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Study: Trump Is "Single Largest Driver" of COVID Misinformation; Trump's Pattern of Denying That He Knows People; Update on Coronavirus Responses Across the Country. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired October 01, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:32:16]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The first comprehensive study on the spread of misinformation in the coronavirus pandemic is out and finds the single biggest propagator of lies is one person, the president of the United States.
Researchers from Cornell University analyzed nearly 38 million English-language media articles of January through to May and there were more than a million articles that they were looking at that contained misinformation.
And the main source of these conspiracy theories and falsehoods they found was Trump. The flood of misinformation so large that researchers are calling it an infodemic.
I want to bring in Sarah Evanega. She is the director at the Cornell Alliance for Science, Department of Global Development at Cornell University.
Thank you so much for being with us. I think this is so important to take a look at.
Can you just give us a sense of the biggest takeaways were for you?
SARAH EVANEGA, DIRECTOR, CORNELL ALLIANCE FOR SCIENCE, DEPARTMENT OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: Great. Thanks, Brianna. Thank you so much.
They looked at the infodemic landscape across those months that you mentioned and we see is there's major themes that emerge.
One of the big themes is this topic of miracle cures we all heard about over the last few months. That included disinfectants, cures related to U.V., cures related to Hydroxychloroquine.
And that really composed -- comprised most of the misinformation coverage over those months.
What we see is when we look at the coverage of the miracle cure topic, much of that was associated with the president of the United States. So 38 percent of the COVID misinformation was linked to coverage of the president.
KEILAR: And how did you trace this back to the president? Were you just looking at quotes that he made? How did you do this?
EVANEGA: That's right. So we used some tools to look at search strings, using indicators of misinformation, of COVID conspiracy theories, in association with other words.
And so we -- what emerged are a number of categories that we saw. For example, a big category is fact-checking. We did see about 16 percent of the misinformation coverage was fact-checking, which is a good thing. I want to encourage more of that.
But we also saw that 38 percent of the misinformation coverage was in association with the name of the president of the United States.
KEILAR: OK. So you found that there were these many topics and some were more pervasive. Right? You found that some were the most clickable? What really drew people in?
EVANEGA: Certainly. So there were a number of topics, from bat soup to 5-G that came and went, the "Fire Fauci" hash tag came and went.
[13:35:01]
But it was the miracle-cures topic that was the most persistent across the months. And those themes within miracle cures, Hydroxychloroquine, disinfectants, were the most dominant.
We've looked at a range of issues in science at the Alliance for Science that are essentially riddled with misinformation. Most notably, we do work a lot of work on GMOs.
And in March, we decided to sort of pivot and look at the this is information landscape around COVID-19 specifically. And the miracle cures topic in association with the president was the most dominant theme.
KEILAR: Could you tell, Sarah, who was seizing on the material?
EVANEGA: We looked at traditional media. And so essentially, this is the traditional media covering the president and what the president is talking about.
As we see, there's a real role for media to play in preventing a second infodemic.
As we talk about the second wave of the pandemic, we also need to be thinking about a potential second wave of the infodemic and what can the media do to prevent that second infodemic. Especially as we approach a vaccine.
KEILAR: Yes. I think a lot of us have people in our lives who we think are very reasonable people and are still so confused by the information out there so I hear that number from you, 16 percent fact- checks. We need to get that heading north.
Sarah Evanega, thank you so much.
EVANEGA: Thank you so much, Brianna. Pleasure.
KEILAR: New today, Hollywood stars, like Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese, are warning that movie theaters may not survive the pandemic.
Plus, as the president plays naive on the far-right group the Proud Boys, it fits a pattern. We're going to roll the tape.
And as fears of election and racial unrest surge across America, firearm groups are reporting a sharp rise in black Americans buying guns. We'll talk about that.
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[13:41:49]
KEILAR: Let's call it the "hardly no them" defense. Just hours after the president told a far-right extremist group to stand back and stand by in front of 75 million viewers --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know who the Proud Boys are. You will have to give me a definition. Because I really don't know who they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The president has a clear pattern of denying that he knows someone that is either in trouble or has criticized him or anyone he doesn't want to be associated with.
Let's roll the tape, starting with the impeachment inquiry and Gordon Sondland, the former ambassador to the E.U., who was set to testify in the Ukraine scandal that, yes, there was a quid pro quo to hold up U.S. aid money for information damaging to Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know him very well. I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. Seems like a nice guy, though. But I don't know him well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Just a month before, the president tweeted that he'd loved to send Sondland a really good man and great American to testify.
Sondland was also a big donor to Trump's inauguration. And he was nominated by the president to his ambassadorship a year and a half before.
Then, on the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I really don't know her. I'm sure she's a very fine woman. I don't know much about her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Not only did the pressure know of Maria Vanovich, according to a White House transcript, Trump told Ukraine's president she was, quote, "bad news" and would, quote, "be going through some things" before she was eventually fired as ambassador to Ukraine.
And after one of Rudy Giuliani's indicted associates, Les Parnas, said the president pressured Ukraine's president to announce an investigation on Joe Biden --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know Parnas then, I guess, I had pictures taken, which I do with thousands of people.
I don't know him at all. Don't know what he's about. Don't know where he comes from. Know nothing about him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Trump also said this about Army Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who helped manage the Ukraine portfolio at White House and was set to testify about what he heard in that phone call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know Vindman at all.
Some of them are Never Trumpers.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What evidence do you have that Colonel Vindman is a Never Trumper?
TRUMP: We'll be showing you real soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Very soon, real soon turned into real never.
And Trump's 2016 campaign not much different. Despite calling one of his campaign advisers, George Papadopoulos, an excellent guy to the "Washington Post," this was the word on him once he was convicted of lying to the FBI.
"I never even talked to the guy," Trump told FOX News. "I didn't know who he was. Even Paul Manafort the head of President Trump's presidential campaign, got the "hardly know him" treatment, too, when convicted in the Mueller investigation.
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TRUMP: I didn't know Manafort well. He wasn't with the campaign long.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: A reminder that Manafort managed the campaign.
As Trump obtained the delegates that secured him the Republican nomination, it was a big deal, right?
Just two days after Trump controversially promoted Matthew Whitaker to acting attorney general --
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TRUMP: Matt Whitaker, I don't know Matt Whitaker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Ditto for Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official and now a CNN contributor, who was right-hand man to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, as she executed Trump's family separation policy at the border.
The president claimed he's never heard of nor did he know Taylor. And that prompted the former top aide on immigration issues to tweet this picture of the together in the Resolute Desk in the Oval.
After the U.K. ambassador to the U.S., one of the most important foreign diplomats in the U.S., lost his job for calling the Trump administration inept, among other things, the president said in a statement, quote, "I do not know the ambassador but he is not liked or well thought of within the U.S."
Doesn't know him but certainly has very strong opinions about him.
And then when it came to his alleged affair with adult film star and director, Stormy Daniels, Trump told the Associated Press in 2018, quote, "I had nothing to do with her."
Well, nothing to do with her apparently translates to reimbursing Michael Cohen for a $135,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, by Trump's own admission.
When Prince Andrew became involved in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know Prince Andrew. I don't know him, no. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Seems like maybe he does, though, judging by photos of the two at events together, coupled with the president saying that Prince Andrew was, quote, "a lot of fun to be with."
You may recall climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, and how Trump attacked the teenager for months. Remember, he told her "to chill, to get anger management."
And then, at a summit in Davos, he called her "angry" but then, quote, "I don't really know anything about her."
Or when rapper and former "Apprentice" contestant, Lil Jon, said Trump called him an Uncle Tom --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know who Lil Jon is. I really don't.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He was on "The Apprentice."
TRUMP: I don't know.
Oh, he was? OK.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes.
TRUMP: Oh, I see.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: He did seem to know him when he earlier called Lil Jon an amazing and wonderful guy, a terrific guy and a great friend.
The president once named Anthony Scaramucci, who at the time was a family friend, to be White House communications director.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The president is most competitive person I have ever met. Look, I have seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The president would say he barely knew him after the Mooch got the boot just 11 days into the job for badmouthing other officials in the administration.
After the president mocked a reporter's disability, something that he denies to this day, despite clearly doing it right there on camera, he claimed, quote, "Despite having one of the all-time great memories, I certainly do not remember him."
Well, he Serge Kovaleski said that he covered the president in his business dealings for years. He even interviewed Trump inside his office.
And here's what the president said about one of his Democratic critics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm not sure I ever met Bob Casey. I never met him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Problem is the president himself, in the very next breath, fact-checked himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I'm sure I did. I shook his hand. But I'm not sure.
Now, his father was a good man. Knew him a little bit. But we're dealing with a totally different person.
I don't think -- I don't know this man. He's a Senator. There are 100 Senators. I don't know him!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now Russia factors large in Trump's "hardly know him" defense. Here's what he said about Vladimir Putin before he was president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I spoke indirectly and directly with President Putin who could not have been nicer.
I do have a relationship. And I can tell you that he's very interested in what we are doing here today.
They treated me so great. Putin sent me a present, beautiful president, with a beautiful note.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But as Trump's proclivity for his Russian friend faced scrutiny --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I never met Putin. I don't know who Putin is.
I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about him other than he will respect me.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: When Russia was interfering in the 2016 election --
TRUMP: This just came out. Wikileaks! I love WikiLeaks!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Wikileaks, of course, is synonymous with the founder Julian Assange. But when Assange was arrested --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It is not my thing.
I know nothing really about them. It's not my -- it's not my deal in life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Nor is telling the truth.
Ahead, the NFL is threatening serious penalties for mask-less personnel on the sidelines, including loss of draft picks.
[13:49:52]
Plus, some of Hollywood's heavyweights, including Clint Eastwood, express fears that movie theaters may not survive the pandemic.
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KEILAR: Bradley International Airport in Connecticut is now offering coronavirus testing inside of the terminal. It is one of the first airports to do this in the U.S.
Passengers flying in from state's impacted by Connecticut's travel order will be exempt from a 14-day quarantine if they get a negative test within 72 hours of arrival.
Passengers can just stop by the testing site, which is conveniently located in the airport's baggage-claim area.
For more headlines, let's check in now with our CNN correspondents across the nation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Carolyn Manno, In New York. The NFL is sending a stern warning to coaches and sideline personnel to wear facial covering while on the field.
[13:55:06]
In a memo to all 32 teams, the NFL threatened possible suspensions or loss of upcoming draft picks for failing to comply with the league's protocols. The NFL has already fined several coaches $100,000 for not wearing
facial coverings, including the Saints' Sean Payton and the Raider's Jon Gruden, who have both recovered from COVID-19.
The coach's teams also being fined a quarter of a million dollars each.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Cristina Alesci, in New York. Movie theaters are in dire straits and will not survive the pandemic unless Congress acts. That is the message this morning to congressional leaders.
High-profile directors and producers, such as James Cameron, Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese, joining with industry groups, calling on Congress to redirect some federal funds to ailing cinemas that employ 150,000 people across the country and millions more in production and distribution.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: President Trump is using race to stoke fears ahead of the election. Plus, he and his allies continue to refuse to specifically condemn white supremacists.
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