Rachel Maddow explains "From Russia With Love" documentary

so it's just quite a thrill um you want me to do the a block style introduction it ends with a commercial for a weird drug you don't need so yesterday um in Washington in what's called a background briefing um the office of the Director of National Intelligence uh talked to a number of big deal National Security and intelligence reporters and why this had to be a background briefing I do not know what that means is when reporters all wrote their stories they couldn't say who it was that was speaking to them or providing them this information which is completely pointless but that's the way they always do things and so in this unnecessarily clo and Dagger stupidly Anonymous briefing yesterday the US government confirmed that for the 2024 election the government of Russia is putting the pedal to the metal and doing more than they have ever done to try to attack our political system and mess with our election now perhaps Vladimir Putin is doing this and once again trying to put Donald Trump in the white house um because he wants what's best for [Laughter] us because he's just earnestly hoping that his brothers and sisters in America will get the future that America really deserves Maybe or as the Director of National Intelligence told reporters yesterday perhaps Russia is trying to put front back in the white house because doing so would be quote consistent with moscow's broader foreign policy goals of weakening the United States you ever find yourself as part of a political movement in this country and America's most committed devoted enemies think that movement is terrible for America and they're therefore willing to support it and fund it check yourself so Putin declared last spring and thing that didn't get very much American attention but he declared last spring about a year into the war in Ukraine that Russia was at war with the West and Chief among the Western Nations at war with the United States since then he has said that he's got two great ideas for how to win this war against us two things he has said that are specific or that is doing that are specific one is he has threatened long range nuclear strikes strikes against the United States and two is he's funding this new massive effort to try to put Trump back in the white house so two tactics same goal so in 2016 we had uh random young Russians impersonating Americans you know the the the troll Farms remember um they were hired to pretend to be Americans online promoting Trump making us hate each other more than we ever did before now eight years later for 2024 the dni has explained what they're doing they're using AI this time rather than human trolls to generate fake online personalities that are supposed to seem American and they are creating websites that are designed to look like American News sources and they are paying millions of dollars to right-wing prot Trump on influencers all to try to help Trump back into the White House because in Putin's estimation that is the quickest and best way short of nuclear weapons to destroy the United States while Trump was President Russia did something else and his name was Lev and that is the story you are about to see here the film is titled From Russia with leev uh when I step back from doing my MS NBC show five nights a week it was in part so I could do more stuff like this um longer form projects with different kinds of deadlines to tell what I think are important stories about our country in different kinds of ways and in the case of Lev and this story about one of the worst things that Russia ever did to us one of the worst things that happened in the Trump presidency even though it is largely forgotten one of the most Grievous and H humiliating injuries that Russia inflicted against one of our allies and they used us to do it in the case of this story I think it turns out that the best way to tell it is comedy because for everything else this story is it's bananas it's totally insane and it's I mean fundamentally I don't want there to be any misunderstanding here this is a very very very stupid story and it is just this perfect balance of magnificent idiocy and Grave harm to us as a country and that I think has made the timing perfect for coming out now in terms of where we are as a country so this is the world premiere of this film um it is the it's the first feature documentary my production company which is felt surpris inside hopefully the first of many I have say some thank yous I'm grateful to MSNBC films to Amanda Spain and Rebecca Cutler and to the big boss here uh Rashida Jones I want to say thank you to Universal television alternative Studio I want to thank the director Billy Corbin and the producer Alfred Spelman from rakon tour they are fantastic and although he is not here he is here in spirit I want to thank Lev um and his wife uh who is about to become your new best friend so uh if you enjoy watching this even one 100th of the amount that we enjoyed making it you're really going to like this so thank you so much thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause]