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Ed Markey Defeats Joe Kennedy Iii In Massachusetts Primary; Facebook Tipped Off By FBI, Finds Russian Campaign Targeting Americans; Germany: Kremlin Critic Navalny Poisoned With Russian Nerve Agent. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 02, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: And last hour, he said he owes his thanks to progressives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Voters want big changes in our country. My progressive view of where our country has to go is the one that was chosen by the voter just today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill for us. He's been tracking this race. Manu, is there a big message here or just the incumbent beat Kennedy?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's always very hard to beat an incumbent and in to order to defeat an incumbent, you really need to have a compelling message about why that person needs to be replaced. And that is one reason why Senator -- Congressman Joe Kennedy in a hard time defeating Ed Markey, who won rather handedly last night by 11 points in that race. And Markey was able to capitalize on the support of younger and progressive voters, people who may not be as familiar with the Kennedy legacy, but he did -- the reason why Markey was able to do that was unceasing on a number of issues that were critical to the -- that generation particularly millennials, environmental issues such as the Green New Deal, something that Ed Markey had introduced alongside Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Markey in the primary even though Markey has been in Congress for more than four decades.

And Joe Kennedy is 39 years old. He's been in Congress longer than Joe Kennedy has been alive. It's been hard for Kennedy to do -- provide a real -- compelling reason why Markey should be unseated to Kennedy's frustration. He had tried to make the case about Markey's record, more broadly beyond those issues, talking about things that he supported that were out of step with the progressive movement, such as a backing of NAFTA, the crime bill, the Iraq War vote, but unable to convince voters that was enough reason to get rid of Ed Markey.

And Kennedy himself, John, waited some time to really dip into his family name talk about that he wanted to extend the Kennedy legacy. It was late in the campaign that he did that. But unclear if that would have made any difference at all as Kennedy -- Markey showing the power of the incumbency in that state. And of course, also upon incumbent winning a House race in Massachusetts last night, Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, defeating young progressive upstart there, so incumbents difficult to defeat even though it's happened a few times this year, John.

KING: Even if your name was Kennedy. Manu Raju, appreciate that. And that means for the time being Joe Kennedy would not be following the family legacy to the United States Senate. His grandfather, Robert F. Kennedy served there so did his great uncle's, Edward M. Kennedy and the former president, John F. Kennedy, not for Joe Kennedy yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOE KENNEDY III (D-MA): To my family, the Kennedy family, whose name was invoked far more often than I anticipated in this race. You're my example of what public service should be, and can be when it is done with courage and grit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining me now to talk about this, Deval Patrick. He's the former Democratic governor of Massachusetts. He, of course, was the Democratic presidential candidate as well. Governor, it's good to see you what's happening in our Commonwealth that is home to me as well, even though I live in Washington D.C. temporarily, as I say, it's been a long temporary stay in Washington.

DEVAL PATRICK, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: We always claim you.

KING: Yes, good.

PATRICK: We always claim you.

KING: I'm glad you do. What's happening here? Is the Kennedy name lost its magic or did Ed Markey --

PATRICK: I don't think --

KING: -- just won a good strong race?

PATRICK: I think it was the latter. You know, Ed Markey had two things going for him. One, a strong record of leadership on progressive and ambitious policies over a long period of time and two, a campaign manager and John Walsh, who is the grassroots genius who ran my first campaign. And, you know, Joe Kennedy is somebody you should never count out. And I don't and I hope that he stays involved in public life. He is talented. He's genuine. He is beloved in Massachusetts and beyond. So I've got big expectations for him great and great hopes as well. And I think a lot of other people do too.

KING: Do you think he over red 2018 Ayanna Pressley knocked off Michael Capuano in the Suffolk County District Attorney's race, you had an African American insurgent candidate win that race? Did he may be over read what was happening on the ground in Massachusetts? Did he think there was more of a Democratic unrest?

PATRICK: No, I hear you. I think that it's, you know, it's hard to compare those two races or frankly, any two races. This is a moment in time. And I think it has been and I hope it continues where the public is hungry for big ideas, big ideas that work, which is why I think it's really in some ways a time made for the Democratic Party. And I think Ed Markey has been a thought leader and a policy leader on big ideas that work for a long time.

[12:35:00]

And what he needs and what I and others are working on is to make sure that he has a Democratic majority in the Senate so that we can move some of these ideas alongside the House.

KING: Massachusetts, I'm going to say this and you're probably going to get offended. But I learned this covering my first campaign was covering Governor Dukakis. Massachusetts is not America. It is more blue, you know, it is more blue than America at large. And so part of the challenge on the issue, Ed Markey use so effectively, the Green New Deal climate change are part of the challenge is selling that to parts of the country that are more skeptical than either deny the problem in some cases deny the problem, but even places where they do acknowledge the issue, don't want as big a government role or don't want as big a government regulation. What's the path forward if you're Ed Markey to advance that cause but bringing people you need along?

PATRICK: You are right. I hate that characterization. I hear it all the time about Massachusetts except when it comes time for candidates to raise money and then they treat the Commonwealth like an ATM. I think that the Green New Deal is aspirational on purpose. It is about how we transition to an economy and an earth that we can inhabit and that is just. And I think that it reflects a history of innovation, industrial and otherwise in America. We are very, very good at that.

We are not as good historically at transition. And this is to the point of the question, meaning, we move on to the next thing often, John, I think, without always taking care to pay attention to the consequences of that change. Who's left behind? Who's left out? And I think the real opportunity now to win support for the Green New Deal and for the objectives behind it, particularly those that have to do with moving us to a carbon free economy is how we bring folks who are involved in the carbon economy alone, not just persuasion, but giving them a stake in moving from where we are to where we need to go.

KING: Governor Patrick, as always, grateful for your insights. It is an interesting time in the Commonwealth and have to get up there myself a little reporting, that would be helpful. Good to see you, Sir.

PATRICK: You're always welcome. Thank you. Take care.

KING: When we come back some global coronavirus headlines, cases inching closer to 26 million worldwide. Is Sweden a good model on how to handle the pandemic? Well, that depends on who you ask.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:47]

KING: Sweden's pandemic response was an experiment in the concept of so called herd immunity. Is that now paying off? Well, it depends on who you ask. CNN reporters bring us the latest on that story and other major global headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Sweden, public health experts believe some level of immunity against coronavirus might have built up in the population. They never went into a full lockdown here and initially had one of the highest death rates in Europe. But now they have one of the lowest death rates. And the working theory is that people might be getting immunity from their T cells, rather than antibodies, which are the more common test for immunity.

T cells are harder to test for. It's more expensive. And there is no mass testing program currently available. However, the Public Health Agency here has warned that it's preparing for possible new outbreaks of the virus in the fall. And if that's the case, they might bring in tough new local restrictions or some level of local restriction at least such as wearing face masks or preventing a local gatherings as well.

Max Foster, CNN, Stockholm, Sweden.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Will Ripley in Hong Kong. Finally, some news that many of these 7 million plus living in this city who have been pretty limited in their activities in recent months, well, people been waiting to hear that the city is now going to ease social distancing measures as the number of daily infections on Tuesday hit the single digits just nine new cases in this city.

Now that is evidence, city officials say that the mandatory mask wearing and other measures including closing restaurants for dine in service were justified. But now that the numbers are lower, they're starting to reopen the economy so restaurants can now serve customers until 10:00 instead of 9:00 that extra hour brings an extra revenue even though they're only at 50 percent capacity. And you're limited to groups of two, anything larger than that you can face a fine.

Gyms are also reopening which is big news for a lot of fitness enthusiasts, beaches, they won't be reopening for now nor will public pools or bars. People still can't go out drinking but at least they can go to dinner. It's the small things sometimes during this pandemic.

Will Ripley, CNN, Hong Kong.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Today marks a return to a new normal here at the Vatican as Pope Francis resumes his traditional people audiences today for the first time with the presence of the public in nearly six months. He'd been doing it via video links since lockdown began in Italy in March. What's new is the Vatican has changed the venue. It's no longer being held here outside in St. Peter's Square, but they've moved it inside to a small courtyard with a maximum capacity of 500 people. Now the Vatican says they're doing this to comply with Italy's health regulations. It will last at least through September they say. But of course, it's also true that there are fewer tourists around now. Italy still has strict travel advisories in place for tourists coming from many countries around the world. They saw a spike during the summer in cases not as bad as in other European countries, but still a concern for Italy.

On the upside of course, no tickets are necessary to get into see Pope Francis. So for those who are in Rome, on a Wednesday morning, at least for the month of September, they have a rare chance to see the Pope up close in an intimate setting.

Delia Gallagher, CNN, Rome.

[12:45:08]

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gave his State of the Union address on Tuesday. And as politicians are wanting to do in speeches like that he ticked off what he believes are his country's successes over the past year, including its fight against COVID-19, this despite the fact that more than 65,000 people have died as a result of this virus so far and hundreds of people continue to die every day.

But the President here believes that the worst of this pandemic is over both from a public health standpoint, but also from an economic standpoint. He said that more than 93,000 jobs were added in the month of August alone, but that doesn't change the fact that Mexico's economy has been devastated by this pandemic. In the second quarter of the year, Mexico's economy shrank by more than 17 percent when compared to the first three months of the year. And the IMF is predicting that 2020 GDP in this country will fall by 10.5 percent.

Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Up next with the help from the FBI, Facebook identifies trolls trying to influence, yes, your 2020 vote.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:52]

KING: Facebook is now identifying a new effort by a Russian troll group trying to influence Americans ahead of the 2020 presidential election this after a tip from the FBI, the announcement comes as the social media giant comes under fire for not doing enough to stop misinformation.

CNN Business reporter, Donie O'Sullivan, is among our people who take such a close look at this. Donie, what's that issue here? DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Hey, John. Yes, this is a very significant update here on foreign interference. People tied to the same Russian troll group, the one that Mueller indicted that interfered in the 2016 election are back again. Facebook says following a tip from the FBI.

Now this is by far the most insight we have into what Russians are doing right now today to try and use social media to covertly insert themselves into the American national conversation ahead of the election. Now the FBI is tipped to Facebook all centers around a website called peace data. It posed as an independent left wing online magazine. And incredibly it recruited real unwitting American writers and journalists contributed to it and it paid those writers.

The sorts of stories popping up there were attacks from the left on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a tactic we saw Russia use in 2016 when, according to prosecutors, they tried to use social media to split the Democratic vote for Hillary Clinton. And they're also on this website, some criticisms of Trump U.S. foreign policies, racial inequality in the U.S., as one might expect from a real left wing websites.

Now, the good news here is an credit where credit is due to Facebook after they got the tip from the FBI. They caught this campaign pretty early. It was in its infancy, it didn't go viral. The bad news, of course, John, is the fact that Russia is doing this in the first place. And you can be pretty sure that this is not their only attempt.

KING: It'd be interesting to see if the President gets mad at the FBI tipped off Facebook. But we'll follow that one another day. Donie, tell us more about these fake profile pictures apparently generated through artificial intelligence. Is this a new worry?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, John. This is where things get pretty crazy and dystopian. So piece data I mentioned recruited real American writers. But to do that decides how to have an editor and that editor had to look convincing.

So enter Alex Lacusta, I want to show you his Twitter profile. Nothing looks particularly suspicious about this Twitter account. But the picture there you see of the man in spectacles that is supposed to be Lacusta. That picture according to experts is not of a real person. That picture, that face was generated by artificial intelligence, deep fake technology.

You know, before back in 2016 a way to tell if there was a fake account or a troll account was they might be using stolen pictures of real people. Obviously now technology being used in a way to help evade detection and John this all just really highlights that we're swimming in very murky online waters at just 62 days to go to the election.

KING: It is wild. Donie O'Sullivan, grateful we have you to look into all this and come back and report it to us. Donie, thanks so much.

[12:53:53]

Germany, just confirming a Kremlin critic was poisoned by a Russian nerve agent. We'll have the details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A top Kremlin critic poison Germany revealing what many had suspected. So is Vladimir Putin then responsible? CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is a serious development. The German authorities say there's evidence Alexei Navalny, one of Russia's most prominent opposition figures was poisoned with Novichok, a powerful chemical nerve agents that we've come across before. It was Novichok remember that was used to poison the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia in 2018 in the English city of Salt Spring provoking widespread outrage in Britain and beyond.

The British authorities accused Russian agents of carrying out the attack, which led to the death of a British citizen, the contamination of a wide area. Alexei Navalny was taken ill on a flight to Moscow last month after drinking tea in an airport cafe. Russian doctors say they found no evidence of poisoning. But the German clinic where he's been treated and where he remained in a coma has now identified Novichok as the probable cause.

Well, Kremlin have a track record of categorically denying any wrongdoing. They denied involvement in the Skripal poisoning of course. And the Kremlin now says it has no information about the accusation that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok saying the German government has not yet informed them of the findings, John?

KING: Matthew Chance reporting for us from Moscow, important story.

[13:00:02]

Thanks for joining us today. We'll see you back here this time tomorrow. Don't go anywhere. Busy Newsday Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.