1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:15,110 --> 00:00:18,310 - I don't think there's anything more basic 4 00:00:18,310 --> 00:00:23,163 to American citizenship as accepting not the privilege, 5 00:00:24,310 --> 00:00:26,293 but the responsibility to vote. 6 00:00:30,650 --> 00:00:32,660 - The American people are divided. 7 00:00:32,660 --> 00:00:35,200 - And there seems to be so little accountability 8 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:39,030 for brazen misstatements of fact and law. 9 00:00:39,030 --> 00:00:40,850 - It couldn't be more true 10 00:00:40,850 --> 00:00:44,530 that democracy depends on good information, 11 00:00:44,530 --> 00:00:46,980 - Their views of what is proper for the government 12 00:00:46,980 --> 00:00:49,970 to do or not do are important. 13 00:00:49,970 --> 00:00:51,970 - The election for the president is not actually 14 00:00:51,970 --> 00:00:55,050 a national election, it's 50 state elections. 15 00:00:55,050 --> 00:00:57,130 It produces a two party system. 16 00:00:57,130 --> 00:00:59,870 It certainly has worked well up to this point. 17 00:00:59,870 --> 00:01:03,343 I'm not sure it's working now, because it's splintering. 18 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:10,040 - The peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history. 19 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:12,400 - The American people can remain confident 20 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:14,640 in the resilience of our financial system. 21 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,330 - Make America great again! 22 00:01:18,330 --> 00:01:20,230 - There are two great aspects of America, 23 00:01:20,230 --> 00:01:21,930 that it's a democracy, 24 00:01:21,930 --> 00:01:24,750 and that it's a free competitive marketplace. 25 00:01:24,750 --> 00:01:28,750 - The heart of a democracy, I've always felt, 26 00:01:28,750 --> 00:01:30,080 is the First Amendment. 27 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:32,590 Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, 28 00:01:32,590 --> 00:01:33,931 et cetera, et cetera. 29 00:01:36,270 --> 00:01:38,310 - The 2016 presidential election 30 00:01:38,310 --> 00:01:40,750 made millions of American doubt the process 31 00:01:40,750 --> 00:01:42,400 used to elect our leaders, 32 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:44,740 creating questions as to the legitimacy 33 00:01:44,740 --> 00:01:46,400 of the election's outcome. 34 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,830 - The current state of our electoral system is in shambles. 35 00:01:49,830 --> 00:01:51,130 - When the winning candidate 36 00:01:51,130 --> 00:01:54,380 loses the popular vote by over two million votes, 37 00:01:54,380 --> 00:01:58,020 average Americans began to wonder why they bother to vote. 38 00:01:58,020 --> 00:02:00,510 Does their vote actually make a difference? 39 00:02:00,510 --> 00:02:04,960 - I think we're into a essentially unregulated realm. 40 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,840 The federal election law is Swiss cheese. 41 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:10,930 - We have to have an honest selection, 42 00:02:10,930 --> 00:02:13,810 and if it's not going to be an honest election, 43 00:02:13,810 --> 00:02:15,730 I guess people have to sit down and think 44 00:02:15,730 --> 00:02:17,280 really long and hard about it. 45 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:19,180 - I mean, if you look at almost any measure 46 00:02:19,180 --> 00:02:21,790 of a healthy democracy or a healthy electoral system, 47 00:02:21,790 --> 00:02:24,870 whether it's voter participation rates of 50%, 48 00:02:24,870 --> 00:02:27,260 information that has integrity, that's not good right now, 49 00:02:27,260 --> 00:02:29,990 Trust, and right now they do not trust the system. 50 00:02:29,990 --> 00:02:31,670 By almost every measure we're hurting. 51 00:02:31,670 --> 00:02:33,570 - The greatest threat to our system 52 00:02:33,570 --> 00:02:35,730 of government is indifference. 53 00:02:35,730 --> 00:02:38,980 - If you participate and you take the time to be informed 54 00:02:38,980 --> 00:02:41,070 about the issues, and you actually turn out 55 00:02:41,070 --> 00:02:44,870 and your peers turn out, you change the country. 56 00:02:44,870 --> 00:02:45,860 You do. 57 00:02:45,860 --> 00:02:48,210 It may not always happen as fast as you'd like, 58 00:02:49,860 --> 00:02:51,560 but you'll change it. 59 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:53,500 - Before Americans even cast their vote, 60 00:02:53,500 --> 00:02:54,960 they have to make it through months 61 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,020 of political ads on TV and social media. 62 00:02:58,020 --> 00:03:01,410 Ads that are paid for by billionaires and Super PACs 63 00:03:01,410 --> 00:03:04,530 or by some source of funding that can't be traced. 64 00:03:04,530 --> 00:03:07,430 - Democracy requires elections. 65 00:03:07,430 --> 00:03:09,380 Elections require money. 66 00:03:09,380 --> 00:03:10,840 - I think most people in America believe 67 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:14,160 that their voices have been eclipsed by big money, 68 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:16,250 special interest, billionaires, 69 00:03:16,250 --> 00:03:17,970 and they really don't count. 70 00:03:17,970 --> 00:03:21,170 - The United States has had, I'll call it issues 71 00:03:21,170 --> 00:03:23,200 with voting for quite a long time. 72 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:27,430 - What we're seeing today is a resurgence of the cold war, 73 00:03:27,430 --> 00:03:31,140 a resurgence of authoritarianism versus democracy, 74 00:03:31,140 --> 00:03:34,010 dictatorship versus a democratic Republic. 75 00:03:34,010 --> 00:03:37,090 - The bedrock, the foundation of our country, the Republic 76 00:03:37,090 --> 00:03:39,283 is our elections. 77 00:03:40,310 --> 00:03:42,890 - The 2016 election became ground zero 78 00:03:42,890 --> 00:03:45,060 for a democracy that had not kept up 79 00:03:45,060 --> 00:03:47,170 with the advances in technology. 80 00:03:47,170 --> 00:03:49,260 Social media and data harvesting 81 00:03:49,260 --> 00:03:50,980 allowed ads to be tailor-made 82 00:03:50,980 --> 00:03:53,640 to individual preferences and biases. 83 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,020 Foreign governments used fake news and disinformation 84 00:03:57,020 --> 00:04:01,730 to sow discord and chaos within an already divided nation. 85 00:04:01,730 --> 00:04:05,050 Not only did American elections come under attack, 86 00:04:05,050 --> 00:04:06,890 but so did democracy 87 00:04:06,890 --> 00:04:09,503 and the very nature of facts themselves. 88 00:04:10,570 --> 00:04:15,570 - The most effective way to manipulate an American election 89 00:04:15,790 --> 00:04:17,290 is through disinformation. 90 00:04:17,290 --> 00:04:19,540 - So when we look at these platforms, 91 00:04:19,540 --> 00:04:22,100 Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter. 92 00:04:22,100 --> 00:04:25,900 - There is a growing need for some means 93 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:31,875 for people to be able to sort out what's actually true. 94 00:04:32,780 --> 00:04:35,310 - But we know that the internet can be abused 95 00:04:35,310 --> 00:04:36,520 and it has been abused, 96 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:40,340 and unless we're pay a lot more attention in the future, 97 00:04:40,340 --> 00:04:42,610 it is gonna undermine our democracy. 98 00:04:42,610 --> 00:04:44,437 I'm optimistic we can come up with an antidote, 99 00:04:44,437 --> 00:04:47,100 but we better start talking about it. 100 00:04:47,100 --> 00:04:50,410 - Can we still trust American elections? 101 00:04:50,410 --> 00:04:53,660 - I really don't think that you're gonna know anything 102 00:04:53,660 --> 00:04:57,060 on the evening, anything meaningful or anything real 103 00:04:57,060 --> 00:05:00,370 on the evening of November 3rd. 104 00:05:00,370 --> 00:05:01,570 - We need to realize that we're entering 105 00:05:01,570 --> 00:05:04,000 an incredibly dangerous period in the history, 106 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:05,230 not just of democracy, 107 00:05:05,230 --> 00:05:07,303 but of human society and civilization. 108 00:05:08,401 --> 00:05:10,720 - The real threat and the real concern 109 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:15,550 is the slow but effective undermining 110 00:05:15,550 --> 00:05:18,563 of the idea that our election process 111 00:05:18,563 --> 00:05:22,010 is reliable and accurate. 112 00:05:22,010 --> 00:05:25,460 - There's a difference between being skeptical and cynical. 113 00:05:25,460 --> 00:05:27,580 Skeptical is something we should all be, 114 00:05:27,580 --> 00:05:31,248 cynical is something we should try not to be. 115 00:05:31,248 --> 00:05:32,349 Because if you're cynical, 116 00:05:32,349 --> 00:05:34,850 you just don't believe anything, you don't trust anyone. 117 00:05:34,850 --> 00:05:35,910 - The data collection, 118 00:05:35,910 --> 00:05:38,290 and the failure to regulate data collection 119 00:05:38,290 --> 00:05:42,740 enable you to be manipulated. 120 00:05:42,740 --> 00:05:45,430 - Democracy is at a tipping point. 121 00:05:45,430 --> 00:05:48,780 We have stood by and watched the greatest democracy on earth 122 00:05:48,780 --> 00:05:51,310 become at risk of failing. 123 00:05:51,310 --> 00:05:54,730 There can be no democracy without trust, 124 00:05:54,730 --> 00:05:59,730 no trust without knowledge, no knowledge without truth. 125 00:05:59,970 --> 00:06:02,780 The freedom of speech our democracy provides 126 00:06:02,780 --> 00:06:05,860 is being weaponized against us in an attempt 127 00:06:05,860 --> 00:06:08,630 to destroy the very fabric of democracy 128 00:06:08,630 --> 00:06:11,070 that the United States was founded on. 129 00:06:12,900 --> 00:06:15,500 - We really need to stop and pay attention. 130 00:06:15,500 --> 00:06:17,450 This is not a political issue. 131 00:06:17,450 --> 00:06:20,270 - For anyone out there today, young or old, 132 00:06:20,270 --> 00:06:23,120 they got to realize that the stakes are higher 133 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:24,950 than they ever have been. 134 00:06:24,950 --> 00:06:26,940 That we really are determining the future 135 00:06:26,940 --> 00:06:28,303 of civilization right now. 136 00:06:31,530 --> 00:06:33,620 - Thank you, God bless you. 137 00:06:33,620 --> 00:06:35,739 And God bless America. 138 00:06:42,100 --> 00:06:43,980 - When over a $1 billion dollarsare spent 139 00:06:43,980 --> 00:06:46,910 in an election that has accusations of interference 140 00:06:46,910 --> 00:06:50,230 and illegitimacy, the first question has to be, 141 00:06:50,230 --> 00:06:52,070 where did the money come from? 142 00:06:52,070 --> 00:06:54,530 Are campaign finance laws non-existent, 143 00:06:54,530 --> 00:06:56,260 or are they just not working? 144 00:06:56,260 --> 00:06:58,416 Is anybody even paying attention? 145 00:07:00,540 --> 00:07:02,950 - The American electoral system requires 146 00:07:02,950 --> 00:07:07,190 a huge amount of money in order to properly communicate 147 00:07:07,190 --> 00:07:08,493 with the American people. 148 00:07:10,548 --> 00:07:11,960 It's an obscene amount of money, 149 00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:13,960 and nobody knows where it's coming from. 150 00:07:15,390 --> 00:07:17,270 How much is the right amount of money? 151 00:07:17,270 --> 00:07:18,760 I don't know, 152 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:21,800 But if we were to try to limit the amount of money, 153 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:26,080 we would be limiting the amount of information 154 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:28,780 that people receive from the candidates. 155 00:07:28,780 --> 00:07:30,430 And that's not a good idea. 156 00:07:30,430 --> 00:07:33,400 - You can't have a democratic system 157 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,140 without the money to fund campaigns. 158 00:07:36,140 --> 00:07:37,890 There are two ways to fund it. 159 00:07:37,890 --> 00:07:39,430 You fund it with private money, 160 00:07:39,430 --> 00:07:41,430 which is the system we have now, 161 00:07:41,430 --> 00:07:43,990 or you fund it with government money, 162 00:07:43,990 --> 00:07:48,690 which implies all kinds of issues of control, bias, 163 00:07:48,690 --> 00:07:52,330 and regulation. that we've never been willing to accept, 164 00:07:52,330 --> 00:07:53,930 with the one rare exception 165 00:07:53,930 --> 00:07:56,740 being the presidential funding system, 166 00:07:56,740 --> 00:07:59,520 which is now essentially defunct, 167 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:02,060 because everyone ops out of that system. 168 00:08:02,060 --> 00:08:04,810 - If you're already a member of Congress, 169 00:08:04,810 --> 00:08:07,920 you are collecting funds, you are collecting support 170 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,570 and money from people who favor what you do. 171 00:08:11,570 --> 00:08:15,800 Your opponent has to start from ground zero. 172 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:17,680 The opponent doesn't have any money, 173 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:19,280 doesn't have a campaign manager, 174 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:23,260 doesn't have the person who creates television commercials 175 00:08:23,260 --> 00:08:28,260 unless the challenger can raise these funds very quickly 176 00:08:28,308 --> 00:08:32,050 to compete with the incumbent. 177 00:08:32,050 --> 00:08:33,660 - In the 2016 election, 178 00:08:33,660 --> 00:08:37,500 Hillary Clinton raised $768 million. 179 00:08:37,500 --> 00:08:41,310 And Donald Trump raised $398 million. 180 00:08:41,310 --> 00:08:43,180 When you include house and Senate races, 181 00:08:43,180 --> 00:08:48,180 the grand total for that election cycle was $6.5 billion. 182 00:08:48,187 --> 00:08:49,960 To put that into perspective, 183 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:51,010 that's enough money to give 184 00:08:51,010 --> 00:08:54,747 every public school teacher in America $2,000. 185 00:08:56,106 --> 00:09:01,106 - with as much money as we spend, the data suggests to me 186 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:05,130 that correlation, i.e. correlation 187 00:09:05,130 --> 00:09:08,000 between the amount of money we spend and the result 188 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:09,740 is not causation. 189 00:09:09,740 --> 00:09:13,820 So in 2010, and this is when I was fighting 190 00:09:13,820 --> 00:09:16,710 the so-called Millionaires Amendment in the Supreme Court, 191 00:09:16,710 --> 00:09:18,087 successfully I might add, 192 00:09:19,908 --> 00:09:21,940 the conventional wisdom was, 193 00:09:21,940 --> 00:09:24,080 well, we can't allow millionaires to come in 194 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,370 and spend all their money and skew the election results. 195 00:09:27,370 --> 00:09:28,960 And so in the oral argument, 196 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,100 I presented the following statistic. 197 00:09:32,100 --> 00:09:37,100 Of the 58 people who self-funded in excess 198 00:09:37,170 --> 00:09:39,430 of $350,000 a year, 199 00:09:39,430 --> 00:09:42,430 which was the Millionaire's Amendment threshold, 200 00:09:42,430 --> 00:09:44,470 11 of them won. 201 00:09:44,470 --> 00:09:47,830 - If you look at the amount of money spent by a candidate, 202 00:09:47,830 --> 00:09:50,540 versus the amount of money spent by another candidate, 203 00:09:50,540 --> 00:09:53,250 it's simply true that sometimes the person that spends less 204 00:09:53,250 --> 00:09:54,380 can still win. 205 00:09:54,380 --> 00:09:57,810 - In the election of 2016, 206 00:09:57,810 --> 00:10:02,290 Hillary Clinton spent something over $600 million dollars. 207 00:10:02,290 --> 00:10:05,570 President Trump's campaign was about half that, 208 00:10:05,570 --> 00:10:07,500 about $300 million. 209 00:10:07,500 --> 00:10:10,380 The person who spent less was elected. 210 00:10:10,380 --> 00:10:12,090 - But there's a caveat there. 211 00:10:12,090 --> 00:10:16,240 Outspend him on traditional dollar contributions. 212 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:19,923 If you counted in Donald Trump's free media, 213 00:10:20,850 --> 00:10:24,950 and remember the myths before 2016 was, 214 00:10:24,950 --> 00:10:28,270 you had to spend all your money on TV and media 215 00:10:28,270 --> 00:10:29,810 to get elected. 216 00:10:29,810 --> 00:10:32,120 And Donald Trump put a hole in that. 217 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:35,726 He did these press conferences at Mar-a-Lago, 218 00:10:35,726 --> 00:10:38,560 where he went on for an hour and a half, 219 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:40,503 and all the networks covered it. 220 00:10:41,430 --> 00:10:43,110 And the same night that Hillary Clinton 221 00:10:43,110 --> 00:10:45,423 was winning her primary, she got six minutes. 222 00:10:46,390 --> 00:10:48,010 He got an hour and a half for free media, 223 00:10:48,010 --> 00:10:48,843 she got six minutes. 224 00:10:48,843 --> 00:10:52,760 So what is the impact of money? 225 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,680 So people often ask, does money matter in politics? 226 00:10:55,680 --> 00:10:59,000 And the answer is absolutely, but you've got to identify 227 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:01,260 what kind of money you're talking about. 228 00:11:01,260 --> 00:11:04,280 - The Supreme court issued a ruling, Citizens United 229 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:09,000 that allowed super PACs and very wealthy individuals 230 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:10,440 to just finance all these ads 231 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:12,070 that you guys see on TV all the time. 232 00:11:12,070 --> 00:11:13,580 - America must stop China. 233 00:11:13,580 --> 00:11:16,720 And to stop China, you have to stop Joe Biden. 234 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,330 - Our country is in crisis. 235 00:11:18,330 --> 00:11:20,380 - We have the right to do whatever we want. 236 00:11:20,380 --> 00:11:22,460 - And Donald Trump is making it worse. 237 00:11:22,460 --> 00:11:23,720 - Joe Biden. 238 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:27,000 - Times are tough, the man is weak. 239 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:29,610 - Half the time nobody knows who's funding them. 240 00:11:29,610 --> 00:11:32,020 And that makes you cynical, 241 00:11:32,020 --> 00:11:35,060 partly because most of this money is spent on negative ads. 242 00:11:35,060 --> 00:11:36,830 And so you're just hearing constantly 243 00:11:36,830 --> 00:11:38,950 how horrible everybody is. 244 00:11:38,950 --> 00:11:40,070 That'll make you feel pretty bad 245 00:11:40,070 --> 00:11:41,470 about the political process. 246 00:11:42,560 --> 00:11:47,010 - Citizens United is a case that basically found 247 00:11:47,010 --> 00:11:48,930 that because of the First Amendment 248 00:11:48,930 --> 00:11:51,150 protection for free speech, 249 00:11:51,150 --> 00:11:55,450 the Congress could not restrict the amount of money 250 00:11:55,450 --> 00:11:59,070 that people can spend expressing their views 251 00:11:59,070 --> 00:12:00,530 on candidates and issues. 252 00:12:00,530 --> 00:12:02,490 - One of the slogans that comes out of the case 253 00:12:02,490 --> 00:12:04,310 is the thought that money is speech. 254 00:12:04,310 --> 00:12:06,750 And obviously money isn't exactly speech, 255 00:12:06,750 --> 00:12:09,270 but contributing to a political campaign 256 00:12:09,270 --> 00:12:10,520 is an expressive act, 257 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:12,780 and the courts have long recognized that. 258 00:12:12,780 --> 00:12:15,690 So this isn't a new thing from Citizens United. 259 00:12:15,690 --> 00:12:17,377 - Well, actually there was a Supreme court decision 260 00:12:17,377 --> 00:12:20,670 that went all the way back to 1976 called Buckley V. Valeo 261 00:12:20,670 --> 00:12:22,760 which was the first case that actually certed 262 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:25,810 that the spending of money in the context of elections 263 00:12:25,810 --> 00:12:27,550 was an act of speech, because to have speech, 264 00:12:27,550 --> 00:12:29,070 you have to be able to spend money. 265 00:12:29,070 --> 00:12:30,010 You have to be able to buy ads, 266 00:12:30,010 --> 00:12:31,750 you have to be able to buy billboards 267 00:12:31,750 --> 00:12:33,140 or newspaper advertisements. 268 00:12:33,140 --> 00:12:35,190 And that therefore the act of spending money 269 00:12:35,190 --> 00:12:36,993 was an act of facilitating speech. 270 00:12:38,950 --> 00:12:42,230 - Citizens United was a corporation put together 271 00:12:42,230 --> 00:12:47,230 for the purpose of making a campaign kind of film. 272 00:12:47,730 --> 00:12:51,770 It was a negative treatment of Hillary Clinton. 273 00:12:51,770 --> 00:12:53,530 When the issue got to the Supreme court, 274 00:12:53,530 --> 00:12:55,810 and the Supreme Court said they didn't see any reason 275 00:12:55,810 --> 00:12:59,801 why a corporation could not make a film 276 00:12:59,801 --> 00:13:03,500 favoring one or the other candidate. 277 00:13:03,500 --> 00:13:05,570 - That part I completely agree with, 278 00:13:05,570 --> 00:13:08,630 as a former publisher and editor. 279 00:13:08,630 --> 00:13:10,437 The second part of it said, 280 00:13:10,437 --> 00:13:13,557 "And therefore any money spent 281 00:13:13,557 --> 00:13:16,727 "producing content in the context of an election 282 00:13:16,727 --> 00:13:18,990 "should be free and unlimited." 283 00:13:18,990 --> 00:13:21,880 Now that in itself is not a bad thing. 284 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:23,733 What happened after Citizens United 285 00:13:23,733 --> 00:13:27,800 is that a group called Speech Now came with a challenge, 286 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:31,727 and they said, okay, "If spending money on content 287 00:13:31,727 --> 00:13:34,547 "is an act of speech and therefore should be unlimited, 288 00:13:34,547 --> 00:13:37,887 "then shouldn't contributions to outside organizations 289 00:13:37,887 --> 00:13:39,287 "also be unlimited?" 290 00:13:40,140 --> 00:13:41,942 And in the Speech Now decision, 291 00:13:41,942 --> 00:13:44,350 the appellate court said yes, 292 00:13:44,350 --> 00:13:46,710 those contributions should be unlimited. 293 00:13:46,710 --> 00:13:48,520 That's what turned PACs, 294 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:51,170 which initially had caps on giving to them, 295 00:13:51,170 --> 00:13:53,343 into Super PACs, which had no limits. 296 00:13:54,470 --> 00:13:56,310 - A super PAC is an independent, 297 00:13:56,310 --> 00:13:58,220 political action committee. 298 00:13:58,220 --> 00:14:02,560 In the 2016 election, there were over 2300 Super PACs. 299 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:06,110 Together they raised almost $1.8 billion. 300 00:14:06,110 --> 00:14:08,730 And while they can raise unlimited amounts of money 301 00:14:08,730 --> 00:14:11,840 from corporations, unions, and individuals, 302 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,130 they are forbidden from coordinating directly 303 00:14:14,130 --> 00:14:16,650 with campaigns and candidates. 304 00:14:16,650 --> 00:14:21,650 - We had a case during, I guess it was 2012, 305 00:14:22,100 --> 00:14:26,880 where a candidate has had a super PAC donor 306 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:30,290 riding on the campaign plane with him, 307 00:14:30,290 --> 00:14:34,090 sitting in the seats with the campaign aides, 308 00:14:34,090 --> 00:14:37,910 and contending that well, he didn't have anything to do 309 00:14:37,910 --> 00:14:40,860 with coordinating his expenditures with the candidate. 310 00:14:40,860 --> 00:14:43,370 Now, maybe that's true, 311 00:14:43,370 --> 00:14:46,930 but there was no way to examine that and say, 312 00:14:46,930 --> 00:14:50,150 well, were are they discussing campaign plans? 313 00:14:50,150 --> 00:14:53,190 Were people sharing ideas 314 00:14:53,190 --> 00:14:56,060 about where the money should be spent? 315 00:14:56,060 --> 00:15:01,060 So it's fraught area of enforcement to say the least. 316 00:15:01,827 --> 00:15:04,750 - The super PAC money is almost more about the threat 317 00:15:04,750 --> 00:15:07,520 of the super PAC, than the actuality of it oftentimes. 318 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:09,490 What that means is that you'll have a lobbyist 319 00:15:09,490 --> 00:15:13,166 who will walk into a senator's or a congressman's office, 320 00:15:13,166 --> 00:15:13,999 and they'll say, 321 00:15:13,999 --> 00:15:16,437 "well, our super PAC fundraising is going well, 322 00:15:16,437 --> 00:15:18,600 "we've got $60 million in the super PAC." 323 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,700 And then they'll have the policy conversation 324 00:15:21,700 --> 00:15:23,430 with the congressman. 325 00:15:23,430 --> 00:15:24,450 But what effect do you think, 326 00:15:24,450 --> 00:15:26,664 what is going through the congressman's mind 327 00:15:26,664 --> 00:15:29,230 when he or she has just heard 328 00:15:29,230 --> 00:15:31,478 that the lobbyists sitting in front of them 329 00:15:31,478 --> 00:15:34,680 has a $60 million super PAC that they can pull the trigger 330 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:36,800 on whatever they want, right? 331 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:38,410 You know what's going through their mind, right? 332 00:15:38,410 --> 00:15:40,407 They're gonna listen a lot to what that lobbyist wants 333 00:15:40,407 --> 00:15:41,760 and is saying to them. 334 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:45,750 - I discard and disagree with the argument 335 00:15:45,750 --> 00:15:48,320 that it is bribery 336 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:53,320 for a candidate to accept funds 337 00:15:53,490 --> 00:15:55,663 from an individual or a group, 338 00:15:56,950 --> 00:15:59,070 because that is bribing the candidate. 339 00:15:59,070 --> 00:16:04,000 The donors contribute to them because their policies 340 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,850 are policies that the donors agree with. 341 00:16:07,850 --> 00:16:10,230 - If I were to write a check 342 00:16:10,230 --> 00:16:13,200 to a teacher who's about to grade my kid, 343 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:15,010 people would say that's bribery. 344 00:16:15,010 --> 00:16:17,082 If I were to hand a $100 bill to a cop 345 00:16:17,082 --> 00:16:21,140 before they gave me a traffic ticket, 346 00:16:21,140 --> 00:16:22,360 they would claim that bribery. 347 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:27,270 If I were to offer my car to a judge 348 00:16:27,270 --> 00:16:29,410 before I went before that judge, 349 00:16:29,410 --> 00:16:31,090 people would say that's bribery. 350 00:16:31,090 --> 00:16:36,090 So then when people make contributions to politicians, 351 00:16:36,122 --> 00:16:38,530 what the court has said, which is in line 352 00:16:38,530 --> 00:16:40,710 with the common sense of the American people, 353 00:16:40,710 --> 00:16:44,090 is that that is either a potentially corrupting act 354 00:16:44,090 --> 00:16:47,650 or a corrupting act, and therefore it needs to be limited. 355 00:16:47,650 --> 00:16:50,663 So when we talk about money as speech, 356 00:16:50,663 --> 00:16:54,370 what we need to realize is that even the court today 357 00:16:54,370 --> 00:16:55,990 still accepts the notion that money 358 00:16:55,990 --> 00:16:58,270 is the transfer of property 359 00:16:58,270 --> 00:17:00,060 when it comes to making contributions 360 00:17:00,060 --> 00:17:02,590 directly to politicians themselves. 361 00:17:02,590 --> 00:17:05,830 Well, right now in DC, and we were on K street 362 00:17:05,830 --> 00:17:09,360 here in Washington just two hours ago, 363 00:17:09,360 --> 00:17:14,220 dozens of politicians at restaurants across this town 364 00:17:14,220 --> 00:17:17,350 had lunch with lobbyists 365 00:17:17,350 --> 00:17:21,697 who are representing the industries that those politicians 366 00:17:21,697 --> 00:17:23,650 are supposed to be regulating, 367 00:17:23,650 --> 00:17:24,770 based on their committee assignments. 368 00:17:24,770 --> 00:17:29,040 So if I'm on the financial services committee in the house, 369 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:31,340 I would have just had lunch with a bunch of bank lobbyists. 370 00:17:31,340 --> 00:17:33,850 And those bank lobbyists, when they had lunch with me 371 00:17:33,850 --> 00:17:37,130 would have each committed to pumping, to maxing out 372 00:17:37,130 --> 00:17:39,730 to my campaign, to pumping the maximum amount 373 00:17:39,730 --> 00:17:41,891 into my campaign war chest. 374 00:17:41,891 --> 00:17:44,645 I think in the minds of most Americans and certainly me, 375 00:17:44,645 --> 00:17:47,120 that is a profound conflict of interest, 376 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:49,260 and that is transactional giving. 377 00:17:49,260 --> 00:17:50,940 I as a member of Congress am having lunch 378 00:17:50,940 --> 00:17:52,920 with the lobbyist I'm supposed to be regulating, 379 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:54,030 because they're giving me money, 380 00:17:54,030 --> 00:17:56,600 therefore they get this full hearing before me 381 00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,270 in a way that your average American wouldn't. 382 00:17:59,270 --> 00:18:00,530 And that is what distorts 383 00:18:00,530 --> 00:18:03,330 the policy making process in Washington. 384 00:18:03,330 --> 00:18:05,290 - While super PACs have allowed for the giving 385 00:18:05,290 --> 00:18:08,960 of unlimited sums as an exercise of free speech, 386 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:11,700 there are also reporting requirements that in theory 387 00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:15,940 should make it possible to trace every dollar to its donor. 388 00:18:15,940 --> 00:18:18,210 Enter dark money. 389 00:18:18,210 --> 00:18:20,310 - So everyone's heard the term dark money. 390 00:18:20,310 --> 00:18:21,590 And a lot of people think that somehow 391 00:18:21,590 --> 00:18:23,250 super PACs are dark money. 392 00:18:23,250 --> 00:18:24,083 Well, that's not true. 393 00:18:24,083 --> 00:18:27,630 Actually, super PACs have to disclose all of their donors, 394 00:18:27,630 --> 00:18:29,330 but what's going on right now 395 00:18:29,330 --> 00:18:30,970 is that people are pumping dark money 396 00:18:30,970 --> 00:18:34,130 into super PACs through corporations. 397 00:18:34,130 --> 00:18:36,335 A group of people will set up a corporation 398 00:18:36,335 --> 00:18:38,080 in the state of Delaware. 399 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,270 Let's just call it the Blue Carpet, LLC. 400 00:18:41,270 --> 00:18:43,360 That corporation all of a sudden it has money in it, 401 00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:44,530 you don't know where the money came from, 402 00:18:44,530 --> 00:18:47,961 because you can't ask for that from the state of Delaware. 403 00:18:47,961 --> 00:18:51,310 And then that corporation will make a donation 404 00:18:51,310 --> 00:18:52,520 to a Super PAC. 405 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:55,934 The Super PAC then has to disclose its donors. 406 00:18:55,934 --> 00:18:58,130 Among those donors, it'll disclose the fact 407 00:18:58,130 --> 00:19:01,040 that a certain corporation or corporations has given money. 408 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,600 And then, right after the election, 409 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:05,440 the corporation that gave the Super PAC money 410 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:07,400 will collapse itself. 411 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,140 And so you could have 10, 20, $30 million 412 00:19:10,140 --> 00:19:12,600 going into Super PAC through a corporation 413 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:14,220 or various corporations that are here today 414 00:19:14,220 --> 00:19:15,310 and gone tomorrow. 415 00:19:15,310 --> 00:19:17,220 And that's a new form of dark money. 416 00:19:17,220 --> 00:19:18,680 - You really don't know the source. 417 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,460 But I think contributors to these Super PACs 418 00:19:21,460 --> 00:19:23,860 within 24 hours of their contribution, 419 00:19:23,860 --> 00:19:24,993 their names ought to be published, 420 00:19:24,993 --> 00:19:26,653 ought to be available on the internet, 421 00:19:26,653 --> 00:19:29,340 that people can see who's giving what to whom. 422 00:19:29,340 --> 00:19:30,873 Does that affect free speech? 423 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,818 Well, it's free and open speech. 424 00:19:34,818 --> 00:19:38,970 It's corrosive if people were allowed to affect the outcomes 425 00:19:38,970 --> 00:19:41,160 without knowing where the criticisms are coming from. 426 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:42,890 If you're gonna give to a candidate, 427 00:19:42,890 --> 00:19:45,470 you have to be prepared to be identified with a candidate. 428 00:19:45,470 --> 00:19:47,640 And frankly from the candidate's point of view, 429 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,570 if you're gonna accept money in support of your campaign, 430 00:19:50,570 --> 00:19:51,733 but you're unwilling, 431 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:56,690 if you're unwilling to acknowledge that that was the source 432 00:19:58,064 --> 00:20:01,320 of the donation, then you shouldn't take it. 433 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:02,410 Period. 434 00:20:02,410 --> 00:20:04,710 So I'm a strongly believer, obviously, 435 00:20:04,710 --> 00:20:06,860 in transparency across the board. 436 00:20:06,860 --> 00:20:11,017 I often like to joke that money in politics right now 437 00:20:11,017 --> 00:20:12,710 isn't even like the Wild West, 438 00:20:12,710 --> 00:20:15,540 because in the Wild West they had sheriffs. 439 00:20:15,540 --> 00:20:18,220 Right now there is no sheriff. 440 00:20:18,220 --> 00:20:19,610 There's entity in Washington called 441 00:20:19,610 --> 00:20:22,115 the Federal Election Commission, the FEC. 442 00:20:22,115 --> 00:20:25,760 The commission itself is incapable 443 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,370 of making any significant decisions 444 00:20:28,370 --> 00:20:30,550 that can instruct the lawyers of the FEC 445 00:20:30,550 --> 00:20:33,745 of what cases to pursue and how to pursue 'em. 446 00:20:33,745 --> 00:20:36,370 - The FEC is made up of six commissioners 447 00:20:36,370 --> 00:20:39,640 who oversee campaign finance laws and enforcement. 448 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:43,040 Four votes are required to take any official action. 449 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,060 Since January 2017, 450 00:20:45,060 --> 00:20:47,530 there have only been three commissioners, 451 00:20:47,530 --> 00:20:51,120 meaning that no enforcement actions can be taken. 452 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:54,220 And if the FEC did have six commissioners, 453 00:20:54,220 --> 00:20:56,270 since no more than three commissioners 454 00:20:56,270 --> 00:20:58,110 can be of the same party, 455 00:20:58,110 --> 00:21:00,861 there's already a built-in deadlock. 456 00:21:00,861 --> 00:21:04,870 - The FEC was the basic regulatory body formed 457 00:21:04,870 --> 00:21:07,020 in the wake of the Watergate scandal 458 00:21:07,020 --> 00:21:09,610 to regulate campaign finance 459 00:21:09,610 --> 00:21:12,750 and to attempt to put some disclosure requirements 460 00:21:12,750 --> 00:21:17,640 and some limits on individual campaign donations. 461 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,140 And that part of the system still exists, 462 00:21:20,140 --> 00:21:22,010 even after Citizens United. 463 00:21:22,010 --> 00:21:26,630 The FEC is responsible for enforcing that provision 464 00:21:26,630 --> 00:21:28,170 of the campaign finance law 465 00:21:28,170 --> 00:21:32,170 that prohibits foreign money being used 466 00:21:32,170 --> 00:21:36,820 to underwrite contributions or expenditures 467 00:21:36,820 --> 00:21:39,260 in federal elections. 468 00:21:39,260 --> 00:21:41,820 It has a good deal of responsibility there 469 00:21:41,820 --> 00:21:44,348 to identify what money should be identified 470 00:21:44,348 --> 00:21:47,760 as foreign-sourced. 471 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:51,640 For example, should a American subsidiary 472 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:56,638 of a foreign corporation be able to spend 473 00:21:56,638 --> 00:21:59,660 corporate funds in our elections? 474 00:21:59,660 --> 00:22:01,670 - The Foreign Agents Registration Act 475 00:22:01,670 --> 00:22:05,550 was passed in the '30s, because the government was fearful 476 00:22:05,550 --> 00:22:07,730 that the Nazi regime in Germany 477 00:22:07,730 --> 00:22:10,290 was interfering in US policy making. 478 00:22:10,290 --> 00:22:11,880 And so they passed a law that said, 479 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:13,890 if you're going to propagandize 480 00:22:13,890 --> 00:22:16,650 or engage in political activity within the United States, 481 00:22:16,650 --> 00:22:18,660 and you're controlled by a foreign principle, 482 00:22:18,660 --> 00:22:20,250 you're gonna register and report. 483 00:22:20,250 --> 00:22:22,400 So that goes back back to the '30s. 484 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,230 That's been with us at least since the '30s. 485 00:22:24,230 --> 00:22:26,990 In fact, one of the biggest fears the framers had 486 00:22:26,990 --> 00:22:29,690 was foreign interference in our system. 487 00:22:29,690 --> 00:22:33,164 - And foreign money is by its very nature unaccountable. 488 00:22:33,164 --> 00:22:38,156 It will be used to achieve a foreign government's 489 00:22:38,156 --> 00:22:43,110 or entity's political desires in this country. 490 00:22:44,970 --> 00:22:48,310 If we want to keep the integrity of our elections, 491 00:22:48,310 --> 00:22:51,450 keeping foreign money out should be a priority for the FEC. 492 00:22:51,450 --> 00:22:54,680 - Looking simply at the FEC to do its job, 493 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:55,690 it's too big of a task. 494 00:22:55,690 --> 00:22:56,870 There are too many dollars involved, 495 00:22:56,870 --> 00:22:58,290 too many campaigns involved. 496 00:22:58,290 --> 00:23:02,440 - The void has been filled by the states. 497 00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:06,010 Certain attorneys general in larger states, 498 00:23:06,010 --> 00:23:07,540 New York, California, and others 499 00:23:07,540 --> 00:23:09,220 have attempted to fill the void. 500 00:23:09,220 --> 00:23:11,440 - I don't think the FEC is particularly important, 501 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,823 except for publishing information 502 00:23:15,823 --> 00:23:17,940 about who's contributing. 503 00:23:17,940 --> 00:23:21,970 - The FEC has essentially been neutered, 504 00:23:21,970 --> 00:23:24,750 really for several decades. 505 00:23:24,750 --> 00:23:27,140 - Right now the commissioners are appointed 506 00:23:27,140 --> 00:23:30,370 based on partisanship, based on whether or not 507 00:23:30,370 --> 00:23:32,000 they're a democrat or republican. 508 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,190 But what you end up with is hyper-partisanship, right? 509 00:23:35,190 --> 00:23:36,980 Which makes it very hard for the commission 510 00:23:36,980 --> 00:23:39,000 to come to any agreement on anything. 511 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,010 So let's just de-politicize it. 512 00:23:41,010 --> 00:23:44,100 Let's just call it for what it is, which is law enforcement, 513 00:23:44,100 --> 00:23:45,590 and that should never be political. 514 00:23:45,590 --> 00:23:49,765 - Every alphabet agency that you can name 515 00:23:49,765 --> 00:23:53,207 SEC, FCC, FTC, 516 00:23:53,207 --> 00:23:58,202 on and on, and on and on, has a majority of one party 517 00:23:58,202 --> 00:24:02,563 that can enforce the will of that commission. 518 00:24:02,563 --> 00:24:06,310 The FEC stood out alone as evenly split, 519 00:24:06,310 --> 00:24:10,273 because the Congress in its wisdom back in 1976, 520 00:24:10,273 --> 00:24:13,590 '74, and then '76 decided 521 00:24:13,590 --> 00:24:17,200 they didn't want one party to have sway 522 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,460 over the fate of the other party 523 00:24:20,460 --> 00:24:24,630 in sensitive matters involving federal elections. 524 00:24:24,630 --> 00:24:27,960 So they built in the potential for stalemate, 525 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:29,250 even though in the early years, 526 00:24:29,250 --> 00:24:31,390 there was much more bipartisanship. 527 00:24:31,390 --> 00:24:34,890 - The issues associated in my mind 528 00:24:34,890 --> 00:24:37,110 with the billions of dollars involved 529 00:24:37,110 --> 00:24:40,530 in national and state, and local elections 530 00:24:40,530 --> 00:24:45,280 is far beyond the FEC to control. 531 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:48,770 I'd like to see the regulations enforced from time to time 532 00:24:48,770 --> 00:24:51,160 that you do see some enforcement actions. 533 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:55,587 I still think the most significant antidote 534 00:24:55,587 --> 00:24:58,890 to excessive amounts of money 535 00:24:58,890 --> 00:25:02,140 in the political system is sunlight. 536 00:25:02,140 --> 00:25:03,570 Sunlight. 537 00:25:03,570 --> 00:25:06,830 - Disclosure is important, because it lets people know 538 00:25:06,830 --> 00:25:08,630 who's putting up the money. 539 00:25:08,630 --> 00:25:12,830 And that is critical for citizens to understand 540 00:25:12,830 --> 00:25:14,570 the messaging that they're getting. 541 00:25:14,570 --> 00:25:16,560 Who's behind the messaging? 542 00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:18,020 Do they have an ax to grind? 543 00:25:18,020 --> 00:25:18,883 Who are they? 544 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,900 That law, that requirement is extant. 545 00:25:24,900 --> 00:25:28,130 It's not been changed by Citizens United. 546 00:25:28,130 --> 00:25:32,160 Now, has it been enforced as vigorously as it might? 547 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:33,460 No. 548 00:25:33,460 --> 00:25:35,340 And because of the internet, 549 00:25:35,340 --> 00:25:38,600 and because of the digitalization of our world, 550 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:42,040 it's harder and harder to pierce the veil and get to that. 551 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,220 That doesn't mean you can't. 552 00:25:44,220 --> 00:25:45,960 It means it's harder. 553 00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:49,160 Special counsel Bob Mueller pierce the veil 554 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,792 and found Russian GRU agents 555 00:25:52,792 --> 00:25:57,020 behind the expenditures that were made on the internet 556 00:25:57,020 --> 00:25:58,549 and indicted them. 557 00:25:58,549 --> 00:26:01,110 And now the department has dismissed 558 00:26:01,110 --> 00:26:03,520 that for a lot of other reasons. 559 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:05,870 - It's pretty clear that billions of dollars 560 00:26:05,870 --> 00:26:08,920 are being spent influencing opinions. 561 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:12,500 And yet the ultimate recipient, the ultimate viewer, 562 00:26:12,500 --> 00:26:16,010 the ultimate voter has no idea who's paying for the ads. 563 00:26:16,010 --> 00:26:18,680 And I think the voter's entitled to know. 564 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,220 - Now that fight is still going on in the courts, 565 00:26:21,220 --> 00:26:24,130 because there are people who are suggesting 566 00:26:24,130 --> 00:26:27,037 that anonymity should be part of the First Amendment. 567 00:26:27,037 --> 00:26:29,780 And that if you want to give money, 568 00:26:29,780 --> 00:26:31,170 and you want to shield your identity, 569 00:26:31,170 --> 00:26:33,520 because you don't want people picketing your house 570 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,710 and you don't want people making threats against you, 571 00:26:36,710 --> 00:26:39,783 that it should be private. 572 00:26:40,770 --> 00:26:42,680 That's a debate we're gonna have. 573 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:47,680 - I'm quite concerned about the way that people are attacked 574 00:26:49,460 --> 00:26:51,530 for making political contributions. 575 00:26:51,530 --> 00:26:54,720 I think this is really shameful, 576 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,850 and something that shouldn't happen in our system. 577 00:26:57,850 --> 00:27:00,400 - We're getting further and further away 578 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:04,615 from respecting legitimate differences of opinion 579 00:27:04,615 --> 00:27:05,550 and political philosophy 580 00:27:05,550 --> 00:27:06,383 It's very troubling to me. 581 00:27:06,383 --> 00:27:09,230 - There was a famous case with Target. 582 00:27:09,230 --> 00:27:13,690 Target gave money to a candidate in Minnesota who was, 583 00:27:13,690 --> 00:27:16,400 I guess, anti gay marriage. 584 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:18,400 And that got publicized. 585 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,797 And somebody organized the boycott of Target and said, 586 00:27:22,797 --> 00:27:23,797 "We disagree with you. 587 00:27:23,797 --> 00:27:25,347 "We don't like you funding a candidate 588 00:27:25,347 --> 00:27:27,530 "who's against gay marriage." 589 00:27:27,530 --> 00:27:29,830 Target withdrew. 590 00:27:29,830 --> 00:27:32,850 - I don't know how any organization or individual 591 00:27:32,850 --> 00:27:37,527 in their own mind can say, "I really support this candidate. 592 00:27:37,527 --> 00:27:39,547 "I believe in this candidate, 593 00:27:39,547 --> 00:27:44,137 "but I don't want my name attached to a contribution 594 00:27:44,137 --> 00:27:45,830 "to that candidate." 595 00:27:45,830 --> 00:27:49,390 I think it's shameful, I think it's gutless. 596 00:27:49,390 --> 00:27:51,600 And if you're not willing to be associated 597 00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:54,120 with the financial support of the candidate, 598 00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:55,527 then that candidate shouldn't take it, 599 00:27:55,527 --> 00:27:56,973 and you shouldn't offer it. 600 00:27:58,077 --> 00:28:01,372 I'm not stepping on anybody's free speech rights. 601 00:28:01,372 --> 00:28:05,150 But if you're gonna throw campaign money against me, 602 00:28:05,150 --> 00:28:07,610 I'm entitled to know who my opponent is, 603 00:28:07,610 --> 00:28:09,650 and not just the one on the ballot, 604 00:28:09,650 --> 00:28:11,260 but is also funding that campaign. 605 00:28:11,260 --> 00:28:15,090 And so are those voters in my district, or jurisdiction. 606 00:28:15,090 --> 00:28:17,300 They're entitled to know who doesn't think 607 00:28:17,300 --> 00:28:19,210 I'm qualified for this job. 608 00:28:19,210 --> 00:28:22,200 - It might hinder your ability to say certain things 609 00:28:23,230 --> 00:28:27,684 if you have to worry about it getting widely reported, 610 00:28:27,684 --> 00:28:29,709 the things that you say in the think. 611 00:28:30,757 --> 00:28:34,720 But on the other hand, Congress has a really good reason 612 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:36,530 for wanting to identify 613 00:28:36,530 --> 00:28:38,767 who's contributing to campaigns. 614 00:28:38,767 --> 00:28:41,970 - And the example of 2016, 615 00:28:41,970 --> 00:28:44,636 if every ad 616 00:28:44,636 --> 00:28:47,744 or a political statement 617 00:28:47,744 --> 00:28:51,310 that the Russians put into the system had to be 618 00:28:51,310 --> 00:28:52,941 substitute to a disclaimer, 619 00:28:52,941 --> 00:28:54,677 "This message was furnished 620 00:28:54,677 --> 00:28:57,670 "by the Internet Research Agency," 621 00:28:57,670 --> 00:29:02,670 which was a cover for GRU agents. 622 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,040 Then people would know, "Oh, that comes from Russia." 623 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:09,610 In the absence of that, you don't know where it comes from. 624 00:29:09,610 --> 00:29:14,610 - Facebook, Google charge for ads 625 00:29:15,090 --> 00:29:18,330 like most of the social media platforms. 626 00:29:18,330 --> 00:29:22,413 And foreign money being used 627 00:29:22,413 --> 00:29:25,488 to place ads on those mediums 628 00:29:25,488 --> 00:29:28,290 should be subject to policing 629 00:29:28,290 --> 00:29:30,290 by the Federal Election Commission. 630 00:29:30,290 --> 00:29:31,440 - It's against the law. 631 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:32,830 It's always been against the law. 632 00:29:32,830 --> 00:29:35,800 The question is, is it being enforced? 633 00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:37,994 And how difficult is it to enforce 634 00:29:37,994 --> 00:29:42,400 under the current technological situation that have? 635 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,980 - Direct foreign contributions are illegal, 636 00:29:44,980 --> 00:29:47,830 but that isn't the only use of foreign money. 637 00:29:47,830 --> 00:29:49,900 In fact, the other uses of foreign money 638 00:29:49,900 --> 00:29:51,640 are much more dangerous. 639 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:54,560 It funds attacks on our nation's voting systems, 640 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:58,540 and powers the disinformation machine using social media, 641 00:29:58,540 --> 00:30:02,316 shaking the very bedrock of democracy and truth. 642 00:30:02,316 --> 00:30:04,910 - Well, it's a shame what's happened with the FBI, 643 00:30:04,910 --> 00:30:08,100 but we're gonna rebuild the FBI. 644 00:30:08,100 --> 00:30:09,660 It'll be bigger and better than ever, 645 00:30:09,660 --> 00:30:12,500 but it is very sad when you look at those documents, 646 00:30:12,500 --> 00:30:16,350 and how they've done that really, really disgraceful. 647 00:30:16,350 --> 00:30:20,110 President and Putin was extremely strong and powerful 648 00:30:20,110 --> 00:30:21,500 in his denial today. 649 00:30:21,500 --> 00:30:22,880 There's no Russia. 650 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,010 It was all made up by the democrats. 651 00:30:25,010 --> 00:30:27,160 They're the ones that colluded with Russia. 652 00:30:28,516 --> 00:30:30,720 The democrats colluded with Russia. 653 00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:35,040 My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others. 654 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,330 They said they think it's Russia. 655 00:30:37,330 --> 00:30:39,243 I have president Putin. 656 00:30:40,220 --> 00:30:42,260 He just said it's not Russia. 657 00:30:42,260 --> 00:30:44,250 I will say this, I don't see any reason 658 00:30:44,250 --> 00:30:45,820 why it would be. 659 00:30:45,820 --> 00:30:47,750 - Was there Russian interference? 660 00:30:47,750 --> 00:30:51,150 - Yes, there was interference in the 2016 election. 661 00:30:51,150 --> 00:30:54,370 - Clearly, unequivocally, absolutely, 662 00:30:54,370 --> 00:30:55,580 there was Russian interference. 663 00:30:55,580 --> 00:30:59,780 The intelligence community and the Senate reports 664 00:30:59,780 --> 00:31:01,960 have all agreed with that conclusion. 665 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,030 I rely on special counsel Mueller 666 00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:07,230 and the Senate Intelligence Committee, 667 00:31:07,230 --> 00:31:09,520 and the intelligence establishment 668 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:11,610 and the director of national intelligence, 669 00:31:11,610 --> 00:31:14,710 and everybody else who said, "Yes, there was." 670 00:31:14,710 --> 00:31:17,130 - It was a disgrace to the FBI, 671 00:31:17,130 --> 00:31:19,250 it was a disgrace to our country. 672 00:31:19,250 --> 00:31:21,550 The Russian investigation is a hoax. 673 00:31:21,550 --> 00:31:23,220 It's a phony hoax. 674 00:31:23,220 --> 00:31:25,030 That was a total witch hunt. 675 00:31:25,030 --> 00:31:27,620 Thank you very much, everybody, thank you. 676 00:31:27,620 --> 00:31:30,530 - I regret that the president of United States 677 00:31:30,530 --> 00:31:33,610 rejected the universal conclusion 678 00:31:33,610 --> 00:31:37,755 that the Russians attempted to influence 679 00:31:37,755 --> 00:31:42,350 the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. 680 00:31:42,350 --> 00:31:45,916 It's undeniable, and I regret that our president 681 00:31:45,916 --> 00:31:48,423 has refused to acknowledge that publicly. 682 00:31:49,660 --> 00:31:52,260 - When we deny that Russia is a threat 683 00:31:52,260 --> 00:31:55,040 to our election infrastructure within our states, 684 00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:57,980 and therefore potentially within our federal government, 685 00:31:57,980 --> 00:32:00,690 then we're denying reality and we're actually 686 00:32:00,690 --> 00:32:04,930 further strengthening the ability of Russia, 687 00:32:04,930 --> 00:32:09,930 and other nation States to interfere with our democracy. 688 00:32:10,100 --> 00:32:13,320 - I met every day for several years, 689 00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,270 every morning in the White House with the President, 690 00:32:16,270 --> 00:32:19,000 the Vice President, the Attorney General, 691 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,080 the FBI Director, yours truly, and a bunch of other people, 692 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:22,700 just to talk about terrorist threats. 693 00:32:22,700 --> 00:32:23,670 And there were broader issues, 694 00:32:23,670 --> 00:32:26,750 but that was part of the conversation I was involved in. 695 00:32:26,750 --> 00:32:28,602 I know about Mueller. 696 00:32:28,602 --> 00:32:30,860 I'd never questioned the man's integrity, 697 00:32:30,860 --> 00:32:32,830 don't question the man's patriotism. 698 00:32:32,830 --> 00:32:34,280 I don't question his character. 699 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:35,869 I don't question his intelligence. 700 00:32:35,869 --> 00:32:37,480 Bob Mueller and this group, 701 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,280 along with the intelligence community said 702 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,290 the Russians interfered in the 2016 election. 703 00:32:42,290 --> 00:32:43,693 Take it to the bank. 704 00:32:44,990 --> 00:32:45,823 They did. 705 00:32:47,020 --> 00:32:48,730 - After the intelligence community 706 00:32:48,730 --> 00:32:50,750 discovered the attempts made by Russia 707 00:32:50,750 --> 00:32:53,390 to influence the 2016 election, 708 00:32:53,390 --> 00:32:55,710 the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence 709 00:32:55,710 --> 00:32:59,465 began an investigation that produced a five volume report 710 00:32:59,465 --> 00:33:03,460 detailing Russian interference efforts in 2016, 711 00:33:03,460 --> 00:33:05,760 the response by American authorities, 712 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,270 and the continued efforts that Russia has made 713 00:33:08,270 --> 00:33:10,860 heading into the 2020 election. 714 00:33:10,860 --> 00:33:13,940 - The first key finding is that Russia engaged 715 00:33:13,940 --> 00:33:18,940 in interference efforts attempts from 2014 to 2017 716 00:33:19,620 --> 00:33:23,460 in the U.S. electoral process and systems. 717 00:33:23,460 --> 00:33:24,520 I think it's really important 718 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,140 to point out that this key finding 719 00:33:26,140 --> 00:33:30,230 of a legislative committee was bipartisan. 720 00:33:30,230 --> 00:33:32,970 - The Bipartisan Senate intelligence report 721 00:33:32,970 --> 00:33:37,010 that was issued, volume one of the report in July of 2019, 722 00:33:37,010 --> 00:33:41,000 identify these efforts that Russia had gone to 723 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,510 to actually attack all 50 States 724 00:33:43,510 --> 00:33:45,910 in election systems infrastructure. 725 00:33:45,910 --> 00:33:47,480 And the US is unique in that 726 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:49,670 we have our federal and states rights. 727 00:33:49,670 --> 00:33:51,630 And the states run the elections.. 728 00:33:51,630 --> 00:33:53,790 Even the presidential election is run 729 00:33:53,790 --> 00:33:56,960 through states elections offices. 730 00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,500 We saw testing here, and we saw infiltrations 731 00:34:00,500 --> 00:34:01,850 of most of the systems. 732 00:34:01,850 --> 00:34:03,820 However, there was no evidence that votes, 733 00:34:03,820 --> 00:34:06,300 or election systems for election tallies 734 00:34:06,300 --> 00:34:07,750 were actually altered. 735 00:34:07,750 --> 00:34:09,540 But we know that something that was started 736 00:34:09,540 --> 00:34:12,420 in at least as early as 2014 by the Russians, 737 00:34:12,420 --> 00:34:15,110 and by the Russian Internet Research Agency, 738 00:34:15,110 --> 00:34:18,660 and we know is continuing at least through 2017. 739 00:34:18,660 --> 00:34:21,430 - If you're looking to change the outcome of an election, 740 00:34:21,430 --> 00:34:26,390 you can manipulate the machines a little bit. 741 00:34:26,390 --> 00:34:29,010 So that's a kinetic threat, and I think that's real. 742 00:34:29,010 --> 00:34:31,620 I think the bigger threat is disinformation. 743 00:34:31,620 --> 00:34:33,300 - It has never been proven 744 00:34:33,300 --> 00:34:35,080 that there's been a successful hack 745 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,290 that's manipulated the vote count. 746 00:34:37,290 --> 00:34:39,734 The bigger thing is happening in our elections 747 00:34:39,734 --> 00:34:41,820 is that you've got foreign players 748 00:34:41,820 --> 00:34:46,820 like Russia, China, and Iran that have every interest 749 00:34:47,460 --> 00:34:50,580 in trying to manipulate the minds of the American voters 750 00:34:50,580 --> 00:34:53,650 through social media, through propaganda campaigns, 751 00:34:53,650 --> 00:34:55,180 through content. 752 00:34:55,180 --> 00:34:59,770 And that manipulation can be just as effective 753 00:34:59,770 --> 00:35:02,903 as actually going into a machine and hacking the vote count. 754 00:35:04,900 --> 00:35:06,960 - There was an active campaign 755 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:11,910 by the Russian Internet Research Agency, the IRA, 756 00:35:11,910 --> 00:35:15,520 to manipulate the results of the US vote 757 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:20,460 through disinformation on social media platforms. 758 00:35:20,460 --> 00:35:24,800 One of the main goals here was really to sow discord. 759 00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,410 These active measures that Russia took 760 00:35:27,410 --> 00:35:29,650 to manipulate our election results 761 00:35:29,650 --> 00:35:34,090 were intended to really create a divide within our society. 762 00:35:34,090 --> 00:35:37,500 To play upon our society's greatest fears, 763 00:35:37,500 --> 00:35:40,563 greatest weaknesses, and to use our own strengths, 764 00:35:40,563 --> 00:35:43,640 the freedom of speech and our right to communicate openly 765 00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:46,580 and express political dissent against us. 766 00:35:46,580 --> 00:35:49,652 And they did this through a series of trolls, 767 00:35:49,652 --> 00:35:52,923 individuals who were intentionally spreading information. 768 00:35:52,923 --> 00:35:55,140 They did it through bots, right? 769 00:35:55,140 --> 00:35:57,270 Automated accounts that weren't real, 770 00:35:57,270 --> 00:35:59,730 but they were fake personas and fake people. 771 00:35:59,730 --> 00:36:02,394 And they also did it through unwitting Americans 772 00:36:02,394 --> 00:36:06,160 who weren't aware that they were spreading disinformation 773 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,343 and intentionally manipulative messaging. 774 00:36:09,740 --> 00:36:11,647 - So there are all kinds of disinformation out there, 775 00:36:11,647 --> 00:36:13,870 which includes everything from the Russians 776 00:36:13,870 --> 00:36:18,200 propping up Facebook accounts, and then trying to act 777 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:19,630 like they're either Black Lives Matter 778 00:36:19,630 --> 00:36:21,340 or act like they're a white nationalist group 779 00:36:21,340 --> 00:36:23,325 and getting those groups to come and clash 780 00:36:23,325 --> 00:36:25,780 in public parks throughout the country, 781 00:36:25,780 --> 00:36:28,310 which did actually happen in 2016. 782 00:36:28,310 --> 00:36:30,910 Where you can talk about all of the fake news 783 00:36:30,910 --> 00:36:33,540 that's out there, I'll give you one really good example. 784 00:36:33,540 --> 00:36:37,800 In 2016, millions of Americans 785 00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,830 were told one day that the Pope 786 00:36:40,830 --> 00:36:44,303 had endorsed Donald Trump as president, okay? 787 00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,060 Now, first of all, Popes don't do that. 788 00:36:47,060 --> 00:36:49,500 Popes don't endorse American presidents. 789 00:36:49,500 --> 00:36:52,010 But they were told that the Pope had endorsed Trump. 790 00:36:52,010 --> 00:36:53,180 Where did they read it? 791 00:36:53,180 --> 00:36:55,060 Well, most Americans didn't actually know 792 00:36:55,060 --> 00:36:57,240 that in fact, it was a fake news site 793 00:36:57,240 --> 00:37:00,570 that was propped up mainly to publish the story 794 00:37:01,690 --> 00:37:03,860 that the Pope had endorsed Trump for president. 795 00:37:03,860 --> 00:37:06,500 The problem is that by the time millions of Americans 796 00:37:06,500 --> 00:37:08,280 had heard about that, and were so surprised 797 00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:11,520 and many were encouraged by the fact that Pope Francis 798 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:15,510 would endorse Trump, they'd already heard about it, 799 00:37:15,510 --> 00:37:17,200 and they'd moved on with their lives. 800 00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:21,510 They actually didn't hear the second piece of information, 801 00:37:21,510 --> 00:37:24,023 which is that it was 100% fake news. 802 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,300 - We've heard about Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, 803 00:37:28,300 --> 00:37:29,900 and what happened there. 804 00:37:29,900 --> 00:37:32,210 In that case, we had a Russian national 805 00:37:32,210 --> 00:37:34,990 who was a professor at Cambridge 806 00:37:34,990 --> 00:37:38,640 develop a app, or an interface with Facebook 807 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:41,480 that was supposedly just a sort of personality test. 808 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,180 And supposedly at the time, unbeknownst to Facebook, 809 00:37:44,180 --> 00:37:45,670 what really happened was 810 00:37:45,670 --> 00:37:48,480 it allowed wholesale data collection. 811 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:50,700 What kind of data are we talking about? 812 00:37:50,700 --> 00:37:52,560 We're talking about your sexual preferences, 813 00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:54,550 your religious preferences, 814 00:37:54,550 --> 00:37:57,890 the things that really make you respond positively 815 00:37:57,890 --> 00:38:00,690 or negatively, the things that make you tick. 816 00:38:00,690 --> 00:38:02,690 And when you know what makes a person tick, 817 00:38:02,690 --> 00:38:06,590 you do know how to control them or manipulate them. 818 00:38:06,590 --> 00:38:10,910 This aggregation of information allowed individuals 819 00:38:10,910 --> 00:38:13,530 during and leading up to the campaign 820 00:38:13,530 --> 00:38:17,320 to be identified and what we call micro-targeted 821 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:22,030 to have messaging and manipulative propaganda 822 00:38:22,030 --> 00:38:26,810 sent their way based upon behavioral preferences 823 00:38:26,810 --> 00:38:30,170 that they had indicated through all kinds of exchanges. 824 00:38:30,170 --> 00:38:33,930 Russia put great effort at studying US culture, 825 00:38:33,930 --> 00:38:37,000 US idioms, how we phrase things, 826 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,890 what we did and didn't do on social media 827 00:38:39,890 --> 00:38:42,840 so that it would be able to create very credible, 828 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,253 believable and persuasive content. 829 00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,870 - The most effective way to divide Americans 830 00:38:48,870 --> 00:38:52,870 is by taking advantage of an already existing fracture. 831 00:38:52,870 --> 00:38:55,440 Russia exploited hundreds of years 832 00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,260 of racial tension and inequality. 833 00:38:58,260 --> 00:39:03,000 They fanned the flames of division, racism and hatred. 834 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,940 In doing so, they have stalled the dream 835 00:39:05,940 --> 00:39:10,210 of a free, equal and unified America. 836 00:39:10,210 --> 00:39:13,318 - People who were pro-Trump were given 837 00:39:13,318 --> 00:39:16,450 additionally pro-Trump messages 838 00:39:16,450 --> 00:39:20,840 and encouraging a stronger Trump Alliance or support 839 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:22,480 for the candidate Trump. 840 00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:26,830 And then people who were uncertain or unclear, 841 00:39:26,830 --> 00:39:31,620 or who clearly expressed that they would not be voting 842 00:39:31,620 --> 00:39:36,300 for then candidate Trump were sent behavioral messaging 843 00:39:36,300 --> 00:39:38,440 dissuading them not to vote, 844 00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:42,940 creating a perception of voter fraud or election fraud, 845 00:39:42,940 --> 00:39:45,840 like disbelief in the electoral process. 846 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:49,810 And so the goal was both actively turning away voters 847 00:39:49,810 --> 00:39:52,960 who might vote against the targeted lifted candidate 848 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,860 and to encourage and strengthen those 849 00:39:55,860 --> 00:39:59,700 who clearly would vote in the way that was desired 850 00:39:59,700 --> 00:40:03,640 by a malicious acting nation state Russia. 851 00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:05,960 And this bipartisan Senate Intelligence Report 852 00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:07,123 makes this clear. 853 00:40:08,550 --> 00:40:10,030 - When the intelligence community 854 00:40:10,030 --> 00:40:11,930 discovered election interference 855 00:40:11,930 --> 00:40:14,440 coming from Russia and other foreign nations, 856 00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:17,710 it became clear that there was no cohesive plan in place 857 00:40:17,710 --> 00:40:19,540 to counter these attacks. 858 00:40:19,540 --> 00:40:22,250 It became imperative that a response be ready 859 00:40:22,250 --> 00:40:25,170 the next time our elections were attacked. 860 00:40:25,170 --> 00:40:29,280 - When does a cyber event or a cyber operation, 861 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,270 particularly one involving information, 862 00:40:31,270 --> 00:40:34,270 constitute a use of force under international law? 863 00:40:34,270 --> 00:40:36,650 So the military is hands are somewhat tied 864 00:40:36,650 --> 00:40:39,570 in responding to these types of operations. 865 00:40:39,570 --> 00:40:40,950 So then in 2018, 866 00:40:40,950 --> 00:40:43,400 we have the National Defense Authorization Act 867 00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:45,190 for fiscal year 2019. 868 00:40:45,190 --> 00:40:47,540 And that involved a number of new authorities 869 00:40:47,540 --> 00:40:50,067 for Cyber Command that we're going to address 870 00:40:50,067 --> 00:40:52,270 these challenges and difficulties. 871 00:40:52,270 --> 00:40:53,970 Probably the more interesting piece, though, 872 00:40:53,970 --> 00:40:58,090 is section 1642, which actually gave the authority 873 00:40:58,090 --> 00:41:01,630 for the US Armed Forces, particularly for Cyber Command 874 00:41:01,630 --> 00:41:06,380 to engage in measures against adversaries 875 00:41:06,380 --> 00:41:09,090 that interfered with our elections in certain ways. 876 00:41:09,090 --> 00:41:10,950 Now it's somewhat cabin or constrained, 877 00:41:10,950 --> 00:41:13,260 there's only four countries, right? 878 00:41:13,260 --> 00:41:14,560 That we can respond to, 879 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:19,080 that is Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea. 880 00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:21,500 But if any of those four countries engage 881 00:41:21,500 --> 00:41:23,480 in certain activities leading to some level 882 00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:25,080 of election interference, 883 00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:28,600 it gives authorities to US Cyber Command to respond. 884 00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:30,810 But usually if there's not a kinetic, 885 00:41:30,810 --> 00:41:34,010 some type of physical manifestation, 886 00:41:34,010 --> 00:41:36,130 then it's not going to rise to use of force. 887 00:41:36,130 --> 00:41:40,010 - Ultimately protecting against the kinetic attack, 888 00:41:40,010 --> 00:41:41,910 everybody's got a role to play. 889 00:41:41,910 --> 00:41:43,990 The best, most important role, I think, 890 00:41:43,990 --> 00:41:45,520 for the federal government, 891 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,910 is the extent that they have information 892 00:41:49,290 --> 00:41:52,703 with regard to these attacks. 893 00:41:52,703 --> 00:41:55,079 Codes, they got precursors. 894 00:41:55,079 --> 00:41:57,530 Any digital information that they have 895 00:41:57,530 --> 00:42:00,042 relative to the attacks themselves, 896 00:42:00,042 --> 00:42:02,960 they need to pass that along as quickly as possible. 897 00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:04,430 And frankly, as a former governor, 898 00:42:04,430 --> 00:42:06,988 they might want to a few federal dollars. 899 00:42:06,988 --> 00:42:10,810 Some need to buy just new and better voting machines 900 00:42:10,810 --> 00:42:13,450 and build software to reduce that risk. 901 00:42:13,450 --> 00:42:16,330 But ultimately the burden, the primary responsibility 902 00:42:16,330 --> 00:42:20,240 protecting from that kind of influence, I believe, 903 00:42:20,240 --> 00:42:21,323 rests in the states and on the governors, 904 00:42:21,323 --> 00:42:23,400 and the state legislatures. 905 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,100 - For how prevalent election interference is, 906 00:42:26,100 --> 00:42:29,700 and how damaging it is to the foundation of our democracy, 907 00:42:29,700 --> 00:42:31,830 there seems to be very little at this time 908 00:42:31,830 --> 00:42:34,600 that our government can actually do to stop it. 909 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:37,370 - Disinformation and misinformation is the greatest threat 910 00:42:37,370 --> 00:42:39,567 because of where it leads 911 00:42:39,567 --> 00:42:43,123 in terms of democracy, including elections, 912 00:42:44,110 --> 00:42:46,440 because it makes people more cynical, 913 00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:48,163 it makes people more polarized, 914 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:53,570 and can also be used to overturn elections. 915 00:42:53,570 --> 00:42:58,570 - The most effective way to manipulate an American election 916 00:42:58,810 --> 00:43:00,800 is through disinformation. 917 00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:01,803 It's cheap. 918 00:43:02,750 --> 00:43:06,040 It is effective, given how much you can micro-target 919 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,830 the voters that you're interested in manipulating, 920 00:43:08,830 --> 00:43:11,490 and it is very hard to track. 921 00:43:11,490 --> 00:43:15,070 So yes, it was an issue in 2016. 922 00:43:15,070 --> 00:43:16,860 And yes, it's gonna to be an even bigger issue 923 00:43:16,860 --> 00:43:21,430 in 2020 and 2022, and 2032. 924 00:43:21,430 --> 00:43:23,820 - So what does disinformation look like? 925 00:43:23,820 --> 00:43:26,130 Images like this of Stacey Abrams 926 00:43:26,130 --> 00:43:28,010 were a doctor to attach to the candidate 927 00:43:28,010 --> 00:43:30,170 to the Muslim Brotherhood and Communism. 928 00:43:30,170 --> 00:43:32,860 False warnings of a citation for political signs 929 00:43:32,860 --> 00:43:34,910 were created and distributed. 930 00:43:34,910 --> 00:43:37,680 And photos of other persons were falsely attributed 931 00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:39,900 in order to fabricate false motives 932 00:43:39,900 --> 00:43:42,200 and discredit harmful testimony. 933 00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:44,256 - We need to realize that this is the future. 934 00:43:44,256 --> 00:43:46,738 This is the way that people, 935 00:43:46,738 --> 00:43:49,420 whether they're inside our country or outside our country 936 00:43:49,420 --> 00:43:52,200 are gonna try to manipulate the American electorate, 937 00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:54,910 because it is very, very effective. 938 00:43:54,910 --> 00:43:56,760 - There's a digital war going on. 939 00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,510 And part of it, at least is I think, 940 00:44:00,510 --> 00:44:02,173 as the Russians take a look at it, is 941 00:44:02,173 --> 00:44:06,987 destabilize the United States. 942 00:44:06,987 --> 00:44:07,820 And how do you do that? 943 00:44:07,820 --> 00:44:10,390 Well, start questioning the legitimacy 944 00:44:10,390 --> 00:44:12,970 of the bedrock, the foundation of our country, 945 00:44:12,970 --> 00:44:16,960 the Republic, is our elections. 946 00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:19,880 Locally, state, and nationally, particularly nationally. 947 00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:21,950 Four years into it, we're still talking about it. 948 00:44:21,950 --> 00:44:24,820 Some people will say that there's a kind of equivalency 949 00:44:24,820 --> 00:44:29,650 between what the CIA and Voice of America, 950 00:44:29,650 --> 00:44:33,330 and other entities have done in other countries. 951 00:44:33,330 --> 00:44:34,505 But we've got to understand 952 00:44:34,505 --> 00:44:37,620 that there's a very different intent. 953 00:44:37,620 --> 00:44:39,960 The intent when America 954 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,690 has been involved in elections abroad 955 00:44:43,690 --> 00:44:48,110 was for the most part to try to encourage liberal democracy, 956 00:44:48,110 --> 00:44:52,140 to try to encourage democratic processes along. 957 00:44:52,140 --> 00:44:55,060 What the Russians want to do 958 00:44:55,060 --> 00:44:57,090 when they manipulate our elections 959 00:44:57,090 --> 00:45:02,090 is to try to discredit the integrity of the American way. 960 00:45:02,180 --> 00:45:06,660 - Putin, when he was just this ascending star 961 00:45:06,660 --> 00:45:10,663 in the KGB's forte was destabilization. 962 00:45:11,550 --> 00:45:15,010 And look what he's done to our electoral process. 963 00:45:15,010 --> 00:45:16,970 His goal may or may not have been 964 00:45:16,970 --> 00:45:19,280 one or the other individual elected, 965 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:21,420 but he destabilized our election systems 966 00:45:21,420 --> 00:45:23,520 so that now we're still talking about 967 00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:25,390 and questioning legitimacy 968 00:45:25,390 --> 00:45:28,180 of the election of the President United States. 969 00:45:28,180 --> 00:45:30,070 He accomplished his goal. 970 00:45:30,070 --> 00:45:32,769 - Disinformation and misinformation 971 00:45:32,769 --> 00:45:36,760 isn't just a matter of foreign interference. 972 00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:40,570 That's a big deal, and it's a national security interest. 973 00:45:40,570 --> 00:45:45,570 But what we're seeing is political activists 974 00:45:45,870 --> 00:45:49,030 and PACs of all kinds, right and left 975 00:45:49,030 --> 00:45:52,510 using their money to start phony local news sites 976 00:45:52,510 --> 00:45:54,780 that look like real local news sites, 977 00:45:54,780 --> 00:45:57,909 or national news sites, but they're actually financed 978 00:45:57,909 --> 00:46:00,770 by people with a political agenda. 979 00:46:00,770 --> 00:46:04,572 And they approach all stories from a certain angle, 980 00:46:04,572 --> 00:46:09,440 and they're promoting their own brand of misinformation. 981 00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:14,260 - The current administration has been quite the ringleader, 982 00:46:14,260 --> 00:46:18,200 even, in a campaign of misinformation. 983 00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:20,720 President Trump kind of made a name for himself 984 00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:22,780 in political circles as a birther, 985 00:46:22,780 --> 00:46:26,560 as someone who'd sought to claim falsely 986 00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,890 and without justification at all 987 00:46:28,890 --> 00:46:32,060 that president Obama wasn't a real US citizen. 988 00:46:32,060 --> 00:46:36,850 - If we're all going to be governed by the latest rumor, 989 00:46:36,850 --> 00:46:41,292 or the labeling of what is true as fake, 990 00:46:42,184 --> 00:46:47,171 then we can not have a truly responsible, 991 00:46:47,171 --> 00:46:50,850 responsive and functioning democracy. 992 00:46:50,850 --> 00:46:53,920 - One of the byproducts of disinformation 993 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:57,320 sort of a vicious cycle, is polarization. 994 00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,760 Because if I convinced you that the sky is green 995 00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:03,170 when it's actually blue, that I've put you off 996 00:47:03,170 --> 00:47:06,190 into this corner where you're gonna be much more comfortable 997 00:47:06,190 --> 00:47:08,690 with people who also think the sky is green. 998 00:47:08,690 --> 00:47:11,349 And then you're going to defend your position, 999 00:47:11,349 --> 00:47:13,090 you're going to rely on, 1000 00:47:13,090 --> 00:47:15,340 or maybe even create your own disinformation 1001 00:47:15,340 --> 00:47:18,150 that furthers the myth that the sky is green. 1002 00:47:18,150 --> 00:47:19,850 - People choose the facts that they want, 1003 00:47:19,850 --> 00:47:21,673 but they choose things that aren't necessarily facts. 1004 00:47:21,673 --> 00:47:24,570 I mean, I guess that's where the challenge is 1005 00:47:24,570 --> 00:47:27,986 in the impact of the internet, 1006 00:47:27,986 --> 00:47:30,644 and its use and abuse 1007 00:47:30,644 --> 00:47:32,360 in terms of the electoral process. 1008 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:33,980 - I think we need to realize that we're entering 1009 00:47:33,980 --> 00:47:36,300 an incredibly dangerous period in the history, 1010 00:47:36,300 --> 00:47:40,350 not just of democracy, but of human society and civilization 1011 00:47:40,350 --> 00:47:44,890 in which people now fundamentally distrust 1012 00:47:44,890 --> 00:47:47,680 most of the stuff that's before them. 1013 00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:50,100 Now, the problem with that is twofold. 1014 00:47:50,100 --> 00:47:51,540 Number one, that in a democracy, 1015 00:47:51,540 --> 00:47:54,710 you actually have to have a common set of facts, 1016 00:47:54,710 --> 00:47:58,710 and a common narrative that enough people believe is true 1017 00:47:58,710 --> 00:48:00,513 that a democracy can hang together. 1018 00:48:01,450 --> 00:48:02,960 And when all of a sudden you have a situation 1019 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:07,240 in which information is being, not only fragmented, 1020 00:48:07,240 --> 00:48:11,070 and politicized, but then profoundly distrusted, 1021 00:48:11,070 --> 00:48:12,570 regardless of where it's coming from. 1022 00:48:12,570 --> 00:48:14,900 We no longer can have a coherent conversation 1023 00:48:14,900 --> 00:48:18,190 in this country, and we no longer have a national narrative 1024 00:48:18,190 --> 00:48:20,410 and set of facts, that we can all trust 1025 00:48:20,410 --> 00:48:22,800 and debate and make decisions around. 1026 00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,600 And I don't know how a democracy can function 1027 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:27,350 under those conditions. 1028 00:48:27,350 --> 00:48:30,370 - A democracy depends on good information. 1029 00:48:30,370 --> 00:48:34,950 It doesn't necessarily mean that every citizen who votes 1030 00:48:34,950 --> 00:48:36,910 knows the name of their congressmen, 1031 00:48:36,910 --> 00:48:38,850 and the name of the members of the city council, 1032 00:48:38,850 --> 00:48:41,870 but they know a certain amount, 1033 00:48:41,870 --> 00:48:45,070 and they share a certain set of basic facts. 1034 00:48:45,070 --> 00:48:49,413 If that's not the case, if they can't even debate 1035 00:48:49,413 --> 00:48:52,130 how they feel about the facts with each other, 1036 00:48:52,130 --> 00:48:54,570 because they don't even share the same facts, 1037 00:48:54,570 --> 00:48:56,420 democracy breaks down. 1038 00:48:56,420 --> 00:48:59,380 - We're becoming a society of first impression. 1039 00:48:59,380 --> 00:49:00,371 We're becoming a society where 1040 00:49:00,371 --> 00:49:01,821 we embrace a lot of the things 1041 00:49:01,821 --> 00:49:04,400 that we see on the internet or on Twitter accounts 1042 00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:06,870 as actually factually based, 1043 00:49:06,870 --> 00:49:10,703 as thoughtfully conceived and presented. 1044 00:49:12,370 --> 00:49:14,360 I don't have the antidote. 1045 00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:17,210 We need to think about it, seriously, 1046 00:49:17,210 --> 00:49:20,070 because it is such a corrosive impact 1047 00:49:20,070 --> 00:49:23,894 on the most fundamental structure 1048 00:49:24,819 --> 00:49:25,819 in a democracy. 1049 00:49:26,940 --> 00:49:29,920 And that is our electing process. 1050 00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:31,466 I wish I had a better answer for you. 1051 00:49:31,466 --> 00:49:33,100 I don't have the antidote. 1052 00:49:33,100 --> 00:49:35,460 - What makes this really complicated is that 1053 00:49:35,460 --> 00:49:39,920 when unwitting Americans share a message 1054 00:49:40,950 --> 00:49:43,860 that they really strongly identify with, 1055 00:49:43,860 --> 00:49:45,840 and unbeknownst to them, they're identifying with it 1056 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:47,780 because they were micro-targeted. 1057 00:49:47,780 --> 00:49:50,170 But when they share that information, 1058 00:49:50,170 --> 00:49:52,060 regardless of where it was created, 1059 00:49:52,060 --> 00:49:53,400 it's becoming their speech. 1060 00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:56,623 They're expressing an opinion and sharing information. 1061 00:49:56,623 --> 00:49:59,650 It really muddies the waters on how do we handle this, 1062 00:49:59,650 --> 00:50:01,010 and what do we do to address it. 1063 00:50:01,010 --> 00:50:05,350 - At the heart of a democracy, I've always felt, 1064 00:50:05,350 --> 00:50:06,630 is the First Amendment. 1065 00:50:06,630 --> 00:50:08,535 Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, 1066 00:50:08,535 --> 00:50:10,060 et cetera, et cetera. 1067 00:50:10,060 --> 00:50:14,070 And retweeting false information, 1068 00:50:14,070 --> 00:50:16,810 is that a violation of the First Amendment? 1069 00:50:16,810 --> 00:50:19,150 When misinformation generated 1070 00:50:19,150 --> 00:50:22,460 by the bots from a Russian source, 1071 00:50:22,460 --> 00:50:27,460 maybe embraced by an unknowing voter 1072 00:50:27,550 --> 00:50:30,820 who subscribes to that particular point of view 1073 00:50:30,820 --> 00:50:32,490 based on whatever their political bias 1074 00:50:32,490 --> 00:50:33,670 or philosophy might be, 1075 00:50:33,670 --> 00:50:36,610 and then passes it on as if it's true. 1076 00:50:36,610 --> 00:50:38,760 I don't think that's a violation of the First Amendment, 1077 00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:42,420 but it's certainly a disruptive of our democracy. 1078 00:50:42,420 --> 00:50:45,690 - The traditional claim of First Amendment law 1079 00:50:45,690 --> 00:50:49,400 is that false speech, for the most part, 1080 00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:52,430 gets very little, if any, constitutional protection, 1081 00:50:52,430 --> 00:50:54,543 when it's simple matter of fact. 1082 00:50:54,543 --> 00:50:57,173 The government can often not suppress this. 1083 00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:00,180 But the question is when 1084 00:51:00,180 --> 00:51:01,700 there's a little bit more gray area, 1085 00:51:01,700 --> 00:51:06,110 or when something like opinion is pressed in. 1086 00:51:06,110 --> 00:51:07,877 Suppose you say something like, 1087 00:51:07,877 --> 00:51:10,340 "Kamala Harris isn't a real American." 1088 00:51:10,340 --> 00:51:12,530 Kamala Harris is a United States citizen, 1089 00:51:12,530 --> 00:51:16,310 just like everyone has long presumed, 1090 00:51:16,310 --> 00:51:20,440 but there might be this other part to the real American. 1091 00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:24,150 Then it's a bit of opinion about what values one must hold 1092 00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:28,720 to be truly a part of the clan or something of this sort. 1093 00:51:28,720 --> 00:51:29,790 Is this really misleading? 1094 00:51:29,790 --> 00:51:31,370 Is this really false information? 1095 00:51:31,370 --> 00:51:33,020 It's not quite clear what to say. 1096 00:51:33,870 --> 00:51:36,520 As a matter of what I think courts would do, 1097 00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:38,070 I think that they're probably going to say 1098 00:51:38,070 --> 00:51:39,940 that this is entitled to First Amendment protection, 1099 00:51:39,940 --> 00:51:42,900 because there's a colorable kind of opinion matter, 1100 00:51:42,900 --> 00:51:45,363 and not clearly under some other thing, 1101 00:51:46,556 --> 00:51:51,556 like false or libelous speech that can be banned. 1102 00:51:51,650 --> 00:51:55,140 - The government shouldn't be able to stop that, 1103 00:51:55,140 --> 00:51:58,963 and couldn't under the First Amendment stop that, 1104 00:52:00,010 --> 00:52:02,117 but the platforms can. 1105 00:52:02,117 --> 00:52:03,500 I don't have a First Amendment right 1106 00:52:03,500 --> 00:52:05,730 vis-a-vis Facebook or Twitter. 1107 00:52:05,730 --> 00:52:08,140 I only have a First Amendment right 1108 00:52:08,140 --> 00:52:09,830 vis-a-vis the government. 1109 00:52:09,830 --> 00:52:13,530 There are outright lies, not hyperbole, 1110 00:52:13,530 --> 00:52:16,980 they're just eyes being transferred through the internet. 1111 00:52:16,980 --> 00:52:20,260 How do we as guardians of democracy, 1112 00:52:20,260 --> 00:52:23,330 and guardians of the first amendment deal with that reality 1113 00:52:23,330 --> 00:52:25,550 without stepping all over everybody's right 1114 00:52:25,550 --> 00:52:27,750 to free speech and to express their point of view? 1115 00:52:27,750 --> 00:52:32,750 - One of the ways that we see our own greatest strengths, 1116 00:52:33,270 --> 00:52:37,230 the right of the freedom of speech used against us 1117 00:52:37,230 --> 00:52:40,750 is because of the way the laws have developed 1118 00:52:41,670 --> 00:52:44,960 rapidly around these communication platforms. 1119 00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:47,640 We have a federal law, the Communications and Decency Act. 1120 00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:50,880 And section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 1121 00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:55,535 provides a shield of immunity for online platforms 1122 00:52:55,535 --> 00:52:59,300 that post content created by third parties. 1123 00:52:59,300 --> 00:53:01,030 The immunity it provided for platforms 1124 00:53:01,030 --> 00:53:05,670 was also to promote the internet as a communication medium. 1125 00:53:05,670 --> 00:53:08,850 We didn't want websites to be liable 1126 00:53:08,850 --> 00:53:11,990 for removing some content, but allowing other content. 1127 00:53:11,990 --> 00:53:15,566 And so Section 230 worked as long as it was 1128 00:53:15,566 --> 00:53:17,570 content provided by a third party, 1129 00:53:17,570 --> 00:53:20,690 the platform itself would not be liable for that content. 1130 00:53:20,690 --> 00:53:23,050 So if there was information on Facebook 1131 00:53:23,050 --> 00:53:24,620 that was untrue about someone, 1132 00:53:24,620 --> 00:53:26,620 that said someone was a criminal, 1133 00:53:26,620 --> 00:53:30,160 as long as Facebook didn't put that information up there, 1134 00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:32,000 it wasn't Facebook's problem. 1135 00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:34,472 - There are so many sites, but the communication, 1136 00:53:34,472 --> 00:53:36,590 the distribution of those sites 1137 00:53:36,590 --> 00:53:38,960 is concentrated on two or three platforms. 1138 00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:41,110 And it's up to those platforms 1139 00:53:41,110 --> 00:53:43,730 to be completely transparent about what they're doing. 1140 00:53:43,730 --> 00:53:46,020 - Currently, social media giants like Twitter 1141 00:53:46,020 --> 00:53:49,260 receive an unprecedented liability shield 1142 00:53:49,260 --> 00:53:52,740 based on the theory that they're a neutral platform, 1143 00:53:52,740 --> 00:53:54,280 which they're not. 1144 00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:56,910 Not an editor with a viewpoint. 1145 00:53:56,910 --> 00:54:00,000 My executive order calls for new regulations 1146 00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:04,160 under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. 1147 00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:07,820 - The so-called section 230 had a very good intention. 1148 00:54:07,820 --> 00:54:10,880 Someone would post something on America Online, 1149 00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,272 believe it or not, that's what it was worried about. 1150 00:54:13,272 --> 00:54:14,800 They never heard of Facebook, or Google, 1151 00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:18,135 or YouTube at the time, or Twitter. 1152 00:54:18,135 --> 00:54:23,135 And the AOL was worried it was gonna to get sued 1153 00:54:23,350 --> 00:54:26,850 for something I said about you online. 1154 00:54:26,850 --> 00:54:29,330 And the analogy they used was, 1155 00:54:29,330 --> 00:54:33,483 if I say something bad about you on a telephone call, 1156 00:54:34,370 --> 00:54:36,787 should Verizon have to be responsible for that? 1157 00:54:36,787 --> 00:54:38,630 And that makes sense. 1158 00:54:38,630 --> 00:54:40,490 - This was adopted 25 years ago 1159 00:54:40,490 --> 00:54:43,030 to protect the fledgling industry, 1160 00:54:43,030 --> 00:54:46,824 and its purpose was to allow websites that were serving 1161 00:54:46,824 --> 00:54:48,940 as essentially bulletin boards 1162 00:54:48,940 --> 00:54:53,530 for diverse third party content coming on, 1163 00:54:53,530 --> 00:54:56,400 to say that you're not responsible for the content 1164 00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:59,110 of that third party information. 1165 00:54:59,110 --> 00:55:02,090 - The real impetus of it was 1166 00:55:02,090 --> 00:55:05,680 that these online platforms like AOL, 1167 00:55:05,680 --> 00:55:08,140 they were beginning to censor stuff. 1168 00:55:08,140 --> 00:55:10,009 They were censoring pornography 1169 00:55:10,009 --> 00:55:11,840 and hate speech on their own. 1170 00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:14,470 They took it as their responsibility to do that, 1171 00:55:14,470 --> 00:55:17,130 and when they started to do that, they got sued. 1172 00:55:17,130 --> 00:55:20,920 So with Section 230 really did was exempted them 1173 00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:25,920 from getting sued for content decisions that they made, 1174 00:55:25,950 --> 00:55:27,880 not for not making any content decisions, 1175 00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:29,300 but they couldn't get sued 1176 00:55:29,300 --> 00:55:31,690 for content decisions that they made. 1177 00:55:31,690 --> 00:55:34,500 Meaning they could block pornography 1178 00:55:34,500 --> 00:55:36,710 and not have a pornographer sue them, 1179 00:55:36,710 --> 00:55:38,050 or they could block hate speech, 1180 00:55:38,050 --> 00:55:39,250 or block anything they wanted. 1181 00:55:39,250 --> 00:55:41,743 They could act like editors and not get sued. 1182 00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:44,700 - There is friction between the protections 1183 00:55:44,700 --> 00:55:47,350 of the First Amendment, and the overwhelming threat 1184 00:55:47,350 --> 00:55:49,360 that disinformation poses. 1185 00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:51,870 The United States government has to fight the war 1186 00:55:51,870 --> 00:55:55,060 against disinformation with its hands tied. 1187 00:55:55,060 --> 00:55:58,120 In this void, private businesses are starting to step up 1188 00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:01,320 in hopes of winning the battle against disinformation. 1189 00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:03,950 - One thing that is remarkable is to see the reaction 1190 00:56:03,950 --> 00:56:06,710 of different platforms to combat 1191 00:56:06,710 --> 00:56:10,040 the scourge of the attack upon our democracy. 1192 00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:12,606 Twitter has banned political advertisement. 1193 00:56:12,606 --> 00:56:13,827 You see Facebook saying, 1194 00:56:13,827 --> 00:56:16,227 "We're not going to get involved in the truth 1195 00:56:16,227 --> 00:56:19,467 "or not truth of political campaigns. 1196 00:56:19,467 --> 00:56:21,710 "We're gonna let the market take care of that." 1197 00:56:21,710 --> 00:56:24,827 Meaning the politicians should regulate themselves 1198 00:56:24,827 --> 00:56:26,790 and the people should call out 1199 00:56:26,790 --> 00:56:29,470 where there are things that aren't true. 1200 00:56:29,470 --> 00:56:32,540 Google has taken a much more nuanced 1201 00:56:32,540 --> 00:56:35,210 and really probably the appropriate approach 1202 00:56:35,210 --> 00:56:37,410 if we want to share information. 1203 00:56:37,410 --> 00:56:40,220 Rather than ban it outright, Google has limited 1204 00:56:40,220 --> 00:56:44,200 how its platform can be used to target political messaging. 1205 00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:47,540 Google is specifically refusing to allow 1206 00:56:47,540 --> 00:56:50,120 campaigns and political speech designed 1207 00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:53,210 to target individuals based upon their preferences 1208 00:56:54,300 --> 00:56:56,120 that wouldn't be clear to them. 1209 00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:59,210 So this response is something that we're seeing 1210 00:56:59,210 --> 00:57:02,740 these private companies trying to figure out how to do. 1211 00:57:02,740 --> 00:57:06,232 And what we really need here is federal regulation 1212 00:57:06,232 --> 00:57:10,100 that regulates this kind of targeting 1213 00:57:10,100 --> 00:57:13,810 and political campaigning on these platforms 1214 00:57:13,810 --> 00:57:17,390 that are all of our number one sources of information. 1215 00:57:17,390 --> 00:57:19,660 - One thing that the federal government can do 1216 00:57:19,660 --> 00:57:23,720 is it can make the speaker transparent, okay? 1217 00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:26,460 So for instance, there's a bill out there 1218 00:57:26,460 --> 00:57:28,190 called the Honest Ads Act. 1219 00:57:28,190 --> 00:57:30,800 And what the Honest Ads Act would do is basically 1220 00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:34,970 provide the same transparency that exists for TV advertising 1221 00:57:34,970 --> 00:57:36,760 for digital advertising. 1222 00:57:36,760 --> 00:57:39,750 Now, what I mean by that is that if a group tomorrow 1223 00:57:39,750 --> 00:57:42,420 were to take out a million dollars in TV ads 1224 00:57:42,420 --> 00:57:45,110 on behalf of a politician or against a politician, 1225 00:57:45,110 --> 00:57:47,360 they actually have to disclose who they are. 1226 00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:50,530 And then you can find out where their money came from. 1227 00:57:50,530 --> 00:57:52,650 The same group could take out a million dollars 1228 00:57:52,650 --> 00:57:56,600 in digital ads on Facebook and Twitter and online tomorrow, 1229 00:57:56,600 --> 00:58:00,100 and never have to disclose a single word about themselves. 1230 00:58:00,100 --> 00:58:02,280 - The platforms are totally non-transparent. 1231 00:58:02,280 --> 00:58:06,120 They will claim that they have fact checkers 1232 00:58:06,120 --> 00:58:09,150 and people who, if they see something is not true, 1233 00:58:09,150 --> 00:58:12,870 they'll secretly change the algorithm 1234 00:58:12,870 --> 00:58:16,124 so that it isn't shared as much, and it isn't seen as much. 1235 00:58:16,124 --> 00:58:18,280 Why don't they just say what they're doing? 1236 00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:20,176 And why don't they say why they're doing it? 1237 00:58:20,176 --> 00:58:22,300 And why don't they see who's doing it? 1238 00:58:22,300 --> 00:58:25,700 Because no, one's gonna trust them if they do it secretly. 1239 00:58:25,700 --> 00:58:27,673 And that's what they do. 1240 00:58:28,930 --> 00:58:30,560 And in part, that's 'cause their culture 1241 00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:35,010 is that every problem has a technology solution, 1242 00:58:35,010 --> 00:58:39,635 and the problem of misinformation and disinformation online, 1243 00:58:39,635 --> 00:58:41,980 there is no technology solutions to that. 1244 00:58:41,980 --> 00:58:43,940 That is a journalism solution. 1245 00:58:43,940 --> 00:58:45,453 That is a human solution. 1246 00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:51,083 - There is a growing need for some means 1247 00:58:51,083 --> 00:58:54,728 for people to be able to sort out 1248 00:58:54,728 --> 00:58:58,040 what's actually true. 1249 00:58:58,040 --> 00:58:59,810 - My God, in the digital forevermore, 1250 00:58:59,810 --> 00:59:02,750 in the digital age, data is critically important. 1251 00:59:02,750 --> 00:59:04,129 Facts are critically important. 1252 00:59:04,129 --> 00:59:07,160 But we know that the internet can be abused 1253 00:59:07,160 --> 00:59:08,380 and it has been abused. 1254 00:59:08,380 --> 00:59:10,480 And unless we pay a lot more attention to it 1255 00:59:10,480 --> 00:59:11,873 and its use in the future, 1256 00:59:11,873 --> 00:59:14,130 that it's going to undermine our democracy. 1257 00:59:14,130 --> 00:59:17,133 - I think with different kinds of political leadership, 1258 00:59:17,980 --> 00:59:20,848 we can encourage people 1259 00:59:20,848 --> 00:59:25,400 to at least go to places where they can share 1260 00:59:25,400 --> 00:59:27,660 the same set of common facts. 1261 00:59:27,660 --> 00:59:29,640 - We have a polarized system 1262 00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:33,740 that doesn't facilitate dialogue. 1263 00:59:33,740 --> 00:59:36,720 Without dialogue, democracy breaks down. 1264 00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:40,730 - How much of this is produced by the fact 1265 00:59:40,730 --> 00:59:43,510 that our political representatives 1266 00:59:43,510 --> 00:59:45,167 are not sufficiently responsive 1267 00:59:45,167 --> 00:59:47,610 to what the average person thinks, 1268 00:59:47,610 --> 00:59:50,410 and then are gravitating to the extremes? 1269 00:59:50,410 --> 00:59:53,000 And then pressing out really extreme positions 1270 00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:55,160 as if they are more commonplace. 1271 00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:58,830 Frankly, the internet itself has contributed 1272 00:59:58,830 --> 01:00:00,040 to the erosion of civility. 1273 01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:03,010 I mean, Donald Trump has added a layer on top of it 1274 01:00:03,010 --> 01:00:03,990 with his always Tweeting, 1275 01:00:03,990 --> 01:00:06,940 but the internet is also an influence, 1276 01:00:06,940 --> 01:00:09,870 and a very corrosive influence in this whole notion 1277 01:00:09,870 --> 01:00:12,730 of a civil exchange of ideas and differences of opinion. 1278 01:00:12,730 --> 01:00:16,570 And frankly, Hillary Clinton said it, Joe Biden responded. 1279 01:00:16,570 --> 01:00:18,447 He said, "Republicans aren't our enemies, 1280 01:00:18,447 --> 01:00:20,260 "they're our opponents." 1281 01:00:20,260 --> 01:00:23,393 And we got to get back to that notion of civility. 1282 01:00:24,280 --> 01:00:27,360 - So you have all these investigators, they're democrats. 1283 01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:28,960 In all fairness, Bob Mueller 1284 01:00:28,960 --> 01:00:30,757 worked for Obama for eight years. 1285 01:00:30,757 --> 01:00:33,270 The biggest problem is gonna be with the democrats, 1286 01:00:33,270 --> 01:00:36,200 not with China and Russia and Iran. 1287 01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:38,840 Your biggest problem is going to be with the democrats. 1288 01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:41,400 - The notion that somehow supporting 1289 01:00:41,400 --> 01:00:46,400 states' infrastructures for elections can become partisan 1290 01:00:46,660 --> 01:00:49,610 is really a wedge just being driven 1291 01:00:49,610 --> 01:00:52,550 between our citizens and our federal 1292 01:00:52,550 --> 01:00:57,550 and state governing bodies by malicious nation states. 1293 01:00:58,350 --> 01:01:00,250 - We cannot continue to be divided 1294 01:01:00,250 --> 01:01:01,680 by foreign enemies. 1295 01:01:01,680 --> 01:01:04,860 It is the duty of all Americans to take part 1296 01:01:04,860 --> 01:01:07,120 in protecting our democracy. 1297 01:01:07,120 --> 01:01:11,088 - I think what is critical going into any election, 1298 01:01:11,088 --> 01:01:14,550 and whenever exercising both the privilege 1299 01:01:14,550 --> 01:01:16,743 and the responsibility of voting, 1300 01:01:17,660 --> 01:01:22,660 is to be an informed member of the electorate. 1301 01:01:22,810 --> 01:01:24,370 That's harder to do. 1302 01:01:24,370 --> 01:01:26,300 - Don't take everything you read on the internet 1303 01:01:26,300 --> 01:01:27,133 at face value. 1304 01:01:27,133 --> 01:01:29,280 I mean, it's crazy, there's no standard. 1305 01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:30,490 You throw an opinion out there, 1306 01:01:30,490 --> 01:01:32,520 and some people accept that as fact. 1307 01:01:32,520 --> 01:01:33,550 And part of it has to do 1308 01:01:33,550 --> 01:01:35,393 with the recipient of the information. 1309 01:01:35,393 --> 01:01:39,440 - I think we put too much emphasis on the purveyors 1310 01:01:39,440 --> 01:01:44,440 and not enough on the people who are reading this stuff. 1311 01:01:44,690 --> 01:01:48,360 If your exclusive source of information is Twitter, 1312 01:01:48,360 --> 01:01:52,790 in my humble opinion, and I'm of an older generation, 1313 01:01:52,790 --> 01:01:56,430 you are at serious risk of not understanding 1314 01:01:56,430 --> 01:01:58,373 all the facts at issue. 1315 01:01:59,328 --> 01:02:02,700 There's a reason that newspapers have editors. 1316 01:02:02,700 --> 01:02:06,020 There's a reason that newspapers have fact checkers. 1317 01:02:06,020 --> 01:02:10,570 There's a reason that newspapers of one stripe or another 1318 01:02:10,570 --> 01:02:15,570 have credibility as arbiters of information. 1319 01:02:16,710 --> 01:02:19,910 - If a reporter or editor gets something wrong repeatedly, 1320 01:02:19,910 --> 01:02:22,930 they will be fired from their job, all right? 1321 01:02:22,930 --> 01:02:24,830 These are professionals who are engaged 1322 01:02:24,830 --> 01:02:26,480 in the professional act of trying to get 1323 01:02:26,480 --> 01:02:29,450 as close to the truth as they possibly can. 1324 01:02:29,450 --> 01:02:33,750 - We have to really look at clear indications 1325 01:02:33,750 --> 01:02:37,520 from our intelligence community, 1326 01:02:37,520 --> 01:02:39,760 from our national security experts 1327 01:02:39,760 --> 01:02:42,880 and from the republican and democratic senators 1328 01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:47,000 who clearly spelled out the measures that were taken 1329 01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:51,600 and that are still being taken against US democracy. 1330 01:02:51,600 --> 01:02:55,260 At the end of the day, that's what we need to preserve. 1331 01:02:55,260 --> 01:03:00,260 - I urge every voter to find sources that are reliable, 1332 01:03:00,489 --> 01:03:03,830 but then to go out and look at other sources too. 1333 01:03:03,830 --> 01:03:06,010 To make sure that they are not inside 1334 01:03:06,010 --> 01:03:07,940 some type of social media bubble 1335 01:03:08,900 --> 01:03:10,670 when they are gathering information. 1336 01:03:10,670 --> 01:03:12,333 Go to the source documents. 1337 01:03:13,894 --> 01:03:18,490 Read the executive summary from the Senate report, 1338 01:03:18,490 --> 01:03:21,050 read the law, read the constitution 1339 01:03:21,050 --> 01:03:25,273 as opposed to reading how someone else describes it. 1340 01:03:36,460 --> 01:03:38,007 - This is the new normal. 1341 01:03:38,007 --> 01:03:41,830 How many times has that phrase been said in 2020? 1342 01:03:41,830 --> 01:03:44,610 Life probably won't continue like this forever, 1343 01:03:44,610 --> 01:03:47,620 but the way we live has definitely changed. 1344 01:03:47,620 --> 01:03:49,630 The way we go to school has changed, 1345 01:03:49,630 --> 01:03:51,740 the way we do interviews has changed, 1346 01:03:51,740 --> 01:03:55,470 and the way we vote will likely need to change. 1347 01:03:55,470 --> 01:03:59,220 - Epidemics and pandemics should absolutely 1348 01:03:59,220 --> 01:04:01,752 be considered future threats 1349 01:04:01,752 --> 01:04:05,020 to the sanctity of Americans' elections. 1350 01:04:05,020 --> 01:04:08,030 And in a way, these, these viral threats, 1351 01:04:08,030 --> 01:04:11,520 these actual medical, biological threats 1352 01:04:11,520 --> 01:04:13,540 are much greater and more intense 1353 01:04:13,540 --> 01:04:16,230 than what we're seeing from foreign countries. 1354 01:04:16,230 --> 01:04:20,150 You can shut an entire country down with it. 1355 01:04:20,150 --> 01:04:23,890 So imagine if the coronavirus had struck 1356 01:04:23,890 --> 01:04:27,283 in early October of 2020? 1357 01:04:28,850 --> 01:04:30,330 Would we even be holding an election? 1358 01:04:30,330 --> 01:04:32,420 How would we be holding an election? 1359 01:04:32,420 --> 01:04:35,100 So, you could have a situation in which 1360 01:04:35,100 --> 01:04:38,637 the most powerful and established democracy on earth, 1361 01:04:38,637 --> 01:04:40,520 the United States of America 1362 01:04:40,520 --> 01:04:45,050 could have an entire election, presidential election 1363 01:04:45,050 --> 01:04:47,960 paralyzed, crippled, shut down or delayed 1364 01:04:47,960 --> 01:04:49,500 because of a virus. 1365 01:04:49,500 --> 01:04:54,500 - I would put the voter access and the integrity of, 1366 01:04:56,850 --> 01:04:59,540 the ability of people to vote in a pandemic 1367 01:04:59,540 --> 01:05:03,483 as a higher risk than even foreign interference. 1368 01:05:04,340 --> 01:05:07,977 This to me harkens back to Bush V. Gore in 2000, 1369 01:05:07,977 --> 01:05:10,500 and the election contest in Florida. 1370 01:05:10,500 --> 01:05:12,520 And what that revealed 1371 01:05:12,520 --> 01:05:14,620 is that the technology and infrastructure 1372 01:05:14,620 --> 01:05:17,630 behind our elections is not really up to snuff. 1373 01:05:17,630 --> 01:05:21,200 We have not sufficiently paid attention 1374 01:05:21,200 --> 01:05:22,870 to the infrastructure needs 1375 01:05:22,870 --> 01:05:26,550 for a modern, 21st Century system. 1376 01:05:26,550 --> 01:05:28,040 We need to do that. 1377 01:05:28,040 --> 01:05:31,770 And we're going to have some problems in 2020 as a result. 1378 01:05:31,770 --> 01:05:35,042 Not that the election officials on both sides of the aisle 1379 01:05:35,042 --> 01:05:37,307 are not working diligently to fix that. 1380 01:05:37,307 --> 01:05:41,180 And I noticed again, with all this, excuse me, 1381 01:05:41,180 --> 01:05:44,570 propaganda about mail ballots, 1382 01:05:44,570 --> 01:05:47,200 republican secretaries of state 1383 01:05:47,200 --> 01:05:49,840 and republican election administrators 1384 01:05:49,840 --> 01:05:52,150 are vouching for mail ballots, 1385 01:05:52,150 --> 01:05:55,890 and using an advocating for mail ballots 1386 01:05:55,890 --> 01:05:58,520 on a very wide basis. 1387 01:05:58,520 --> 01:06:03,520 So I think that's where we have to spend some more money 1388 01:06:03,530 --> 01:06:07,239 and pay more attention than the foreign interference issue. 1389 01:06:07,239 --> 01:06:09,350 - This is not an election that will test 1390 01:06:09,350 --> 01:06:10,663 something very important, 1391 01:06:11,578 --> 01:06:16,578 and that is our ability to be agile, 1392 01:06:16,580 --> 01:06:20,220 and to adopt different methods if there are emergencies. 1393 01:06:20,220 --> 01:06:23,700 - The question is, how robust can we make the vote 1394 01:06:23,700 --> 01:06:24,763 come election day? 1395 01:06:25,710 --> 01:06:30,240 Vote by mail, vote by home really is the only solution. 1396 01:06:30,240 --> 01:06:31,930 It used to be called absentee voting. 1397 01:06:31,930 --> 01:06:33,430 It's basically the same thing. 1398 01:06:34,350 --> 01:06:39,350 And it's safe, it's secure, the turnout rates are greater, 1399 01:06:39,970 --> 01:06:42,770 and so is the level of information 1400 01:06:42,770 --> 01:06:45,580 that the voter is able to work with when they're voting. 1401 01:06:45,580 --> 01:06:47,800 So it's a solution that's been kind of 1402 01:06:47,800 --> 01:06:49,840 on the shelf for a long time. 1403 01:06:49,840 --> 01:06:52,830 And right now, we just need to radically scale it up. 1404 01:06:52,830 --> 01:06:56,590 - They've asked for a ridiculous $3.5 billion, 1405 01:06:56,590 --> 01:06:57,627 that's billion, 1406 01:06:57,627 --> 01:07:02,627 $3.5 billion for universal mail-in voting, 1407 01:07:02,820 --> 01:07:05,203 a system riddled by fraud and corruption. 1408 01:07:06,950 --> 01:07:08,986 - The number one concern that people talk about 1409 01:07:08,986 --> 01:07:12,680 is that you can have a lot of fraudulent voting. 1410 01:07:12,680 --> 01:07:16,100 - I think that be fraud on both sides, unfortunately, 1411 01:07:16,100 --> 01:07:19,790 because people take this election very, very seriously 1412 01:07:19,790 --> 01:07:22,170 and that induces them sometimes to do things 1413 01:07:22,170 --> 01:07:26,860 that are dishonest, and in violations of law. 1414 01:07:26,860 --> 01:07:31,860 - Just as there have been many calls to stop voter fraud, 1415 01:07:32,950 --> 01:07:35,960 there have been displays of the fact 1416 01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:38,523 that there just is no great problem. 1417 01:07:40,300 --> 01:07:44,000 It seems to me that solutions should be proportionate 1418 01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:47,350 to the problems they're supposed to counteract. 1419 01:07:47,350 --> 01:07:49,470 Voter fraud is not a big issue in the United States, 1420 01:07:49,470 --> 01:07:51,500 and I take it it's for a couple of reasons. 1421 01:07:51,500 --> 01:07:53,340 One, the penalties for voter fraud 1422 01:07:53,340 --> 01:07:55,010 are actually fairly stiff. 1423 01:07:55,010 --> 01:07:57,370 And two, the benefit of voter fraud 1424 01:07:57,370 --> 01:07:58,980 is actually pretty minimal. 1425 01:07:58,980 --> 01:08:01,350 - I'm aware of no studies that point 1426 01:08:01,350 --> 01:08:04,530 to any increased likelihood of fraud 1427 01:08:04,530 --> 01:08:06,420 with mail-in ballots over any other kind. 1428 01:08:06,420 --> 01:08:09,180 In fact, some people, and some state administrators, 1429 01:08:09,180 --> 01:08:11,970 both republican and democrats will say that the procedures 1430 01:08:11,970 --> 01:08:16,010 for mail-in ballots are actually less prone to fraud, 1431 01:08:16,010 --> 01:08:19,870 because of the procedural steps of signing, witnessing, 1432 01:08:19,870 --> 01:08:23,280 comparing the signatures, having a paper record. 1433 01:08:23,280 --> 01:08:25,028 - The States that have done it before 1434 01:08:25,028 --> 01:08:26,570 would probably be all right. 1435 01:08:26,570 --> 01:08:28,390 I happen to live in a state that has done it before, 1436 01:08:28,390 --> 01:08:30,240 and that is Colorado. 1437 01:08:30,240 --> 01:08:32,190 - The state of Colorado has been voting by mail 1438 01:08:32,190 --> 01:08:33,933 for almost a decade now. 1439 01:08:34,840 --> 01:08:37,930 The state itself launched its own audit 1440 01:08:37,930 --> 01:08:40,480 to try to determine what percentage of ballots 1441 01:08:40,480 --> 01:08:44,160 in the last 10 years were potentially fraudulent. 1442 01:08:44,160 --> 01:08:49,160 And the number that it came up with was 0.006%. 1443 01:08:49,566 --> 01:08:52,103 That's basically a rounding error, 1444 01:08:53,130 --> 01:08:55,740 and probably there are more errors like that occur 1445 01:08:56,840 --> 01:09:00,010 every two years in polling places across America, 1446 01:09:00,010 --> 01:09:01,390 just because someone didn't write 1447 01:09:01,390 --> 01:09:02,530 someone's name down correctly, 1448 01:09:02,530 --> 01:09:04,160 someone didn't scan the ballot correctly, 1449 01:09:04,160 --> 01:09:06,310 someone didn't fill it out correctly, whatever. 1450 01:09:06,310 --> 01:09:09,010 So on the fraudulent front, 1451 01:09:09,010 --> 01:09:13,170 it seems as if voting by mail is basically fraud free. 1452 01:09:13,170 --> 01:09:15,990 - Prior to COVID-19 Washington, Oregon, 1453 01:09:15,990 --> 01:09:19,700 Utah, Hawaii, and Colorado had universal vote-by-mail. 1454 01:09:19,700 --> 01:09:23,910 Overall, 34 States have some experience with voting by mail 1455 01:09:23,910 --> 01:09:27,000 that is available to more than just absentee voters. 1456 01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:30,610 - There's nothing actually wrong with mailing ballots, 1457 01:09:30,610 --> 01:09:33,400 as long as they can be verified. 1458 01:09:33,400 --> 01:09:36,020 For those states that are just starting, 1459 01:09:36,020 --> 01:09:40,770 they are going to be inundated with all kinds of questions 1460 01:09:40,770 --> 01:09:43,020 about the validity of the ballots. 1461 01:09:43,020 --> 01:09:44,587 - It's not so much that there's fraud, 1462 01:09:44,587 --> 01:09:48,610 and it's not so much that there's a problem 1463 01:09:48,610 --> 01:09:49,820 with mail-in voting. 1464 01:09:49,820 --> 01:09:51,870 It's that the infrastructure and technology 1465 01:09:51,870 --> 01:09:56,440 has not caught up to or kept pace with 1466 01:09:56,440 --> 01:10:01,440 the volume of voting that is going to occur via the mail. 1467 01:10:01,750 --> 01:10:04,470 And so that's the problem we face. 1468 01:10:04,470 --> 01:10:06,640 - We can't give them the kind of ridiculous things 1469 01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:10,370 that they want that have nothing to do with the China virus. 1470 01:10:10,370 --> 01:10:12,450 It has nothing at all to do with China virus, 1471 01:10:12,450 --> 01:10:14,419 much of what they're asking for. 1472 01:10:14,419 --> 01:10:16,760 So therefore they don't have the money 1473 01:10:16,760 --> 01:10:20,370 to do the universal mail-in voting. 1474 01:10:20,370 --> 01:10:22,900 So therefore they can't do it, I guess, right? 1475 01:10:22,900 --> 01:10:25,210 Are they gonna do it even though they don't have the money? 1476 01:10:25,210 --> 01:10:28,450 - The other argument about vote-by-mail 1477 01:10:28,450 --> 01:10:30,400 is a more political argument, 1478 01:10:30,400 --> 01:10:35,200 and it's based on calculations about who benefits 1479 01:10:35,200 --> 01:10:39,200 or doesn't benefit when people vote by mail or not. 1480 01:10:39,200 --> 01:10:42,590 President Trump in the spring tweeted out 1481 01:10:42,590 --> 01:10:46,690 that it was clear to him that voting by mail 1482 01:10:46,690 --> 01:10:49,750 benefited democrats more than republicans. 1483 01:10:49,750 --> 01:10:52,693 And as a result, he said that it should be discouraged. 1484 01:10:53,950 --> 01:10:58,113 Now think about how profoundly morally offensive that is, 1485 01:10:58,113 --> 01:11:02,160 that the president of the United States of America 1486 01:11:02,160 --> 01:11:04,740 was openly advocating 1487 01:11:04,740 --> 01:11:07,190 essentially a form of voter suppression, 1488 01:11:07,190 --> 01:11:09,540 meaning not allowing people to vote by mail 1489 01:11:09,540 --> 01:11:11,710 during the time of a pandemic, 1490 01:11:11,710 --> 01:11:14,133 because he doesn't think it's good enough for his party. 1491 01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:17,940 Now, not only is that morally offensive, 1492 01:11:17,940 --> 01:11:20,240 but it's also just in-factual. 1493 01:11:20,240 --> 01:11:22,680 And since he released that Tweet, 1494 01:11:22,680 --> 01:11:24,777 many, many republicans have come out and said, 1495 01:11:24,777 --> 01:11:28,087 "Actually, typically the way the Republican Party 1496 01:11:28,087 --> 01:11:29,580 "has thought about vote by mail, 1497 01:11:29,580 --> 01:11:31,347 "is that it benefits Republicans, 1498 01:11:31,347 --> 01:11:34,160 "because older people are the ones who vote by mail." 1499 01:11:34,160 --> 01:11:38,900 And typically older people are ones who lean Republican. 1500 01:11:38,900 --> 01:11:41,650 - If it's them, let's say, that are doing it, 1501 01:11:41,650 --> 01:11:44,313 and it's mostly democrat states that want it, 1502 01:11:45,520 --> 01:11:47,870 and the democrat governors, 1503 01:11:47,870 --> 01:11:50,725 they're gonna send them to certain areas, I guess. 1504 01:11:50,725 --> 01:11:53,730 I guess people are gonna be getting them, 1505 01:11:53,730 --> 01:11:56,350 and said, "Oh, all right, that's fine." 1506 01:11:56,350 --> 01:11:57,910 And they'll send it back. 1507 01:11:57,910 --> 01:12:01,930 - So not only was the president undermining 1508 01:12:03,090 --> 01:12:06,523 the very constitution that he swore to defend, 1509 01:12:07,360 --> 01:12:12,360 but he also was putting a piece of information out there 1510 01:12:13,320 --> 01:12:15,610 that even his own party disagrees with. 1511 01:12:15,610 --> 01:12:16,770 - I say this for the media, 1512 01:12:16,770 --> 01:12:19,520 this will be the greatest catastrophe, 1513 01:12:19,520 --> 01:12:21,120 one of the greatest catastrophes 1514 01:12:21,120 --> 01:12:22,940 in the history of our country, that's how serious it is. 1515 01:12:22,940 --> 01:12:26,620 - Because of the overwhelming massive increase 1516 01:12:26,620 --> 01:12:28,900 in mail-in ballots during a pandemic, 1517 01:12:28,900 --> 01:12:30,460 we have a question about the ability 1518 01:12:30,460 --> 01:12:33,080 of the postal service to deliver, 1519 01:12:33,080 --> 01:12:36,910 to get all those ballots in time, that's number one. 1520 01:12:36,910 --> 01:12:40,776 And number two, we have a gap in the education 1521 01:12:40,776 --> 01:12:43,790 and experience of the electorate 1522 01:12:43,790 --> 01:12:48,530 to properly qualify and fill out absentee ballots, 1523 01:12:48,530 --> 01:12:51,930 because they're not used to doing it that way. 1524 01:12:51,930 --> 01:12:56,930 534,000 mail-in ballots were thrown out in 23 States 1525 01:12:57,660 --> 01:12:59,610 in the 2020 primaries. 1526 01:12:59,610 --> 01:13:03,700 In California, 102,000 such ballots were thrown out. 1527 01:13:03,700 --> 01:13:06,020 In New York, 84,000. 1528 01:13:06,020 --> 01:13:07,670 That's a lot of ballots to be thrown out. 1529 01:13:07,670 --> 01:13:12,247 Now, remember in Michigan, Trump won by 10,704 votes. 1530 01:13:14,060 --> 01:13:16,960 In Michigan in the primaries, 1531 01:13:16,960 --> 01:13:21,960 10,694 ballots were disqualified in the primary. 1532 01:13:22,170 --> 01:13:23,270 The margin of victory. 1533 01:13:24,510 --> 01:13:27,770 So depending on what happens, this could be critical. 1534 01:13:27,770 --> 01:13:31,700 If people don't have any confidence in the balloting 1535 01:13:31,700 --> 01:13:36,700 in the election of who was actually the winning candidate, 1536 01:13:36,870 --> 01:13:39,760 that will cause disputes that would go on for years. 1537 01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:42,823 - You're not gonna able to know the end of this election, 1538 01:13:43,740 --> 01:13:47,133 in my opinion, for weeks, months. 1539 01:13:48,610 --> 01:13:50,030 Maybe never. 1540 01:13:50,030 --> 01:13:53,180 - The fact is that the people who are judging these ballots 1541 01:13:53,180 --> 01:13:54,700 then have to go through them, 1542 01:13:54,700 --> 01:13:58,820 and that will become a source of a lot of dispute. 1543 01:13:58,820 --> 01:14:01,910 Those disputes will eventually get to the courts. 1544 01:14:01,910 --> 01:14:05,250 The courts will take a long time as they always do 1545 01:14:05,250 --> 01:14:07,690 to resolve these things. 1546 01:14:07,690 --> 01:14:09,230 And we don't have that much time. 1547 01:14:09,230 --> 01:14:12,640 The election is in November, November 3rd. 1548 01:14:12,640 --> 01:14:17,640 And if you have a dozen, or two dozen lawsuits going on, 1549 01:14:19,220 --> 01:14:23,840 would they all be finished by January 20? 1550 01:14:23,840 --> 01:14:26,950 Which is only a matter of two months, 1551 01:14:26,950 --> 01:14:29,670 two and a half months from the time of the election. 1552 01:14:29,670 --> 01:14:31,170 That's not very long 1553 01:14:31,170 --> 01:14:33,490 when there's a lot of litigation going on. 1554 01:14:33,490 --> 01:14:34,900 - So the president himself 1555 01:14:34,900 --> 01:14:38,440 does not have the power to delay the election. 1556 01:14:38,440 --> 01:14:42,760 That would have to be an act of lawmaking by Congress. 1557 01:14:42,760 --> 01:14:44,270 Federal law would have to be changed 1558 01:14:44,270 --> 01:14:46,068 to move the election date. 1559 01:14:46,068 --> 01:14:49,380 But what the constitution says is that no matter what, 1560 01:14:49,380 --> 01:14:52,250 the President and Vice President's term 1561 01:14:52,250 --> 01:14:56,730 terminates on January 20th of the year after the election. 1562 01:14:56,730 --> 01:14:58,280 It's not just the president, of course, 1563 01:14:58,280 --> 01:15:00,790 all of the house members are up for election 1564 01:15:00,790 --> 01:15:02,260 and a third of the Senate. 1565 01:15:02,260 --> 01:15:04,023 - If there's a contested election, 1566 01:15:05,770 --> 01:15:07,640 the constitution clearly states 1567 01:15:08,640 --> 01:15:11,540 it will be decided by the House of Representatives. 1568 01:15:11,540 --> 01:15:13,210 - Is that the full house, 1569 01:15:13,210 --> 01:15:16,800 or just the house that has been elected 1570 01:15:16,800 --> 01:15:21,590 in unchallenged elections, November 3rd? 1571 01:15:21,590 --> 01:15:23,730 And if it's a republican house, 1572 01:15:23,730 --> 01:15:26,530 then they elect the president. 1573 01:15:26,530 --> 01:15:28,710 This is all very, very dangerous. 1574 01:15:28,710 --> 01:15:29,610 - But the fact of the matter is 1575 01:15:29,610 --> 01:15:32,480 not that many house districts actually are very competitive. 1576 01:15:32,480 --> 01:15:36,760 And so one would think that 1577 01:15:36,760 --> 01:15:41,550 even if there are some contested elections, perhaps, 1578 01:15:41,550 --> 01:15:43,900 there probably will be a pretty clear majority, 1579 01:15:44,890 --> 01:15:48,360 and they will then vote as they will, 1580 01:15:48,360 --> 01:15:50,624 provided the law is followed. 1581 01:15:50,624 --> 01:15:52,010 But there are some questions 1582 01:15:52,010 --> 01:15:53,810 about whether the law will be followed. 1583 01:15:53,810 --> 01:15:57,690 One such example in my mind, is of course the 2000 election. 1584 01:15:57,690 --> 01:16:00,440 There are a number of legal scholars who wonder why 1585 01:16:00,440 --> 01:16:04,470 the Supreme Court soft fit to decide 1586 01:16:04,470 --> 01:16:08,610 how this election dispute was to be resolved, 1587 01:16:08,610 --> 01:16:11,494 because it's not clear that it is the court's role 1588 01:16:11,494 --> 01:16:14,298 to resolve election disputes. 1589 01:16:14,298 --> 01:16:15,220 The constitution is quite clear 1590 01:16:15,220 --> 01:16:17,870 about who resolves disputes about the presidency. 1591 01:16:17,870 --> 01:16:20,720 So I think there's a question about whether 1592 01:16:20,720 --> 01:16:24,100 a slightly activist, you might call it, court 1593 01:16:24,100 --> 01:16:26,240 might try to jump in and then usurp the role 1594 01:16:26,240 --> 01:16:28,090 of the House of Representatives. 1595 01:16:28,090 --> 01:16:31,370 - For too long, we have neglected 1596 01:16:32,600 --> 01:16:35,240 our system of elections in this country. 1597 01:16:35,240 --> 01:16:40,240 And the virus at this point has just exposed that neglect. 1598 01:16:40,720 --> 01:16:43,620 It's exposed the lack of adequate funding 1599 01:16:43,620 --> 01:16:45,780 that Secretaries of State have. 1600 01:16:45,780 --> 01:16:50,780 It's exposed the crazy patchwork of local election officials 1601 01:16:51,170 --> 01:16:52,930 all around the country. 1602 01:16:52,930 --> 01:16:54,850 Setting up polling places in little churches 1603 01:16:54,850 --> 01:16:58,390 and community centers with volunteer staffs. 1604 01:16:58,390 --> 01:17:01,580 It's exposed the very nature of the way 1605 01:17:01,580 --> 01:17:04,930 that we fund our elections. 1606 01:17:04,930 --> 01:17:06,850 And so I think at this point, 1607 01:17:06,850 --> 01:17:09,330 we've got to take a much clearer look 1608 01:17:09,330 --> 01:17:10,633 at what's going on here. 1609 01:17:11,550 --> 01:17:14,970 We are the greatest, most powerful democracy on earth, 1610 01:17:14,970 --> 01:17:18,810 and it would be pretty hard for us at this point 1611 01:17:18,810 --> 01:17:21,350 to try to go to other countries 1612 01:17:21,350 --> 01:17:23,000 that are either aspiring to be democracies 1613 01:17:23,000 --> 01:17:25,990 or are democracies, and suggest to them 1614 01:17:25,990 --> 01:17:28,580 that we should be lending them advice 1615 01:17:28,580 --> 01:17:30,130 about how to conduct elections. 1616 01:17:33,520 --> 01:17:35,280 - Elections are important, 1617 01:17:35,280 --> 01:17:38,690 because we cannot address the national challenges 1618 01:17:38,690 --> 01:17:41,980 without doing it through government. 1619 01:17:41,980 --> 01:17:46,920 We cannot rely upon private business, private institutions 1620 01:17:47,810 --> 01:17:50,780 to address the challenge presented 1621 01:17:50,780 --> 01:17:54,470 for jobs, education, climate change, 1622 01:17:54,470 --> 01:17:56,610 safety around the world. 1623 01:17:56,610 --> 01:17:59,570 People at this time on both sides seem to be despairing 1624 01:17:59,570 --> 01:18:01,867 with the ability of government 1625 01:18:01,867 --> 01:18:04,230 to address these nature problems. 1626 01:18:04,230 --> 01:18:06,280 But without government as the solution, 1627 01:18:06,280 --> 01:18:07,620 there is no solution. 1628 01:18:07,620 --> 01:18:08,880 And if you aren't participating, 1629 01:18:08,880 --> 01:18:10,690 and if you aren't electing the right people 1630 01:18:10,690 --> 01:18:12,072 to help solve those problems, 1631 01:18:12,072 --> 01:18:14,600 then the system will continue to collapse. 1632 01:18:14,600 --> 01:18:16,752 And it'll give the authoritarians all over the world 1633 01:18:16,752 --> 01:18:20,363 the ability to mock us, and to prove to their people 1634 01:18:20,363 --> 01:18:22,900 that they're way, that the authoritarian way 1635 01:18:22,900 --> 01:18:24,170 is the right way. 1636 01:18:24,170 --> 01:18:25,810 People spending millions of dollars 1637 01:18:25,810 --> 01:18:29,320 because the vote is powerful. 1638 01:18:29,320 --> 01:18:30,650 So use that power. 1639 01:18:30,650 --> 01:18:31,850 - You're are the future. 1640 01:18:32,720 --> 01:18:36,360 And only if you know and educate yourself, 1641 01:18:36,360 --> 01:18:40,410 and work to bridge this divisiveness, 1642 01:18:40,410 --> 01:18:42,610 is there really any hope for our democracy. 1643 01:18:42,610 --> 01:18:45,870 - One of the things you must participate in is voting. 1644 01:18:45,870 --> 01:18:49,357 That is the fundamental right, 1645 01:18:49,357 --> 01:18:52,480 and the fundamental function you have 1646 01:18:52,480 --> 01:18:55,370 to influence where this country goes. 1647 01:18:55,370 --> 01:18:58,030 - People in government make decisions 1648 01:18:58,030 --> 01:19:01,190 that affect many, many tomorrows. 1649 01:19:01,190 --> 01:19:05,053 They decide today on actions that will affect the future. 1650 01:19:06,200 --> 01:19:11,200 Young voters have more vested interest 1651 01:19:11,220 --> 01:19:14,163 in that future than order voters like me. 1652 01:19:16,340 --> 01:19:21,090 And so for no other reason, a self-serving reason, 1653 01:19:21,090 --> 01:19:23,390 whether it's a local race for judge, 1654 01:19:23,390 --> 01:19:25,100 for County commissioner, 1655 01:19:25,100 --> 01:19:28,200 a state race, or a federal race, 1656 01:19:28,200 --> 01:19:32,250 Your futures will be affected by those you vote for today. 1657 01:19:32,250 --> 01:19:35,570 So vote, it's unexcusable. 1658 01:19:35,570 --> 01:19:37,310 There's no reason not to. 1659 01:19:37,310 --> 01:19:39,263 It's in your best interest to do so.