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New Day
Pulse of the People Panel; Trump Denounces Some Violence; Russia Again Pushing Disinformation on Americans. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired September 02, 2020 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[08:32:02]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Just 62 days left until Election Day. Suburban white women in battleground states are expected to be a big factor in the outcome. So we wanted to see how they're feeling today. We gathered six women, all of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2016, but not all of them still feel good about that vote. Here our latest "Pulse of the People."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: All right, show of hands, how many of you voted for Donald Trump in 2016?
All of you. OK.
Show of hands, how many of you plan to vote for him in 2020?
Now you know just because you raise two hands doesn't mean you can vote twice. I just want to be clear. That's still just one vote.
MICHELE MORROW, VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016, VOTING FOR TRUMP IN NOVEMBER, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: We do know that.
L.A. KEY, VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016, VOTING FOR TRUMP IN NOVEMBER, FLORIDA VOTER: I'm just energetic.
CAMEROTA: OK.
KEY: Thanks, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: So three of you plan to vote for him again in 2020. How many of you plan to vote for Joe Biden?
OK, three hands went up there. The bottom row.
So, Ann, let me just start with you.
How did President Trump lose your vote?
ANN KUPITZ, VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016, VOTING FOR BIDEN IN NOVEMBER, ARIZONA VOTER: I voted for him in 2016 because he wasn't a normal politician. I have to admit, I didn't pay too much attention until the pandemic started. The pandemic was the -- when my eyes began to open. And June 1st, when he sent U.S. troops on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square, that was my cross the line moment.
CAMEROTA: And how do you feel now about your 2016 vote for him?
KUPITZ: I think it's one of if not the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life. I feel like voting for him helped kill over 100,000 Americans.
CAMEROTA: So, Jessica, what do you think of the president's response to Covid?
JESSICA FREEMAN, VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016, VOTING FOR BIDEN IN NOVEMBER, GEORGIA VOTER: It's been abysmal. He's -- he's disappointed and abandoned the American people. My defining moment is when he said he took -- takes no responsibility. The buck stops with you. You took the job. Do the job.
LORI MCCAMMON, VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016, VOTING FOR BIDEN IN NOVEMBER, WISCONSIN VOTER: For me it started almost immediately from day one when he lied about how big the crowd was at his inauguration. And I have tracked him since then and he lies every day to us. I -- I don't know -- the one thing he has told the truth about, he has not taken one ounce of responsibility for Covid. From day one we should have a national mandate on wearing masks. We could have had this thing under control in six weeks if he had just done his job.
[08:35:01]
CAMEROTA: L.A., what is it like for you, as a Trump support, to listen to your fellow panelists who have, you know, more than soured on him?
KEY: I think that they're latently wrong, with all due respect. I think Donald Trump has done an amazing job from day one. And an amazing job through the pandemic. No, he did not cause the pandemic. So when he says it is not my responsibility, I did not cause this, that is correct. No one could have done a better job in my opinion. No one.
KUPITZ: He is the only leader that hasn't followed the science, the data and the experts' advice. Four percent of the world's population, we should have under 50,000 deaths. We have over 180,000 deaths. That's -- that's not doing a good job.
KEY: Let's talk about the death toll. Has everyone read the CDC report that just came out? My goodness, it is a fraction of what they originally said.
CAMEROTA: What the CDC says is that 6 percent of the people who have died from Covid also had comorbidities, such as diabetes, but they would still be here today if they hadn't gotten Covid.
KEY: Well, then we'll agree to disagree.
CAMEROTA: So, just to be clear, L.A., you don't believe that 183,000 Americans have died?
KEY: Not of Covid, no.
MORROW: I want you to know that I'm a nurse. And I've been a nurse for 27 years. And the response to the pandemic has actually been President Trump's greatest achievement. He was the one that closed off all travel at the begin of February. You guys remember what was happening in January? There were no other elected officials that were even thinking about Covid because they were busy doing their impeachment.
Joe Biden, he was the vice president for eight years. So why didn't they prepare for a pandemic?
CAMEROTA: They did prepare a pandemic playbook that they -- that the Department of Homeland Security, under President Obama, handed over to the Trump administration. They had a pandemic office which President Trump shut down. And so they say that they did try to prepare the incoming administration.
JILL RAHRIG, VOTED FOR TRUMP IN 2016, VOTING FOR TRUMP IN NOVEMBER, MICHIGAN VOTER: I'm also a person -- I'm a medical information administrator, worked in hospitals for 25 years. And I think President Trump actually has done a pretty good job. I am impressed. I am impressed with how he has garnered the help of the private sector to help indeed get a vaccine going, bringing the PPEs in, developing new ventilators. It's all been good.
CAMEROTA: At the moment, President Trump -- according to the latest polls, is not doing well with women. I think he has something like a 33 percent of all women approval rate, a 65 percent disapproval rate.
What are your thoughts on that?
MORROW: I -- I believe -- I don't -- I don't look at polls. I just talk to the facts. If you watched the RNC as opposed to the DNC, the RNC was filled with people from across this country. People of every race, people of every creed, people of every background, socioeconomic status, and they were all gleaning (ph) how --
CAMEROTA: Wasn't the DNC also? I mean wasn't the DNC showing diversity also?
MORROW: No, the DNC -- the -- the DNC was very -- I mean I didn't see all of it. I will say that. But all of the clips, I've probably watched about two hours of clips, and it was very much the -- the attitude is, just get rid of President Trump.
RAHRIG: I would say the RNC convention tripled my opinion that he is inclusive, that he is for sure not racist.
CAMEROTA: But I want to ask the bottom row, who do not plan to vote for him again, did the RNC, ladies, give you any second thoughts because you heard so many testimonials from people who supported President Trump?
FREEMAN: Absolutely not. CAMEROTA: Why not? I mean --
FREEMAN: He's a sick (ph) man and they were all his -- they are -- as long as you're a Republican, and you go along with the party line, he's your best buddy. If you don't, you're a do nothing Democrat.
KUPITZ: I was a life-long Republican, but the Republican Party no longer exists. It's Trumpism. I mean when was the last time the Republican Party did not put out a platform? When was the last time any convention was held on government property?
KEY: I have a big following on Facebook and everything. I've got thousands of friends, I can tell you, they're voting for Donald Trump. I literally do not know one person that voted for him in 2016 that's not going to vote for him again.
MCCAMMON: And I also have voted Republican far more often in my lifetime than I voted Democrat. But I've got to say, I don't know if I will ever vote for a Republican again. I am just sickened by the fact that they are not Republicans, they're Trumpers, period. We've lost the Republican Party. It's gone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[08:40:01]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Interesting to see the pandemic as the breaking point for the three women at the bottom there. It seems as if in some ways the change that was going to happen happened. And it settled into place. And it will be curious to see if there's any movement one way or the other from here on out or if attitudes are just baked into the cake at this point.
CAMEROTA: Well, obviously, you see a lot of attitudes there baked in certainly, but I too found it really interesting after three and a half years after, you know, obviously so many Democrats have felt that the president has done all sorts of things that should, they think, cause Republicans to give it a double look, it was the coronavirus that got their attention.
BERMAN: And then it makes them look at everything through a different prism, right? So it was the pandemic first and then the president holding up the Bible, but only, I think, because the pandemic made them look at things differently. Interesting to see.
CAMEROTA: OK, so for some Trump supporters, it's not what the president says, it's what he does not say. John Avlon is going to explain in a "Reality Check," next.
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BERMAN: President Trump has not denounced violence coming from the right, sticking only to the left.
[08:45:02]
Why?
John Avlon with a "Reality Check."
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Let's not get numb to this. The president of the United States refused to condemn an accused killer because he felt he might be a political supporter. This isn't law and order. This isn't presidential. But it is part of a pattern.
Back in 2016, white supremacist David Duke praised Trump. A KKK leader called him a, quote, great recruiting tool. And so when Jake Tapper asked Trump to denounce David Duke --
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists.
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AVLON: Well, he knew enough about David Duke to condemned him as a bigot back in 2000.
How about the neo-confederates, the neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think there's blame on both sides.
People that were very fine people on both sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AVLON: To this day, some Trumpers will argue that he didn't say what you just heard him say. But white nationalists heard him loud and clear and praised Trump's remarks.
We've seen the same thing with the QAnon conspiracy theories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AVLON: So now we get to the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old caught on camera shooting at protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Two were killed, another wounded.
Well, it turns out that Rittenhouse is a big Trump fan, sitting in the front row at a recent rally. So rather than denounce the vigilante violence, Trump rationalized it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I guess he was in very big trouble. He would have been -- I -- he probably would have been killed, but it's under --
QUESTION: Do you think --
TRUMP: It's under investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AVLON: Before you buy into the line that Trump was just suspending judgment, remember that this is the guy who instantly judges everybody, like the pope, Merrill Streep, Mitt Romney, Miss Universe, John McCain, his own former attorney general. But by refusing to clearly denounce right wing extremists, Trump is offering them a course of dog whistling encouragement.
A danger even reportedly noticed at the Department of Homeland Security. Quote, law enforcement officials are concerned that the political rhetoric used by the president to inspire his political base has been viewed by some violent white supremacists as a call to violent action.
Another former Trump DHS official endorsing Joe Biden said that Trump is ignoring right wing extremists who want to start a race war, focusing on Antifa instead for political purposes.
So it's notable that when Mike Pence rightfully honored Officer David Underwood, who was killed during the Oakland riots, he left out the fact that the officer was allegedly shot by a member of a far right extremist group that wants a second civil war. Instead, Pence appeared to insinuate that he had been killed by leftists.
Pence and Trump have condemned Biden for not denouncing urban violence. Well, here's what he said. I condemn violence of every kind, but anyone, whether on the left or the right, and I challenge Donald Trump to do the same.
Is that so hard? Apparently it is for President Trump. But refusing to denounce extremist supporters only fans the flames of this American carnage, which is occurring on his watch.
And that's your "Reality Check."
BERMAN: Our thanks to John for that.
New evidence this morning of Russian trolls on social media targeting Americans just two months before Election Day. Yes, it's happening again.
That's next.
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[08:52:35]
CAMEROTA: Developing this morning, Facebook and Twitter say that Russia is targeting Americans on their platforms with disinformation again in just the final weeks now before the 2020 election. Facebook says it has removed a small network of fake accounts after receiving a tip from the FBI.
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan joins us now.
So, what have you found, Donie.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Alisyn.
Yes, this is a very significant update on foreign interference here. Russian people tied to the same troll group that interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are back again, Facebook says, acting on a tip from the FBI.
This is by far the most insight we have into what Russians are doing now, today, to try and use social media to covertly insert themselves into the American national conversation.
Now, the FBI's tip to Facebook all centers around a website called Peace Data. It posed as an independent left wing online magazine and it recruited real, unwitting American writers and journalists to contribute to it and it paid them. This -- the sort of stories popping up there, attacks on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris from the left, a tactic we saw Russia use in 2016 when, according to U.S. prosecutors, they tried to use social media to split the Democratic vote. There are also some criticisms of Trump, U.S. foreign policy and racial inequality in the U.S., as one might expect from a real left wing site.
The good news here, Alisyn, is that this was in its infancy. It hadn't gone viral as such. And it wasn't just solely focused on the election. But the bad news, of course, is the fact that Russians are doing this and this is probably not just the only campaign they're working on.
CAMEROTA: But it's really interesting that we are catching it or that -- I should say Facebook and Twitter are aware of it.
So tell us about these fake profile pictures that they're using. Are they generating them through artificial intelligence?
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, this is where things get very dystopian and pretty crazy fast. So Peace Data, the fake left wing website, recruited real American writers to work on the site, but to do that the website had to have an editor, and that -- that editor had to look convincing. So this is -- enter Alex Lacusta (ph). I want to show you this Twitter account. You know, you see there a man in spectacles. It doesn't look particularly suspicious, but that picture of Lacusta is actually not of a real person.
[08:55:01]
Experts who analyzed it say that picture -- that face was generated by artificial intelligence, Deepfake technology. So before, back in 2016, a good way, of course, to spot a fake account was, you know, they might be using a stolen picture from somebody else's account, but now with advances in technology, it's easier for trolls like this to use this technology to create fake faces, entirely fake people to try and evade detection. So, Alisyn, it's very, I guess, murky online waters we are all
swimming in and a messy online information ecosystem and just with about 62 days to go to November's election.
CAMEROTA: When you look at that photo, I don't know how we're supposed to be able to tell when somebody is a, you know, fakely generated face.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, I mean it's pretty much impossible for the regular social media user to spot that. I mean even the experts that I talk to have trouble discerning what is real and what is fake here. It's very (INAUDIBLE) signs that would give the clues away. So it's really troubling to see the use of this.
CAMEROTA: Donie O'Sullivan, thank you very much for keeping us posted on all of that.
OK, CNN's coverage continues, next.
BERMAN: Bye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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