took the qanon oath on the fourth of july with family and friends. >> god bless america. >> qanon!> flynn's lawyers tell c infnn that the oath he took was not connect, but that oath is universally recognized by the q movement. >> where we go one, we go all. >> where we go one, we go all. >> president donald trump frequently retweets qanon accounts on the fourth of july, the same day michael flynn took his oath, while the coronavirus was surging to record level wilwill -- levels all over the country, the president retweeted qanon accounts 14 times. nobody is sure how many people are in the group. but according to the "washington post" about 600,000 people have voted for qanon connect political candidates. media matters has documented at least 46 of them are in the current election cycle. >> i'm marjorie green and i approved this ad. >> marjorie green is seeking aggressional seat. >> q has put out there that many high level officials will be arrested. is it going to be approved that the child pedophilia and the elites in the washington, d.c., is that what we are going to see come out

a well-known qanon actavis noticed this and -- qanon activist notice thid this and twabd ittet ou thegestion was that this was about trafficking girls. wayfair denied that. the global searches for the term wayfair, mostly in the u.s., but a huge amount of interest in turkeynd the u.k. -- the term has generated 4.4n millgagements on instagram. nearly 1 million direct engagements. i will bring in our specialist disinformation reporter. these things are remarkable for how much traction they get, given how little there is underneath them. w we explain how this one exploded? >>s it'solutely amazing how it burst into the mainstream and spread. tweeted the claims, it was picked up by qanon followers. they investigate the claims. they pointed to the fact that the girls'ames actually matched the names of missing children, usually in the u.s. one of the missing children that was named actually had to come out on facebook live. she said, this is ridiculous. why are you linking this to me? i didn't even go missing in the first place. it is spiraling on a conspiracy theory thread. twitter, tiktok,

looking for the truth. >> we are all 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 in protective custody because they tried to kill him just like they killed his father. >> 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 very easy to make up more and more elaborate stories. >> qanon has morphed from conspiracy theory, into an actual, political movement of sorts. >> we've all been gathering in one line and talking together, as -- as americans. and uniting and -- >> you think maybe this 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 chief pushers. >> if you have not even ventured, initially, into the qano

twitter is cracking down on accounts relating to qanon ?bi called a potential domestic terror threat. qanon followers believe donald trump will save the world from a secret group of paedophiles who run society. exclusive research seen by the bbc from the institute of strategic dialogue suggests that interest in the conspiracy worldwide has soared since march. here's stephanie hegarty. we go one. we go all. over the last few weeks, thousands of people have been pledging allegiance to qanon. we go one. we go all. a bizarre conspiracy theory that has soared in popularity since the pandemic. followers believe that a cabal of paedophiles run the united states. they control the media, hollywood and politicians and the only person that can stop them is donald trump. fake news, fake press... this musician is one of the few qanon followers who agreed to speak to us. i've only been actively posting, i'd say, for the last couple of months but the response that i've gotten is insane. exclusive research seen by the bbc looked at the use of hashtags spec

how the pandemic is increasing the profile of the qanon conspiracy theory.e will hear from their families tonight. for all of you watching on pbs, welcome to world news america. we begin with the numbers showing the colossal impact of u.s.coronarus outbreak on the the number of confirmed cases has passed 4 million, one point 4 million people lost their jobs and filed for unemployment. if congress does not reach a deal soon, the benefits will expire nex week, leaving millions unable to pay rent and bills. here is michelle fleury. >> in states where if it should rates are r soaring, thovery may beoving backward. the ri in the number of people making claims after 14 weeks decline suggest more people are being laid off and in some cases for a second time. and the effort to reopen the economy after businesses shut down to try to contain the coronavirus have been bumpy. in some states restrictions have been imposed on bars, restaurants, and other businesses as cases have gone up . and the tens of millions of may soon see their benefits shrink unless congress acts.

"the qanon candidates are here. trump has paved their way."e describing the way the president has encouraged the spread of these theories, from politico. "trump isn't secretly winking at qanon. he's retweeting its followers." here's marianna again. it does seem that the references become more and more frequent and mainstream us politics. definitely. we have seen them popping up far more than we ever have before, especially during the course of this pandemic. we have seen the president endorsing those tweets whether accidentally or on purpose more and more and we saw him retweet particularly on the 4th ofjuly that that article references that he retweeted images holding a us flag or of one of his rallies, but these we re or of one of his rallies, but these were being treated by followers he desperately wanted the president to acknowledge them, and we have seen during the course of the pandemic, that the number of times that donald trump has retweeted conspiracy theorists and their tweets has increased massively. he's done that's almost a hundre

the fbi classified qanon as a domestic terror threat.arently been involved in a foiled presidential assassination plot, devastating california wildfire, and armed standoff with local law enforcement in arizona. when i wrote a book called "wingnuts," conspiracy groups were already defining the conservative resis ttance obama administration, building on old foundations. donald trump's embrace of the racist birther conspiracy theory fit this pattern perfectly and he's continued pumping up disinformation from the white house. now, republicans may look at these likely nominees expressing support for qanon and try to convince themselves they're outliers. after all, in 2018, the gop found themselves with strange bedfellows on therapy ballot as well with fox news describing arthur jones as one of several nazis, holocaust deniers or white supremacists who have elbowed their way on to the gop ballot. but republicans need to ask themselves just why so many unhinged extremist candidates feel comfortable clustering under the gop banner. in the case o

qanon believers are running for congress.going out into the world sometimes and committing real world acts of violence against people they perceive as being part of this demonic kabal. >> what about other platforms like facebook? i spoke to facebook this week and they said they're not ready to make any official announcement, they said they have been talking to "the new york times" about all they're doing behind the scenes. what are they doing? >> so they're preparing to announce some sort of similar action. youtube also said they have been limiting the reach of some qanon videos. but i think twitter is sort of out in front of these other companies on taking sort of the most dramatic steps including taking down some accounts. and really the reason that they're doing this is because of the behaviors of these qanon people, not because of what they believe, it is abuse they're harassing people, they're swarming people, they are, you know, ganging up on people and flooding their twitter mentions with accusations about these sex tr

so no, qanon did not uncover the facts of jeffrey epstein. reporters did that.gerous. nbc news reports qanon followers have been implicated in kidnapping and one killing. jesse waters said while discussing the double standard of big tech censorship, i mentioned qanon. okay, jesse. but the damage may have already been done by legitimizing qanon on national television. and that is the craziest damn thing in the world! so through ancestry, i discovered my great aunt ruth signed up as a nursing cadet for world war ii. she was only 17. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com to life like never before. since you're heading off to dad... i just got a zerowater. but we've always used brita. it's two stage-filter... doesn't compare to zerowater's 5-stage. this meter shows how much stuff, or dissolved solids, gets left behind. our tap water is 220. brita? 110... seriously? but zerowater- let me guess. zero? yup, that's how i know it is the purest-tasting water. i need to find the receipt for that. oh yeah, you do. cancer w

the third candidate this cycle that we've seen on the republican side who has spoken approvingly of qanonspiracy theory who emerged on top in her primary. we see it with a senate candidate in oregon and there is a runoff going on with a georgia congressional district in august where the initial primary, jim, also had favorable things to say about qanon. in that case, the party establishment has actually stepped away from that person in the runoff, but not the case here. the chairman of the national republican campaign committee put out a statement standing by lauren boebert saying we will keep this seat in republican hands, but to the larger point, jim, the president himself is not resistant to embracing conspiracy theory is this is a party in president trump's image right now. >> just quickly, before we go, are these far-right candidates stronger or weaker candidates against democrats in the fall? >> well, this is a pretty republican district, but obviously having somebody who is embracing praiseworthy commentses of a conspiracy theory will give an opening for democrats to try to make ha

i have to tell you, an armed gunman came into a pizza place in washington, d.c., based on this qanonbage four years ago, what took so long? >> i don't know, chuck. i mean, we've been talking about it a lot and of course, these have become sort of morn pits for conspiracy theories. they haven't cleaned them up or put them off to the side. in fact, it's sort of degrading all of online culture, all of social media sites, but it's expensive to deal with, they're making their free speech arguments they tend to make, although i don't think this is speech, it's hate speech. you know, i still don't understand -- many years from now we'll figure it out, what took so long to deal with a group like this, similar thing happened with alex jones, apple was the first to move on that one and everybody followed. but twitter's really pushing up front, you'll see a lot more from twitter, only their differentiating from facebook and other social media sites, probably good for the branded a good for them. >> you know, i wonder how many of donald trump supporters you see at rallies would be wearing qanon

yes, "qanons." the new breakfast cereal which will have kids all over the country saying "you know what, mom? i think debbie wasserman schultz did hire a salvadoran gang to kill seth rich." "qanons" available at your supermarket now, because the only conspiracy is that it's delicious. as you may know, a number of tv doctors like dr phil and dr oz have become controversial as of late. and i thought maybe i could offer people a new tv doctor alternative. so i fired up my laptop and did some house calls. these are real people dialing in with real medical questions. it is time now for doctor billy. ♪ >> hello. >> hello. i'm dr. billy. what's your name? >> my name is brittany frost. >> brittany, how can i help you today? what is your problem? >> how long after birth does it take your uterus to go back to normal size. >> wow. >> and how come breast-feeding helps some women lose weight. >> i don't know, but here's what i do know, when the tony awards go over on cbs, if they go even a minute over, they will

qanon is based on the how ben, qanon has been on the there for a while.ction now? will it have an impact? >> this is one of rare times when i think policy infers march will be consistants, and at the might work mplgts basically what was happening is these accounts were targeting individual people, anytime q, who they believe is a government insider, is which he believes is satanic individuals, they're calling it swarming their account. these people would comb through the personal histories, go to private friends' lives, and accuse them of being pedophiles or who eat children. for twitter that was way too much, and for most people that's probably way too much. they are the leading p ining pe purveyors of bush basically a cult of targeted harassment, so twitter has decided to crack down on this before it really gets out of hand. >> ben, this is extraordinary. trolls who are accusing people of being pedophiles or eating other humans. if everyone doesn't think that is too much, i'd love to know exactly who thinking it's not. ben, thank you for continuing to r

. >> a shocking thing for a tv host to say since aspects of qanon are unprovable.e fbi has warn to have had qanon conspiracy being a domestic terrorism thought. eric trump then drew a false equivalence between q and some democrats he doesn't like. >> guess what? adam schiff does a lot of crazy things, jerry nadler and eric swalwell, they also do a lot of crazy stuff. >> waters eventually came out with a statement saying my comments should not be mistaken for giving credence to this fringe platform. >> every time someone like jesse watters promotes qanon, they become more mainstream. they become more validated. here is the good news. this garbage can be called out. kit be exposed. sinclair backed down after cnn and other organizations questioned why this segment might be airing. sunlight is still the best disinfectant. >> brian stelter, thank you so much. >>> walmart banning a couple for wears face coverings emblazoned with nazi swastikas. the woman who confronted that couple joins me next. proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focu

so these used to be fringe conspiracy theories, i'm talking about qanon, mask causes coronavirus, alientalking points for some in the right-wing media. john avlon explains, we should have seen this coming. >> i keep looking at a coin from a convention it shows lincoln and nixon over the word integrity. include donald trump, and you have a political version of the descent of man, but the same concept applies to conservative media, to a cornucopia of cranks and just this over the past few days. a breitbart video gets taken down for spreading misinformation, unproven cures for covid-19, but not before being amplified by the first family, while russian-backed sites are also spreading covid disinfo. sinclair backs off a baseless conspiracy theory about dr. fauci, who's also facing attacks from the trump white house. and of course, the qanon conspiracy theory. >> you know, "q" can do some crazy stuff with the pizza zpuf the way fair stuff, but they've also uncovered a lot of great stuff when it comes to ep zpost and the deep state. >> to be clear, qanon has uncovered no great stuff. but these

i think we have it, him appearing to take the qanon pledge. he's standing there, they do a pledge that sounds like a standard pledge if you were taking office, and in the end, it was the statement that's appeared a lot, his lawyer is saying that's not what he was doing. but let's play this real quick. >> so help me god. where we go one, we go all. god bless america. >> okay. so he recently also added a qanon hash tag to his bio, and started writing an internet column. this guy used to be the head of the defense intelligence agency. what is going on with this man? >> you know, a few years ago, when he wrote his book about a vast global conspiracy that was pit against the united states, that was made up of venezuela, north korea, iran, isis, al qaeda and russia, we all in the intelligence community thought it's good he's gone, because that's nutty. michael flynn is over the edge. that pledge, that whole where we go one, where we go all, that is a conspiracy theory that the fbi has called a threat to the national security of the united states. i

. >> a shocking people for a tv host to say, since aspects of qanon are delusional.izza gate, a man to show up at a pizzeria with bombs. between q and some democrats he doesn't like. >> adam schiff does a lot of cray thing -- crazy things. >> waters came out with a statement says my comments should not be mistaken for giving credence to this pring platform. >> the problem is, when he promotes qanon, they bottom more main stream. the garbage can be called out and exposed. sinclair broke out. s sunlight is still the best disinfectant. >>> thank you. walmart is banning a couple who wore face masks emblazened with nazi swastikas. the woman joins me next. i called reputation defender. vo: take control of your online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com. find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. woman: they were able to restore my good name. vo: visit reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. when i wake up in the morning, i'm black. throughout my day, i'm black. when i go to bed, i'm still blac

. >> well, the most important one, and the qanon group is very much behind this. we're really leading up to this. is a conspiracy that says that there are vast group ocs of peo making sure there is enough voter fraud that president trump is not going to win the election. president trump is laying the groundwork for the ability to say if and when he loses the election, it was a fraud. i never lost. i should not be leaving office. and the qanon people know about that. he has been making the point about mail-in ballots. they may be coming in from china. it's all, of course, nonsense. there's no factual basis for it. but in a senses, this is the most dangerous conspiracy theory we have ever heard. because it is a conspiracy theory that will make it impossible for the united states to have power, which is the hallmark of american government really since the constitution. >> and the president just this weekend asked if he would respect the outcome of the election and raising doutsz about whether he will, which makes it so clear why it's dangerous. this is going to be a

. >> twitter launching a sweeping crackdown on the far-right conspiracy movement qanon. they are take action on accounts that could lead to harm. 7,000 accounts have been taken down so far. qanon is based on the idea that president trump is leading some secret battle against pedophile politicians and a-list celebrities. several gop candidate on the ballot this fall have expressed sympathy or support for the group. >> president trump pressured the uk ambassador to host the british open. see if the british government to spear the major tournament to his course. the ambassador advised him not to do it saying it would be an unethical use of the presidency. >> president trump directed the federal government on tuesday to stop counting undocumented immigrants. the political impact of this move would be enormous with millions excluded but going to be challenged in court. the constitution requires congressional districts to be apportioned by total population but the president's directive is the latest effort to advance trump's immigration agenda at a time when he's trying shore

twitter is now taking broader steps in police iing qanon on i site.roduces linked to conspiracy in recent weeks. cnbc's julianna tatelbaum is joining us live from london. talk to us, julianna, the steps that twitter is take against t spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation online. they pledge to step up enforcement against followers of this group. and they say that they've made it clear that they would take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and that's what they're doing in removing these 7,000 groups. this does mark the first major platform of its kind to take aggressive action to limit the spread of a discredited movement, and that's what we're seeing now with qanon. >>> now, in other news in washington, i want to highlight for you, the senate banking committee, a key committee of the senate, has given approval for judy shelton and christopher waller as nominees for the federal reserve. shelton was approved on a party line 13-12 vote, while waller's vote was 18-7. now, shelton's name may be

so we -- i mean, there's a whole alternate reality of covid trutherism, it's a tangle with the qanon conspiracy theory. i thought this first person account by mr. green was really moving. he said i began prognosticating the alphabet soup about this scamdemic, and were trying to destroy trump's chance of re-election. this idea that this is made up to take down trump is something that trump has sort of pushed himself, that fox has pushed and this entire kind of ecosystem online is pushing, as well. is that right? >> yeah. i refer to this time as, like the boss level of conspiracy theorys. it's not just the crazy qanonors that are calling it a hoax. it's your mainstream republicans. it's your run of the mill conservatives. there's polling out that says, you know, between a 1/3 and three quarters of americans will really believe that covid was sort of manufactured by some powerful faction. and it's no surprise that if you're a republican, you're far more likely to believe in those conspiracy theorys, right? so there's just no -- it's not relegated to the fringe anymore. this really is ma

qanon pitts.it is acting to bar to others.that could cause harm "newshour"newshour still to come on the" the u.s. orders a chinese consulatese c alleging theft of data and intellectual property. medil developers race against the clock as questions remain an eventuvery of vaccine. drug overdoses increaseal dramat as people struggling with addiction lose access to treatment and much more. >> this is the "pbs newshour" fromet studios in washington and from the west at walter cronkite television in arizona university. judy:today's move to clo the chinese consulate in houston is the latest action by the trump administration against beijing. nick schifrin reports on what is at stake. nick: in the courtyard of 'houstos chinese consulate, in ahe hurry, after administration ordered the consulate closed, citing a espionage.nese theft and >> we are setting expectations for how the communist -- chinese communist party will behave. when the' dont, we protect the american people. nick: the chinese have used the

. >> reporter: of course the internet is mull of misinformation and conspiracy theories from qanon to disinformation to righ wing documentaries that accuse dr. fauci himself of manufacturing covid. the motive >> he has a very high approval rating, because he gives you clear, reliable, concise, timely and true information that is all of the kind of information that conspiracy theorists don't want it is contrary to the very heart of a conspiracy theory. >> reporter: but frontline e.r. and icu doctors say every false medical claim and conspiracy theory makes their jobs that much tougher >> reporter: it takes time away from the work that we could be doing to actually save patients or create new science. and it sends the public into pandemonium. >> reporter: the goal, to undermine and confuse americans during the worst pandemic in a hundred years. lester >> tom costello, thank you. >>> tonight, new hope for the sickest covid patients, the first two people to have a double lung transplant are speaking out with a powerful message here is our senior national correspondent kate snow. >> report

it was the week twitter announced plans to ban and suspend accounts linked to the conspiracy theory qanoneve there are people plotting against the president of the usa. campaigners suggested that the test and trace programme in the uk breaks gdpr data rules as it was launched without carrying out an assessment of its effect on privacy. the uk government said there was no evidence of data being used unlawfully. spotify has launched podcasts with video. it is only with a select few of new podcasts for now. apple has announced plans for the tech giant and its entire supply chain to become carbon neutral from 2030. those of you with a craving for fancy futuristic food with a smaller carbon impact than the original, the bacon and pork belly in this sandwich isn't from a living pig. the meat was grown in a lab. the creators higher steaks say that it is the first to produce a lab grown pork from 50% cultivated cells. and what do you get if you cross a machine learning and thermal cameras? that's right, a virtual hand. researchers at cornell university have designed a wrist—mounted device that co

i don't believe that qanon conspiracy groups are playing a constructive role in the public conversationdon't believe holocaust denial is him is a legitimate scientific there he. the fact that facebook can't shut these down tomorrow, the most sophisticated advertising platform in the history of capitalism needs to use that energy to take down 99.99% of hate content. again, not what they think is appropriate, but what the civil rights groups are telling them is appropriate. taylor: some of the criticism has come from facebook offering a platform but they don't want to police the content. some of the synonyms i have heard of, it is like a highway but they don't want to speak about speed limits. they don'ts said want facebook to be the arbiters of truth telling us what see and what we don't see. how do you respond to that? jonathan: the slippery slope argument, i just don't buy it. the adl has been fighting for the first amendment over 100 years. we deeply believe in freedom of speech. but freedom of speech is not freedom to slander minorities. freedom of assembly is not freedom to assemble

accounts for breaking harassment rules last year, fbi labeled qanon as a potential terror threat.e are seeing more ahead of what will happen with mark zuckerberg not with twitter but other big tech companies we are a week out from a big hearing that will have something to do with free speech, skensorship and what is allowed on these platforms >> that and earnings twitter to report after the bell and facebook next week speaking of some movers here, best buy shares are rising sales up .5% on saturday up from last year online sales were up 255 pirs. best buy has brought back about half of furloughed employees and will give all employees $4 an hour raise shares are up 2.2% they are in the sweet spot people have extra money because of stimulus checks and might be spending more on the work from home set up or the school set up that is all of the things we need >> the demise of brick and mortgage, and especially for people who may not be so great at hooking up my own wi-fi stuff. or even just going in and shopping there a lot of people might shop there and buy on amazon. a lot of people

trump and his associates have been stoking the qanon movements which battles the president and deep state of high-ranking officials and lib ran elites who practice child torture and satanic worship. yes, check it out. all of these instincts are now being channeled into one idea, one great conspiracy, that the november vote will be rigged. now, some take comfort from the polls, believing joe biden will win with a large enough margin to make all these concerns irrelevant. maybe. but it is also quite possible that things will get very messy in november. assuming we are still in the midst of a pandemic, all 50 states will have instituted new measures relating to voting from social distancing rules to mail-in ballots. the need to space out voters in lines and fewer poll workers could turn november 3rd into a disaster that spirals into january. imagine that on the night of november 3rd, backed up polling sites turn away voters and several states have stacks of mail-in ballots that they cannot announce their results immediately. imagine some procedures or ballots are contested. imagine this ends

the official republican candidate, the nominee in the fall, despite talking up the bonus, offensive qanononspiracy theory. >> honestly, everything that i've heard of q, i hope that this is real, because it only means america's getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values. and that's what i am for. >> this is the road of trumpism. we're not going to repeat the discredited aspects of the conspiracy, but boebert has defied state restrictions, keeping her restaurant open. >> lauren boebert, the owner of shooter's grill, attended her hearing via video chat. shooters opened last wednesday, despite a cease and desist order. the health department suspended her license that friday. >> that is the republican choice for colorado voters will decide in november whether to elect her to congress. either way, donald trump's tenure is taking a toll on republican politicians. we want to show you one more thing. since donald trump has taken office, 48% of house republicans have left office by resigning, retiring or facing defeat at the ballot box. ballot box ♪ ♪ yeah ♪ ♪ y-ye

yesterday it unwill suspend accounts linked to qanon.it spreads conspiracy theories including a deep state effort against president trump and theories about politicians and celebrities taking part in a child sex abuse ring. >>> a san jose cyber security company is investigating the recent twitter hack. the hackers targeted some of most prominent accounts. former president obama, joe biden and bill gates and elon musk, their accounts all got compromised and it was all part of a bitcoin scam. in an interview for cbsn bay area a cyber security expert told moe how twitter managed to do some damage control. >> why the heck only make 100 k? that's little compared to this massive scale right? well, it's because the show only lasts for three hours. good job how twitter came celebrities everyone who alerted on this right? we kept the hackers on their toes and we started out in just the reality. >> dr. victor fang says the scam is just like the so-called nigerian prince scams but now the hackers are targeting bitcoin instead of bank accounts. >>>

she has spoken favorably wft qanon conspiracy theory. right back with what that support might mean for the most important election story that is not being talked about. can the postal service in this country handle a vote by mail election? stay with us. with us introducing new voltaren arthritis pain gel, the first and only full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel available over-the-counter. new voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement. for spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub? grubhub's gonna reward you for that with a $5 off perk. (doorbell rings) - [crowd] grubhub! (fireworks exploding) . >>> welcome back. we just showed you results from colorado's primary last night. a state where the overwhelming majority of votes were cast by mail-in ballot. if it went smoothly, it was because colorado ill plemtd vote by mail long before our pandemic. it has already posed problems in states without a robust vote by maile mail program with

is there -- does it help him among some like of his qanon followers?is it just to rile the fringes of his base up? >> you know, anderson, i'm not sure i'm qualified to opine on what goes through the president's head about why he decides to say the things he says. i'm not sure there is a logical explanation. we had a call with the white house led by the vice president and we had dr. birx and dr. fauci and dr. haun from the fda and the whole coronavirus task force. it's a productive meeting talking about concerns about the spiking virus and the federal government was putting out advice for states that had to start shutting down things and talking about 21 states that were hot zones and where we had to be cautious and then the president says just the opposite. i thought he was starting to get back on track with a better message in the past week or so when he started to say that the virus has potential to get much worse for the first time, and when he was wearing a mask and tweeting out that wearing a mask is patriotic and i thought we were turning a corne

qanon folks are claiming that i'm connected with jeffrey epstein and global ka babolist traffickers. insane stuff. >> the culmination of having social media spreading things that are very titillating, to have this pandemic where people are uncertain and they prefer to have a simple explanation, it's meant that these things are really millions of messages a day, and people like myself and dr. fauci have become the target. often the clever thing they do, you know, our foundation has given more money to buy vaccines to save lives, so you just turn that around and say okay, we're making money and trying to kill people with vaccines by inventing something. and at least it's true, we're associated with vaccines, but you have sort of flipped the connection that we have there. you know, i hope it doesn't create vaccine hesitancy. i hope this whole story of innovation going on we do get the benefit of that. the only good news is that the vaccine innovation, these amazing private sector companies, without the coordination would like, but they are doing it. and i do think people on the therapeu

steve kornacki at the board point of view that numerically there just aren't enough people to have in qanon to elect him. i've wondered about other republicans who go along with it. joni ernst is not in a solid position for her re-elect. her opponent has raised a lot of money. she may be in trouble in november, and yet this is how she talks about donald trump, specifically on the issue of coronavirus. take a listen. >> so, if president obama showed failed leadership then, do you think president trump is showing failed leadership now? >> well, i think we all have responsibility in stopping the spread. we have seen, i think, one additional death in the last 24 hours here in iowa. >> so given the fact that one person died there, that's only half the number that died during ebola, which you said was failed leadership. is the president right now exhibiting failed leadership? >> no. i think that the president is stepping forward. >> you served with these people. do these senators, in your view, have be interacted with these guys, maybe not specifically joni ernst. but why do they do that, do you

you've got facebook basically deleting boogaloo pages, twitter suspending accounts that reference qanon, if they violate the rules. snap how are they thinking about the evolution of the regulation, at least, on content? >> yeah, well, i think you see all three companies taking moves to adapt to the times, and i do think that a lot of what they're doing is encouraging they're deciding to make changes that they wouldn't do in the past it's difficult to predict how it evolves from here. the election will obviously be a very complicated period for social media you have some companies not wanting to fact-check, others explicitly fact-checking ads, some not accepting -- like twitter. but i think a lot more platforms will spend time thinking about if they're on the right path, and if not, what they need to do to make sure they're protecting kind of the health of conversation, particularly around the election. >> yeah, john, health and safety very much in focus you mentioned twitter not accepting political ads. twitter did suffer that big hack there was a lot of concern about what that might in

qanon folks, which is actually a group that's been targeted me as well lately. are claiming, falsely, that i am somehow connected to jeffrey epstein and sex traffickers. it's insane. what do you say to people who believe this stuff? because i'm sure you are inundated, like i am, by people direct messaging me just insane stuff. >> yeah. the combination of having social media spreading things that are very titillating. to have this pandemic, where people are uncertain and, you know, there -- they prefer to have a simple explanation. it's meant that these things are really, you know, millions of messages a day. and people, like myself and dr. fauci, become the target. often, the clever thing they do, you know, our foundation has given more money to buy vaccines to save lives than any group. you know, so you just turn that around. you say, okay, we're making money and we're trying to kill people with vaccines. or by inventing something. and at least, it's true, we're associated with vaccines. but you actually have, you know, sort of flipped the connection that we ha

you should have a qanon -- run instead."here is a smaller group, and they are particularly egregious characters, and they all believe they are going to be president one day. and this is josh hawley and marco rubio and ted cruz and mike leavy and joni ernst, and they feel when he is gone, they are going to run trumpism through the car wash and get to the white house. i have got news for them. the trumpers are never going away, unless -- [applause] and all of these ambitious, young men and women in the senate who think they're going to be president one day understand the nature of the monster. they understand that the base of trumpism demands fealty and loyalty to donald trump, no matter what, and i promise you, sue collins could twist herself like a teenage hungarian gymnast around anything that donald trump does, "well, of course, i saw him kill the girl, but i am going to have to think about it. i am kind of concerned." [laughter] [applause] in this younger class that believes they are going to be president one day, they ho

up the platform after just yesterday twitter removed some 7,000 groups linked to a conspiracy group qanonto you. >> thank you so much for that. don't miss twitter's cfo ned segal at 8:45 eastern time final thoughts, mike, just the back of the envelope calculations microsoft losing about $43 billion in market cap, tesla gaining about $15 billion. >> yeah, so obviously a negative also, microsoft having at least right now before the call a little bit of a sell the news response, people picking apart some of the elements that weren't so great but that's probably the more important stock in terms of bellwether type action it comes after netflix backed off and texas instruments backed off. you're seeing profits being taken off the table with companies, even the ones that have weathered this period pretty well. >> tesla, it's such a battleground it's interesting to see this move higher and the big profit and how much of that was, you know, regulatory credits being pulled forward that's of course what the bears are yelling about right now, to get into the index, the s&p, which has been one of the

advertising that we remove qanon earlier this week, it's important to our work. >> ned, i want to say thank you. appreciate t by the way, i saw you got a haircut, is everything looking good we saw your hair online the other day? we have that shot. >> i can't see the shot. >> we have to run. we are all doing the quarantine haircut. join us tomorrow, everybody. melissa, thank you for a great week all together. "squawk on the street" begins right now. ♪ >> good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber what a morning futures are steady but the news flow is fierce between earnings, microsoft, tesla, airlines, mnuchin on squawk as c.a.r.e.s. 4.0 takes shape, china and jobless claims up for the first time since march we will talk to the ceos of southwest, at&t, dow and union pacific this morning, jim, the hard thing today, jim, is going to know where to start. >> yeah, i mean, look, i think last night the news flow was, as you said yesterday, heavily weighted toward microsoft which people regarded as disappointment i think that

world, our policies that they understand we are the first -- and political advertising that we remove qanon this week, it's important to our work. >> ned, i want to say thank you. appreciate t by the way, i saw you got a haircut, is everything looking good we saw your hair online the other day? we have that shot. >> i can't see the shot. >> we have to run. we are all doing the quarantine haircut. join us tomorrow, everybody. melissa, thank you for a great week all together. "squawk on the street" begins right now. ♪ >> good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber what a morning futures are steady but the news flow is fierce between earnings, microsoft, tesla, airlines, mnuchin on squawk as c.a.r.e.s. 4.0 takes shape, china and jobless claims up for the first time since march we will talk to th