tv Fareed Zakaria GPS CNN September 6, 2020 7:00am-8:00am PDT
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the following is a cnn special report. ♪ could be one of the greatest coups of all time. >> spying on me. >> fighting the deep state. >> this is a conspiracy against you, the american people, and we can not let this happen. >> why does the president of the united states of america live in a world of dark, sinister conspiracies? >> he gravitates instinctively to conspiratorial understandings of the world. >> the world makes sense if you look behind the curtain. >> it could be a plot. >> there are dark forces behind the curtain. >> lurking behind that curtain he sees political enemies. >> obama-gate. some terrible things happened
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and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again. >> joe biden and his son are corrupt. >> hillary clinton, she's a world-class liar. >> he sees a plot to steal an election. >> voter fraud, voter fraud. here's the evidence. >> this whole election is being rigged. >> it's a lie. >> and it's dangerous. >> a burn it down strategy that just doesn't defeat an opponent, it damages democracy. >> covid-19 is a hoax. >> trump has conspiracy theory allies. >> obama and hillary smell like -- >> america is back. >> it's totally nuts. even crazier, the conspiracies of trump fans. >> the qanon conspiracy. >> donald trump is the hero being thwarted by a ring of pedophiles and child traffickers. >> trump is part of the q team. >> how did we get here? >> this is the first time in our history that a conspiracy holds
quote
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the highest notifies the land. >> this is not something we've seen in functioning democracy. >> a democracy that will soon elect a president. >> this is the first time i can remember having a fear or anxiety that a sitting president, if he loses a free and fair election, won't leave. >> good evening. i'm fareed zakaria. let me begin with the confession. this is not the kind of topic i usually tackle. and i am concerned about repeating false information. but the subject is urgent because the conspiracy theories circulating now are dangerous. and the president of the united states is trafficking in them. when donald trump tells us elections are rigged, obama gate is the biggest scandal in history, some know these ideas are wholly false, but others are
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less certain, especially when they hear a story full of details that seems to explain everything. polls show that up to 50% of americans have believed at least one of these conspiracy theories. this is a story of just how destructive they have become. not just to the people they target, but also to the very foundations of our democracy. >> why doesn't he give his birth certificate? >> donald trump's rise to power began with a conspiracy theory. >> relatives don't even know which hospital he was born in. >> this is the hottest thing out there. this hat, you can't get them. >> as he tested the waters to run for the white house. >> people have birth certificates. he doesn't have a birth certificate. if he doesn't it's one of the greatest scams in the history of politics. >> trump peddled birtherism like a traveling salesman. >> a lot of people do not think it was an authentic certificate.
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>> how can you say that if the -- >> you report it, wolf. >> it was a political winner. >> 55% of the republicans believe in this issue. >> he rode it into the white house. he has brilliant instincts and brilliant intuitions. >> donald trump understood exactly how to tap into an ugly, racial undercurrent. >> the idea of whether he was born in the united states, i think that's a metaphor. is he one of us? answer no. >> with the birtherism conspiracy theory, donald trump could send a racist message without saying the race part out loud. >> your country was stolen from you by barack hussein obama. >> barack hussein obama. >> black african father, barack
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hussein. that's enough. >> trump uses conspiracy theorys as weapons against his political opponents. >> very suspicious situation. obama-gate. >> i'm fighting the deep state. there has been no bigger trump target than hillary clinton. >> the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the united states. >> the darkest clinton conspiracy theory has a huge following on the internet. trump and his allies have promoted it, even as it has grown increasingly toxic. this is edgar madison welch. he is driving from his north carolina home to washington, d.c., recording a message to his two young daughters. >> i love you all more than anything in this world.
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>> he is preparing to risk his life to save children he doesn't even know. >> i've always told you we have duty to protect people who can't protect themselves. you do for people that can't do for themselves. >> you might consider welch a good man. >> i hope you understand that. >> but this mission of mercy was actually a dangerous delusion. he felt prey to a twisted conspiracy theory called pizza gate. he actually believed that hillary clinton and other washington elites were running a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza restaurant in washington, d.c. >> just because it's crazy doesn't mean that people won't believe it. >> in addition to the ar-15 welsh was carrying a hand gun and shotgun was found in his car. >> he burst into a crowded
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restaurant, terrified customers ran for their lives, but there were no abused children, not even a basement. no one was hurt. welsh went to prison. the original source of all of this? a leaked e-mail to john podesta, hillary clinton's campaign chief from his brother and it said simply "would love to get a pizza." >> pizza is a well-known pedophile code word that actually has been used by law enforcement to arrest online sexual predators of children. >> pizza-gate is real. >> now disturbingly teenagers have grown observed with pizza-gate and they believe celebrities have joined hillary clinton to abuse children. >> need to search for what they don't want us paying attention to. >> child trafficking. >> the social media site tiktok popular with teenagers has logged more than 18 views for posts with the pizza-gate hash tag according to the "new york
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times." >> we are q. >> pizza-gate began in 2016 but in the last few years it has grown into a bigger conspiracy theory called qanon. >> when nonsense becomes dangerous is when people believe it to be true. >> a mysterious character or characters called q supposedly high up in u.s. intelligence, give followers hints about deep state conspirators ought to destroy donald trump. >> donald trump is the hero of the qanon following. he's actually let a christ like figure who will save the country and save the world. >> save the world from the deep state, from liberals and pedophiles. >> do you believe there's a ring of high-profile politicians who are kidnapping and sacrificing children? >> i do believe that. >> everything you post about child pedophilia and what's been going on in our country and who is doing it, is coming to light.
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>> trump is part of the q team. from what we understand q plus is his handle and he does a lot of posts and he's part of this. >> crowds of qanon believers show up at trump rallies. >> my name is tammy and i'm a family doctor. >> truth. q is about getting to the truth by educating people about the truth about what's really going on. >> they're anonymous but they're all on the same track looking for the truth. >> qanon, all of us. >> getting to the truth is a qanon theme. even though its beliefs are preposterous fiction. >> the motorcade moves into the downtown area, death is six minutes away. >> the biggest conspiracy theory of them all, who really killed jfk has now become part of qanon. >> jfk jr. is alive. jfk jr. is in protective custody
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because they tried to kill him like they killed his father. >> my father stood before you. >> the belief is that somehow the late jfk jr. is alive and helping trump clean up the deep state. >> they're not tethered to the truth so it's easy to make up more elaborate stories. >> qanon has morphed from conspiracy theory. >> some call it the great awakening. >> into an actual political movement of snoortsz we've all been gathering online and talking together as americans and uniting and -- >> you think maybe it makes you comfortable talking with other frustrated, sometimes angry people? >> yes. >> what is donald trump's connection to qanon? meet radio host michael lebron. he is one of qanon's chi chief pushers. >> if you have not even ventured initially into the qanon phenomenon, do you have any idea of what you're missing? >> this is qanon pusher michael
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lebron in the oval office with the president. >> eric trump, everybody. >> eric trump, the president's son posted this instagram, promoting qanon, even using one of the slogans where we go one, we go all. >> wearing a shirt that says -- >> it means where we go one, where we go all. >> general michael flynn, the former national security adviser, whom trump has lavishly praised as a fine man rung by the justice system, took the qanon oath on the 4th of july with family and friends. >> god bless america. >> flynn's lawyers tell cnn that the oath he took was not connectd to qanon. >> where we go one -- >> but, in fact, that oath is universally recognized inside the q movement. >> where we go one. >> we go all. >> where we go one we go all.
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>> president donald trump frequently retweets qanon accounts. on the 4th of july, the same day michael flynn took his oath, while the coronavirus was surging to record levels all over the country, the president retweeted qanon accounts 14 times. no one is sure how many people are in the group but according to the "washington post" about 600,000 people have voted for qanon connected political candidates. media matters has documented at least 46 of them are in the current election cycle. >> i'm marjorie green and i approve this ad. >> marjorie green is running for congress from a district in northwest georgia. >> q has put out there that many high-level officials will soon be arrested. is it going to be true that child pedophilia and the elites
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in the washington, d.c., is that what we're really going to see come snout is it going to be satanic worship? >> save america. >> marjorie green is favored to win that seat in the house of representatives. perhaps the biggest question surrounding all of this is why? why would anyone believe any of these conspiracy theories? >> it's so unsettling and i think quite authentically terrifying to live in a world that we feel we can't control. conspir sism becomes seductive and attractive because it explains that world is against you and this is the important part, it's not your fault. >> not my fault i inherited this mess but we're fixing it. >> i don't take responsibility at all. >> it externalizes blame. that's what qanon does for people. >> it seems to give its followers a kind of emotional
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support. >> it creates an explanation that comforts and consoles and there's always this unnamed, unseen deep state that is actually responsible for everything. >> qanon provides people with the psychological comfort they need. what it does for donald trump it provides the fear that keeps his base motivated. >> several studies done by scientists from the united kingdom and poland found be that conspiracy-minded people have a strong need to feel better or smarter than others. they are, in other words, n narcissistic. if that sounds familiar -- >> i don't think this is the most controversial thing in the world, that he is even by the standards of american politicians unusually narcissistic. >> i alone can fix it. >> people would say i'm the super genius of all time. >> the one that matters is me. >> is it possible that trump just uses conspiracy theorys to
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gin up his base? maybe. but -- >> he has a conspiracy mindset. he gravitates naturally to conpir torl understandings of the world. >> there's something going on that we don't know about. >> a lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign. >> it could be a plot. i don't want to think in terms of conspiracy but it could be a plot. >> trump's conspiracy theories resonate deeply with his voters and that raises the most troubling aspect of this story. >> our immune system has been weakened to conspiracy thinking. >> this is why it's so dangerous. >> many americans are vulnerable to conspiracy theories because they don't trust government, officials or institutions. listen to what this qanon follower says. >> we can all admit that pretty much everybody knows the government is corrupt. q to me is just showing that it's a lot more corrupt than we
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thought. >> pew research shows america's trust has been dropping for decades. look at the last 20 years. by the time donald trump was elected president, belief and faith in democracy had reached an all-time low. trust in the media took a similar plunge and donald trump knows it. >> just remember what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> what's important is to get them to disbelieve everything. >> this is the way in which hard demagoguery can destroy democracy. >> all of this as we face a presidential election. >> voter fraud, voter fraud. >> the most corrupt election in the history of our country. >> it's a lie. >> coming up next, the biggest conspiracy threat of all. >> the sort of thing i never imagined would be possible in the united states of america.
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monitoring patients in hospitals around the world so that doctors and nurses can make sure you feel safe. as new challenges have arisen, we've grown to bring that same safety and support to the place that you want to be most. together. masimo. together in hospital. together at home. tell me when you're ready. >> a few days after the 2016 election. >> i just had the opportunity to have tan excellent conversation with president-elect trump. >> an operative named greg phillips tweeted a bombshell, number of noncitizen votes
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exceeds 3 million. >> can you prove right now that 3 million people voted illegally. >> yes. >> phillips, a voter fraud watchdog was cagey about showing any evidence. >> do you have the proof? >> yes. >> will you provide it? >> yes. >> can i have it? >> no. >> why? >> we're going to release everything to the public. >> when? >> as soon as we get done with the challenges. >> so you're not done checking it yet? >> questions about a possible recount. >> in fact, when phillips made his outrageous claim. >> recount votes in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. >> states had not even certified their election results. >> we're not going to make a mistake. we're doing it. >> you accused. >> i'm not a politician. i'm a guy. >> millions of dead people voting, illegals voting. >> alex jones, the conspiracy theorist who said the u.s. government staged 9/11 picked up the story.
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>> donald j. trump didn't just win the electoral college, he also clearly won the popular vote. >> and after that story ran, president-elect trump tweeted for the first time that he won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. >> greg phillips won't show us any evidence. >> illegal immigrants voting. >> illegal immigrants are voting. >> just like that. >> we don't want noncitizen voters. >> a voter fraud conspiracy theory was born. >> voter fraud, voter fraud, here's the evidence. it's a lie. >> trump has made an astounding number of completely unsubstantiated voter fraud claims over the years. as early as the 2012 election he tweeted that president obama's win was a total sham. >> god bless the great state of
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iowa. >> in the 2016 primaries he accused ted cruz of stealing iowa and marco rubio of rigging florida. >> new hampshire was taken away. >> he said there were busloads of out-of-state voters who stole the state of new hampshire. >> people that have died ten years ago are still voting. >> nearly 2 million dead people voted for hillary clinton. >> tens of millions of mail-in ballots. >> in 2020. >> will they be forged? >> according to our president. >> will they be stolen from mailboxes? >> mail-in ballots will be riddled with fraud. >> will they be taken from the mail men and mail women. >> it's based on a lie. it's a big magical trick, but it's lethal to american democracy. >> voter fraud has been investigated ad nauseam by academics and governments, republicans and democrats. proven cases are less common than someone being struck by
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lightning. >> from 2000 to 2014, in 1 billion votes cast, there were 31 cases of voter impersonation fraud. that's not massive, that's not rampant. >> voter fraud is virtually nonexistent because it doesn't make sense for people to risk it. it's unlikely to swing an election and the penalties are severe. >> voter fraud is a felony. that's a big disincentive. >> they even want to try to rig the election. >> but thanks to trump's constant repetition. >> the system was rigd. >> that election is going to be rigged. >> it was rigd. >> the voter fraud lie has become the truth for many americans. in one poll nearly have said that voter fraud occurred often. among trump supporters, over
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two-thirds said it happened a lot. >> the beauty of a lie is if you say it over and over with conviction, it sounds like the truth. >> we have to protect the integrity of the vote and our voters. >> trump doubled down on his conspiracy theories when he formed a presidential commission to investigate voter fraud. >> criticized as a misguided effort to prove the unprovable. >> after a few months of bureaucratic blundering. >> senior white house adviser telling cnn, quote, it was a poop show. they used a different word. >> it ended in disgrace. >> in that commission's report when you get to the section marked voter fraud the pages are blank. >> but the voter fraud lie lives on. >> we're not going to lose. the only way we can lose is if cheating goes on.
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>> voter fraud conspiracy theorys have been around long before donald trump. >> vote fraud threatens the integrity of our process. >> in the 2000s, some republicans began spinning tales of widespread voter fraud. >> there are many ways in the system. >> there is growing concern in the party about the nation's demographics. >> this is your victory. >> more people of color who traditionally voted democrat were going to the polls. >> certain republican elites came to believe that republican party had an interest in depressing turnout. that's when they invented the fiction of voter fraud. >> requiring people to show photo i.d. in order to vote. >> some in the party used the myth of rampant voter fraud. >> pushing more voters out of the ballot box. >> to justify new voting restrictions. >> i think it's terrible because
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there's so many people that don't have i.d. and they're not going to be able to vote. >> that made it harder for black americans to vote. >> we're ready to march on ballot boxes. >> a shameful echo. >> you're ordered to -- >> of the jim crow south. >> we're taking a close look at wisconsin right now. >> in 2016, these measures had a real impact. >> donald trump continues to maintain his lead of about 90,000 votes. >> tens of thousands of people were deterred from voting in wisconsin because of the state's i.d. law. >> the question is, are there other democratic votes out there somewhere? >> black voter turnout plummeted. >> cnn projects donald trump will carry the state of wisconsin. >> trump won the state by less than 23,000 ballots. >> voter fraud doesn't change an election result. voter suppression does. >> millions and millions of ballots. >> trump's doubling down on his
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ballot box conspiracy theorys in 2020. >> will they be counterfeited by groups inside our nation. >> from rigged mail-in ballots. >> will they be counterfeited by the millions by foreign powers. >> to votes being mailed from china. there's growing fear that trump's disinformation campaign will cast doubt on the outcome of the election. democrats and republicans are gaming out worst case scenarios. >> this president is going to try to steal this election. >> this will be in my opinion the most corrupt election in the history of our country. >> donald trump may be saving his most dangerous conspiracy theory for last. >> i think of all the conspiracies this one is the one i worry about the most. when the world gets complicated,
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it's all coming up on this live global sunday transmission. >> while this may look like your average cable news show, it is anything but. >> leading a frontal assault on the lies of the new world order. >> i don't like them putting chemicals in the water that turn the frauds -- >> they are filling our water -- >> they believe they are possessed by entities, basically space aliens. >> this is alex jones. host and founder of "info wars" a leading conspiracy talk show
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and website. >> hillary and obama want to make you -- >> he screams and rants on air. >> they hate you. >> spewing venomous hate. >> they hate god, they hate children, and dam them to hell. >> give him a kiss. >> he has also been a principal news source for the president. >> it is surreal to talk about issues here on air and then word for word here trump say it two days later. >> his real name is barry sataro. >> born barry sataro, somewhere along the line he changed his name. >> he's going to show up and -- on drugs. going to be whacked out. >> i think we should take a drug test prior to the debate. >> to have conspiracy move into the white house and have a president welcome it is utterly unprecedented. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> donald trump aligned himself
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first with jones in 2015. >> your reputation is amazing. i will not let you down. >> donald trump basically said to alex jones, i love your work. it's totally nuts. >> the democrats that are -- >> so nuts it begs the question, how did we get here? >> to what some are calling the info wars presidency. >> alex jones. >> he was a nice guy, actually. >> they think they're getting our guns. >> you may remember alex jones for spreading the most grotesque lie imaginable. >> sandy hook is a synthetic, completely fake, with actors in my view manufactured. >> since claiming that the massacre of 20 first graders and six faculty members was a hoax, jones has been ordered to pay at least $100,000 in legal fees. >> everything was staged. >> in one deposition jones testified a form of psychosis
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made him believe these preposterous claims. >> that's what alex jones does and the world he lives in, there's no true and false, where anything can be believed except the official account of anything. >> buying this product. >> all these lies have proven to be a lucrative business for jones. >> introducing sale force. >> available at info war store.com. >> part of the way he's been able to do that is by continually scaring his audience into telling them that disaster is approaching and selling them products to mitigate that disaster. >> if you don't buy the products we will not be able to fund this operation. >> his online store sells everything from freeze dryers to survival gear. >> we have the full supply, this stuff kills the whole sars corona family at blank range.
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>> the fda ordered jones to stop selling fake cures for covid-19. >> it kills every virus. >> there's money to be made. >> i only promote what i believe in. >> it is this conspiracy riddled path that connected donald trump to alex jones. >> my audience, i would say 90% supports you. >> trump knows his bread and butter and makes peace with alex jones to keep power and win the election. >> both men understood how to reach an audience and how to propel themselves into the mainstream. >> i doubt i would be here if it weren't for social media. i'm able to go bing bing bing and take care of it. the other way i would never be able to get the word out? it's an information war. >> like trump, jones used all kinds of media to push his agenda. >> machine gunned a bunch of men, women and children. >> migrated from public access tv. >> it's real. >> to terrestrial radio to the
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internet. >> lived 30 years -- >> that unrestrained freedom combined with these algorithms designed to amplify what is most eye catching and shocking meant he is perfectly adaptive to the internet. >> that came to a crashing halt in 2018. >> apple, facebook, youtube, spotify, pinterest and linked inn have removed material from jones. >> the deplatforming of jones. >> google is evil. >> especially by youtube, it diminished him. >> i don't get a day in court. they lie about me. >> his viewership fell by about half. >> the president himself has also been policed for promoting violence and spreading false claims. twitter has flagged several tweets over accuracy and copyright issues. while we may know whether jones or trump truly believe in the crazy conspiracy they spread --
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>> this is the first time in our history that a conpir sist holds the highest office in the land. >> presidential historian tim naftali says what happens next is up to us. >> will the american public embrace it a second time? the test is in november. when d gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management.
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♪ we caught him. >> this is treason. >> they were spying on our campaign. there was treason. >> long before donald trump become conspir sist in chief, there was joseph mccarthy. >> even if there's only one in the state department there will still be one communist too many. >> in the early 1950s, the republican senator accused all kinds of americans of treason, largely without any evidence. it was what joe mccarthy called a vast communist conspiracy. >> activities may well determine for this nation. >> what he did was to drum up this incredible fear. >> yes, they're traitors to america. >> communists. >> they could not find, as he
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said, a conspiracy solely because it wasn't there. >> at the height of the cold war many americans had legitimate fears about communism. >> in 1949 you had the soviet union explode a nuclear device. >> then communists overthrew the chinese government. >> overnight, now you have 500 million new communists in the world. it felt like america was losing. how could america be losing? >> enter joseph mccarthy who claimed he had the answer. a list of 205 employees in the state department who he said were known communists. >> that simple answer was like boom. >> he didn't have the goods to
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prove this monster conspiracy. >> mccarthy presided over hearings that were little more than trial by accusation. >> would you like to hear this? it's about you. >> he would just badger witnesses where they wouldn't have a chance to answer. he wasn't about nuance. he was about got you. >> answer that yes or no. do you know this man? >> mccarthy made baseless charges against the truman administration, including a man who served as the secretary of state and defense. >> george c. marshal, a man who helped defeat the nazis. >> a venerated five-star general who helped orchestrate the allied victory in world war ii. republicans didn't like mccarthy's tactics but most didn't speak out because they were afraid of losing their base. sound familiar?
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by 1952, republicans had been out of power for two decades. >> the american people have spoken with a resounding voice at the polls. victory is here. >> mccarthy helped win back the white house and both houses of congress. with a bigger platform, he became even more reckless. he went after the army claiming it had been infiltrated by communists. >> you're not fooling anyone at all. i'm sure of that. >> senator, let me tell you something -- >> the chair believes -- >> the american people have had a look at you for six weeks. you're not fooling anyone either. >> the senator was called out as a bully in front of 20 million viewers. >> you have done enough. have you no sense of decency, sir? at long last, have you left no sense of decency? >> finally congress said enough. >> a republican senate cen
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toured one of their own. >> the conspiratorial world view and political tactics, however, would live on. >> the fight to expose those who have destroyed this nation will go on and on. >> nearly one decade later. >> from dallas, texas, president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. >> a tragic event became the catalyst for a new wave of conspiracies. >> to this day people think how does a lone gunman successfully assassinate the most protected person on the face of the earth? >> there was plenty of evidence linking lee harvey os wald to the shooting but america didn't buy the official story. >> the idea that one person alone without a government or a conspiracy behind them could change the course of history, just seems impossible.
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implausible. >> i emphatically deny these charges. >> i'm just a -- >> then only two days later he was fatally shot on live television by night club owner jack ruby. >> many americans when jack ruby killed oswald began to believe something was amiss. >> the week that president kennedy was killed a gallup poll showed the majority of americans believe it was a conspiracy. the kennedy assassination immediately became a national obsession. by the mid '70s the percentage of americans who believed it was a conspiracy skyrocketed to over 80%. americans had seen the release of the pentagon papers, the escalation in vietnam, watergate. >> a series of misfortunes for this country and you begin to wonder did it all start with the
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jfk assassination. >> enabled the cia to use this poison. >> senate investigations into secret government programs opened the door to even more conspiracy theories. >> the more americans mistrusted government, the more they believed that john f. kennedy had been assassinated by a secret group of officials who did not like his policies. >> soon, an entire cottage industry was created around the jfk assassination. books, board games, video games and, of course, a hollywood blockbuster. >> one of the grossest lies ever forced on the american people. we've come to know it as the magic bullet theory. >> great cinematography, terrible history. >> it was the internet age of the '90s and 2000s that helped rocket a conspiracy theorist right to the presidency.
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- i'm szasz. and in the difference you make in the world. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. we do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; it's important. we walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. - we've both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. after about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didn't notice before. - it's still helping me. i still notice a difference. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood.
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who promulgate them. in doing so he is bringing together three different strands of history in a profoundly dangerous way. first we all share some basic propensity to believe in these kind of theorys. why? human beings can't stand uncertainty. we want to know why things happen and we used to rely on religion and magic to explain things. that transferred to science. but still, there's so much we don't understand. the world is in william james' phrase a blooming buzz of confusion. we want to find ways to make sense of it, ascribe meaning and assign blame. in particular when we confront huge events with great consequences like john f. kennedy's assassination, we can't accept they might have happened because of a small cause, a single gunman or chants or confusion or an accident. there must have been a cause
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commensurate with the outcome so we search for that larger, grander conspiracy. the second strand is particular to america. america has always had a rich history of conspiracy theories, what one historian called the paranoid style in american politics. it's easy to understand how this developed in a vast country with new immigrants coming from everywhere living on sparsely populated land with a strong anti-state tradition. and when people felt threatened or in danger say at the height of the cold war, the theories get more alarmist. that's why the pandemic has given rise to a new wave of conspiracy theorys that explained how something so devastating must have had behind it an evil genius. the third strand is more specific to donald trump. for people who believe they are at the center of the world, narcissists, conspiracy theorys
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are especially compelling. >> you are so important, the world is against you. if something goes wrong of course it was not your fault but dark and deep forces that plot against you. trump has decided there are vast and powerful forces that plot against him daily that include his own bureaucrats, reporters, urban elites, minority activists. if he were to lose this election he has set in motion conspiracy theorys that will claim it was because of voter fraud or mail-in ballot irregularities or the work of the chinese communist party. in doing so, trump is taking an ax to american democracy and a wrecking ball to the workings of the american constitution. america's election of 1800 was a historic moment for the world because for the first time after a contest at the ballot box, political power changed hands from one party to another, peacefully. that is america's legacy to the
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world and it has endured for 220 years. but now by creating doubts about the 2020 election, by setting up possible obstacles to that peaceful transfer of power donald trump is doing something more indidss you and dangerous he has done as president so far. fareed zakaria. thank you for watching. when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management.
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