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Roger Stone says his email accounts were how the hackers got into the Trump campaign

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Roger Stone says his email accounts were how the hackers got into the Trump campaign

Happy Tuesday. Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and the all-inclusive world of technology.

‘But [his] emails!’

Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump who helped to push the fake electors scheme, told the Washington Post that one of his email accounts was reportedly compromised by a cyberattack that was targeting the Trump campaign. The news surrounding this hack has been moving quickly, so let’s review the sequence of events so far. 

  • Aug. 10: Politico reports it received internal Trump campaign documents from someone calling themselves “Robert,” describing some of their contents but not sharing them. 
  • Aug. 10: Team Trump says it has been hacked and accuses Iran of perpetrating the hack without offering proof. Meanwhile, the campaign tries to shame news outlets not to publish anything resulting from the hack — the polar opposite of Trump’s stance on hacks that targeted Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. 
  • Aug. 12: NBC News confirms the Washington Post reports that the FBI is probing the hack, alongside similar attempts made on the Biden-Harris campaign. Officials from what is now the Harris-Walz campaign said there is no evidence that any hacking attempt on it has been successful. The Post also interviews Stone, who says multiple email accounts of his were hit with cyberattacks. The Post’s sources allege Stone’s email was used to send Trump campaign officials a bogus link that could compromise the recipient’s emails, too.

The juicy story here is that one of the most mischievous and aggressively outspoken figures in Trump’s orbit was the one whose private communications appears to have compromised — and possibly compromised others in the Trump campaign, as well.

But a notable subplot is the media’s markedly different response to hacked campaign documents when they come into their hands directly, as compared to the 2016 feeding frenzy over private communications stolen from the Clinton campaign and made public by Wikileaks. The Associated Press is out with a story on the media outlets that have thus far chosen not to publish documents they’ve received as a result of the hack. 

Remember when Trump literally called on Russia to “find” missing Clinton emails and declared his love for WikiLeaks? 

Now Trump is benefitting from a restraint that neither he nor the media have afforded other politicians in a similar situation. Joy Reid called out this double standard on Monday’s episode of The ReidOut. 

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Seniors learning about A.I.

Across the country, seniors are getting some training about the budding age of artificial intelligence — learning how the technology can benefit them and how it can be used to deceive and manipulate them. Class is in session. 

Read more from in the Associated Press. 

Musk was warned

Elon Musk received a warning from the European Union ahead of the digital debacle he hosted for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on his social media platform X on Monday. The E.U. warned Musk not to run afoul of its rules around the spread of illegal content and disinformation on large social media platforms — a fitting warning, given his role in spreading the disinformation that recently fueled far-right riots in the U.K. 

Read my colleague Anthony Fisher’s take on the Trump-Musk conversation here on MSNBC.com. 

Team Trump tries to take TikTok by storm

The Trump campaign wants to make its candidate into a TikTok star as part of an effort to rehabilitate his public image — but Vice President Kamala Harris’ popularity with young people on the app is throwing a wrench in their plans. 

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Read more at The Washington Post

Nadler pushes for X probe

New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler has called on Republican House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan to probe allegations of political censorship on social media platform X. Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump, has allowed the platform to spread misinformation about Harris, while liberal accounts supporting her have been suspended and labeled as spam in what some believe is an effort to help Trump. 

Read more at The Verge.

OpenAI warning

OpenAI, the creators of popular artificial intelligence-enabled chatbot ChatGPT, issued a warning about people becoming emotionally dependent on its voice mode. It’s an eerie warning, and we should all be cautious of the ways we can grow attached to our devices. But there’s reason to question this sort of Big Tech fatalism: A.I. experts have warned that this kind of apocalyptic, future-oriented focus can mystify the conversation around real harms artificial intelligence can — and does — pose in the present.

Read more at The Hill. 

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Khanna’s crypto outreach

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has been acting as a sort of liaison between crypto enthusiasts and the White House, seeking to thread the needle between promoting regulation and assuaging concerns from the largely wealthy, regulation-resistant power brokers in the crypto community. 

Read more at CryptoSlate

Trump’s A.I. lie

Trump’s latest lie about Harris — that her campaign used A.I. to generate images of her crowds — is an attempt to convince his followers to reject reality and lay the groundwork to question the election results should he lose this November. Read my latest blog post on it here.

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US says Kuwait accidentally shot down 3 American jets

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US says Kuwait accidentally shot down 3 American jets

The U.S. and Israel have been conducting strikes against targets in Iran since Saturday morning, with the aim of toppling Tehran’s clerical regime. Iran has fired back, with retaliatory assaults featuring missiles and drones targeting several Gulf countries and American bases in the Middle East.

“All six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition. Kuwait has acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation,” Central Command said.

“The cause of the incident is under investigation. Additional information will be released as it becomes available,” it added.

In a separate statement later Monday, Central Command said that American forces had been killed during combat since the strikes began.

“As of 7:30 am ET, March 2, four U.S. service members have been killed in action. The fourth service member, who was seriously wounded during Iran’s initial attacks, eventually succumbed to their injuries,” it said.

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Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing. The identities of the fallen are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification,” Central Command added.

This story has been updated.

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Satellite images provide view inside Iran at war

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Satellite images provide view inside Iran at war

Smoke rises over Konarak naval base in southern Iran on Sunday. The base was one of hundreds of targets of U.S. and Israeli forces throughout the country.

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Commercial satellite images are providing a unique look at the extent of damage being done to Iran’s military facilities across the country.

The U.S. and Israeli military campaign opened with a daytime attack that struck Iranian leadership in central Tehran. Smoke was still visible rising from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound following the attack that killed the supreme leader.

An image by the company Airbus taken on Saturday shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Iran's Leadership House in central Tehran. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening wave of attacks.

An image by the company Airbus taken on Saturday shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Iran’s Leadership House in central Tehran. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening wave of attacks.

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Israel and the U.S. have gone on to strike targets across the country. Reports on social media indicate that there have been numerous military bases and compounds attacked all over Iran, and Iran has responded with attacks throughout the Middle East.

U.S. forces have also been striking at Iran’s navy. In a post on his social media platform, President Trump said that he had been briefed that U.S. forces had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels. U.S. Central Command did not immediately confirm that number but it did say it had struck an Iranian warship in port.

An image captured on February 28 shows a ship burning at Iran's naval base at Konarak.

An image captured on Saturday shows a ship burning at Iran’s naval base at Konarak.

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Numerous satellite images show burning vessels at Konarak naval base in southern Iran. Images also show damage to a nearby airbase where hardened hangers were struck by precision munitions.

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Hardened aircraft shelters at Konarak Airbase were struck with precision munitions.

Hardened aircraft shelters at Konarak airbase were struck with precision munitions.

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And there was extensive damage at a drone base in the same area. Iran has launched numerous drones and missiles toward Israel and U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Many drones have been intercepted but videos on social media show that some have evaded air defenses and caused damage in nearby Gulf countries. In Dubai, debris from an Iranian drone damaged the iconic Burj Al Arab, according to a statement from Dubai’s government.

Buildings at an Iranian drone base at Konarak were destroyed in the strikes.

Buildings at an Iranian drone base at Konarak were destroyed in the strikes.

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Iran’s most powerful weapons are its long-range missiles. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have hidden the missiles deep inside mountain tunnels. Images taken Sunday in the mountains of northern Iran indicate that some of those tunnels were hit in a wave of strikes.

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Following Khamenei’s death, Iran declared 40 days of mourning. Satellite images showed mourners gathering in Tehran’s Enghelab square on Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told NPR on Sunday that Iran will continue to fight “foreign aggression, foreign domination.”

A White House official told NPR that Trump plans to talk to Iran’s interim leadership “eventually,” but that for now, U.S. operations continue in the region “unabated.”

A large crowd of mourners fill Enghelab Square in Tehran on Sunday, following the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

A large crowd of mourners fill Enghelab Square in Tehran on Sunday, following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

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Video: What the Texas Primary Battle Means for the Midterms

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Video: What the Texas Primary Battle Means for the Midterms

new video loaded: What the Texas Primary Battle Means for the Midterms

The first battle of the midterm elections will be the U.S. Senate primary in Texas. Our Texas bureau chief, David Goodman, explains why Democrats and Republicans across the U.S. are watching closely to see what happens in the state.

By J. David Goodman, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, June Kim and Luke Piotrowski

March 1, 2026

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