Ted Lieu Hawks Trump-Russia Theory on Morning Joe: Trump Ads Should Disclose They’re ‘Paid for by the Kremlin’
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) found an opportunity to promote the debunked theory that Donald Trump is personally in league with or indebted to the Russian Government on Tuesday morning.
Lieu was on Morning Joe to discuss his bill to regulate artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies when he identified and took his chance to throw a stray punch in Trump’s direction, much to the delight of host Mika Brzezinski.
Ex-Democratic senator Claire McCaskill asked the inciting question:
MCCASKILL: I am most concerned about political campaigns. As you well know the most powerful weapon in a political campaign is video of the candidate speaking in their own words. Many people don’t do townhalls there in Congress just because they’re afraid that their tracker will get them on film in a moment where they say something awkward or they misspeak and it can be used against them later. I have really a sense of urgency about what is going to happen in this next cycle when people start airing commercials of candidates speaking words they never said. What would your legislation do to prevent that and is there any sense of urgency in Congress to move quickly at least on the front of having to disclose if A.I. is used in political advertising.
LIEU: So nothing in this A.I. commission bill precludes Congress from acting in discrete areas of A.I. regulation. I also note that there is A.I. that can counter bad A.I.. So for example, you have some companies working on A.I. that can authenticate original videos and original images so that can be something that campaigns can use. In addition, I do support legislation that requires disclosure on ads and social media and so on so next time for example, if you see a pro-Trump ad, it might just say at the bottom “paid for by the Kremlin.” And so that’s the kind of disclosure that we would like to see.
Brzezinski chuckled and opined, “that would be good,” before bidding Lieu farewell.
The congressman has habitually hawked the Trump-Russia theory over the years, promoting the falsehood that Trump had a communications channel with the Russian-run Alfa Bank and speculating that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin likely had incriminating information on Trump that he was holding over his head.
Watch above via MSNBC.
