for the information that's out there. >> good advice as always. c

sam nunberg, anna schechter, clint watts. stay tuned. john flannery, we have more questions for you basil breaking news in the paul manafort trial as we said up top. the court was scheduled to reconvene a couple minutes ago after an abrupt and unexpected recess this morning. the prosecution was expected to rest its case today, but then judge t.s. ellis halted proceedings and ordered the jury to return at 1:45. it is now 2:12. we are waiting for an up jat from our reporters in the courtroom. john, given your experience in matters like these, what's going on in your estimation? why would a judge halt proceedings so abruptly? >> well, there are two paths here. one is what was said by the judge in court as reported. there was a 15-minute recess in which they talked with both defense and prosecution on a sidebar with white sound being pumped through the courtroom. and then he said that he had to take two hours. he being the judge, judge ellis. he said that he had other matters pending that he had to take care of. that didn't sound true to me

i would love to talk to clint watts about it. this is a topic we're not going to let go of. ivanka trump shot down her father's claim that the press is the enemy of the people and now he's responding. it's pretty amazing out there. the world is full of more possibilities than ever before. and american express has your back every step of the way- whether it's the comfort of knowing help is just a call away with global assist. or getting financing to fund your business. no one has your back like american express. so where ever you go. we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. don't live life without it. the smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. and now there's a new way to smooth. introducing new venus platinum. a premium metal handle boosts control... to reveal up to 100% smooth skin. venus >>> i have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they're sort of feel targeted, but no, i do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people. >> that's ivanka trump this morn

democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota and nbc news national security analyst clint watts. also, the trump loyalty test. hugging president trump has become the republican go-to strategy. >> then mr. trump said you're -- i love that part. >> it works great in the primaries, but will candidates pay a price in november? i'll ask long time republican adman mike murphy. joining me for insight and analysis are robert costa, moderator of washington week on pbs. helenen cooper. and al cars that and elia ya johnson. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. one of the questions that emerged during the campaign was this. should we take donald trump seriously or literally? well, now he's president of the united states. so are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he says that the mueller investigation that his attorney general should stop what he calls this rigged witch-hunt right now. are we supposed to take him seriously or l

former fbi special agent clint watts. clint is also an msnbc analyst. okay.ohn brennan loses his security clearance. john, i just want to talk to you about why john brennan would have a security clearance in the first place. it's a need to know basis. the president taking it from him, who does that hurt? because i imagine that john brennan can't go to the cia and say, i need to know this, that, or the other. i imagine the cia goes to john brennan and says, we need your help on this. we got to read you in. >> yes. katy, you have it exactly right. i think there is a lot of misunderstanding about the issue. it's an arcane thing and this has never been bdone from this level. so what happens when you retire from the government, if you have had a top secret or high-level security clearance it goes inac actively. you no longer have access to classified information. however, for a period of time, if your clearance is maintained, if you are called back in to teach a class, sit on a panel, be on an advisory board or someone of mr. brennan's stature or general hayden's

joining the conversation former fbi special agent and msnbc contributor clint watts.he washington post david ignatius, former chair of the republican national committee michael steele joins us. yay. good to have you all on board. >> willie, it's august. can i talk to willie about august? >> very briefly. >> don't you find that new york city is at its finest, now it's the best in august. i don't know whether new york city or new orleans, louisiana, smells better in august. >> on bourbon street, you get the heat, the asphalt, the bus fumes and the dog urine that's been on the sidewalk now for 11 months is able to seep up and create a vapor in the air. >> wow. i'm always wondering -- >> next to the piles of trash. >> where willie is going to go with this. >> it's like orson wells said will eat no cow before its time. we will drink no wine -- >> it's the greatest city in the world but it has some summer smell issues that should be addressed. >> mike barnacle, any chance to talk about johnny carson. >> the king. >> i want to talk about johnny carson. >> the king. >> can yo

. >> and mitchell and clint watts and peter baker, can't thank you enough for starting our conversation. >> coming up, when jurors return tomorrow in the courthouse, they'll have manafort's case and his faith in their hands. "the 11th hour" is just getting started on the feet of the abraham lincoln on a wednesday night. ahh... summer is coming. and it's time to get outside. pack in even more adventure with audible. with the largest selection of audiobooks. audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. or discover magic when you hit the open road. with the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. and for just $14.95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. if you don't like it exchange it any time. no questions asked. you can also roll your credits to the next month if you don't use them. so take audible with you this summer... on the road... on the trail... or to the beach. start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free. cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. no matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. text sum

clint watts, i want to you comment on this and then you can take a question to zephyr. i'm a little struck by what lanny said about michael cohen's turning point, that it was helsinki and that he saw sort of a deinvolving in trump's brain that his bad behavior was going to extend instead of pull back and that he could hurt this country. that matches what i feel and know about trump that he deflects when ever he's under siege. and many consider this president to be vladimir putin's useful idiot. and i am concerned he will make a huge effort to deflect, probably using fox news hosts as his sounding board, and try to deflect from these headlines but in the process put our nation at risk. and as an fbi profiler, is this something that you would be concerned about? is this a realistic concern? do i sound crazy? >> you're not crazy. in fact, i think the president said at different times he sort of offered up it would be a good time for a war. maybe i need a war. maybe i need a trade war. i need a conflict to distract. >> maybe we ought to take him seriously. >> he tends to te

. >> and mitchell and clint watts and peter baker, can't thank you enough for starting our conversation. >> coming up, when jurors return tomorrow in the courthouse, they'll have manafort's case and his faith in their hands. "the 11th hour" is just getting started on the feet of the abraham lincoln on a wednesday night. by zero ♪ what will you discover with a lens made by essilor? sharper vision, without limits. days that go from sun up to sun down. a whole world in all its beauty. three innovative technologies for our ultimate in vision, clarity, and protection. together in a single lens. essilor ultimate lens package. purchase the essilor ultimate lens package and get a second pair of qualifying lenses free. essilor. better sight. better life. - anncr: as you grow older, -your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationw

republican james lankford and a couple of people from the iel community including former fbi eight clint watts the social media expert on that front to see how real is this threaea how is -- how real is it and frankly is the president still assistingn it to be frank when he's sowing this discord in. >> we'll see you sunday morning at 10:30 for "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> well, a community is inel dif after a raging fire at a local fire coming up. what customers have to say about the former waiter who is now chged with setting that fire. georgetown university respond to the story of an inming freshman who was kicked out of his hecese he's key. >> and channel your inner ccr. lauryn ricketts has --as the clear water revival for you to get that one. >> yes. >> she's got a step-day forecast for you. for you. we'll see if it's dry welcome guys! hi! you are gonna love the neighborhood! it's totally wired for fios. is that a good thing? good? fiber-optics can move crazy amounts of data at even crazier speeds. and fios is a 100% fiber-optic network, so you can stream, game, and watch 4k show

joining me now, agent on the joint terrorist task force, the author of "messing with the enemy," clint wattsid alert law enforcement this week of a fishing attempt to access voter files. this attack was detected on tuesday. we don't know how much else is out there. clint, there is a lot of noise here, the social media, google and facebook and twitter are being invited -- they're not being invited, they're told to come to a senate conference hearing two weeks from today in fact. congress is up in arms about the fact that the media giants have not been diligent enough of patrolling their platforms. >> that's right. what's fascinating here is among between capitol hill and the social media, tlhere is a tug o war over the last year and a half. we are starting to see technology companies really move forward. we have seen facebook now with two different announcements over the last month. we have seen twitter with an announcement today and microsoft taking an innovative approach by going out and seizing domain essentially which are impersonating the hudson institute and gop in the sense going after

clint watts is our msnbc national security analyst.e former acting director of the cia put it this way. people are saying to the president we'll not be intimidated by you. >> what do you make of the fact that you got 250 people signing onto this paper? >> i think it is a helicoptcont of many years essentially of people worried of the sb intelligence process. >> i think the institutions at least internally in the government were steadfast and we are going to follow the rules of the institution and support the people of the united states and that means we are going to fight for those principles. here what we see is the president gone down a path with the politicalization of security clearances where everybody has to pick a side. what you are seeing is people work in the institutions say i am no going to pick a size other than the american people. >> some of the people have been critical of brennan himself. they think maybe he has been a little political which for them does not take away their argument which is you can't use the security

joining me now is msnbc national security analyst clint watts, former fbi special agent on the joint terror task force, and author of "messing with the enemy: surviving the social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians, and fake news." and with me here, juan zerate, former adviser to president george w. bush and an msnbc national security analyst. juan, on russia reacting, this is dmitri peskov, kremlin spokesman, and he says such decisions taken by the americans are absolutely unfriendly and can hardly be somehow associated with the constructive, not simple but constructive atmosphere that there was at the last meeting of the two presidents. well, constructive for whom, the helsinki summit? >> the russians are reacting in the way that's predictable. they were hoping the summit at helsinki were usher in a greater openness towards russia. these sanctions signal two things, one, the u.s. officially blaming them for the nerve agent attack in london, and slapping on what are even stronger sanctions to isolate the russian economy and to affect even potentially the existence of russi

. >> and mitchell and clint watts and peter baker, can't thank you enough for starting our conversation. >> coming up, when jurors return tomorrow in the courthouse, they'll have manafort's case and his faith in their hands. "the 11th hour" is just getting started on the feet of the abraham lincoln on a wednesday night. this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. . >>> president trump is prepared to fight a possible mueller subpoena all the way to the supreme court as they say if it comes to that. that's according to a new recording from "the washington post." the trump team is still waiting for the special counsel to respond to the interview. in the meantime, trump's lawyers are prepared to oppose a potential subpoena from mueller for a trump sit-down. that news comes from rudy giuliani trying to press

and clint watt, msnbc security analy analyst., tell us more about what we learned about the hack targeting senators. >> ayman, so this is microsoft blowing the horn here, not the government. they're saying there are conservatives think tanks. one of those is the hudson institute. these are conservative but they haven't always been in line with the white house policy, particularly when they say there should be harder sanctions against russia and they've spoken out against some human rights abuses in russia. they say people can come on to these websites, think they're reading materials published by these think tanks or think they might be supporting them when they're being led to things that are controlled and being published by perhaps the gru, that same group that was involved in the hacking attacks that mueller laid out in his latest indictment. so they are really using kind of classic phishing software here in some ways and leading them into places where they might kind of be going under a guise of one of these conservative thi

susteren talks about her book everything you need to know about social media and former fbi agent clint watts talks about the role of social media in modern warfare in messing with the enemy. booktv in prime time each week on >> call newseum. >> interviews with freedom caucus at 3:20 p.m. discussing her book failure, the federal miseducation of america's children. at 6:30 robert poole with rethinking america's highways, a 21st-century discussion of veteran infrastructure and at 1:00 pm st

we want to bring in gene ross, a former federal prosecutor as well as clint watts an fbi special agent and msnbc national security analyst. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> gene, on the face of it if you're looking at misdeeds by paul manafort which what is this case is about, the prosecution looks to have made a pretty strong case. >> i worked for the department of justice for 27 years, i did 30 tax cases and i've said this many times, this is one of the most powerful and compelling criminal tax cases i have ever seen. $16 million not reported. the greed, the lie, the manipulation is extraordinary. i predict this, i can't guarantee a guilty verdict like joe namath did, but it's high likelihood paul manafort will be found guilty of five counts of filing a false tax return, several counts of the bar and bank fraud based on my experience. >> on monday defense lawyers filed a sealed motion and msnbc legal analyst daniel goldman caught our eye, defense counsel for paul manafort told me that the argument over the sealed motion in the manafort trial will continue this morning. seem

former fbi special agent clint watts, former assistant attorney for the southern district of new yorkaw professor jonathan turley all help break down what's next following a very dark day for the trump presidency. "morning joe," everyone, just moments away. so you have, your headphones, chair, new laptop, 24/7 tech support. yep, thanks guys. i think he might need some support. yes. start them off right, with the school supplies they need at low prices all summer long. like these for only $2 or less at office depot officemax. like these for only $2 or less the first survivor of alzis out there.ase and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen. but we won't get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer's association. little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats moderate to severe plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla . it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with... ...an increased risk of depres

and special agent clint watts who has developed records in similar federal cases.casual count looking at the questions, which can go any number of directions, would be at least one is interestingly good for manafort, because somebody in that jury room, maybe only one person, is thinking about reasonable doubt. >> yeah, ari, i would actually say maybe two to three of these are favorable to the defense. i'll explain why. you covered the reasonable doubt questions. you're right, that's a common question i've heard juries ask before. it doesn't necessarily mean they're all worried about it. it could be one or two jurors that are skeptics that the majority is trying to convince or explain. reasonable doubt is manafort's entire defense. he didn't put on any defense witnesses, they entire testifies was cross-examining the prosecution witnesses, trying to throw up some doubt. so that's important. the other question, a very technical question about ownership of foreign bank accounts, and please re-read the rule on that. the reason that's important is the question reflects t

former watergate prosecutor nick ackerman, former fbi special agent clint watts and the "the new york times" megan twoey. tom, let's start with you. i have something you haven't had a chance to get your hands on yet. you said it to me, it's the information that details everything that he said, everything that michael cohen has told them he knows. it's a lot. >> yeah, it is a lot. we had a full allocution from michael cohen. the proceedings took place nearly an hour and a half. michael cohen appeared to be anxious to speak. once he got up, he told the judge he wrote down some notes. he said that he was going to tell the judge exactly what he did and he went through the counts, the first five counts are fairly simple because they just involve tax evasion. they are fairly significant amounts of tax evasion to the tune of north of 4 million according to deputy u.s. attorney robert kusami. from there he detailed an effort to get a home equity loan, heloc loan that he did not forthright -- was not forthright with the bank as far as detailing the liabilities that he had, basically the expens