Return to Transcripts main page
CNN News Central
2024 U.S Presidential Campaign; Republican Presidential Hopefuls Speaks in Atlanta; "Hammer" Ramaswamy, Defend Trump, Strategy Debate Memo from DeSantis Supporters Revealed by "The New York Times"; Mistrial Declared in the Case Against Two Men Accused of Attempted Murder of Black FedEx Driver; Fake Twitter Account Skyrocketed on Social Media with Incendiary Tweets; Picture Linked to Fake Twitter Account is a Trump Voter. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired August 18, 2023 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:30:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. You are looking at live pictures of Former Vice President Mike Pence. He is at this Republican presidential cattle call of sorts in Georgia. A lot of candidates are going down there the next two days. And speaking in just a few minutes, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will be on that stage.
Now, Governor DeSantis has been in the news over the last 24 hours because of this super PAC memo that was published by "The New York Times" in which the super PAC seems to be instructing DeSantis in the upcoming Republican presidential debate to go after businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. It says, take a sledgehammer to Vivek Ramaswamy: Fake Vivek or Vivek the fake.
So, my question is why does the DeSantis campaign or people close to it, why do they think going after Ramaswamy is such an important idea? The man with the answer to that question is none other than Senior Data Reporter Harry Etten. Nice to see you, sir.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATE REPORTER: Nice to see you.
BERMAN: OK. What's going on inside the Republican primary before the debate?
ENTEN: Yes. So, take a look at the polling trend line here, now versus six months ago. And I think this gives you an understanding of what's cooking. So, Donald Trump is up from where he was six months ago, 43 percent to 53 percent. We see that across all the polls. We see Ron DeSantis falling from 28 percent to 16 percent. But look at Ramaswamy. He wasn't even asked back in February, and look where he is now, 11 percent, coming up strong on DeSantis's 16 percent.
[10:35:00]
BERMAN: So, the answer of why is this man smiling? You see the smile right there?
ENTEN: Yes.
BERMAN: Why is this man smiling? Zero to 11, that's a big jump.
ENTEN: That is a very large jump. And it's not just that we're seeing it in the horse race, right? We're seeing it in the favorable ratings. All right. This is the favorable rating with GOP voters among those who have an opinion, right? So, Ramaswamy still not particularly well known. But amongst those who have an opinion of him, look at this, this favorable rating, 78 percent, it's equal to Donald Trump's 78 percent. Ron DeSantis back at 73 percent. So, Ramaswamy has already passed DeSantis on this particular metric.
BERMAN: It is interesting that Ramaswamy is running in this lane that people have tried to run in before. He's an unusual candidate this cycle. But we've seen this kind of candidacy.
ENTEN: We absolutely have. So, businessmen, GOP candidates who have risen in the polls in past years. Obviously, we all know Donald Trump. You know, he's still running right now. Did very, very well. But remember Steve Forbes back in 1996 and 2000? He came in second place in Iowa back in 2000. How about Herman Cain who, at one point, actually led the GOP race back in 2012.
So, the idea of a businessman doing well in Republican primaries, that is not a foreign concept at all. It's happened many times over the last 25 years.
BERMAN: And a couple faded. One notably did not. Not at all.
ENTEN: That's exactly right. And you know, we're talking about this idea, OK, maybe Ramaswamy can come up and, you know, replace DeSantis as the alternate to Trump. But the fact is, if we look at Trump's position in the polls right now, three of three candidates historically in those positions, they all won, Gore, Bush, and Clinton.
BERMAN: So, again, just to show that one more time here. You see Donald Trump at 53 percent, Ron DeSantis down to 16. First place, second place. You're seeing that people with comparable margins to this in the past are these three.
ENTEN: They all became the nominee, John.
BERMAN: Harry Enten, have a wonderful weekend.
ENTEN: You as well.
BERMAN: Thank you very much.
Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Coming up with -- for us, frustrated and disappointed. Those are the words of a FedEx driver after a mistrial was declared in the case against the men accused of attempting to murder him while he was just trying to do his job. What a police video has to do with this mistrial and what happens now. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:00]
SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: In Mississippi, a judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a white father and son accused of chasing and shooting at a black FedEx driver. It happened last year. D'Monterrio Gibson says, he was just doing his job and delivering packages when two men in a pickup truck began blowing their horn at him. He then tried to get away, but says, they started chasing him and eventually shot at his van multiple times.
The men were identified as Gregory and Brandon Case. They were on trial facing attempted murder charges. But yesterday, a judge said he had no choice. He had to declare a mistrial after an officer admitted video evidence was never turned over to the prosecution or the defense. Gibson says, he's disappointed in the outcome.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D'MONTERRIO GIBSON, FEDEX DRIVER IN CASE: I'm not going to say everything was purposely done, but it's just like, a lot incompetence in the police department. You know, for them to not turn over certain pieces of evidence is just -- it didn't sit right with me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Civil Rights Attorney and Legal Affairs Commentator Areva Martin is joining us now. Thank you so much for getting up so early there in Los Angeles. This story is really baffling. The judge says, the detective violated court rules not once but twice. He revealed evidence that the judge had explicitly said cannot be given to the jury when he was testifying. And then he withheld evidence from both the prosecutor and the defense.
Could there be consequences, and should there be consequences for this police officer who's supposed to be upholding the law?
AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR AND CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Good morning, Sara. I absolutely hope there are consequences for this police officer. It's really unimaginable that this police officer would have been allowed to not turn over this key piece of evidence. And one of the pieces of evidence at issue here is the videotape interview of Mr. Gibson after he reported this crime of being shot at, unprovoked, by this father and son.
That the prosecution did not go into court before the trial began. requesting and demanding that this officer turn over this evidence and requesting perhaps that the officer be held in contempt or jailed himself for refusing to turn over the evidence. It's just not clear as to why that was not done and why this trial proceeded given that huge gap and that huge issue related to the detective in this piece of evidence. SIDNER: Yes, because the defendants certainly have every right to see every piece of evidence against them. And that didn't happen in this case which is why the judge made the decision he did. One of the attorneys for the FedEx driver says that the Justice Department needs to get in there and start investigating. Would the DOJ be looking into whether someone, for example, threw this case on purpose, or how would they operate?
MARTIN: I think the Department of Justice and the attorney general for the State of Mississippi both should be investigating what happened with regards to the police, the local police's investigation of their case, the handling of evidence, the refusal of this detective to turn over evidence, the statement that the detective made during the trial before the jury. I think there are lots of issues for the Department of Justice and for attorney general from Mississippi to investigate because this looks like foul play.
[10:45:00]
It looks like either, as Mr. Gibson said, complete incompetence, or perhaps intentional efforts on the part of the police department. Those are some allegations, Sara, that there are some familial relationships between the two defendants, Brandon Gregory and, you know, his son, the two individuals involved in this case. Maybe some relationships with the police officer. So, all of that needs to be investigated.
SIDNER: I want to ask you something the judge said that stuck out. He said in his 17 years he had never seen anything like this when it comes to what this police officer did. What do you make of what happened here? Have you heard of something like this happening in an open trial?
MARTIN: You know, this is rather unusual, and I agree with the judge that this egregious error doesn't happen typically in criminal cases. But you know, this case has so many similarities to the Ahmaud Arbery case. You have two white men, a father and a son, who unprovoked chased, you know, and shoot at and attempt to murder Mr. Gibson. We saw in Mr. Arbery's case they were successful in shooting and killing him. So, so many similarities and so many things that were done that are questionable.
SIDNER: Areva Martin, thank you so much. We do know the prosecutor has said that they are going to retry this case at some later date. I appreciate all of your analysis on this. Appreciate you.
John.
BERMAN: So, a viral left-wing voice skyrocketed on social media with incendiary tweets that sparked Republican outrage. It turns out the page was a fake. The surprising story behind it all.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:00] BOLDUAN: A Twitter account that became a viral left-wing sensation on social media, racking up thousands of followers is now under scrutiny. The account was known to consistently push a stream of provocative tweets and known to stir up plenty of online controversy, and it turns out the face of that verified Twitter account, the face of that Twitter -- that face, in reality was a fake. The picture linked to the account is in reality a Trump voter living in rural Florida.
CNN's Isabel Rosales tracked down the real face on the fake Erica Marsh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Erica Marsh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Erica Marsh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Erica.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Erica Marsh.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Erica Marsh quickly rose as a viral left-wing voice on social media. Her incendiary tweets, often ultra-liberal and politically charged, drew millions of views and the ire of Republicans. Tweets like, do you agree that drag story hour should be mandated for elementary school students? And, why does it seem like most Republicans are pedophiles?
The account had nearly 130,000 followers. Marsh's top tweet, viewed more than 27 million times. Twitter, which now goes by X, took down the account a few weeks ago. It was a fake. But the photos were not. Now --
ROSALES: Well, hello.
COURTNEY BALLESTEROS, PHOTOS STOLEN FOR FAKE TWITTER ACCOUNT: Hi.
ROSALES (voiceover): -- CNN exclusively shares the real face that's on the notorious account.
ROMANS: Are you Erica Marsh?
BALLESTEROS: No.
ROSALES: But that's your face.
BALLESTEROS: Seems to be.
ROSALES: Why are you talking to us?
BALLESTEROS: I want to tell the world that that's not me. My name is not Erica Marsh. I'm Courtney.
ROSALES (voiceover): Courtney Ballesteros lives in a rural part of the Tampa Bay area in Florida. She showed CNN her original photos, nearly a decade old. She says, they were stolen from her Facebook page.
BALLESTEROS: In my grandmother's front yard.
ROSALES (voiceover): By whoever or whatever is behind this account named Erica Marsh. The photos on the account are from when Courtney was still a teenager. She since gotten married and had children.
ROSALES: All right. Courtney, let me have you read Erica Marsh's probably most popular tweet. It got over 27 million views, and then tell me what you think about it.
BALLESTEROS: Today's Supreme Court decision is a direct attack on black people. No black person will be able to succeed in a merit-based system.
ROSALES: And what do you think?
BALLESTEROS: I'm speechless.
ROSALES (voiceover): Speechless because while this viral fake account shares Courtney's face, they do not share the same politics.
ROSALES: Are you liberal?
BALLESTEROS: No, ma'am. No.
ROSALES: You're a Republican?
BALLESTEROS: Yes, ma'am.
ROSALES: Can I ask you which one you voted in the last presidential elections?
BALLESTEROS: Of course, I voted for Trump.
ROSALES: So, you sense the irony here, right?
BALLESTEROS: Yes.
ROSALES: Some people thought that this was an A.I. generated image.
BALLESTEROS: Correct, yes. I -- when I saw that that was also -- made me laugh. I was like, they don't even think I'm real?
ROSALES (voiceover): It was her friends who first alerted her.
BALLESTEROS: Hey, like there's this Twitter account, is it yours? They're posting crazy things.
ROSALES (voiceover): Over months, Marsh only grew more popular.
BALLESTEROS: I think there was even a -- an elected representative that interacted with the account.
ROSALES: Yes, Matt Gaetz.
BALLESTEROS: Like, with my face. So, that is shocking.
ROSALES (voiceover): But Courtney only grew more concerned about its message. Twitter has a policy against impersonation. Once the Erica Marsh account was removed, Courtney felt relieved but not safe.
BALLESTEROS: I don't want to be out in public and someone notice my picture that was on the account, approach me, approach my family. Who knows what someone would do that didn't agree with what Erica Marsh was saying.
DARREN LINVILL, DISINFORMATION EXPERT, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: Whoever's running this account knows what people like and knows how to get attention.
ROSALES (voiceover): Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University, studies disinformation and trolling.
ROSALES: What is Erica Marsh? Is it a parody? Is it a troll? Is it a disinformation campaign? What is she?
[10:55:00]
LINVILL: Erica Marsh is a fake online influencer. She isn't a troll in the way that a lot of viewers may think of a troll.
ROSALES (voiceover): Linvill believes this was the work of a professional.
LINVILL: This is not an amateur, no. It would be very hard for an amateur to get to well over 100,000 followers in such a short amount of time.
ROSALES (voiceover): And Courtney's pictures, plucked on purpose.
LINVILL: She looks all American. She looks friendly. But ultimately, it's about influence. It's meant to engage with a very specific audience and to get people a little bit angry.
ROSALES (voiceover): Whether the goal of the account was to generate money or sow division, Linvill says, the real owner of Erica Marsh is likely still operating on the platform.
ROSALES: Is there any way to tell who's responsible for Erica Marsh or where they come from?
LINVILL: That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?
BALLESTEROS: It's just fake. You know, it's fake. The whole thing was fake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSALES (on camera): And the Erica Marsh profile bio claims that she worked for the Obama and the Biden campaigns. But we checked in on that, and of course it was all made up. It's also important to note that there are still accounts up on Twitter right now using Courtney's face. We have reached out to Twitter about that. We've not heard back. Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right. Isabel, thank you for the story.
Sara.
SIDNER: The internet used for doing bad. Nothing new there.
All right. Coming up, a historic summit at Camp David. What message will this gathering send to China which has sent a veiled warning to its Asian neighbors against making closer relations with the United States. We'll bring it to you live ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:00]
