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What to Know About Trump and the 14th Amendment`s "Insurrectionist Ban"; The Impact AI-Generated Deepfakes Could Have on Elections; A Thousand Years in a Single Photograph. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired February 08, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What`s up, sunshine. It`s time to shine. I`m Coy Wire. Pun to be here with you this Thursday, happy Friday Eve. We are at
Super Bowl Radio Row where more than 6,000 credential media for more than 20 countries are here to report on the first ever Super Bowl in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
Now, speaking of Nevada, this state, as well as the Virgin Islands will be holding Republican Party caucuses today. Now, there was a Nevada GOP
primary on Tuesday, but Republicans have chosen to award their delegates through today`s caucuses.
Former President Donald Trump is currently in the lead for his party`s nomination. And his biggest fight may not be on the campaign trail during
the Republican primaries.
But in the courtroom earlier this week, a federal appeals court said that Trump is not immune from prosecution for federal election subversion
charges. This ruling is a blow to Trump`s argument that his actions in 2020 were part of his official duties as president and are therefore protected
from criminal trials.
Trump faces four counts in the election subversion case, which includes conspiring to defraud the United States and to obstruct an official
proceeding. He has pleaded not guilty. Now, the timing of this trial will be up to the Supreme Court. Trump`s defense team hopes to delay his
criminal cases until after the 2024 election.
Now, speaking of the Supreme Court, that leads us to another legal fight for Trump. Today, the nation`s highest court will hear oral arguments on
whether states can remove Trump from election ballots.
Last year Colorado`s State Supreme Court ruled Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run in 2024 because of the 14th Amendment`s ban on
insurrectionists holding office covers his conduct on January 6th, 2021. And they aren`t the only state looking to remove the former president from
election ballots. The last time the Supreme Court was at the center of a presidential election battle was back in 2000 where their ruling delivered
the presidency to Republican George W. Bush by halting a Florida vote recount.
There`s a lot to unpack with these cases, but let`s turn now to our Legal Analyst, Elie Honig who looks at what the Supreme Court justices will and
won`t be deciding in the Trump ballot eligibility case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Don`t expect the Supreme Court to decide whether Donald Trump did or did not engage in insurrection. I`ll
explain why in a moment.
You probably know by now that the 14th Amendment says that anyone who is engaged in insurrection cannot hold office. And that Colorado has
disqualified Donald Trump from its ballot under that provision.
Now, here`s what the Supreme Court will be asking about. Donald Trump`s team will argue that while the 14th Amendment does specify certain offices,
senators, representatives, and others, it actually says nothing specifically about the president. Colorado is going to counter that. Yes,
but the 14th Amendment actually does say it applies to officers of the United States. This will be a close call. It`ll come down to how the
justices choose to interpret those words in the constitution.
Watch for Trump`s team to argue that it`s up to Congress and not the individual states to decide whether and how to apply the 14th Amendment.
Colorado will argue that the states have the power to enforce the 14th Amendment.
The problem here is if the Supreme Court allows the states to make these decisions on their own, we could end up in a situation where major party
candidates are kicked off the ballot in some states, but not others.
So how about the big question? Did Donald Trump engage in insurrection? Of course, Colorado claims he did. And Donald Trump says he did not. But don`t
expect the justices to go too deep into this question. First, that`s just not what the Supreme Court does. They don`t hold trials and they don`t find
facts.
Second, they don`t need to decide this question. The Supreme Court always likes to rule as narrowly as possible. And the Supreme Court tries to base
its rulings on procedural and constitutional issues like the ones we just talked about. However, this case comes out, we will see history in the
making.
Now, I got to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Now, as this election season heats up, there is another complicated issue that could affect political outcomes. AI generated deepfakes, a
deepfake refers to audio or video that has been created using artificial intelligence. And these deepfakes can look and sound realistic. There are
tools that can detect these hoaxes, but we`re still playing catch up, if you will. CNN`s Donie O`Sullivan, investigates one mayoral election that
may have been affected by the misuse of this technology.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONIE O`SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Democrat Paul Vallas ran in a contentious race last year for Chicago mayor, he faced an unprecedented
attack, a deepfake creative using artificial intelligence.
AI-GENERATED FAKE AUDIO: We need to stop defunding the police and start refunding them.
O`SULLIVAN: So you`ve never actually heard the --
PAUL VALLAS, FORMER CHICAGO MAYORAL CANDIDATE: No, no.
O`SULLIVAN: Oh, wow. Well I`m going to play it for you.
VALLAS: No, no, no, no, no. You don`t need to. It`s only -- only aggravate me.
O`SULLIVAN: OK. This deepfake audio view played into this idea that, you know, you weren`t Democrat enough for the Democratic Party. That you`re two
pro-police, which was a line of attack --
VALLAS: Yeah.
O`SULLIVAN: -- against you.
VALLAS: Yeah. Well, clearly, you know, look, Chicago is a very, very, very, very blue city. And they were trying to portray me as some -- some far hard
right Conservative Republican, being able to throw mud against the wall like that, put you in a position where you have to deny it or damage has
still been done. And there is some damage that`s not reparable.
It`s clear based on the result tonight that the city is deeply divided.
O`SULLIVAN: Vallas lost the election by four points. He says he doesn`t know the full effect the deepfake had on the race.
The account that shared the deepfake of you was called Chicago Lake Front News.
VALLAS: Yeah.
O`SULLIVAN: Doesn`t exist.
VALLAS: Yeah, it doesn`t exist. Yeah.
O`SULLIVAN: So it was very clearly set up for the purpose to character assassinate you.
VALLAS: Yeah.
O`SULLIVAN: And this was a close race?
VALLAS: And this was a really close race.
O`SULLIVAN: Digital forensics expert Hany Farid says AI deepfakes are no longer a hypothetical problem, but an actual threat to elections.
AI-GENERATED FAKE AUDIO: 17 or 18 civilians in their career and nobody would bat an eye.
HANY FARID, DIGITAL FORENSICS EXPERT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY: So I make a lot of fakes because I`m in the business of detecting them. And
I can do that whole thing in about five minutes.
O`SULLIVAN: Yeah.
FARID: Almost anybody. Here`s why I think audio alone is in some ways a bigger threat. The most compelling deepfakes that I`ve seen are these so-
called hot mic deepfakes. You don`t see their mouth moving. You don`t see anything, but you hear the voice and it`s visceral. And it sounds like
you`re your eavesdropping on them. And I think that -- that those are really powerful.
O`SULLIVAN: A CNN analysis shows that U.S. isn`t prepared to respond effectively. We ask election officials in all 50 states, how they`re
preparing for deepfakes, 33 responded, but less than half of those cited specific actions to handle AI threats.
FARID: I don`t think we`re ready. I mean, we are still struggling with the last 10 years of the nonsense that has been social media as in the lives
and the conspiracies that are propagated. It`s -- it`s hard to look at that and say, well, the injection of jet fuel into that is not going to have any
impact. Of course it will.
O`SULLIVAN: They talk to a lot of people on the left, liberals. And there is at times a bit of smugness there, which says, well, it`s the Trump
supporters who fall for online misinformation.
VALLAS: Right, right.
O`SULLIVAN: Not us.
VALLAS: Yeah.
O`SULLIVAN: We`re also susceptible to this, are we?
VALLAS: Yeah. We`re also susceptible to it and we all do it. When I say we all do it, I`m saying within every group, there are people who will do it.
There are people who will cross that line.
O`SULLIVAN: A lot of Americans might think, oh, the risk of AI and all this sort of stuff. It`s in the future. It`s being overblown.
VALLAS: Yeah. I mean the future is now, the future is here. I won`t be the first and I won`t be the last, you know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Ten second trivia.
What year was the oldest surviving photograph taken?
1861, 1839, 1826 or 1818?
If you said 1826, put your hands up. According to how stuff works, it took Joseph Nicephore Niepce eight hours to produce the photo using his
primitive camera.
Today`s story getting a 10 out of 10. Can you imagine how life will change a thousand years from now? While a philosopher from the University of
Arizona created a camera to record the past for future generations and to prompt all of us to think about how we can influence the future a thousand
years away. Here`s Jeremy Roth with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY ROTH, CNN REPORTER: Take a look at a camera that will be taking one single picture for 1000 years. It`s called the millennium camera and is an
ambitious project from an experimental philosopher at the University of Arizona. The special camera set up overlooking a Tucson area desert was
designed to take one extremely long exposure of the vista over the next 10 centuries.
The idea is not only to one day show how the environment changed over time, but also to inspire discussions now about actions that can be taken to
shape its future. But as far as the finished photo is concerned, it won`t be ready to view until the year 3023. So check back then, I guess.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: All right. Question for all of you. Why did the camera stop dreaming about a career in photography? It couldn`t remain focused.
All right, superstars. That`s it for today`s show. But it`s time for some shout outs St. Croix Central High School located on this island of St.
Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, rise up. We see you.
Next up, Coronado High School in Henderson, Nevada. Cougars, keep on being awesome. For all you sports fans out there, I`m interviewing The GOAT, Tom
Brady tomorrow. So send your questions to the comment section of my most recent post @coywire on social. And I`m going to pick one winner from a
viewer to ask Tom, and I`m going to say your name and school when I ask him.
All right, we`ll see you tomorrow, lovely people. I`m Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.
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