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Trump Associates Profiting from False 2020 Election Claims; RNC Says It Plans to Send 200k Volunteers to Monitor Polling Places; College Quarterback Retires After Latest Head Injury; Fox News Edited Out Trump's Rambling in Barbershop Interview. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 24, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Former President Trump and many of his supporters, including his running mate J.D. Vance, have continued to question the 2020 election results and are now casting doubt on the integrity of this election. But one of Trump's staunchest allies, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, didn't just help spread those conspiracies, he turned them into profit. He spent years raising millions of dollars on the false claim that the election was stolen.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And yet, earlier this year, while speaking under oath for a deposition about a former Dominion Voting Systems executive, Flynn admitted for the very first time there is no evidence to support those election fraud claims.

As conspiracies continue to fly with just 12 days to go until the election, our reporters are tracking concerns ahead of November 5th. CNN political correspondent Sara Murray has details on new efforts by the RNC that's sparking concern about actions taken at the polls.

But first, let's start with CNN's national security reporter Zach Cohen who helped break the story on Flynn. Zach, how was Flynn able to cement this election denialism into the Republican Party and then also turn a profit?

ZACH COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, guys, this is years in the making and it's the first time Flynn is on record admitting that a key part of some of those fraud claims that he and other Trump allies tried to use as a pretext for overturning the 2020 election results, that there was no evidence to support that. And look, that goes into things like the draft executive orders that you may remember. Flynn was instrumental in putting those documents together and ultimately presenting them to Donald Trump.

But look, even despite admitting this under oath, being forced to admit this under oath, Flynn has continued to publicly claim without any evidence that, broadly speaking, that the 2020 election was rigged. Take a listen to an interview he did just a month after admitting this under oath during his deposition. He said something very different in the interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL FLYNN, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think that the 2020 November election was filled with fraud and there's all kinds of evidence that shows that, Chris. I mean, it's undeniable now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: We heard something very similar from Flynn for the past three years, right? For three plus years, he's produced no proof that there is any evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, that it was rigged. And obviously, when forced under oath, he admits that one of the key claims was baseless.

[15:35:00]

But look, this is also part of a fundraising effort by Flynn. Specifically, he's been at the forefront of what's really a cottage industry of election denialism. I mean, it centers around these dark money groups and nonprofit that Flynn has set up. He's raised millions of dollars funneling some of that money to his own brother, who's been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in a salary.

He's also helped fund election deniers in their local races, state- level races, and also funded some partisan audits. Remember the cyber ninjas in Arizona? Flynn was putting a lot of money into that.

So you see how Flynn has sort of parlayed this election denier, 2020- rigged sort of conspiracy theory into a financial gambit that really is all about reinforcing what Trump was saying after the 2020 election. And there's been some rumors that Flynn is angling for a position in a second Trump administration. Trump aides that I talked to tried to dismiss that idea.

But look, Trump himself even called Flynn during a recent event and said as much. Take a listen to what they said during that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: General Flynn, he's some general, he's some man, he took abuse like nobody could have handled and he came out bigger, better, stronger than ever before. We love him. He's a leader. General, you just have to stay healthy because we're bringing you back. We're going to bring you back.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Flynn, obviously, at one point had a well-respected military career, and it's kind of interesting given the current conversation around John Kelly, also a former general, the sort of side-by-side comparison in who gets Trump's affection and who gets Trump's, you know, sort of angst and sort of his, you know, is rejected by Donald Trump. KEILAR: Very well put. Sara, the RNC is claiming that it's planning to send 200,000 volunteers to monitor polling places in key battleground states. This has sparked some concerns about voter intimidation. What are you hearing?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, it's basically the RNC is promising to send poll watchers, to send attorneys, to make sure that the elections are being fairly safely run. And look, we see poll watchers every election season. We see them on both sides of the aisle.

I think the reason that it's getting people more heartburn this time around is because we've seen so much more of this election denialism, election skepticism. A lot of those folks are potentially signing up to be the ones who are observing elections. And so people just don't really know how it's going to go, if there could be, you know, just more misinformation, if there could be more confrontations, that kind of thing.

And election workers, the election officials who are in charge of running these elections are really walking a line between doing everything they can to be prepared, to make sure they have safety measures in place in case something does go awry, and also trying to assure people we are doing everything in our power to make sure you can vote safely, vote quickly, vote smoothly. They don't want people to be worried and to stay home and not show up and cast a ballot.

SANCHEZ: What are voting rights advocates saying about this?

MURRAY: They're saying, look, we're also going to be out there. If you have a problem, if somebody tries to challenge your vote, if someone tries to challenge your eligibility, we won't necessarily be in the polling place, but we're going to be standing outside. A lot of these voting rights groups have their own, you know, voter protection efforts.

If you show up and they say, oh, you're at the wrong polling place, we are going to be here to try to help you and try to get that fixed. So there's going to be a big effort. Don't be surprised if you show up at your polling place and there are going to be all kinds of people around. They shouldn't be interfering at all with your ability to vote. If they are, go to an election official.

SANCHEZ: That is an important point to keep in mind as we get closer to Election Day. Sara Murray, Zach Cohen, thank you both. Appreciate it.

Still ahead, a college quarterback retiring at 23. It's after he suffered another head injury that he says he, quote, cannot come back from. What he's now saying about his decision and the sport of football.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: Head injuries making big sports headlines today for ending one quarterback's career and not ending another. At least that's the case so far for Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. He's returning to practice despite suffering his third diagnosed concussion in the NFL.

KEILAR: It's a different story for one college quarterback. NC State's Grayson McCall, who is just 23, says he's leaving the game after his latest head injury nearly three weeks ago.

CNN Sports anchor Coy Wire is here with both developments. Coy, starting with Grayson McCall here, he's saying farewell to playing, not necessarily to the game.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, as you mentioned, Grayson is 23 years old. He's had a history of concussions, including his previous stop at Coastal Carolina, but he's decided to retire from the game after getting diagnosed with his second concussion just this season. It was on October 5th against Wake Forest.

Now, he took to Instagram and had quite a bit to say. As you can imagine, he's probably feeling pretty badly that his career is over. He said that he's had battled injuries his entire career, but this one he just can't come back from.

And he said, brain specialists, my family and I have come to the conclusion it's in my best interest to hang up the cleats.

Now, Boris Brianna McCall says he does still love the game and he hopes to stay involved, saying that he hopes now to be able to get into coaching now that his playing career is over.

SANCHEZ: Now, Coy, let's talk about Tua Tagovailoa. We know that he's practicing. He's back out on the practice field. Dolphins have a game coming up this Sunday. It appears that he's going to play. As I noted a moment ago, this is his third diagnosed concussion in the NFL.

I believe he had one at Alabama, and then there was another one in the NFL that didn't get the actual designation of a concussion, but it was widely believed that he had a head injury.

[15:45:00]

What do you make of him coming back?

WIRE: Yes, previously before this, this was two seasons ago where he had his last diagnosed concussion, and he spent all last season on the comeback. He vowed to play smarter, and he did not suffer any diagnosed concussions last season. But here we are again, and this one looked as bad as some of those others have. He does vow once again to play smart.

He returned to practice this week after missing the previous four weeks. He was on IR, he was meeting with neuro consultants, and he says that he even met with some that he had met with in his previous concussions in the NFL and they all said he is cleared to play the game.

Now here's what Tua said about just how important it is to him to be able to continue his career in the NFL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUA TAGOVAILOA, MIAMI DOLPHINS QUARTERBACK: Do I want to be, you know, known for this? No, I don't, but that's the cards I've been dealt with given the history of it, so it is what it is. I appreciate your concern, I really do. I love this game and I love it to the death of me, that's it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Tua said this week that he never considered retirement and that he has been symptom-free since his concussion and if all goes well over these next couple of days, he is slated to play this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.

KEILAR: All right, Coy Wire, thank you for that.

WIRE: You got it.

KEILAR: Still ahead, a CNN analysis finds that Fox edited Trump's rambling answers in false claims. We'll show you the video.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: It appears Fox gave its recent barbershop interview with former President Trump a bit of a trim, leaving some of his tangents, exaggerations and false claims on the cutting room floor.

SANCHEZ: Now we should point out editing interviews is not unusual especially when you're dealing with time constraints. Brevity is of course important but the most important element is that the meaning of what's being said has to remain the same so that you don't misrepresent, whether intentionally or not, what your subject is saying. We have to point out the irony here.

The former president recently accused CBS of editing a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris allegedly to make her look good. CNN chief media analyst

Brian Stelter joins us now. Brian you've reviewed the full Fox video. What did you find comparing it to what aired?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: That's right. Listening to you I'm reminded of the old expression that everybody needs a good editor. I know I certainly do but so does Donald Trump and that's why this story is curious.

It's because Trump has been attacking 60 Minutes for its editing decisions accusing the network of conspiring with Kamala Harris to make her look better by editing her answers in a recent interview. CBS denies that and last night CBS sent a letter to Trump basically swatting away his threats to sue the network but that's the curious context for this story about Trump's recent appearance on Fox. He visited a barbershop in the Bronx and when he was there Fox camera crews tagged along.

I was able to watch a fuller version of the experience, the interaction, via Instagram because one of the attendees filmed it and put it on Instagram. And what I noticed were all of these moments where Trump was either lying or exaggerating or rambling or going off script and Fox cut those out of the broadcast.

Here's an example. Here's a clip that Fox actually did air. Notice how he seems to answer the question from the attendee right away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So my question is with all this extra revenue we're going to be bringing into the country, so do you believe at some point in time we could find a way once the country's back on its feet and getting enough revenue and paid off our debt do you think it's possible to find a way to eliminate federal taxes? There is a way.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There is a way. You know in the old days when we were smart when we were a smart country in the 1890s and all this this is when the country was relatively the richest it ever was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: Good question, interesting answer but actually that attendee had to ask the question four times and get Trump to answer and Fox stitched it together over the course of seven minutes to create the illusion of one clear answer. Participants had to keep following up when Trump would meander and ramble. Now this is an example of what some Trump critics call sane washing.

The press sometimes cleaning up Trump's speech to make him sound more sane. I would call it an example instead of normalizing you know an example of normalizing Trump to fit him into a TV time slot sometimes when that happens you end up cutting out a lot of his false claims and rambling.

KEILAR: Yes and something that was not edited was CNN's town hall with Harris last night you're getting a look at some of the ratings what does it say?

STELTER: That's right that's the contrast here the overnight ratings for the CNN town hall with Kamala Harris show a lot of interest in what she has to say. Here in the closing stretch of the presidential campaign at least 3.2 million viewers tuned in last night to see Harris that makes this the highest rated town hall of the general election season beating out Donald Trump's recent town hall on Fox. What that tells me is a lot of voters still want to see Harris in the final days of the campaign.

SANCHEZ: Brian Stelter thanks so much for the analysis appreciate it. Still ahead a simple test can tell you important information about

your health even apparently predicting how long you're going to live you could probably do it where you are right now with no special equipment. Brianna's going to demonstrate in just moments.

KEILAR: Yes, right.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: So we're kind of doubting the veracity of this next story, but we're going to try to test it out.

You know how a flamingo can stand on one leg for hours? You may want to try it yourself. It may tell you a lot about your own life expectancy, because how long you can stand on one foot shows how well your body's systems are working together.

And I just want to set for the record, I've been standing on one leg for a while, but we're still in this flamingo picture.

KEILAR: Yes, I'm working. I'm trying here. Researchers say the longer you can hold that stance, it generally means you have better balance. Longer life.

SANCHEZ: I don't buy this.

KEILAR: You don't think so?

SANCHEZ: Some guidelines apparently are that if you can hold it for 10 seconds in your 80s, 20 seconds in your 70s, 30 seconds if you're younger, it means it's good for you. I saw John Berman do this earlier. I don't think he was doing -- he was kind of going like that. That doesn't really count. I think you actually have to, like, flamingo.

KEILAR: What about, like, three seconds if you're in heels? You don't know my pain, Boris.

SANCHEZ: That should count.

KEILAR: Look at me. Look at me. These are --

[16:00:00]

SANCHEZ: I do feel like this is, like, disinformation from overseas that has gotten into the system of --

KEILAR: Look, good balance is good. Good for health, that's true. I think we can say that much. But I'm just saying, don't feel bad about yourself. That's not what we're trying to do here at all. But maybe give it a shot. Maybe work on that balance.

SANCHEZ: Do you think Jake will start the show like this -- Jake Tapper? KEILAR: Definitely not.

SANCHEZ: Find out on "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper right now.

END