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Don Lemon Tonight

Mitch McConnell Calls Biden President-Elect As President Trump Still Won't Acknowledge Biden's Win; Leaders In Congress Say They Are Close To COVID Deal; Biden To Nominate Buttigieg And Granholm For Cabinet Posts; Trump Claims Election Stolen In Large Cities; More Than 112,000 Americans Hospitalized With COVID-19; Biden Inauguration To Be Extremely Limited; Biden Campaigning For Democrats In Georgia's GOP Senate Runoffs; Interview With Representative-Elect Nikema Williams (D-GA). Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired December 15, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST (on camera): Breaking news, words from Republican leaders on Capitol Hill that they and Democrats maybe close to a deal to provide, millions of Americans with desperately needed relief, as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens.

And six weeks after Joe Biden won the election, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, finally acknowledging Biden's victory and referring to him as, President-Elect. Saying the Electoral College, has spoken. Actually the people, have spoken. Biden expected to nominate Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, and former Governor Jennifer Granholm to run the Energy Department.

So I want to bring in now CNN's White House correspondent John Harwood and our senior political analysts Ron Brownstein and Toluse Olorunnipa, White House reporter for the Washington Post. Good evening one and all, let's see.

John, you first. President Trump probably more isolated and a lamer duck than ever at this point. But things are really moving in a different direction at least for now, on Capitol Hill like some work is appears to be actually getting done.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well that's positive. You know, the president has not played a constructive role in the country since the election, he's taking a sledgehammer to public confidence and legitimacy of the election. He has ignored the surging pandemic, tried to devote his attention with respect to the pandemic, to try to take attention or take credit for the development of the vaccines that you're just talking to Rick about a few minutes ago.

If in fact, he signed a piece of legislation, that Republicans and Democrats can agree on, and if he plays a constructive role of making that happen to deliver hundreds of billions of dollars in relief to people who are due to lose unemployment benefits, who -- businesses that are about to go under. People who are at risk of mass eviction when we get to the end of December, that would be a constructive thing and the most constructive thing he's done since the election.

LEMON: Toluse, Manu Raju, CNN's Manu Raju ask Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy if he is willing to acknowledge Biden as the President-Elect, no response, shocking. Why do Republican need to stay on the president's good side when they won reelection, the president is the one who lost, why can't they quit him? Why can't' they just move on?

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALSYT, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BLOOMBERG NEWS (on camera): The election was more than a month ago and it's obviously very clear who won, but these Republicans are clearly afraid of the president, he has shown that he is willing to attack members of his own party, and he has a large following.

That's 74 million votes and these Republicans are afraid of their own constituents that if they acknowledge the truth that the president lost the election, that he will attack them on Twitter, and then their constituents will believe that they are not real Republicans.

We see what's happening to the Governor of Georgia, the Governor of Arizona and some of the local and state officials across the country who had acknowledged reality. That the president lost the election. That Joe Biden is the president-elect. They're being attacked by the president and by his supporters, and their ability to show some level of political courage by just acknowledging the truth, has led to all these incriminations that in the fact they are now seeing on the outs of their own party.

So, we are not seeing very much political courage in Washington, among the Republicans who are not acknowledging that reality. They are afraid of the president they know that his Twitter account can lead to, you know, hurt feelings among them, and potentially career damage. For that reason they're pretending as if he still had a chance of being president after January 20th.

[23:05:07]

LEMON: Wow. Ron, I know Ron. I've been wanting to talk to you. I know, Ron. So, you're out with a brand-new piece for CNN.com and I want to talk to you about the racist unsupported claim from President Trump that the election was now -- was somehow stolen through voter fraud in large cities with big Black population. Is this theory becoming more widely accepted within the GOP or no?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, AND SENIOR EDITOR OF THE ATLANTIC (on camera): Well, look, I think you know, if you look at the arguments from Texas in this case to the Supreme Court in the supporting briefs, from all of the other Republican states, they all focus on a few large diverse cities, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee, claiming that that was where the election was from President Trump.

They ignore the fact that Trump, declined more relative from 16 to 20, in the beginner inner suburbs that are largely white outside of those cities. But you didn't hear it. You didn't see the Republicans charging that there's fraud in Oakland County, it was Detroit. You hear them charging fraud in Montgomery, in Dela Ware County, outside Philepeldia or Cobb and Gwinnett outside Atlanta.

And I think, Don that really gives away the game that it essence what Republicans and Trump have been arguing since the election, is kind of the culmination of their larger case. That he has made millions since the first day that he came down the escalator, that some kind of shadowing alliance of minorities, and immigrants, and elites are taking away our country. Which is exactly the phrase that he use in Valdosta Georgia, when he went down there a couple of weeks ago.

So, it is a very short step from saying that these folks in effect are stealing our heritage, to argue that they are literally stealing elections. And I think that is why you are seeing such a strong response to so many Republican voters, to these unsupported claims of fraud. Because it did seem with their larger world view, that Trump has been activating for five years now, that they are losing control of the country to a new America that is basically being coalescence inside of our major cities.

LEMON: But Ron, that's not racist.

HARWOOD: And Don --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I mean, it is a core, you know, it is (inaudible)

LEMON: That was sarcasm, I'm sure you recognize that? That was sarcasm.

BROWNSTEIN: Right, it is the way he started, he started with a racist conspiracy theory, which you know, is that Barack Obama wasn't, you know, eligibly president, he's ending with a racist conspiracy theory. (Inaudible) is out of the leadership conference of civil rights, you know, said to me that it was essentially a modern Jim Crow. It was arguing that the votes of Black voters and other voters of color, should not count. That in essence that they are systemically corrupt, and they are stealing our country.

Again, I think that is why there is such a core with Republican voters and it's why we are seeing Republicans are already using this as a justification in Georgia and elsewhere, for new restrictions on voting including, eliminating on-demand absentee ballot in Georgia. Which Georgia senate state Republicans have already said they intended to try in the New Year.

LEMON: Yes. But it's not racist, John come on.

HARWOOD: Hi Don. Don, I just wanted to add to Ron's point. That same racial concern, racist concern overlaps with the issue that we started talking about at the top of the show. That is to say that negotiations over COVID relief, Republicans have put up a wall of resistance against state and local aid. They say for Democrat runs cities that are badly run.

That is, there is a strong racial element in that as well. One or Democrat run cities, they are those large diverse cities that Ron was talking about. They employ -- those state and local governments employ a lot of African-Americans, they provide services to people of color.

And there is a belief which predates Donald Trump, within Republican politics. It's gone on for a long time, that white people are having their taxes raised to subsidize services, for people who are undeserving.

They, that drove a lot of the welfare debate in the 1990s, that's same phenomenon is behind some of this resistance, that we are not going to bail out other people with our tax money, even though their revenues have been decimated by the coronavirus. That's a dynamic that's at play in the fiscal debate as well.

LEMON: Yes, I always hear that these Democrat runs city's, that are, Democrats cities that are badly run. And I always think it's a Republican constructed Senate that is badly constructed because it's dramatically incorrect, should be Democratic cities but anyways.

(LAUGHTER)

[23:10:00]

I'm going on and on, and that's how it is these days. I got to run. I got to run, Ron. Toluse, I promised to have you back, we'll get you in more, will get you more time. Thank you all, I appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

LEMON: So, we got to talk about some other big news that we have and that is as we round out day two of vaccination across the country, a record number of people, more than 112,000 hospitalized with the virus. I want to bring in now CNN's medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Doctor, thanks for joining. It's important that we get you on and talk about this, because you got the vaccine this morning. How do they go? How did it go?

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST (on camera): I was, excited. It was really great. It really well run in my hospital, incredibly organized. And there was a sense of optimism in the room, you know, all the docks and nurses and other providers and other folks coming in to get their vaccinations were really upbeat.

You know, like we were finally switching from defense to offense. And a wonderful atmosphere. And I look forward to this percolating through American society as the vaccine gets out into the public over the next few months. I think people are going to really feel the same way.

LEMON: Vice President Mike Pence will likely get the vaccine on Friday, we are told. And tentatively, on camera. You said the President-Elect Biden should also get it as soon as possible. Why do you say that?

REINER: Yes. Look, we need a single-ness of purpose in this country. We need no equivocation about the vaccine, we can't have any kind of repeat of well, you know, we sort of recommend the masks, but I don't see, you know, wearing a mask with dictators and (inaudible) coming into my office. You cannot have that. That's probably the original sin of our pandemic response, was not getting the entire country to mask up.

So now that we have a vaccine, a remarkably effective tool now, a weapon against this virus, there can only be one voice. And that voice is every American. Every person who lives in this country, is going to get the vaccine.

And the way to amplify that message, is to model it. And the way to model it is for the president-elect to be vaccinated on camera. To show that it's safe, to show that it's effective and that we -- there's only one voice here. And the voice is we are going to vaccinate, we are going to vaccinate everyone.

LEMON: Doctor, we're starting to learn what Biden's inauguration during a pandemic will look like. An extremely limited ceremony on Capitol Hill. Quote a reimagined parade, are you encouraged by that?

REINER: Yes, you know, a few weeks ago I said that the inauguration should mostly be canceled. You know, there is precedent for it, in 1984 it was too cold in D.C. and they canceled all the outdoor events. And Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in the rotunda of the capital.

LEMON: I remember that.

REINER: Yes. I would do something very similar, I would not have a parade. I would completely discourage folks from coming to D.C. We started to hear them do that, I think the incoming Biden administration is talking about trying to leverage some of the technology they used for the DNC convention and do some of the fabulous production and do, you know, a virtual inauguration and have virtual events.

I think that would really show a seriousness of purpose. Don't bring a million people to. D.C. because about a month from now things -- maybe look a thick better and let's not take any steps backwards.

LEMON: There's still be a bigger crowd size than in 2017. Thank you Doctor. Congratulations on getting the vaccine today and you're a good man for showing it to everyone, because we all need to realize its good science and we need to take it. Thank you so much, I appreciated it.

REINER: Thanks so much, Don. Wish you well.

LEMON: Election Day was six weeks ago, but early voting is underway in Georgia's runoff election that will determine control of the Senate, the election so important, the President-Elect went to Georgia today and slammed Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for trying to disenfranchise their own voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, 2020 PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: The two Republican Senators, fully embraced what Texas was telling the Supreme Court. They fully embrace nullifying nearly 5 million Georgia votes. You might want to remember that, come January 5th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[23:15:00]

LEMON: President-Elect Joe Biden stumping in Georgia with early voting underway for two critical Senate runoffs races that will determine who controls the Senate. Biden blasting President Trump over his refusal to concede and telling voters the stakes are higher than ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Your votes were counted and counted and counted again. I'm starting to feel like I won Georgia three times. You voted as if your life dependent on it, well guess what, now you're going to have to do it again come January 5th. You've got to vote in record numbers again. Yes, the lives of every Georgian still depend on what you're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: There goes the horns again, remember the socially distance rallies? So, joining me now, Congresswoman -- Georgia Congresswoman- elect Nikema Williams who will fill the seat that was held by the late Congressman John Lewis. He's also the chair of Georgia Democratic Party. Congresswoman-elect, so good to see you again. Thank you for joining.

REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT NIKEMA WILLIAMS (D-GA) (on camera): Thank you for having me.

LEMON: I don't know people realize this given -- you know, that until yesterday, we have been endlessly litigating Election Day in this crazy fashion, but voting in the runoff election is well underway, how is it going?

[23:20:04]

WILLIAMS: Early voting started yesterday, Don, here in Georgia. And we saw a record turnouts already, 42 percent of the vote on just yesterday, were Black voters in Georgia. And so we are keeping the momentum going, people are still excited about what's to come on January 5th.

We had a rally today with our new president after we gave him our 16 Electoral College votes officially yesterday. And it's just -- it's a good time to be on the ground here in Georgia. We are the center of the political universe and we're ready to bring it home on January 5th.

LEMON: It is day two of early voting, but they are fewer early voting sites compared to just a couple of weeks ago, in November. What will the impact be on the turnout there do you think?

WILLIAMS: So what we're seeing even as of yesterday, voters are showing up and waiting in line, regardless of the additional sites that have not been opened. We know that in Cobb County, we had some concerns about early voting locations being closed down. People raise their voices and there are some additional sites that were moved into parts of town where there are more of a need for early voting locations.

So, I mean, we are pushing back on it on every angle to make sure that people have access to the ballot box. But voters are showing up to vote in spite of any of those snafus or shenanigans that are happening at the polls.

I'm excited, and we know that this is the turnout election, so we are continuing to talk to voters about what matters. And when I saw my friends John Ossoff and Rafael Warnock show up on that stage today with my next president Joe Biden -- I mean, I can just see it happening. I can't wait to get to D.C. and start with them.

LEMON: OK, so speaking of turnout, you mention turned out a lot of this conversation as you should, right. Georgia exit poll show that 69 percent of Biden voters are really voting against Trump, instead of voting for Biden. What is the strategy to get that to translate to a Senate runoff, for other candidates?

WILLIAMS: I mean, that's why we never made it about one candidate and it's about the issues. And what those voters also showed up to vote for, is a national response to this pandemic. They showed to vote to get our children back to school safely in person. They showed up to vote to make sure that we get our economy back on track. And the only way that we do that, is if we elect John Ossoff and Rafael Warnock to the United States Senate.

LEMON: It looks like the GOP has formed a circular firing squad in Georgia, to be honest -- Trump is retweeting lies about Governor Kemp, the Secretary of State, Raffensperger going to jail. While some Trump allies have urged people not to even vote, what is the impact of those attacks on the Democratic process?

WILLIAMS: I mean, it's troubling that we have elected officials in this country, people who have taken an oath to stand up for their state constitution and our U.S. Constitution. Making a mockery of our democracy in this country. And what I know is that yesterday, I passed a legitimate official Electoral College vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and the ascertainment was signed by the Governor of the state. And was submitted to the United States House of Representatives.

And I don't know what the Republicans are doing on the other side, but they are living in this alternate reality where they think that they can do whatever they want to do, in this country and the state. And we are moving forward, we are looking forward to governing.

Getting this country back on track. Because after four years, we have finally an adult in the White House willing to look out for the American people and move forward. And that's what I'm looking forward to.

LEMON: Congresswoman, I appreciated it. By the way, over your left shoulder is that John Lewis' graphic novel, graphic novel --

WILLIAMS: It is John Lewis on one shoulder and then one shelf up is Martin Luther King, those are coloring books.

LEMON: I have that. There's a graphic novel, there's a coloring book, yes, and I recognize it. Great collection, thank you and I like the new glasses.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

LEMON: She told me during the break, she can finally see because she got new glasses. You're going to need that, you're going to need those. Thank you so much, be well.

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: All right. More Republicans coming to terms with the reality of Joe Biden's win, but they have already shown their true colors. Is this GOP here to stay?

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[23:25:00]

LEMON: More GOP Senators today, bowing to the reality that Joe Biden is the president elect, but not all of them and the man who lost the election is still peddling the lie that he was somehow cheated out of a second term. A recent CBS news you got poll, finds only 18 percent of Trump voters believe Biden is the legitimate winner of the election. So, is that why so many Republican are going along with the president? And could they change his supporter's mind even if they tried.

Joining me now to discuss is Washington Post opinion columnist, Catherine Rampell and Washington Post national correspondent, Philip Bump. Good to see both of you, it's been a minute. You guys OK, good?

PHILIP BUMP, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST (on camera): Yes, sir.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (on camera): Yes. All things considered, yes.

BUMP: Yes.

LEMON: So, Catherine you have a new opinion piece in the Post this week and it's titled the GOP reckoning, never came. You say French elements have been building inside the GOP for a long time. Is that partly why Trump is so easily fooled them with these phony election fraud claims?

RAMPELL: Absolutely. I think for a long time it was politically useful to GOP leadership to have this strain of, you know, conspiracy theorists, tinfoil hat wears, whatever you want to call them, within the party. As long as they were under control, because it helped energize the base, it helped delegitimized political opponents through birtherism and other, you know, crazy racist conspiracy theories like that.

[23:30:00]

RAMPELL: It helps evade accountability by claiming the job numbers were fake, that sort of thing.

But at some point, Frankenstein's monster basically killed his creator, and what was the lunatic fringe took over the entire party, with Trump's help, of course.

And there were many times over the past decade or so when it looked like the GOP was finally like on the cusp of a reckoning, that they were going to realize, you know, McConnell or others are going to realize that it was a problem to have this lunatic fringe in charge.

It would make it harder to win elections because they would alienate, you know, more reasonable people. It would make it harder to govern if their base believed crazy things.

But over and over, they had this opportunity, and the reckoning never came, because there were no consequences.

LEMON: Well, that is what I was going to say.

RAMPELL: They kept winning.

LEMON: That is it. And also, I am not sure the election helped because a lot of people expected this whole so repudiation of Trumpism in this election, but it didn't happen. Is this why Republican officials are going along with this charade? They don't see a need to reckon with all the damage that he has done, Catherine?

RAMPELL: I think a few things. I think it is that they are afraid of Trump. They are afraid of his itchy Twitter finger. They are afraid of his base that if they see -- if they are seen as departing from, you know, the conspiracy theorist in chief, they will get primaried from the right.

And you are already seeing some members of the right basically attack McConnell as a rhino, which is crazy, given that he has acknowledged, you know, the results of the free and fair election.

(LAUGHTER)

RAMPELL: But it's really a problem. They are too cowardly to stand up to their voters. And at this point, I am not even sure even if they did stand up to their voters, if their voters would actually believe them. Look at what happened with Fox News.

Fox News made the very brave choice to at some point acknowledge reality. And rather than persuading a lot of their loyal viewers, their viewers just said we are going to go watch something even, you know, crazier than Fox News.

LEMON: Well, I mean, if you radicalize your viewers, you know, pretty soon, they've got to go stronger and stronger. So, I mean --

(LAUGHTER) LEMON: And Mitch McConnell, a rhino? Really? OK, so, Phillip, you also have a new piece out in the Post this week. It is titled "The Doubt is the Point: Turning Trump's Toxic Election Response into Political Poison." And you say Trump uses phony election fraud claims to raise doubts.

Vin (ph) says everyone is doubting. It's ridiculous. But the goal, is the goal really to poison the well for Joe Biden to say, as Trump said the other night, he will be an illegitimate president?

BUMP: Yeah, I mean, I think to some extent, particularly for Trump. I think Trump sees this as a very clever ploy to try and make Biden's presidency as tumultuous as his was.

Yes, of course, his was tumultuous because there was this investigation into whether or not members of his campaign had colluded with Russia in trying to influence the 2016 election. This is something very different than that. It's also something we explore at the Post.

But that said, the reason that Republicans broadly are going along with this is it is another example of what Catherine was just talking about, them leveraging the way their base is very, very viscerally responding to all of this for their own political good.

So the reason that people like McConnell, the reason people like House Minority Whip Steve Scalise embrace this idea that fraud is real is because it helps them pass laws which restrict voting access.

We saw Newt Gingrich, for example, responding to the Senate runoff elections in Georgia by complaining that the governor of the state was making it easier to vote, which he said would harm Republicans. It was a very overt expression of exactly what the goal is here.

To say that there is fraud not because they think there is fraud necessarily, but because it gives them the opportunity to take actions, which eliminate voting, which tends to make it less likely for Democrats and not Republicans (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: You are making too much sense, Philip. I mean, there are people who are -- who, you know, aren't living in reality right now. Real quickly because we have to do, do you see any of that changing after the inauguration, that Trump is going to fade, at least somewhat, into the distance?

BUMP: I think it's possible. Biden is a very different president than either Barack Obama or Donald Trump. I think he is going to be necessarily less polarizing compared to Obama. He is a white man, which is going to be something that mutes some of the response that Obama (INAUDIBLE). He is going to be less polarizing (INAUDIBLE). It's possible.

But I think it is very unlikely because, as Catherine points out, there still is enormous political benefit to being obstructionist and fighting the constant culture war with the left Trump is so very good at.

LEMON: Thank you both. I like the scoreboard behind you, Philip. Thank you so much.

BUMP: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: I appreciate it. I will see you guys soon. So many people are struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic. Flaviana Decker is one of them. She was laid off from her job at Disney World.

[23:35:01]

LEMON: Now, unemployment doesn't cover her expenses, and her story is just one of many.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news tonight. Republican and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill say they are close to a deal to provide millions of Americans with desperately needed relief as the COVID-19 worsens. And so many people need help right now.

[23:40:00]

LEMON: People like Flaviana Decker, who was laid off from her job at Disney World in Florida, where she worked as a waitress for 14 years. She is struggling to raise her two teenage daughters, one of whom is autistic.

Flaviana Decker joins me now. Thank you so much for joining. I really appreciate it. We talked about your two girls. They are over -- if you look above her, it is Gabriela and Victoria, right, 15 and 14.

FLAVIANA DECKER, LAID OFF FROM JOB AT DISNEY: That's right.

LEMON: Thank you so much. So many people have lost their jobs in this pandemic. You worked as a waitress at Disney World. I said 14 years. But you were let go --

DECKER: Right.

LEMON: -- This was in October. What it has been like for and your family since then, Flaviana?

DECKER: Honestly, it's been very hard. I have never imagined to being in this position in my life. I often joked in my job that I was going to be there until the day I die. There were times that I wonder how it could be this good.

I felt blessed to be there every day. And not to have that in my life anymore, I'm really struggling. You know, it has been many sleepless nights. We have a group message that we message and quite often I'm there in the middle of the night asking if anybody else is awake. So it hasn't been easy.

LEMON: Anybody else is awake because you want to vent, you're lonely, why? DECKER: Scared. I am lonely. Fearing for the future, not knowing if -- what I'm going to do. I have a special needs daughter. She needs me, a lot of me. And my job at Disney allowed me to be to places that I needed for her.

You know, she has a lot of therapies throughout the week for years. I will finish my job for a limited time to pick her up for school because I never wanted Victoria to miss other opportunities that her sister had. So, when those opportunities were not there, I create them myself.

For instance, Gabriela plays music. Victoria liked music, too. So, I decide OK, we are going to learn how to play the piano, Victoria. We are going to do it together. And when the opportunities were not there for her, I created them. And my job at Disney allowed me to do all those things for her.

LEMON: What does she need the most now?

DECKER: So, there are so many things, so many things that we have had to cut off during the pandemic. You know, if you think about it, Victoria, with my job at Disney, allowed me to create these opportunities, and -- I am sorry. I'm a little nervous right now.

LEMON: Don't be nervous. Seriously, don't be nervous. Just talk to me.

DECKER: Um, things that even like regular education. You know, I could never settle for Victoria having a mediocre education. I knew she was smart. I knew she was brilliant. And I could not just throw her in to any regular school and hope for the best. I could not do that.

So, I -- I'm sorry. So, I did everything that I could to provide her with those opportunities. Right now, because so many reached out to me, there were three things that immediately I was able to do more my girls. One of them is put them with just regular doctor visits.

LEMON: Mm-hmm.

DECKER: Number two, I booked them for the dentist appointment that I have always wanted to go to this clinic, but I could never have the money to go.

LEMON: Mm-hmm.

DECKER: And third, after almost a year without her swimming lessons, Victoria finally will be in the pool tomorrow.

(LAUGHTER)

DECKER: So I asked my friend, Denny (ph), to give an update on everybody that generously came together.

[23:45:03]

DECKER: And I want to promise now to everybody that none of this, I'm taking for granted, you know, and I will honor every single person that reached out to me and to my girls.

LEMON: Flaviana, you know, you're on a very long list of people that could be hired back at Disney when the pandemic is over. But the tourism and restaurant industries really have been decimated right now.

DECKER: Mm-hmm.

LEMON: What are you going to do until then?

DECKER: I want to remain hopeful. I can only speak for the things that I know. I feel like people are strong. They are resilient. I want to believe that tourists will come back to central Florida. That eventually Disney will take all the safety measures to keep their casts and their guests safe. We will be back. You know, that's what I want to believe.

LEMON: Flaviana, thank you. I just want people to know that a friend of yours helped set up a GoFundMe page and through the kindness of strangers, you are able to do the three things that you said, doctor appointments, dental appointments, and get your daughter in the pool to learn how to swim, all of which is very important.

Thank you so much. We appreciate you sharing your story.

DECKER: Thank you.

LEMON: You're not alone. You know that. You're not alone.

DECKER: Thank you so much.

LEMON: You're helping people.

DECKER: I like to thank you and all the strangers that came together with me. They look -- they read my story, they listened, and they offered me kindness, love, support. And for that, I will be forever grateful. Thank you for -- I'm slightly nervous right now, but I would just like to thank everyone.

LEMON: Yeah.

DECKER: And thank you for this opportunity.

LEMON: Of course. You don't have to do that. Thank you, Flaviana. You and your girls, be well. Take care and be safe.

DECKER: Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you so much.

DECKER: Thank you.

LEMON: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON (on camera): QAnon and its outrageous conspiracy theories and lies getting publicity and promotion from President Trump.

Here is CNN's senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new report released first to CNN shows what researchers claim is a frighteningly quick pipeline of lies initially pushed by Qanon communities that have become part of the mainstream with help from one big supporter.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've heard these are people that love our country.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Donald Trump has re-tweeted Qanon influencers and followers dozens of times in his presidency, an amplification that brings the diluted and dangerous collection of bizarre conspiracy theories into the highest levels of government.

Researchers at the Network Contagion Research Institute, which investigates deception and hate in social media, found Qanon's disinformation operations attack specific pillars of democracy at strategic moments, and hijack the national conversation.

JOEL FINKELSTEIN, DIRECTOR, NETWORK CONTAGION RESEARCH INSTITUTE: It's my opinion that QAnon is amongst the most dangerous groups we study, if not the most dangerous.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Joel Finkelstein, who directed the research, says the capacity for violence in some of its followers is a public threat. Extremism expert Cynthia Miller-Idriss, who collaborated on the study, says much of the alarming spread of QAnon is tied to President Trump.

CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS, EXTREMISM EXPERT, DIRECTOR OF POLARIZATION AND EXTREMISM RESEARCH AND INNOVATION LAB AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: For many of them, they do believe that Trump is the messianic figure. A lot of people start to believe in some components that are promoted by QAnon and disinformation networks without believing the entire conspiracy theory.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Among the beliefs, Trump is fighting a cabal of Satan worshipping elites that practice pedophilia and child sacrifice, that George Floyd's death was staged, that the pandemic is fake, created solely to inject us with vaccines containing radiofrequency identification chips, and perhaps most damaging of all, that the election was stolen.

FINKELSTEIN: QAnon as a disinformation network has grown like a virus.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): QAnon conspirators have also learned how to influence the president's thinking. Conspiracy theories started by or pushed by QAnon and its hashtags have been re-tweeted by the president, including dominion voting, that somehow millions of votes got switched, Obamagate, that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign, then there is subpoena Obama.

On May 13th, a tweet from at follow the 17, as in Q the 17th letter of the alphabet, shows just how quickly a conspiracy can go from the dark corner of the internet to the White House.

FINKELSTEIN: If we all put out subpoena Obama as a hashtag, essentially said good things will happen if we do this.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Use the hashtag everywhere, the tweet said, and they did. Subpoena Obama went viral, at times tweeting 4,000 times an hour.

[23:55:02]

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Right-wing media picks it up. One day later, Donald Trump weighed in, in a tweet to Senator Lindsey Graham, saying the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime is former President Obama. In other words, subpoena Obama. Success for the QAnon crowd.

At follow the 17, would retweet Trump's posts with a wink. Trump then tweeted, thank you to all of my great keyboard warriors. You are better and far more brilliant than anyone on Madison Avenue.

REP. DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R-VA): I think the technical term is bat shit crazy, but that's what it is. But People are starting to believe this.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Outgoing Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman is planning to read the NCRI (ph) report findings in the congressional record. He is the minority of Republicans willing to stand up to Trump and QAnon. He says most of his fellow Republicans say nothing because of money.

RIGGLEMAN: They're willing to do it. If they want to get re-elected, I think some of them think we have to say that this election was fraudulent. We have to go along with President Trump based on the fundraising.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Republicans are raising hundreds of millions of dollars since the election. But Riggleman says at a cost, a rapidly spreading movement based on dangerous lies.

RIGGLEMAN: I just can't seem to get people to understand that this is the language of radicalization.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Don, the concern among radicalization experts is as this conspiracy theory continues to grow, so does the threat that its followers will become home grown terrorists who actually act out on this.

The writers of this report want some kind of disinformation vaccine to be set up so they can fight back against these delusional theories and try to prevent people from becoming radicalized, they say, in this QAnon belief system. Don?

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LEMON: Drew, you're right, delusional is the right word for that. Thank you so much.

And thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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