Capitol Report Full Broadcast (August 26)

There are real consequences to controlled media and NTD's founders know that firsthand. Our freedom of thought is the price. This is the lesson that guides us in everything we do. We know the value of a free society and we take seriously the responsibility to preserve it. We are NTD. Good evening. Tonight on the Capitol Report, a cleared straight in an escalating trade war. President Trump turning up the pressure on Iran in delivering a blunt new warning to Canada. All the mines, we got rid of the mines, but the straight, it's functioning. It's a functioning straight. And NASA, the Senate and the Federal Reserve all hit by Chinese hackers tonight. What officials are revealing about the breach and how we fight back against the CCP's shadow network of cyber hacker. This action is just the latest technical operation against PRC state-sponsored hacking. President Trump's mail-in ballot order clears a major legal hurdle. How it's built to keep ineligible voters off the rolls and what it means for the integrity of November's midterm elections. This is Capitol Report live from our global headquarters in our nation's Capitol. Here's Steve Lance. The president escalating pressure on two economic fronts targeting Iran's global lifelines and confronting Canada as Ottawa hits back with dollar for dollar counter tariffs. The White House now comparing Canada's retaliation to communist China's behavior. We go now live to NTD's White House correspondent, Mari Otsu. She's at the North Lawn. Mari, good evening. Hey Steve, good evening. Yeah, well, this week the U.S. Treasury has taken over in Iran from the Pentagon. Operation Epic Fury has turned into Operation Economic Outcast. And President Trump today is declaring that all mines have been detonated or removed from the Strait of Hormuz. While also warning Tehran further that any ships placing more mines in the strait will be, quote, systematically destroyed. He's calling it a zero tolerance policy on mines in the strait. Now, Steve, this is coming as the U.S.'s naval blockade on Iranian ports still remains in effect with Central Command saying that now 71 commercial vessels have been redirected from either entering or exiting Iranian ports. And today, one U.S. dollar is worth approximately two million Iranian rial, which is a historic low for that country's currency. Here's the president this morning. Take a listen. All the mines, we got rid of the mines. But the strait, it's functioning. It's a functioning strait. This coming as the Treasury is unleashing what it calls an economic D-Day on Iran, a campaign to cut off Iran's economic lifelines around the world. Secretary Besant saying the U.S. is giving countries a short window to cut those ties, warning anyone that continues to help Tehran could be kicked out of the U.S. dollar system. It is no longer acceptable to operate in the gray spaces of this conflict. Countries cannot claim they are blind to enabling this activity. And on another economic front, closer to home, President Trump putting his foot down with Ottawa saying, I deal with many countries and Canada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable. They feel entitled, but they are not a state and will be entitled no longer. You know, the farmers can't sell anything in there because the tariffs are so enormous. And yet they want to sell enough without any debt. This coming as Ottawa is countering Washington's tariffs by imposing dollar-for-dollar counter tariffs on hundreds of American goods, amounting to nearly $20 billion. Chinese Communist Party state-run media praising Ottawa's retaliation as a Chinese-styled counterattack, while the Trump administration dismisses Canada's response as bluster. I think this is a little bit of a tempest in a teapot. The White House declaring Canada is joined only by the People's Republic of China in choosing retaliation over negotiation. Their continued discriminatory treatment of U.S. commerce has burdened American workers, farmers and businesses. Canada and China have been the two worst countries when it comes to trade policy anywhere in the world. And President Trump today also commemorating the five-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, honoring those 13 U.S. service members that were killed during the U.S.'s withdrawal from Afghanistan. President Trump posting this photo from his 2024 campaign when he spent time with Abbey Gate Gold Star families, saying to them that their family members are heroes who will never be forgotten. Back to you, Steve. Mari Otsu, live from the White House. Thank you, Mari. And President Trump's recent victory on mail-in voting comes as many states are gearing up to send out their ballots. Later in the show, we'll be discussing how this might impact the midterms and other races. But first, a major network of Chinese state-sponsored hackers has just been taken down. U.S. officials say the hackers targeted critical infrastructure, including in the DOJ, NASA, the Federal Reserve and the United States Senate. Entity's Washington correspondent, Jack Bradley, brings us more. Federal authorities say they've taken down platforms used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. They say for nearly a decade, those hackers attacked private companies and federal agencies, including NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Energy Department, Health and Human Services, the NIH, the Justice Department and, most recently, the U.S. Senate. This action is just the latest technical operation against PRC state-sponsored hacking. We are ramping up our efforts to shape adversary behavior and defend the homeland in cyberspace. The hackers call themselves QTFY, working for the Chinese company Nanjing Xinjiwei Network Technology. And officials say the hacking group works directly for China's military and intelligence agency. This is state-sponsored, and this is a major national security issue for the United States. Officials say they've also targeted power and telecommunications companies and hospitals. And they've also been able to cover their tracks with what are known as botnets, making it difficult to trace back to China. Their services include a scanning platform that scours the Internet for vulnerable smart devices, like home routers and security cameras, infects thousands of them and feeds them into a botnet, or a network of machines secretly controlled by the adversary. And the FBI says that this latest operation is part of a broader campaign against Chinese cyber activity, warning shutting down one operation won't end the threat. It's not as if by us doing this that they're going to walk away and not try again. They're going to reload and try to come at us again. And just following this announcement, President Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency to ban certain foreign-produced bulk power grid equipment over concerns that that equipment could be manipulated and sabotaged by America's adversaries. Jack Bradley, NTD News, Washington. And to discuss the scope of this attack and what the United States can do to better protect ourselves, we welcome Darren Mott, retired FBI supervisory special agent and the co-founder of the security firm Five Eyes. Darren, it's great to have you back with us. So officials are saying that these Chinese hackers broke into NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Justice, the Energy Department, and even the United States Senate. This sounds quite serious. How alarming is a breach of this scale to you? Well, it's going to depend on what they got when they got into those particular departments. One of the good things about the U.S. government is there's a lot of intelligence services that look at these things. The NSA is monitoring Chinese activity all the time. The FBI is doing investigations into how these state-sponsored actors are doing what they're doing. And they can pretty much mitigate a lot of this activity before it becomes too severe. I've been looking at Chinese nation-state actors since 2003 when the first particular nation-state group was kind of identified. It was known as Titan Reign at the time. And what happens is they create capabilities and tactics, and they utilize those until we figure out what they're doing. And then we dismantle it, and they go do something else. This is what happened here. They're using domains within a botnet to control their activities. Taking down those domains now makes it impossible for them to do that work. But this was only a couple of domains. There's going to be plenty more that they're using, and they're going to adjust their capabilities now to something new. And we'll have to kind of readjust from there. I mean, it's a good news story. Don't get me wrong. Anytime you can take down Chinese nation-state hackers, thumbs up to all of that. Just understand that it's not stopping any of it, as the attorney general mentioned prior to that. Darren, the range of targets is so different. You're talking about the Department of Justice, an agency within the U.S. government, NASA. We've seen the Chinese Communist Party's ability to get into water supplies in small towns. What kind of information was the CCP after? And I guess the big question that looms over all of this, what could they actually do with this type of penetration? Well, I think it's important to remember there's multiple groups doing this. There's PLA actors. There's MSS actors. There are individual actors that take the information from commercial spaces and sell it to those particular actors. It's a crazy network of multiple actors with multiple tool sets and multiple targets. So when you look at the entities that are targeting government entities, they're looking for geopolitical information. They're looking for treaty information. Anything that has to do with the U.S. policy regarding China, they want to steal that information to understand where the U.S. is looking in regards to dealing with China. On the commercial side, in private sector companies, they don't have those defenses in place. So they're stealing intellectual property. We've seen tons of that with the AI race. I guarantee you they are all over Anthropic and OpenAI in a multitude of different ways to steal that IP, intellectual property, so they can get a head start into what they want to do with their AI. They want to be the leaders in AI. So it's going to depend on understanding the company, what they have, what are their crown jewels, and what do those bad actors want. And those companies need to start thinking about, I'm a target. China's coming for me. If you look at this particular case here, they were all over the place. And companies need to realize that they are at risk and being targeted by Chinese actors all over. We've seen previous situations, Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, where the Chinese Communist Party is lingering in our key infrastructure, our key systems, for extended periods of time, sometimes months, maybe even years. I think the scary thing is we don't even know where they are and how long they've been there. What keeps you up at night when it comes to a zero-day exploitation, if that were to ever occur? Sure. So when you're talking zero-day exploitation, those are exploitations that have no defense against it because no one's ever seen it before. And that's the big problem. When you look at critical infrastructure, specifically power, electrical, gas, those entities, water utilities like you mentioned earlier, those entities that rely on older technology that have no patches. You can't really patch it unless you purchase new devices to upgrade it. And it's very expensive. A lot of these entities are owned by municipalities. They don't have the budget to put in cybersecurity personnel to do those things. And that is the biggest fear, is their capability to sit dormant until they need it. And if, let's say the Chinese go into Taiwan and the US goes to defend Taiwan, what does that mean for those critical infrastructure entities here at home that have those Chinese actors sitting in place waiting? So these companies, these municipalities, those in critical national infrastructure need to look through their network, need to find ways to incorporate counterintelligence capabilities into their processes so they can get ahead of this before it becomes a problem, if it ever does become a problem. To your previous point, you said that these particular breaches could be a variety of people or entities trying to get in. Officials say that the hackers were tied to the Chinese military and intelligence community, but they used a tech company to sort of hide the trail that would lead us back to the Chinese Communist Party. What does this tell us about the CCP's sophisticated use of proxies? Well, that's exactly what they're great at, is attribution, making it so that they can say, it wasn't us. It was this group over here doing their own thing on their own time. But that's why this particular investigation for this particular instance that we're talking about took eight years. It started in 2018, looking at this activity and tying all of the email addresses for the people that were involved, to the companies that were involved, to the name services where they registered the domains, all of those things. And ultimately, because of that eight-year span, the ability to pull in intelligence that the FBI can get through their legal process, and with intelligence likely we're not going to hear about because there's other three-letter agencies that do stuff at a different level that we're never going to hear about, that help provide leads to go find some of this other stuff that tied it to the People's Liberation Army actors and the Ministry of State Security are the two main entities we're talking about here. And we got that attribution to say, these companies are tied to these entities. This is why these investigations take so long because we want that attribution. If we just say it's this company and we're going to take it down, who cares? They're going to go find another one. So that was the important part here is being able to make that attribution to those entities and name and shame them like we're doing here. Retired senior FBI official Darren Mott, really appreciate your insights. And cracking down on foreign propaganda, a new bipartisan bill in Congress will force social media influencers to disclose when foreign governments are paying them to push political content. Find out more tonight on China in Focus with Tiffany Meyer at 9.30 p.m. Eastern. Meantime, a massive flood leaving a trail of destruction, hundreds of people missing after a massive flood sweeping through villages along Nepal's border with China. At least 160 people have now been reported killed, while hundreds of tourists and others remain missing. Entity's Tiffany Meyer reports. Nepal's tourism board says 384 travelers are missing, including 291 foreign nationals. That includes more than 100 Indian tourists and 47 Americans so far, as rescue teams search the mountainous Rasuwa district. The U.S. State Department says it's closely monitoring the situation. Surveillance video shows people scrambling to escape moments before a mudslide engulfed a border crossing. Floodwaters also destroyed buildings, bridges and roads along the Boat Hikoshi River. Nepali police say the flooding came from the Tibetan side and are urging residents to move to safer areas. The flooding is believed to have been triggered by an earthquake that caused part of a glacier to collapse into a river running through both Nepal and Tibet. Nepal's army and police have been deployed to help with rescue and relief efforts. Coming up, the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for part of President Trump's March executive order on mail-in voting. The president says it's about having honest voting. Ali Triolo, election integrity communications director for the Republican National Committee, will join us with analysis. And Meta, reaching a proposed $17 billion settlement over harming young users. How the agreement could bring new protections for teens on Facebook and Instagram. Today's seniors are enjoying life more than ever before. And part of that comes from the independence of driving. However, car insurance for older drivers becomes more expensive the older we get. Just because I'm a senior, maybe you are too. Do we really have to pay outrageously high insurance rates? Well, the answer is no, we don't. When was the last time you checked to make sure you're paying the lowest available rate? Well, maybe it's time to give your car insurance a tune-up just to make sure your rates are running properly. You change your oil, you change your tires, well maybe it's time to change your car's insurance company. Are you paying too much for your auto insurance? 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You need to make sure that you're not paying more than you need to. Call the number on your screen right now. 1-800-952-5196. 1-800-952-5196. MyPillow's second annual mega sale is finally here. Get our patented premium MyPillows that adjust to your exact individual needs to give you the best sleep of your life. When I got my pillow, I'm asleep almost immediately. I stay asleep at night and I wake up more well-rested in the morning. Now for the lowest price ever. King's $19.98, Queen's only $18.98. And Gee's A Dream bedsheets, the best sheets in history for as low as $29.98. Luxpear six-piece towel sets, towels that actually dry you. What a concept. Now only $39.98. And are made in the USA mattresses and mattress toppers as low as $99.98. So go to MyPillow.com or call the number on your screen. Use your promo code to take advantage of our second annual mega sale. But that's not all. Order right now and we'll ship your order absolutely free. And welcome back to the Capitol Report. I'm Steve Lance. The Supreme Court has cleared the way for part of president Trump's executive order on mail-in voting, prompting the judge today to lift another block on the order. Joining us now to assess is Ali Triolo, election integrity communications director for the RNC. Ali, it's great to have you with us. So I want to play a quick soundbite from the president signing this order. It's about voter integrity. We want to have honest voting in our country because if you don't have honest voting, you can't have really a nation. So Ali, the order directs the DHS to compile and share an eligible voter list with the states and directs the AG to prioritize prosecuting state officials who issue ballots to people who are not eligible. How big of a problem has this been and who's pushing back on this type of reform? Well, obviously any means to secure our election, such as president Trump's executive order, is a major win for voters and the American people. President Trump just last month did a full peeling back of the curtain and showing the American public the hundreds of thousands of non-citizens on our voter rolls. And we know this is terrible for our election security and trust in our elections. The RNC is really at the helm of securing our elections. We did a public records request recently in partnership with the New Jersey GOP to uncover thousands of non-citizens on the voter rolls. And then, of course, the New Jersey Governor Mikey Sherrill came out and admitted this to be the case. So we are fully supportive of President Trump and this Supreme Court win to allow him to move forward with this very, very important executive order to secure our elections. The president often calling a lot of these election integrity measures common sense, really. And it pulls that way, too. We see voter ID is something that goes across party lines. The order also requires states to use a uniform style for mail-in ballot envelopes and allows the USPS to keep track of whether these ballots are going to eligible voters. How might this provide an added layer of election security? Well, it's very important that we are verifying who these mail-in ballots are going to. We know that non-citizens are on voter rolls. We know there is proof that non-citizens have voted in our elections. So allowing our federal agencies to partner with states to make sure voter rolls are clean and cross-reference where mail-in ballots are being shipped is vital to try to tamp down on opportunities for fraud. This is a very important election security measure. The RNC has supported President Trump in this measure. We have supported it in court and through our legal proceedings here. So we are very excited to see this moving forward and hopefully be implemented just in time for the midterm elections. Now, why do you say voter verification has become such a flashpoint, particularly ahead of this November? I think exactly what we've been talking about, seeing that there has been a lot of proof that non-citizens have been voting in our elections, which we know is against the law. We need to do everything we can in this country to secure our elections. Only American citizens should be deciding who will be leading our country. It is the law. It is common sense. There are so many polls out there, even recently one where self-described socialists even agreed that voter ID and proof of citizenship is common sense. So there are many nations around the world that already have these measures in place. And it is due time that America also gets these policies in place to secure the ballot box. Ali, you're with the RNC. You guys are planning to hold your first ever midterm convention this fall. What is the party's game plan for rallying support before November? What can we expect coming up on the 9th and 10th of September in Dallas? Well, we're thrilled to put all of our wins on display that we have achieved in two short years under President Trump. We inherited the worst economy in American history under President Joe Biden. And we have done so much to turn things around for the American people. We have passed the lowest tax cuts in American history. We have invested in our farmers, in our rural hospital transformation fund. We've invested in our youth by opening Trump accounts and so many other wins such as bringing in advanced manufacturing and other major investment back to America. This is a great opportunity to celebrate those wins, but also remind voters what's at stake if we do not keep the majority in November. So we are thrilled to be unified in celebrating these wins. Obviously, we're seeing the Democrat infighting playing out on full display between the socialists and the historic Democrat Party. There seems to be no unified message other than hating President Trump. So we are thrilled to celebrate the wins of the Republican Party and really celebrate America. We are a party of common sense, and I think it will be a major contrast to what we are seeing on the left. I want to get your thoughts on the primary runoff down in South Carolina. Darlene Graham won that race, replacing her late brother Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away in July. How much of this win comes down to the president's endorsement, and what does it mean going into the midterms? Well, I think it shows that the president is still our best messenger, and his presence and voice and vote of confidence is stronger than ever, and that is why we are thrilled to have him speak at both nights of our historic midterm convention in Dallas, because he is the leader of our party. There is nobody that can turn out voters like President Donald Trump. So we are thrilled to, of course, have him, celebrate him, allow him to speak directly with our base. But I think what we saw in South Carolina just proves that his grip on unifying Republicans is stronger than ever, and we are thrilled to bring him out again at our midterm convention. Election Integrity Communications Director with the RNC, Ali Triolo, greatly appreciate you joining us. Thank you. Meta paying $17 billion in agreeing to new restrictions and safety measures for teenagers in return for some immunity from future cases about addicting and harming young users. NTV's Christina Corona reports. Meta has reached a proposed settlement worth up to $17 billion in a major case brought by 29 states over allegations involving the impact of Facebook and Instagram on young users. The states accused Meta of designing its platforms to addict children and misleading consumers about their safety. Meta has denied wrongdoing. Meta has agreed to make significant changes that will reduce the risk of harm that Instagram and Facebook pose to teen users. Daily time limits and blocks on nighttime use that can only be lifted by a parent. Limits on notifications during school hours and overnight. The agreement would also ban plastic surgery filters, strengthen age verification, and help remove children under 13 from the platforms. In addition to platform and policy changes, Meta has agreed to pay the states joining this agreement up to $17 billion over 10 years. California alone will receive $1.5 billion to $2.1 billion if this settlement is approved by the court. One parent who lost her daughter at the age of 16 says she is pleased with the outcome. No amount of money is ever going to bring my beautiful daughter back. I miss her every day. The first thing I think of when I wake up after watching out of Missouri's performance in court yesterday, I'm not surprised they settled. Like Mark Zuckerberg does not want to go up against and see all the information that they have. So I'm very pleased. There's lots of lawsuits coming for these companies. Meta says the agreement does not include an admission of liability and will support youth online safety initiatives. The company is also urging TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar protections saying teens may simply move to another app. Their proposed settlement still requires court approval as Meta and other social media companies face ongoing lawsuits over alleged harms to young users. Christina Corona, NTD News. Independent journalist Nick Shirley rallying crowds against a new law in California. They say it stops investigations into corruption and fraud. NTD's David Lam reports from Sacramento. Journalist Nick Shirley and his supporters are rallying in Sacramento against a law that they say will stop independent investigations and prevent uncovering fraud. Called the Safe at Work Act, Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law on Saturday. Crowds gathered in Sacramento against the law Wednesday, dubbing it the Stop Nick Shirley Act. Politicians have learned that they can use immigrant communities and use non-profits and NGOs and funnel millions upon millions of your tax dollars into these non-profits, NGOs, and for so long nobody ever looked into it. Then I did, and look what I'm doing now. Introduced by State Representative Mia Bonta, it's designed to protect people who provide immigration support services. If the provider is deemed fearful of their lives, people cannot post images, videos, or information of the person. Bonta says the law would only penalize those who publish information with the intent to incite or threaten violence and harassment. But some say the law shields organizations from public oversight. Got new legislation and in response to what Nick Shirley was doing, it is what I consider legislative cover for fraudulent activity. And it's designed for accountability, and also it violates our First Amendment rights. The rally also drew counter protesters holding signs against ICE during the rally. In Shirley's viral post, he's seen investigating alleged hospice fraud in California. I just believe it's our duty as Americans to make sure that our legislators are using their money wisely on my behalf and our citizens' behalf. Rallygoers call the bill unconstitutional and say it will be challenged. In Sacramento, California, David Lam, NTD News. Coming up, what does Meta's $17 billion settlement mean in the larger fight to hold social media companies accountable for harming children and teens? Our panelists, Democratic strategist Mally Smith, Republican strategist Marley Cornick, will join us for analysis. You see certain things get reincarnated in your children. My daughter is very much inspired by my wife's artistic pursuits. So my daughter started making necklaces. She makes what we call affirmation fashion. I tell her every day that your black is beautiful. Your black is beautiful. Your black is beautiful. And if there's anything better than being beautiful, it's being smart. And if there's anything better than being smart, it's being kind. And reaffirming that every day is our method of making sure her chin never drops. My dad wasn't around. And I remember riding a bike and falling off and cutting myself, and me never just wanting to get back on it. People ask, how your children learn how to ride a bike? And you didn't. I didn't teach them. I just created an environment where they taught themselves. And all I had to do was be there. Every day, thousands of kids start vaping. And I can't let this happen to my kid. Of course, it's awkward to talk to kids about the dangers of vaping. Hey, bestie, how's sketches, right? It's hard to get their attention. Ready? Go. Yes, look at that. Yeah, you can turn yours over. So if you want to talk to your kids about the dangers of vaping, you have to get it trending. Right, backpack kid? Let's do it. First, invite your kid to do the vape talk. Let's try this. All right. Why is he here? I gotta get it trending. No. Come on. Honey, can we talk? Yeah, what's up? I see a lot of your friends vaping. Visit TalkAboutVaping.org for tips on when and how to have the vape talk. You love them enough to crawl into a play place to get them to come down. Then surely you'll check NHTSA.gov slash the right seat to make sure they're in the right car seat. Even the mighty might not see it coming. It's pre-diabetes and it captures one in three adults, but you can escape. Take the one minute pre-diabetes risk test at doihaveprediabetes.org. Be your own hero. The impact of a meal goes well beyond feeding our bodies because when people are fed, futures are nourished. And with your help, together we can end hunger. Join the movement at feedingamerica.org slash act now. Welcome back to the Capitol Report. I'm Steve Lance. Results are in from South Carolina's special Senate runoff. Senator Darlene Graham, the late Senator Lindsey Graham's sister, winning the GOP nomination for a full six-year Senate term. NTD's Melina Wisecoat reports. An endorsement from President Trump and name recognition gave Darlene Graham a victory in the South Carolina Senate runoff. That is true country. She won with around 52 percent of the vote to Congressman Ralph Norman's nearly 48 percent. The president didn't give a link to the response but acknowledged the win, posting this photo on social media. Norman telling a crowd of supporters. Y'all, his policies are good. I never understood why he got in this race to beat, you know, but it is what it is and I'll accept it. We will, something good, and I've always said something good will come out of this. Norman said his campaign was funded on the grassroots level and couldn't compete with the massive super PAC funds poured into his opponent's campaign. We had eight million dollars spent against us. Senator Darlene Graham told her supporter she was feeling mixed emotions after the win, touched by her brother's legacy, and still grieving his death. Our state and nation are much better and safer because of him. Thank you, Lindsey, for your service to South Carolina and to this country. It's just not the same without you here. Graham will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Melina Wisecup, NTD News. Meta's 17 billion dollar settlement with the states in the latest turn in the fight to hold social media companies accountable for teen social media addiction. Joining me now, Mallie Smith, Democratic strategist and former North Carolina political director for the Kamala Harris campaign, and Marley Hornick, Republican strategist and CEO of Real America Vote. Great to have you guys both with us. So I want to play a quick soundbite from a woman who lost her daughter to social, excuse me, suicide tied to social media harm. Watch. I'm not surprised they settled. Like Mark Zuckerberg does not want to go up against and see all the information that they have. So I'm very pleased. There's lots of lawsuits coming for these companies, lots of And yeah, I am. I feel like there's like justice is possible. Mallie, this settlement comes after three years of litigation. It includes 17 billion plus new safety measures, screen time limits and curbs on features like visible light counts. Is this real accountability or do you think it falls short? I think it's a step in the right direction. I'm glad that Metta with Instagram and Facebook are instituting tougher restrictions to help protect teens and kids online. But I don't think we can have a patchwork of rules and regulations that only come about because we have successful lawsuits or we have governors in states like Florida with Ron DeSantis and New Jersey like Mickey Sherrill passing legislation to make sure social media companies aren't taking advantage of children because the damage here is real. Jonathan Haidt has a book called The Anxious Generation where he documents that our kids nowadays have much higher levels of anxiety and depression and it can be directly tied to social media use. So I'm not a person who's for bans. I don't necessarily think we should ban social media for teens, but we've got to have rules and regulations that protect them across the country. Marley, if this settlement is approved, it would potentially block states from bringing further lawsuits against Metta. Could that actually make it harder to hold social media companies accountable in the future? Yeah, of course. And this is a huge concern. I honestly think this settlement shows the moral bankruptcy of Metta. It shows that they are more concerned with hiding true accountability and really getting the facts on record of what has taken place inside of these companies, the knowledge that they had and the marketing tools that they nonetheless purveyed. You know, not only dealing with children's suicide, but also, of course, the incredible spread of internet pornography, which has affected so many young people's lives, whether they have directly viewed it or not. You know, it's led to a huge rise in trafficking issues and pedophilia. There are so many different ways that this technology has harmed our young people. And the fact that they have settled this lawsuit for a mere 17 billion dollars shows how terrified they are of showing their actual internal records and being held accountable for it. Marley, Metta still faces lawsuits from individual families and school districts across the country. As the company continues to roll out these platform changes, how do you see those cases playing out? Well, with the caveat that I'm not a lawyer, I will say that whether it's legal accountability or political accountability, I think this is just the start, because as my co-panelists said, the evidence here is pretty damning and they don't want to release any internal documents because I'm sure those documents will show that they knew that their product was addictive and that their product was giving kids content that they should not have been seeing. And I think you're seeing a real bipartisan moment where a lot of folks from different political stripes are coming together. And one thing that I think, which is national legislation that I think we should pass, is called age appropriate algorithms, which would essentially force companies like Metta or Twitter to add restrictions and regulations on their algorithms for those who are under 18 to help make sure that those kids do not get age inappropriate content like pornography or politically extreme content, because we know that too many times these social media companies push people when they're viewing political content to the most extreme opinion. And that is an easy thing we can do to try to make social media companies much more responsible. Speaking of algorithms, Marlee, CCP-linked ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, a lot of people say that that algorithm is even more dangerous to some than say Facebook or others. Metta is now pushing other tech companies to adopt similar changes. Do you expect that to perhaps trigger a wave of lawsuits against the rest of the industry, ByteDance, TikTok, etc.? Well, that's a possibility, Steve. But I want to go back to this issue about what the settlement contains other than the financial, you know, remuneration for states to start to deal with some of the issues that have been created. I think it's really important to look at this supposed equity agreement that parents are now going to be in charge of monitoring their children's use on a known to be addictive platform. And I want to go to what my co-panelists just talked about, which was this idea that they can program algorithms that are age appropriate. I am a parent of three teenagers. And, you know, in addition to all of my other titles, I have that job as a mother. And I can tell you firsthand that what the social media companies believe is appropriate for children was radically different from what I believe was appropriate for my children. And I also want to say that I attempted on multiple occasions through extreme measures to control access that my children had through their devices, which are few in number, let's say, and small in power. But I attempted to control their access to many platforms, time restrictions, content restrictions. And in every single instance, my children were able to get around that programming, which is really concerning because Meta appears to be helping families here. But when we're having this affordability crisis, that is the headline on every news site, red and blue. And we're talking about the stress parents are under the idea that adding a technological responsibility in platforms that are much more, I guess, natural for children to understand than than parents. It's not reasonable. It's not correct. And it's not going to work. Looks like we may have lost Marley there with a technical difficulty. Mally, we'll keep you here if you're still with us. I want to get your thoughts on earlier in the in the program, we saw the protest outside of the Sacramento Capitol building there in California, Governor Newsom signing the what he calls an immigrant services confidentiality bill. It's also been named the Stop Nick Shirley Act. Let's play a clip on from Nick Shirley on why he feels this bill is actually meant to protect fraudsters. The Stop Nick Shirley Act was only created after I'd exposed widespread fraud here inside of America. They've essentially created a protected class by calling these new people, this group, the immigration support service providers, saying that I and you cannot expose them. Mally, Nick Shirley, the independent journalist that uncovered some significant fraud, millions in Minnesota. Talk to us about, you know, many of these organizations are accusing that are accused of fraud were actually receiving taxpayer funding. Could this law make future fraud harder to catch? Yeah, look, I don't agree with everything Nick Shirley has said or done. But I do have real issues with this law. I think anything that potentially restricts investigations or free press, I'm usually not a fan of. This is the first time I've heard of it. But I think removing names and organizations because you're afraid of bullying or harassment. I just don't think that should stand. I think that legally, this law is probably gonna have an uphill battle because I'm not so sure if it is going to survive any First Amendment challenges. So again, not the biggest fan of Nick Shirley. But with that being said, I think this law, if it makes investigations, whether it's from independent journalists or journalists with mainstream outlets harder on specific issue areas, I don't think it's worth it. I don't think it should be upheld. Mally Smith, appreciate your perspective. Thank you. Coming up, the first new U.S. phosphate fertilizer plant in 40 years. Why the Trump administration says it's critical to America's supply chain. If we can't feed and fuel ourselves, then there will be no, there will be no America for the future. And as the trade war heats up between the United States and Canada, Ottawa is seeking closer business ties with communist China. But is this a strategic mistake? We'll hear from folks right here in D.C. when we return. Hi, I'm Susan Lucci. You may know me from my many years on television. I never thought about heart disease until I had my own heart event. I felt this slight pressure in my chest, just slight. I thought, oh, it's nothing. It'll go away. I didn't get it. I did not get it. A few days later, while shopping at a boutique, that pressure returned much stronger. It felt like an elephant pressing on my chest. I had a 90% blockage in my main artery and a 75% blockage in the adjacent artery. I was rushed into surgery where I received two stents in my arteries. 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So please call the number on your screen or go to helpheart.org now. Join me as a monthly donor today and help save even more lives. Thank you. According to ancient Chinese medicine, purslane is considered a medicinal herb and is used to help lower cholesterol, improve vascular functions, and prevent diabetes. Perilla seeds can nourish the lungs and spleen. It is used to treat asthma and improve pulmonary functions. Puritan green vegetable omega-3 is made from purslane and perilla seeds from Hwangmae Mountain in South Korea. It contains over 90 percent of omega-3, 6, 7, and 9, the highest concentration possible without chemical additives. The soft gel is made of natural seaweed. It is 100 percent organic and vegan. Both adults and children can take it with peace of mind. Ancient recipes were passed down from heaven to bring prosperity and longevity. Puritan green vegetable omega-3. And welcome back to the Capitol Report. A major step toward onshoring an essential crop fertilizer. 40 years in the making. Louisiana breaking ground on a new phosphate fertilizer plant with support from the Department of Agriculture. It's part of President Trump's push to bring critical industries back to the United States. NTD correspondent Jason Blair has more. If we can't feed and fuel ourselves, then there will be no, there will be no America for the future. Phosphate-based fertilizer is a critical nutrient for growing crops that can't be substituted. On Wednesday, a new phosphate fertilizer plant got underway for the first time in four decades, part of an effort to reverse America's growing reliance on foreign supplies. We used to produce almost all of it for our own farmers over the last couple of decades. That has dwindled down to now about 40 percent. By creating more domestic production, we're able to decrease our reliance on imported product, creating a more reliable supply for our farmers that's produced here in the United States. John Griffith, an executive from the farmer-owned cooperative CHS, says the plant is expected to produce 1.3 metric tons of phosphate fertilizer each year. Let's put that into some kind of context. Today, it's around that America's farmers use about 2.5 million tons of phosphate-based fertilizer annually. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry was also at the announcement. Our farmers are the first line of defense when it comes to national security. While we have exported our jobs, good-paying jobs offshore, we have weakened vital supply chains that make America weak. The plant is being privately funded with a $450 million investment from the farmer-owned cooperative CHS and OCP North America. CHS credits Governor Landry for his support, while both companies have worked closely with the Trump administration to make the new plant possible. Jason Blair, NTD News. And as the trade war escalates between the United States and Canada, Ottawa is seeking closer business ties with Communist China. But is this a strategic mistake, given the CCP's track record in violating trade rules? NTD Sam Wong was out in the National Mall in D.C. to hear from the people. Do you think Canada is making a strategic mistake by leaning closer to China, not to us? Oh, absolutely. China's just going to play them. I think anybody's making a strategic mistake that leans closer to China. It's fine if you think that that's going to get you somewhere today, but you have to remember the side of the line that they stand on, and it's communism. I think that's crazy. They're our neighbors. I mean, you're supposed to be kind to your neighbors, right? Can't they see what's happening to our country, aligning what we did when we aligned with China? Can't they see how we made Why don't people learn from other people's mistakes? I'm looking at geopolitically. I don't believe what they're doing is sustainable. Canada and the United States, because we're landlocked, before we see that happen with China and that becoming an issue, I think their leadership in Canada is going to change and somebody's going to write it up and say, hey, look, this is all dumb. Let's just fix this. Do you think by working with China, do you think Canada is trading short-term benefit for long-term vulnerabilities? I don't see that they're going to get a great short-term benefit. I think it's scary and scary for everybody because that's our neighbor. When you sell your soul to the devil, then you know there's repercussions for that. And so, at the end of the day, China is about communism. And that kind of brings me back to the Socialist Party and our party. Do they not see what's happened in Cuba and all these places that were socialism? It's not what it's cracked up to be. And the celebration of America's 250th anniversary continues with National Park Week. This year's theme, Celebrate America's Story, honoring the history and heritage preserved in our parks. There are more than 400 of them known all for their natural beauty. They also include battlefields that shape the nation and the homes of presidents and innovators. The Trump administration is inviting Americans to continue celebrating the semi-quincentennial by enjoying these iconic sites. And that is all we have for you tonight on The Capitol Report. Tomorrow, will states have to implement Trump's order on mail-in voting before the midterm elections? We'll break it all down, the legal ins and outs, with former federal prosecutor Jim Trustee on the show tomorrow. Stay connected to the stories that matter and visit us at ntd.com and download the NTD mobile app. From the nation's capital, I'm Steve Lance. Have a great evening. See you back here tomorrow.