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As Trump Refuses To Concede, Pro-Trump Groups Protest Result; U.S. Shatters Daily Record with 184,000-Plus New Cases Reported Friday; Former Trump Chief Of Staff John Kelly Warns Delaying Transition "Could Be Catastrophic"; Dozens Of Secret Service Agents Isolating After Infections, Exposure; "Stop the Steal" Movement Spreading Far and Fast Online. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 14, 2020 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:01:06]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Thanks for being with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

It's been exactly one week since CNN projected Joe Biden will become the next president of the United States. And President Trump is still refusing to concede.

Many of his supporters are following suit, buying into the president's false claims of a rigged election. Here they are hitting the streets in the nation's capital today protesting the results of an election experts say was fair and was the most secure in U.S. history.

Just listen to those cheers as the president's motorcade drove by this morning.

But the president's refusal to accept reality and concede has also resulted in another potentially dangerous development. A lack of the customary transition of power, President-elect Biden is working with his own coronavirus task force with no help from the White House as the country continues to break tragic records in the pandemic.

Already today, the U.S. has passed 100,000 new cases. That is the 12th straight day, and yesterday, the U.S. reported more than 184,000 new cases. The highest single day number of new infections since the pandemic began.

It is an exponential increase right now, an explosion of infection across the country.

Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House.

What are we learning about the president's mindset this weekend, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, it has been a week now since Joe Biden was projected the winner of the presidential election. And over this past week, we have seen the president both on Twitter and in the public make it clear that he's going to continue to fight to contest this election. Privately, he's been kind of wavering between both wanting to pursue

those lawsuits and continuing to keep up the fight while also beginning to acknowledge the reality of the situation. That reality being that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.

And you saw part of that realization at least peek its head yesterday as the president was making remarks in the Rose Garden. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully the -- whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell, but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And what you could see there, Ana, is the president at least acknowledging the possibility of a different administration succeeding him, that being the administration of President-elect Joe Biden.

But today, Ana, we saw the president go through that crowd that has gathered in Washington, D.C. in support of the president arguing that this election, you know, parroting the same false claims of the president that the election is rigged and stolen.

The president driving through a crowd of supporters and in the wake of that, the president seemed to be energized by the prospect of keeping up the fight, taking to Twitter in the last couple of hours as he returned from his golf course to say that, essentially parrot those same claims, once again claiming that this is a rigged and corrupt election, saying, quote, we will win.

But what is very clear, Ana, is that the president is not winning. He is not winning in the lawsuits he has filed in several of the key battleground states. Yesterday alone, Ana, nine lawsuits brought forward by the president and his allies either dropped or dismissed by courts across the country -- Ana.

CABRERA: That's right. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona, those three states.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you.

President-elect Biden is spending his day in Delaware, continuing to go plan his transition even though the Trump administration refuses to sign off on it.

And CNN correspondent Jessica Dean is with us now.

Jessica, what has he been up to today, any closer to cabinet selection?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the president-elect spending today meeting with transition advisers, also getting outside for a little fresh air. We saw him going on a bike ride with his wife Jill Biden earlier today near his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. One of the pool reporters who's traveling with him asked actually, are you any closer to any cabinet decisions? He said, yes.

But we also know that Joe Biden likes to take his time when it comes to personnel decisions. He is going to deliberate over this, think about it.

[16:05:01]

And remember, he gave this time line, when he was choosing his vice president, that kind of kept sliding a little bit. He has said he hopes to have a handful of cabinet nominees announced by around Thanksgiving. So, that's kind of the target date that we're loosely following. But again, that could slide a little bit.

Remember also, too, the Senate remains in the balance. So, they're having to take that into consideration as they consider potential nominees.

Now, in the meantime, his transition team is pushing ahead with whatever work they can get done, even though the General Services Administration has so far refused to validate Joe Biden as the president-elect, and really trigger that formal transition process, so that means they're not getting formal access to these agencies.

So, Ana, instead, they're having to do some work-arounds. One example, we know that some of the Biden transition team members have been reaching out to former Pentagon officials who worked under former Secretary of Defense James Mattis for information. They can't talk to the current officials but they figure that formal officials will work well in this situation. Just looking for information, trying to get the lay of the land in these agencies.

CABRERA: Exactly. Jessica Dean, thank you.

Mary Katharine Ham is a CNN political commentator, and Ryan Lizza is a CNN senior political analyst and chief Washington correspondent for "Politico".

Thanks both of you for being here.

Ryan, the president's supporters, they have poured into the streets of Washington this weekend to try to give life to these unfounded and baseless claims of a rigged election. We literally had far right groups like the Proud Boys marching down Pennsylvania Avenue.

This election is over. How did this become normal?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, because the president has decided to delegitimize the crystal clear results of the election, just frankly, as he did in 2016 when he lost the Iowa caucuses and when he lost the popular vote. It wasn't as urgent a situation in both of those instances, so he, you know, he kind of let it go, didn't continue to talk about it. But he commands an incredible control over the information system of

his supporters. I don't think it's too strong to put it that way. And he has consistently over the last, since, election day, and obviously he was laying the ground work for this before that, let people believe that minor irregularities that happen in every election, and that Democrats could surely find if they wanted to, I'm quite sure this year, that those somehow mounted to massive fraud.

A poll worker, you know, a poll watcher, perhaps not being allowed in a single polling place or, you know, minor instances where ballots get discarded. You know what I'm talking about. And he's elevated --

CABRERA: All of these things that have been proven to be bogus, that are either inaccurate or just don't actually matter in terms of a vote count. Judges have dismissed them.

LIZZA: All the lawsuits have had a terrible time in court because they can't defend these things. And so, they're doing these -- these legal actions for -- you know, performatively, and then they get thrown out of court.

But it's -- I don't think he cares at this point. He knows that all that is going nowhere. But what he's doing is delegitimizing things for personal purposes, for historical purposes so he can damage the incoming Biden administration, frankly, and as we've seen a lot of reporting in the last few days set himself up when he leaves the White House, perhaps for another run.

And a lot of smart Republicans who know better, and this is the important part, because we all knew Trump was going to do this. He said he was going to do it before the election.

CABRERA: Right.

LIZZA: A lot of important Republicans are standing on the sidelines, not speaking out about this.

CABRERA: Right. Even if they know the truth, and presumably they do, because they're smart.

Mary Katharine, our Jim Acosta --

LIZZA: They certainly do.

CABRERA: -- spoke with a Trump adviser yesterday who warned the president may exit the White House like the Detroit Pistons left the NBA playoffs in 1991 where they just walked off the court, refusing to shake hands with the winner, never really conceded. I mean, if he takes that approach, it won't necessarily affect the new administration, although it could because of the transition challenges, but would it leave a stain on the Republican Party at large?

MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think Ryan is right to note the Iowa example, 2016, because he alleged voter fraud there because he lost. And it wasn't really his theories were irresponsible and inaccurate as now. And then in the end, he added Ben Carson, who's one of the people he alleged was part of this group, to his cabinet, and got Ted Cruz at various times throughout his administration.

So I think we're coming to an end game here on him being able to string this out. The -- I'm in favor, and I'm in the business of pleasing nobody because I am in favor of recounts that are legally triggered and audits that can look at we have had a weird year, voted in new ways, in huge numbers.

[16:10:09]

So, I'm happy to have them look at that in Georgia and I think possibly Wisconsin at this point. But math is not in his favor. He cannot overcome the mountain of votes for Joe Biden in many of these states that he would have to do to do this, and therefore the right thing to do is to say I think this is not going to happen and to graciously concede.

I'm comforted that it doesn't seem like Biden's transition is suffering because of this. And I think, look, if he has a strategy, the strategy might be a sort of contemporaneous example in Stacey Abrams because he sees there are great accolades and attention and appetite for somebody who does not concede an election as she did not in Georgia for the governorship for two years, and she has got feeded (ph) by media and everybody.

So, he's looking around and saying, maybe that's the path for me. It is a bad path, and we should say that it is bad.

I also am not a huge fan of the game where we selectively shame one side or the other for exercising their political rights to free assembly, and to come together in the capital. We have seen it on the left and the right all year, and it is a tendency and a bad tendency, I think, to tell one side that that's bad and they're going to spread the virus, while the other one sort of gets a pass.

I don't -- the virus doesn't discriminate based on political viewpoint, and neither do I, and I don't think we should in general, with the giant caveat of be careful out there. But I do want to be careful not to discourage this sacrosanct right to gather and vent in these ways, because it's part of what makes our democracy healthy.

CABRERA: I should note on the Stacey Abrams comparison, I mean, the reason that she was effective post her race is because she actually started, you know, a nonprofit to get out the vote, to really juice up the voter turnout to make sure people have a right to exercise.

HAM: Hold on, but do we think if Trump did not concede, which would be, I think we can all agree, wrong, if he started an effective GOTV nonprofit that we would be giving him magazine covers and good coverage? No, I don't think that would be right, and it happens on the other side, and he sees that very clearly.

CABRERA: I don't think there's a total comparison there, but let's move on because I don't want to make this President Trump versus Stacey Abrams. Go ahead, Ryan, because --

LIZZA: I take that point. Look, I covered the Trump White House now for four years. I interviewed Stacey Abrams the other day right before the election, and you know, I don't want to be too cute about this, but Donald Trump is no Stacey Abrams. What happened in Georgia, it was a more defensible post-election non-concession, I guess I would call it.

HAM: But the margin was larger.

LIZZA: Yeah, but, let's, you know, I think it's fair to point it out, but I do want to call a little false equivalence on what Trump is doing in trying to delegitimize the incoming president, not honoring him with the traditional smooth transition during a crisis.

We saw when this happened in 2000, the 9/11 Commission argued that the messed up transition that year because of the recount gave the Bush team, did not allow the Bush team enough time to organize themselves and didn't take the threat of terrorism as seriously as they might have.

So it's a little bit -- it is a little bit different in terms of the scale of the irresponsibility of just completely not honoring a presidential election result, and crippling day -- you know, as days turn into weeks, the incoming president's transition in the middle of multiple crises. So that's the one point I would make about that.

CABRERA: And it's not just one state. I mean, you know, Biden flipped Georgia, Biden flipped Arizona. He won the Rust Belt, and so, ultimately, CNN projects he won 306 electoral votes. President Trump with 232, the president's electoral loss this election mirrors his electoral victory in 2016.

But, of course, it's flipped up, and here's how at the time he viewed a 306 electoral vote victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a tremendous landslide Electoral College victory, like people haven't seen in a long time.

Not only did we win the election, we had an Electoral College landslide. Okay? It was a landslide.

And then it got bigger and bigger and wilder and wilder and then we won by a lot. Don't forget. It was 306 to 223. That's a lot.

We had a massive landslide victory as you know in the Electoral College.

This was an excuse for the Democrats who lost an election, who actually got their ass kicked; 306 to 223, that's a pretty good shellacking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:15:00]

CABRERA: Mary Katharine, should America stop looking for this president to be a gracious loser here or is it important for the country to hear him concede?

HAM: I think it's important for the country to hear it, and yet do I think it will be gracious, I'm not anticipating that in the very near future. And look, he's doing the same thing that many people do, and unfortunately it happens with both political tribes and it's really discouraging and bad for the country, which is change your viewpoint based on which team is doing the thing.

As I said, hard to disagree on Stacey Abrams, I think that's what's happening there and I think it's what's happening here as a landslide, because it's the same, dude. They're the same thing, it's just that you don't like the outcome on one side.

CABRERA: Mary Katharine Ham, Ryan Lizza, got to leave it there, guys. Thank you very much for being with us.

HAM: Thank you.

CABRERA: The president's former chief of staff, John Kelly, is speaking out. Hear why he's slamming the Trump administration's refusal to begin the transition process, saying this delay could be catastrophic.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:05]

CABRERA: President Trump's former White House chief of staff, retired General John Kelly, is slamming his former boss for refusing to help with President-elect Joe Biden's transition.

And Kelly warning this: The delay in transitioning is an increasing national security and health crisis. It cost the current administration nothing to start to brief Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris and the new chief of staff and all identified cabinet members and senior staff as they are identified over the days and weeks ahead. That said, the downside to not doing so could be catastrophic to our people, regardless of who they voted for.

I want to bring in David Priess. He's a former CIA intelligence officer and he's also the author of book, "How to Get Rid of a President: History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable or Unfit Chief Executives".

David, what are the national security implications of President Trump delaying President-elect Biden's access to the daily presidential brief? DAVID PRIESS, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, THE LAWFARE INSTITUTE: Yeah,

there's a few, Ana. One is the actual time it takes as president-elect to get up to speed on a variety of issues in 190-plus countries around the world, as well as transnational issues like terrorism, and, of course, the pandemic from a classified point of view.

And the transition is pretty short as it is, and having that transition cut shorter by not providing that intelligence makes it harder for the new commander-in-chief on January 20th to immediately be able to take action with all of the information he needs. So that's one.

The other danger of delaying this is that it creates this narrative that there should be some opposition to the incoming president when normally this is a time of healing and at least a semblance of unity. And to the extent that you don't offer these briefings to the president-elect, it does signal to the president's supporters out there that somehow his election is illegitimate and that can have larger national security consequences.

CABRERA: I mean, no one is hitting the panic button just that. Biden has only been president-elect for seven days, but let's say Trump keeps blocking the presidential briefings for another month or even until January.

Will a Biden administration be able to hit the ground running on day one without any national security blind spots?

PRIESS: It will make it harder. There's no doubt about that. And that's true regardless of who the president-elect is, and who the senior advisers around her or him are, because there are just so many things going on in so many places around the world that classified intelligence gives insight into.

But we happen to be in a better situation than the average transition frankly because of the fact that it is Joe Biden and the people around him. Listen, Joe Biden was the vice president for eight years, and he was seeing the president's daily brief every day during those eight years and by all accounts was a serious consumer of the intelligence reporting.

He's not going to need to learn what intelligence is and what it isn't. What it can do and what it can't do. He is intimately familiar with that. Also, the preponderance of senior national security positions that will be filled by the new president are going to be people who served in a functioning national security process during the last administration.

And that's not always true. Sometimes the party has been out of power for eight or 12 years, and they're bringing in officials who have not recently served at a senior level in there. Look at the Trump administration itself, for example. The Trump administration did not have any senior national security officials on the National Security Council itself who had worked in a functioning national security process. So Biden and his team will have a steep learning curve the longer this

transition is delayed, but they probably will make up time on that curve because they have the experience to do so.

CABRERA: There's a lot of reporting right now about the fate of CIA Director Gina Haspel, that she's on thin ice with President Trump. In fact, we learned she was iced out of an intel meeting at the White House yesterday.

What's your assessment of the job she's done and the potential impact if she were to be fired during this transition time?

PRIESS: It seems a bit odd to me, because here the CIA director actually did some things that some of her predecessors have criticized her for. She went to the State of the Union Address, for example, and stood up and applauded during political lines. Something her predecessors have to the done, and they criticized.

So if anything, she went a step forward to please the president and now presumably for continuing to tell the truth, and call the intelligence the way she sees it, she's being seen as somehow worthy of being fired. I don't see the logic behind that, and frankly with only a few weeks left in the administration, I don't see reason other than petulance.

[16:25:01]

And the fact is there's probably going to be a new CIA director nominee coming forward in the New Year anyway. The danger, of course, is mixed with a whole lot of other firings. Is there something going on, is there some attempt to actually quell intelligence or in the opposite direction, to try to get some intelligence out there that shouldn't be released because it actually exposes sources and methods that would be used to collect future threat information?

We don't know that full story but it seems to me the most likely explanation is that the president is act the out of a fit of peak in firing these officials and perhaps, Gina Haspel is on the firing line too.

CABRERA: We shall see. David Priess, I appreciate your insights and expertise. Thanks for joining us.

PRIESS: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Up next, details on why dozens of Secret Service agents have been sidelined due to the coronavirus pandemic.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:19]

CABRERA: COVID is everywhere. Several dozen Secret Service agents have been sidelined because of the pandemic, either testing positive or coming in close contact with someone who has.

An official tells CNN all employees who worked on the campaign trail are being tested, particularly because of all those rallies the president held in COVID hot spots with large, maskless crowds packed together for hours.

CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CHEERING)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In those final weeks of the campaign, President Trump aggressively canvassed several states, including coronavirus caldrons like Wisconsin.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, Wisconsin. Big day tomorrow. Big, big day.

TODD: Now CNN has learned several dozen Secret Service officers have either tested positive for coronavirus or self-isolating after having contact with someone who tested positive. That's according to a source familiar with the matter.

DR. AMESH ADALJA, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: What I think it signifies is the White House became a hot zone.

That the protective actions they put in place there, the measures with testing and whatever limited use of masks wasn't enough to protect some of the people who are charged with protecting the president.

TODD: A source with knowledge of the situation tells CNN many of the officers sick or in quarantine were at Trump's out of town rallies.

This isn't the first time that multiple Secret Service personnel have been exposed to the virus.

In July, several agents had to hole up in a hotel in Phoenix after coming down with the virus while preparing for a visit from Vice President Pence, according to sources.

(CHEERING)

TODD: In June, dozens of agents had to quarantine as a precaution following a Trump campaign rally in Tulsa.

PHILIP MUDD, FORMER FBI & CIA SENIOR OFFICER: I understand why he's doing them politically. But as the leader of the executive branch of government, he's doing what we have been told as citizens not to do. I don't understand the rallies. I don't get it.

TODD: Then there was the incident in early October at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The president, at the time being treated there for coronavirus, took a short ride in a government vehicle to wave to supporters. The president wore a mask. And the White House insisted all safety

precautions have been taken. But many feared he was taking unnecessary risks.

ADALJA: When he did that, not only did he risk his own health, because he might not have been completely recovered at that time, but he risked the health of those individuals that were driving him.

TODD: Secret Service officers who were infected in this case are in uniform and are separate from the plain-clothed Secret Service agents who provide close security to the president.

But the officers still perform crucial protective duties around the White House complex and on the president's trips. And they often touch the same surfaces or enter the same rooms as top White House personnel.

MUDD: They have to do the kinds of things we're not supposed to and that lead to infection, and that's going to places where you're with working partners. Obviously, this is a job that you can't do remotely.

TODD (on camera): An official with knowledge of the matter tells CNN the Secret Service is taking all necessary safety precautions. And that these cases have had zero impact on the agency's security mission.

The White House is not commenting on the matter.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: I want to bring in Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at Georgia Washington University. He previously advised the George W. Bush White House Medical Unit for eight years.

Dr. Reiner, a source tells CNN even the Secret Service officers don't know how many of their colleagues are infected or exposed because their superiors won't tell them.

We know it's several dozen. "The Post" says it's more than 130 officers. How concerning is that?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's really troubling, Ana. Over the years, I've gotten to know quite a few members of the Secret Service. And to a person, they are some of the greatest men and women you'll ever meet.

They sign up to put their lives in harm's way to protect the president and vice president and their families.

What they didn't sign up for is to place their lives in needless risk during a pandemic for trips that didn't need to be made.

We know from a recent Stanford study that 18 rallies of the now- outgoing president probably yielded about 30,000 new cases of the coronavirus and perhaps several hundred deaths.

Those are not just putting the supporters at risk. It's also putting all the support staff and all of the president's security, including the Secret Service, at risk.

These have tangible outcomes. Now we're seeing it. Over 100 Secret Service agents sick or in quarantine.

[16:35:01]

CABRERA: And yet, it seems like so many Americans are in denial or don't want to accept the truth or are buying the lies that they are hearing from their leaders.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, who had coronavirus, offered this statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): We have 11 million people in our country that have already had COVID. We should tell them to celebrate. We should tell them to throw away their mask, go to restaurants and live again.

Because these people are now immune. But Dr. Fauci doesn't want to admit to any of that. Dr. Fauci is like, oh, woe is me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Doctor, what is he not getting?

REINER: He's not getting everything. I'll remind everybody that Rand Paul is the same medical genius who, while waiting for his COVID results to return, decided it was a good idea to go for a swim in the Senate pool.

I put no credence in anything he says about anything to do with this virus.

Just ask the long haulers who have survived COVID but are still suffering. Ask them if they should celebrate. That's really very, very disturbing.

CABRERA: At least 35 states have set record highs this month already. South Dakota had a seven-day positivity rate at 58 percent.

And 19 states recorded record-high hospitalizations just yesterday. Hospital ICUs are full.

Doctors and nurses are in short supply in some states. Idaho's governor is talking about rationing care.

We know hospitalization trends follow by deaths usually lag a few weeks behind the cases.

It was a couple of weeks ago the cases first crossed 100,000. And now we're at 184,000 new infections reported yesterday. I feel like we're on a runaway train here. Where are we headed?

REINER: We're headed to more and more cases and intolerable number of deaths.

On Election Day, we had about 80,000 cases, a little less than 80,000 cases. In the span of 10 days, we have doubled the number of daily cases.

As you say, there's a bit of a lag but those cases will translate to deaths two to three weeks from now.

What we'll see in places where the rates of cases are continuing to rise, is we'll see hospital ICUs fill.

You can make more beds. But what you can't make are more ICU nurses. We will run out of the capacity in many of these hospitals to care for the critically ill.

What's going to happen is state governors will start to institute restrictions and shutdowns. They'll do it when the hospitals are saturated.

They will do it whether they want to or not. They will do it whether the outgoing president wants them to do it or not. They'll have to do it.

What they should be doing now, instead, to derail this out-of-control train is to institute universal mask orders throughout their states.

That's what they can do now. Because, otherwise, the shutdowns are coming but at great cost.

CABRERA: Mask up if you don't want to shut down.

REINER: Mask up.

CABRERA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you as always.

Take a look at these images from Dodger Stadium in L.A. These are people waiting to get coronavirus tests. We'll take you there next. We'll talk to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, live, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:31]

CABRERA: If you've been watching the results of the 2020 election slowly play out, you've probably heard the words "Stop the steal" by now.

That's the refrain used by President Trump and many of his supporters to claim President-Elect Biden somehow robbed him of the White House.

But it isn't a new movement at all. It's just never had this kind of following.

Drew Griffin investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an Internet battle cry. Stop the Steal has swept across inboxes, Facebook pages and Twitter like an out of control virus.

CROWD: Stop the Steal!

GRIFFIN: The claims that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump are all false. But the truth means little to people inundated with lies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that they tried to steal the election.

(CROSSTALK)

GRIFFIN: Stop the Steal may appear as a grassroots uprising, but it started more than four years ago.

The brainchild of a political dirty trick artist and convicted liar who has pushed disinformation schemes for years, Roger Stone.

ROGER STONE, CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Stop the Steal is posting much of this material.

There is insurmountable, compelling, overcoming evidence of fraud.

BENJAMIN DECKER, FOUNDER & CEO, MEMETICA: Stop the Steal is actually a coordinated effort that has been revived twice by Roger Stone and allied political operatives in an attempt to gaslight the entire integrity of our voting and election process.

GRIFFIN: Ben Decker, who conducts digital investigations, says far from a grassroots campaign, Stop the Steal is a business.

In 2016, Roger Stone's PAC launched StopTheSteal.org, which was asking for $10,000 donations, purportedly back then to help uncover evidence of vote fraud against Donald Trump.

Stone told CNN the group was a non-profit created to insure the integrity of the vote.

CROWD: Stop the Steal!

GRIFFIN: Stop the Steal re-emerged briefly in the 2018 midterms.

(MUSIC)

GRIFFIN: Then in the run-up to 2020, the Stop the Steal campaign rebooted by a group of people orbiting Roger Stone.

The cast of characters include Ali Alexander, a Roger Stone wannabe.

ALI ALEXANDER, RIGHT-WING ACTIVIST: I actually just got a message from Roger Stone.

GRIFFIN: He began hash-tagging Stop the Steal weeks before Election Day and launched a Stop the Steal Web site.

AMY KREMER, TEA PARTY ACTIVIST (voice-over): I'm one of the co- founders --

GRIFFIN: Amy Kremer, a Tea Party activist, who in 2016, formed the group Women Vote Trump with Roger Stone's ex-wife.

Kremer was behind the Stop the Steal Facebook group, along with two people who worked on Steve Bannon's discredited "We Build the Wall" fund. It was taken down by Facebook.

[16:45:09]

Also shut down, a cluster of pages affiliated with Bannon that coordinated posts, according to Facebook, using inauthentic behavior tactics to artificially boost how many people saw their content.

In all, the pages had 2.5 million followers before they were shuttered.

DECKER: Stop the Steal is a highly-coordinated partisan political operation.

STONE: Trump's --

GRIFFIN: This week, Stone even took his message to the most notorious conspiracy theorist of all, Alex Jones.

STONE: A hoax is being perpetrated on the American people.

GRIFFIN: On Twitter, researchers at Clemson University saw the hashtag Stop the Steal mentioned in nearly two million tweets.

The tweets, the Facebook posts, filled with unsubstantiated and false evidence of widespread voter fraud, quickly got the attention of disinformation researchers like Ciaran O'Connor.

CIARAN O'CONNOR, ANALYST, INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC DIALOGUE: It only took a day and a half before Facebook took the group down. But by then, it was already too late.

GRIFFIN: Copycat sites now number in the dozens. And the false information, initially spread by a few, is only multiplying.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Just ahead, it's the Super Bowl of golf. The Masters. And right now, the third round is under way at Augusta National Golf Course. We'll hear from Tiger Woods, next.

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[16:51:12]

CABRERA: Masters is about six months late to its tee time, delayed because of pandemic. But the 84th Masters Tournament is finally under way now in Augusta, Georgia. And true to 2020, it looks a lot different.

While you're probably used to seeing crowds, like this, when fans erupted after Tiger Woods' iconic 2019 win, this year, it's much quieter on the greens. No spectators allowed.

But it's a beautiful day for golf. And the competition is fierce.

CNN's Andy Scholes joins us now from Augusta.

How is it going out there today, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Ana, it's really a shame that fans weren't allowed because it was a beautiful day here in Augusta, 75 and sunny. You couldn't ask for anything better.

We saw some amazing golf. At one point today, in the third round, there were nine players tied at nine under for share of the lead. That's something you really never see.

But that's when Dustin Johnson took control of this tournament. The world number-one player.

He eagled number two to take the lead. And from there, D.J. went onto have a dominate round number three. An eagle and five birdies so far. He's on 18 right now. He's your leader at 16 under.

D.J. looking for that first-ever green jacket after finishing tied for second last year.

No world number-one has won the Masters since Tiger did it in 2002. We'll wait and see if D.J. can hold and break that drought.

The big question today was: How would Tiger Woods fair? Would he be able to vault himself to top of that leader board?

He had to finish eight holes from his second round this morning before starting his third round.

And Tiger just not able to get anything going today. Had some opportunities. Finished his round at five under for the tournament. So barring a miracle, he's not going to be repeating as a Masters champ.

And after playing 26 holes today, Tiger said he was pretty beat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: Just part of deal. If you have long days like this, I'm going to get a little bit sore, which I definitely am.

I could walk all day. The hard part is bending and twisting. I think that's part of the game though.

That has always been the challenge with my back issues. And I guess will always continue to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Ana, I walked around the course for quite a bit this afternoon. I can't tell you how different this Masters is, because when you're out there, you don't hear the roars from the crowd at different parts of the course.

When a player hits a great shot, you don't really know because you don't know where the ball landed if you're not by the hole.

So, yes, it's very different, very quiet. It's such a different experience.

We'll wait and see what tomorrow has in store for us. It's going to be another beautiful day.

A big question is: Will he be able to catch Dustin Johnson as he seems to be running away with this year's tournament.

CABRERA: I have to wonder, as a competitive person myself, if it's easier for those athletes to focus because they don't have any distractions from a crowd around them.

Or if it kind of takes away a little bit of the excitement that might give them that performance edge when you have to perform before a crowd.

But nonetheless, it sounds like an exciting tournament so far.

I'm curious about the coronavirus precautions that they have taken. Do players have to wear masks in certain spots or are they just expected to keep their distance?

SCHOLES: Well, since we're outside, the players and the caddies are not wearing their masks out there on the course. But anyone who does step foot out there on the course is required to wear mask.

The only people out there other than the players and the caddies are friends and family of the players. People working the tournament and members from the course.

Every one of those people are wearing masks and are being asked to social distance on the course.

In terms of the players and the caddies, when they are out there, they are not wearing masks.

[16:55:00]

CABRERA: Andy Scholes, in Augusta, Georgia, thank you.

Up next, the president is continuing to deny the results of the election. And his supporters protested today in Washington, D.C. Here is a look from earlier. Many of them were parroting those baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. And there's just no evidence.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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CABRERA: Hello. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for joining us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:00:03]

And the streets of Washington, D.C. today filled with denial, disbelief and defiance.