Kate Bolduan spoke for me this morning when she went through the issues raised by Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani's promotion of doctored videos of Nancy Pelosi with CNN Political Director David Chalian Friday morning.
"This is so stupid that someone would try to push it around but it's also super dangerous that this isn't on some far reaches of the dark internet," Bolduan said. "This is the President of the United States saying this about any American especially the Speaker of the House."
Golly, ya think?
Chalian pointed out later in the discussion that the Pelosi video smears were part of a larger attempt to project onto her a negative impression. It's what Trump does to anyone he opposes.
"What Rudy Giuliani is saying here is that he's justifying the dissemination of a completely manufactured, doctored video to create a false impression," Chalian argued. "He's trying to compare that to something that Nancy Pelosi said about the President in front of a roomful of reporters at a press conference where she was taking questions.
He continued, "The things are not comparable and this is part of -- you can see what's happening here, right? You saw yesterday the president started calling her Crazy Nancy, saying she's lost a step. They're trying to build a narrative, a real negative frame around Nancy Pelosi because he sees her now as the most fierce political opponent he's facing."
As Bolduan said in the beginning, it's stupid and dangerous. I have more to say to social media companies enabling this, but I'll save that for a different post.
The full transcript is below:
(Original and doctored video excerpts)
BOLDUAN: YouTube removed the video, but it's still out there and has been viewed millions of times. A spokesman for Pelosi said the speaker is not going to comment on, quote, sexist trash. But there is more. President Trump has jumped into all of this, now, tweeting out a video -- here's a picture of his twitter feed -- that video is edited to make it appear she was basically falling all over her words in her press conference yesterday. It aired -- that video, that montage on Fox Business and the President's tweet about it says, "Pelosi stammers through news conference."
Joining me now is CNN Political Director David Chalian. First, the actual manipulated video and then that video on Fox Business that the president's been pushing around, David. I don't know what other word to say. This is so stupid that someone would try to push it around but it's also super dangerous that this isn't on some far reaches of the dark internet. This is the President of the United States saying this about any American especially the Speaker of the House. I mean, can you just officially declare that politics -- American politics -- are broken and go home at this point?
CHALIAN: I do think that what we see across social media platforms is indeed breaking American politics as we know it. It's something that every candidate is going to have to grapple with. We saw this in '16, it's going to be more prevalent as we go into 2020. Obviously, we in the press have a job to do to call out this crap when we see it, and identify it and hopefully inform the public. But that's not going to stop. As you said, 1.4 million views already. So this is a really dangerous practice and having it amplified by a Rudy Giuliani or President Trump, that just puts it, you know, on turbo charge. So I do think that this is going to be a major component of this upcoming election season, that every candidate, including President Trump -- I don't take him out of that -- is going to have to guard against.
BOLDUAN: I fear for what's coming up in 2020, and I don't say that just flippantly. Rudy Giuliani, he pushed around the manipulated video. He eventually deleted it. I want to make sure to say that. This morning he set out a response. The first one was completely unintelligible with a strange GIF that I don't know what it was. But then, he also wrote this: First, she should withdraw her charge when she says the president needs an intervention. So basically I take from that he's saying a manipulated video to send out is fine because she criticized the President. If that's what it looks like, we're not even close to the general election, I'm really scared what it means when we get there.
CHALIAN: This isn't even a child's playground argument where one says, oh, he started it. What Rudy Giuliani is saying here is that he's justifying the dissemination of a completely manufactured, doctored video to create a false impression. He's trying to compare that to something that Nancy Pelosi said about the President in front of a roomful of reporters at a press conference where she was taking questions. The things are not comparable and this is part of -- you can see what's happening here, right? You saw yesterday the president started calling her crazy nancy, saying she's lost a step. They're trying to build a narrative, a real negative frame around Nancy Pelosi because he sees her now as the most fierce political opponent he's facing.
BOLDUAN: You mentioned media needs to do a good job, better job by calling things out when they need to call things out, but also this is a very stark reminder that voters need to be smart. They need to take it upon themselves to look at what they're watching, what they're reading, question where it's coming from before they take it as fact. It's not easy when the news coming at you at light speed. That's what's going to be required especially when it comes to this divisive campaign.
CHALIAN: And the campaigns are going to have to adjust to this reality.
BOLDUAN: And do it fast.
