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QAnon Conspiracists Being Elected in Local Offices Across U.S.; W.H. Warns Corporate Execs After String of Cyberattacks. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 03, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, we've seen how QAnon has influenced politicians, including Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on the national stage. But QAnon conspiracists are also being elected in down-ballot races in cities and states across the country. CNN's Sara Sidner with this remarkable report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNKNOWN: I'll keep speaking...on cue.

SARA SIDNER, CNN, CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From a world champion ultimate fighter turned mayor pro tem.

TITO ORTIZ, FORMER UFC CHAMPION: These mother (EXPLETIVE), that's what I'm talking about.

SIDNER (voice-over): To a school board member with a curious take on climate science.

AMY FACCHINELLO, GRAND BLANC SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER: It's more of like a religious cult.

SIDNER (voice-over): To a state representative pushing a deep state conspiracy.

MARK FINCHEM, (R) STATE REPRESENTATIVE ARIZONA: a pedophile network and the distribution of children.

SIDNER (voice-over): QAnon conspiracy embracing candidates are now making headway in local, state, and national races across America.

ANGELO CARUSONE, FOUNDER AND CEO, MEDIA MATTERS: There's a higher rate of candidates embracing QAnon and its tenants now than there was last cycle, at least at this point.

SIDNER (voice-over): Angelo Carusone with the liberal watchdog group Media Matters tracks QAnon's political clout. He says their research shows the January 6th insurrection didn't kill the Q conspiracy; it's emboldened it by broadening the movement. So far the group says for the 2022 races 19 Congressional candidates, 18 of whom are Republicans have shown support for QAnon conspiracies. Listen to Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem.

FINCHEM: There's a lot of people involved in a pedophile network and a distribution of children, and, unfortunately, there's a whole lot of elected officials that are involved in that.

UNKNOWN: Wow --

SIDNER (voice-over): The conservative news anchor may not have challenged him but some of his constituents have. They were also shocked by this tweet he sent on January 6th while he was outside the Capitol. Unlike hundreds of others, he says he never entered the building. But Finchem is undeterred, he's now running to become Arizona's top election official, the secretary of state. Some voters are all for it.

HERBERT BORBE, MARK FINCHEM SUPPORTER: The term conspiracy theory is used to ridicule some good ideas.

SIDNER (voice-over): Others deadest against it.

NATALI FIERROS BOCK, RECALL FINCHEM ORGANIZER: Somebody like Representative Mark Finchem being in charge of elections, holding a seat like secretary of state is one of the most dangerous things that could happen to democracy.

SIDNER (voice-over): We wanted to give Finchem a chance to explain his beliefs but our calls and emails weren't returned so we waited outside the State House. He's one of the last cars in the parking lot now, the security for the legislature is now driving Finchem's car away.

Two thousand miles away in the small Michigan town of Grand Blanc a first-time school board member is under fire for social media posts saying things like, "QAnon confirmed by Trump" and "They can delete our social media but they'll never break our spirit or stop what is coming, God Wins."

LUCAS HARTWELL, GRAND BLANC HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE: I think she was elected because she refused to genuinely expose what she believes in.

SIDNER (voice-over): As a high school student and first-time voter, Lucas Hartwell did his homework and discovered Amy Facchinello's now- deleted post.

HARTWELL: If we cannot have an education system that is run by people who care about the truth what is education?

SIDNER (voice-over): He and others want her to resign. But some of his high school friends and their parents support her 100 percent.

UNKNOWN: She's a conservative so they're attacking her.

SIDNER: Because it's purely along political lines, not having anything to do with QAnon?

UNKNOWN: Exactly.

A.J. SMITH, GRAND BLANC HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Well, I think personally QAnon, parts of it are real, I mean, people say just conspiracy but some of it's pretty real.

SIDNER (voice-over): We wanted to ask Facchinello what she believed, she did not respond to our requests for an interview but she was at the school board meeting.

You have a big Q that was burning on fire and it says "We are pissed." Was that something that you believed in when you posted it?

FACCHINELLO: I don't even remember that tweet.

SIDNER: There were several others, and there's also things about science that you don't believe in human-caused climate change, is that also true?

FACCHINELLO: I believe that science is a method, and it's not a belief system. And that this adherence that you have to believe scientists is more of like a religious cult.

ORTIZ: You don't mask the health, you mask the sick.

SIDNER (voice-over): In Huntington Beach, California it is the science surround COVID that has been called a conspiracy by the man elected mayor pro tem.

ORTIZ: Thank you much -- very much.

DOMINICK IZZO, RANTS OF IZZO, HOST: Are you thinking that COVID-19 was a little bit of a conspiracy theory?

ORTIZ: 100 percent.

SIDNER (voice-over): That's former UFC champion, Tito Ortiz. A Trump supporter Ortiz is like many of the candidates we've followed getting widespread support for being a political disrupter.

BILL PRITCHARD, HUNTING BEACH RESIDENT: He seemed to me to be somebody who I thought might mix things up for us and change things around.

ORTIZ: I'm not wearing a mask.

SIDNER (voice-over): He is mixing things up by spending lots of time spewing and posting conspiracy theories.

ORTIZ: Say this right plandemic or pandemic.

SIDNER (voice-over): And less time dealing in policy and council business, his critics both Democrat and Republicans say.

MIKE POSEY, (R) HUNTINGTON BEACH CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: Well, the first day when he was sworn in he referred to the pandemic as a plandemic.

SIDNER (voice-over): He also refused to wear a mask at council meetings at the height of a deadly pandemic in California. Nor did he want his children to wear masks to school.

UNKNOWN: The boys are not going to be wearing their masks today and let's see what they say.

SIDNER (voice-over): It all came to a head just this week at the first in-person council meeting since January.

ORTIZ: As of recently the attacks against (inaudible) and my family.

SIDNER (voice-over): After just five months on the city council, Tito Ortiz resigned effective immediately.

ORTIZ: So what I say to you, this job isn't working for me.

SIDNER (voice-over): Now, we tried to speak with Tito Ortiz, we emailed him, he refused to speak to us. But then we went to the council meeting and we walked after him, he again refused to speak to us. But as you heard him say there, no one should be threatened for their beliefs.

However, he is the one, and his girlfriend who put his children out on social media posting it to thousands of people showing them without covering their faces, and sending them into school without wearing masks

That, of course, put teachers and the people at school, and students, and parents in a really difficult predicament because at the time during all this, you know, California was going through an extremely difficult time with a very high death rate.

And they just keep pushing this and that is one of the reasons why people were so upset with him. And then you saw him there just suddenly resigned, no one expected it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: OK, first of all, A, great to see you in person, Sara Sidner. B, I'm curious the pushback against these local, state-wide politicians running for office right now. Is it coming from other Republicans or is the pushback coming from other places with -- inside these districts?

SIDNER (on camera): It is not coming from other Republicans. They have been able to, with a couple of exceptions, but mostly it is coming from the Democrats or from people who are moderates who are very concerned that because they are putting this information out, that it is false, that is based lies, it's based on mistruths that they are going to influence some of the policies that are out there with complete lies.

And how do you do that? And you heard that student there, and I just want to point out you have this incredible dichotomy, you have a student who is just doing his research, first-time voter who started noticing this, none of the adults noticed it. She didn't say anything about it when she was running for the school board. And he's the one that picked it up and thought this is dangerous but conversely you have one of his friends who says I believe in QAnon. And you know what he believed in because he said I don't believe in it all?

He believed in the conspiracy about pedophiles in Congress. And so, it's spreading to young people as well. And I'll say this lastly, experts say that this is just the beginning, not the end of the spread of this conspiracy theory.

BERMAN: Sara Sidner, very important reporting, we appreciate i.

SIDNER: Thank you.

BERMAN: On the subject of conspiracies and lies, the former president reportedly telling people he will be re-instated as president this summer. That, of course, is absurd. But he says he's hoping that the sham election audit underway in Arizona becomes a model for other states he lost, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Georgia.

A former aide told CNN's Dana Bash that Trump is listening to quote, "The bottom of the bottom of the crazies in the barrel about election conspiracies."

Joining me now is Philadelphia's City Commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican. Commissioner, as always, thank you so much for being with us.

You've been on planet Earth for your whole life, including these last several months living through and watching what's happening in the country. When you hear the former president telling people that he expects to be re-instated in the White House by August, what do you think of that?

AL SCHMIDT, (R) PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER: I mean, it's really very disturbing and revealing lack of any sort of grasp in reality at all. And so much of this is being fed, it seems, by what's going on in Arizona right now.

BERMAN: Talk to me about that. How dangerous is, in your mind, what's happening in Arizona?

SCHMIDT: Well, as a former senior auditor for the federal government, and as an election administrator in one of the largest counties in the United States I know how important audits are. But what is going on in Arizona is not an audit, it is funded by partisan political benefactors, it is directed by partisan political operatives to reach a partisan political conclusion.

Which is not an audit, you have to have people who are not biased, who are not invested in the outcome, or trying to indulge in some sort of paranoid fantasy that the election was stolen as a result of widespread voter fraud.

BERMAN: And now the Arizona audit, in quotation marks -- air quotes there, is being held up as this example in some Republican circles, including your own state, including Pennsylvania. There was this delegation that just toured this audit, air quotes. Including three elected Republican officials from Pennsylvania, what do you think about that?

SCHMIDT: It's incredibly reckless and I hope every county across the commonwealth is watching this closely. And what some of our legislators are trying to bring our way. I don't know why you would want to repeat what's going on in Arizona any place across the country.

It's being carried out by people who have no experience auditing, by people who have no experience with election administration. And like I said, a partisan political agenda. So, I think we can all see pretty clearly what's going on and no one should have any faith in the outcome of whatever findings they have in Arizona.

BERMAN: Al Schmidt, as always we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you so much for your time.

SCHMIDT: Thank you.

BERMAN: A new ransomware attack targeting American companies. We have new details on how the White House says it's fighting back.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Just into CNN after a spat (ph) of recent ransomware attacks the White House is issuing a strong warning to companies, take this more seriously. In a rare open letter, the National Security Council's top cyber official Anne Neuberger said the federal government is, quote, "Stepping up to do its part in preventing cyber attacks.

And that corporate executives and business leaders need to match that effort." Alex Marquardt is joining us now.

Alex, the implication here is that companies are slacking, or at least this is being put on companies, right. So what's the White House advising them to do?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN, SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna, the White House is saying that they have stepped it up. Now it is on the companies to do the same to protect themselves, to protect the country.

We've seen these two back-to-back ransomware attacks that have crippled operations for two companies that are part of the critical infrastructure of this country, Colonial Pipeline and JBS Foods severely impacting their operations. Those attackers believed to be based in Russia.

So, the White House is now trying to elevate the urgency of this threat by putting out this open letter that's being sent out this morning to corporate leaders, to business executives from Anne Neuberger, who's the deputy national security advisor, the most senior cyber leader ever on the National Security Council.

And in this letter she writes in part, let me read it, "All organizations must recognize that no company is safe from being targeted by ransomware regardless of size or location. We urge you to take ransomware crime seriously and ensure that your corporate cyber defenses match the threat."

Now, Brianna, a White House official tells me that it's not just the spike in ransomware attacks that has prompted this but it's the evolution from attackers going after data to compromising that critical infrastructure and disrupting things. The White House in this letter goes on to give five ways that companies can go about protecting themselves more carefully.

And they also highlight the things that they are doing, which includes banding together with other countries to hold countries that harbor these attackers more responsible, like Russia. The White House very quickly came out after the JBS hack saying that these attackers were likely in Russia.

The FBI has now named the hacking group, they are called REvil, quite a name, right. And they are well known, believed to operate out of Russia. So, this is certainly going to come up, as you can imagine, in the conversations in just two weeks time in Geneva between Presidents Biden and Putin.

We have now seen a string of attacks emanating from Russia both from government hackers and criminal hackers and oftentimes, Brianna, that line is blurred. There is some good news this morning, JBS that -- one of the biggest food production companies in the world, which saw all of its beef plants here in the United States taken offline earlier this week says that it -- that all of its facilities will be operating today, that it will be operating at near -- at -- close to full capacity.

The big outlying question though, Brianna, is whether they paid any sort of ransom. We know that Colonial Pipeline paid a $4.4 million ransom, JBS has not said whether they've done the same. And, of course, Brianna, that's the other hard part of this is this is extremely lucrative for ransomware attackers.

So, they're not going to stop doing this and it's very hard for governments to tell companies in their countries don't pay ransoms because they need -- they feel they need to get their operations back up and running. Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. We will see if they did pay that. Alex Marquardt, great reporting, thank you.

BERMAN: So, as we've just seen Russia-based cyber attacks against the U.S. they're getting worse. Notable then that the young government contractor who exposed one of the earliest and biggest attacks is still in jail and looks like she will stay there. John Avlon with a Reality Check.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN AVLON, CNN HOST: Four years ago today 25-year-old NSA contractor and Air Force Veteran named Reality Winner was arrested for leaking top-secret documents detailing some of Russia's attempts to hack the 2016 election. Now, at the time this was blockbuster stuff.

The Trump administration desperately did not want it to get out. The documents published on The Intercept provided some of those detailed evidence of the Kremlin's attempted cyberattack on our democracy. Showing they'd infiltrated a U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials in just days before the election.

Now, Winner broke the law, plead guilty, and is serving a five-year term in federal prison. Well, intent doesn't matter in cases brought under the Espionage Act, context makes clear that she was trying to act as a whistleblower, not a spy by going to the press.

She thought critical information was being suppressed contrary to the public interest and in that she was right. Of course, since Winner's arrest Russian cyberattacks have proliferated against the United States. As President Donald Trump went to painful lengths to avoid confronting or condemning the Kremlin, they were emboldened by his plant posture.

Not only did Russia meddle in the 2020 elections for disinformation efforts designed to help Trump beat Biden, they were simultaneously engaged in the most far-reaching cyberattack ever against the United States government. Infiltrating at least nine federal agencies in the SolarWinds Hack, which went on for months without being discovered.

Since taking office President Biden said he thinks Putin is a killer and enacted sweeping new sanctions calling his response though proportionate. It's not clear that Putin respected proportionate responses. So, even as Biden prepares to meet with Putin for a summit later this month in Geneva, Russian back hacks continue.

Microsoft warning that SolarWind's hackers are attacking over 150 government agencies now, many involved in international development and human rights work. In recent weeks Russian cyberattacks have moved from espionage and information warfare to disrupting America's critical supply chains.

Russian-based criminals are believed to be behind the Colonial Pipeline hack last month shuttering gas stations throughout the southeast causing gas prices to skyrocket. Company says it paid $4.4 million ransom to hackers just to get its operations back online and one of America's largest meat suppliers appears to be the latest target.

With JBS forced to temporarily shut nine of its processing plants after a ransomware attacked from Russia. Now, some Senate Democrats are calling for tougher action with Mark Warner declaring we must make clear Russia and any other adversaries that they will face consequences for this and any other malicious cyber activity.

This is a time of testing for Biden and the United States. Russia's not alone in its cyberattacks on America. China's reach is pervasive as well. We're facing weapons of mass disruption on an almost daily basis. And while the cases may blur, make no mistake, next-generation warfare is here. Which brings me back to Reality Winner, her family had hoped that President Trump would commute her sentence.

The director of the Information Security Oversights Office under President Bush penned an op-ed arguing that she deserved a presidential pardon from Joe Biden. There's no sign of that happening.

But this young veteran, the war on terror issued an early warning of this news transnational threat at a time when some people in power wanted to downplay its impact on our democracy. That's a definition of the public interest that helped wake up our nation to the dangers that we're still dealing with today.

And that's your Reality Check.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Thank you so much, John. Thousands of emails now public from the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic. What did the government know about the possible lab leak theory? Dr. Anthony Fauci joins us live on New Day.

KEILAR: And Michael Phelps, the worlds most decorated Olympian weighs in on the controversy involving tennis superstar Naomi Osaka. Plus, his thoughts on the upcoming Summer Games in Tokyo.

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BERMAN: One of the best tennis players in the world, Naomi Osaka, is sitting out one of the most important tournaments of the year, The French Open. This comes after she was fined $15,000 for skipping a news conference. In a statement on Twitter, she says that the move is the best thing for the tournament, the other players, and her well- being.

Joining us now is Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with a record 23 gold medals. He's also been very public about his own struggles with mental health and he's the executive producer and narrator of the new HBO documentary "The Weight of Gold" that explores the mental health challenges of Olympic athletes.

It's wonderful and it's important. And the work you're doing now, Michael, I think some of the most important of your life. We're so glad you're joining us. What went through your mind when Naomi Osaka, you know, number two tennis player in the world steps out of The French Open because she says she wants to deal with her mental health?

MICHAEL PHELPS, MOST DECORATED OLYMPIAN OF ALL TIME WITH 23 GOLD MEDALS: When I first read it I was so happy because she's showing her vulnerability and she's doing it her own way. You know, like I think back to the struggles that I went through when I was competing and I don't know if I would have been able to take, you know, my own words and put them on a platform for everybody to see. You know, like she's putting herself out there and I feel, you know, this really could be an even bigger breakthrough for the mental health world. You know, we see -- we think of everything we've gone through the last year, this is something that I think really could help a lot of people.

So, I was so happy for her to be able to share exactly what she wanted. And, you know, it said in the message that she loves playing tennis, and she wanted to play tennis. And maybe that helps her feel like her authentic self.

So, I was ecstatic to see how everything came across but I was also very saddened to see how much backlash there was. You know, this is a human being that's sharing her feelings and emotions and yes, I mean, I'm sure it was challenging for her to do.

KEILAR: You know, you've been very open about how hard this past year, sort of (ph) the pandemic been for you. You talk about mental health I think being raised the awareness of it here over the past year but, you know, when we think about physical health of an athlete we wouldn't task you to swim with a broken leg or for her to play tennis with a broken leg. And yet even as mental health becomes a bigger issue it doesn't kind of get the same billing as physical health. Do you think that it needs to?

PHELPS: One hundred percent. I mean, it -- I mean, you just said it. You know, if your mental health is off you're not going to feel 100 percent yourself. So, your physical self -- if your physical health is off then you obviously, you might not be able to walk, you're definitely not going to feel like yourself.

So, I feel like if we have the power and the ability to work both of them together I feel like we have the possibility to do even bigger things than we are right now. So, you know, I feel like it's pretty incredible, it's pretty powerful to see Naomi use her platform and take this time for herself. She wants to get herself better.

And, yes, I can't say it enough, I think this is incredible, I think it's awesome. It's so powerful what she did and I wish her the best.

BERMAN: One of the reasons that I hope people see your documentary, and also read what you've written about mental health, Michael, it's because it's searing, it's raw. I mean, you don't pull any punches, you're very frank with what you've gone through. And one of the things I think that ticks you off is how some people think it was like another race or a swim meet for you that you won. You announced you're -- you have mental health issues, you beat them, you won the gold medal, and now it's done. And you made clear, this is not done and it will never be done for you.

PHELPS: Yes, and, you know, I think that's kind of the best thing about mental health, you know. Like we're continually learning and growing through this process and, you know, every single person's journey is completely different as well. So, you know, I think it's -- it'll be an even, in my opinion, an even more exciting year for mental health. Just because of what we've already learned this year. BERMAN: One Olympics question if we can, Michael, you know, these athletes getting ready to go, it's just a few weeks away. What do you think it's like for them right now in the weeks before a games that were -- been delayed for a whole year and with new questions and concerns about the Coronavirus in Japan itself?

PHELPS: Yes, I mean, I saw that -- what Team Australia Softballs already over there. So, you see some of the teams already moving in, kind of getting setting -- setting up -- setted (ph) up. They're excited, I mean, I'm excited now, you know. Like when I saw Team Australia get off the plane I had chills up my body because I didn't know if the Olympics were even going to happen.

So, you know, the chance that it's one step closer to happening, I know how important it is, how exciting it is from a global standpoint. So, for me I -- I'm pumped, I'm, you know, I guess I'm going back and replaying what's going on leading up to the games like this. This is our taper time, so you will.

So, this is the best time for swimmers. We get to kind of just splash around and get our head right and, you know, I'm sure all these guys and girls are super excited to go over there and get this thing done. I mean, after a year and a half of waiting I would almost feel like just let me off my leash, let me go. I'm ready, I'm antsy.

KEILAR: They no doubt are. Look, Michael, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for elevating this conversation about mental health. I think it's something that people need and it's -- it really does so much that you talk about it. So, thank you for being with us.

PHELPS: Well, thank you guys for having me on this morning, and yes, hopefully, we can continue to break the stigma, break the barrier and allow for more conversation.

KEILAR: All right, Michael, thank you and I just want our viewers know that if you do feel like you are in crisis please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It is a free 24-hour hotline and that number is 1-800-273-TALK, 1-800-273-8255.

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