Newsroom. Great to have you with us this weekend, im ana cabrera in new york. President trump making good on his promise to hit the road full throttle for republicans this summer. In just a few hours, hell be pumping up gop voters in ohio in a deep red district that he won easily on election day. But now, a republican win there is by no means a given. These two are fighting for a congressional seat in tuesdays special election. On the left is the democrat, can danny oconnor, suddenly surging, making it a tossup against Republican Troy Balderson. The president s visit is last minute push to keep that seat republican. Boris sanchez is on site. If this district flips, what does this mean for midterms . Reporter hey there, ana. Well, it could be a signal of that blue wave that commentators have long been prognosticating for the 2018 midterm elections. This could be a referendum on
where President Trump stands with midwestern voters as well. The fact is, we wouldnt be talking about the 12th congressional Congressional District of ohio when it not for President Trump. As you noted, this is a solid red republican district, one that has been reliably that way for decades, which President Trump won by 11 points. Now on this special election for the district seat on tuesday, i want to show you this, a Monmouth University poll that shows that this race is essentially a tossup between Republican Troy Balderson and democrat danny oconnor, a one percentage point difference between the two of them with such an important district for republicans and such an important swing state. President trump is going to come here to try to work some of his magic, and he did that earlier today on twitter, sending out tweets in support of Troy Balderson. He writes, well be going to ohio tonight to campaign for Troy Balderson for the big congressional special election on tuesday. Troy is strong on crime, the border, and loves our military,
vets, and the Second Amendment. His opponent is a puppet of nancy pelosi and high taxes. Troy balderson is in a big election fight with a candidate who just got caught lying about his relationship with nancy pelosi, who is weak on crime, borders, and your Second Amendment and wants to raise taxes bay lot. We can expect the unexpected. President trump is known to make pa lot of news in unexpected directions during these rallies. What we can expect is for more of these to take place. Sources have indicated to cnn that aides are trying to get the president out on the road in his natural environment, riling up supporters, instead of being back in washington focused on the steady drip of information coming from the Russia Investigation, ana. Okay, Boris Sanchez there in ohio. We will be listening. We will be Fact Checking and bringing you the highlights from the president s event tonight. In the meantime, we are learning special Counsel Robert Mueller interviewed someone who is incredibly close to a member of trumps inner circle. Someone who has had ties to
trumps longtime friend and Campaign Adviser roger stone for decades. Shes known as the manhattan madame, and today, four sources telling cnn that Kristen Davis sat for a voluntary interview with mueller this week. Davis has a personal and professional relationship with roger stone, and when it comes to trump, he and roger stone are tight. With us, cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney page pate. White house reporter for the daily beast, and cnn political analyst and Washington Post columnist, josh rogin. Out of everyone who knows roger stone, why do you think mueller wants to talk to this woman . Well, hes certainly casting a wide net to examine not just roger stone and his practices recently regarding to the trump Russia Investigation and fiasco but trying to get a better understanding of mr. Stones orbit and his dirty tricks. And the funny thing about roger stone is this isnt just someone
to keep checking it out until hes satisfied. And also, again, reiterating the fact that she voluntarily sat down to talk to him. Page pate, the sources that were talking to say investigators expressed some interest in actually having davis testify before a grand jury. So, would you be more surprised if stone was or wasnt indicted for something at the end of all this . Ana, i think at this point its still too difficult to tell what exactly the Special Counsels office knows about roger stone. I do think its significant, though, that they are moving to this next step. Theyre interviewing people close to him and possibly calling one or more before the grand jury. The reason you want to do that as a prosecutor is to preserve their testimony, because it must have an important part in your case. It must be a Material Fact that the Special Counsel intends to rely on when they are drafting indictments. So, is it possible that he could be indicted . Of course it is. But the mere fact of calling this witness doesnt necessarily mean hes going to be indicted. Vulnerability for the president , mostly because he has a tenuous relationship with the truth and says things all the time about the investigation that dont match up with the facts or reality. Page, we are Learning Mueller actually did make a proposal to trump this week about a potential interview. He actually agreed to limit the number of questions on obstruction as long as trump is willing to meet in person. What do you make of that offer . I think its obvious the Special Counsel really wants to have that sitdown meeting with the president but i dont think its going to happen because its clear that giuliani and the group thats working with trump at this point is trying to do as much as they can to call the Special Counsels investigation a witch hunt, its biased, and so i think politically, theyll have enough cover where the president does not have to sit down and answer these questions, and while im sure mueller will limit the number of questions, hes not going to limit the subject matter. It makes no sense to interview the president in this capacity if you cannot ask those critical questions about obstruction. Why did you fire jim comey . What have you been saying to your Attorney General . That is really the heart of that part of the Special Counsels investigation. Hes not going to let it go. Gentlemen, thank you for the discussion. Great to have you with us. Josh, swin, page, we appreciate it. So, supporters gather for trumps rally tonight in ohio, there is a fringe Conspiracy Theorist Group growing more visible at trump events, people with shirts and signs bearing this letter. Q. So who are they . Well dig into that next. What do they even mean . You say stuff that doesnt mean anything. Conspiracy theorists you think im weaponized by the cia . Maybe not to your knowledge. Thats unfortunate. Were starting to see a new type of supporter at President Trumps rallies. In fact, we might see them tonight, people wearing tshirts or Holding Signs with the letter q. The q stands for qanon, a group that believes that the deep state is out to kill President Trump. And thats just scratching the surface. Tom foreman has more. Reporter photos of missiles and mysterious strangers, rants about a shadow government, free masons, secret symbols, and predictions of a world about to change, all of this is part of the conspiracy stew cooked up by qanon, an internet conspiracy persona. Some followers of whom showed up at the president s most recent rally and many of whom see him as a hero. Like them, ready to embrace wild theories, to claim secret plots against him, and to attack anyone who says otherwise fake news, fake news. They are fake. Reporter Internet Postings associated with the movement gained traction fast among followers like one that says the Parkland School shooting victims and witnesses were really actors. Nbc news noted earlier this week a spate of youtube videos falsely accusing top sbecelebris of pedophilia. The higher you go, the more sick it gets. Reporter at the same time, the q is attracting interest from others, including Roseanne Barr and curt shilling. The Washington Post says q is an Anonymous User claiming to be a Government Agent with top security clearance, waging war against the socalled deep state in service to the 45th president. But back on earth, this is known. The promotion of Conspiracy Theories can have real consequences. The hoover dam was evacuated. Reporter in june, Police Detained an armed man after he blocked hoover dam, demanding the release of a government report, apparently about hillary
clintons emails, although such a report was already out. In 2016, police say a man fired a rifle in a d. C. Pizza place as he claimed he was investigating a widespread Conspiracy Theory about human trafficking. He was convicted and is now serving four years. Were not covering pizzagate enough. Reporter and alex jones, who pushed the pizzagate conspiracy on his radio show is now in court over another madeup tale. Families of victims in the sandy hook School Shooting say they have been hounded mercilessly since jones claimed their stories were all part of a hoax to push for gun control. He is countersuing them for legal fees. Yet for all that, back in 2015, candidate donald trump praised alex jones. So perhaps its no surprise the qanon crowd is now crowding around the president , offering their support. Tom foreman, cnn, washington. Qanon is the name of the group, and daily beast
reporter william summer has been reporting on this Bizarre Movement and joins us now to discuss further. So, william, its so bizarre and yet it seems to be growing. Are qanon followers drawn to trump, or are trump followers, do you think, drawn to qanon . You know, its interesting, i think its a mix of both. Sometimes you see people who are already hard core trump people, and they turn to qanon or believe in it because it portrays this world where, you know, trump is constantly winning and victorious and sort of engaged in this very dramatic battleme battle. At the same time, i think there are people, especially people drawn from the far left, who find it appealing because it portrays this world sort of controlled by evil banks and shadowy forces and they, in a way, sort of meet in the middle with qanon. How is this different than pizzagate or birtherism . Sure, in a way, its sort of a combination of all of them. Its a megaConspiracy Theory that offers this explanation for
all of that going on. So they say, oh, pizzagate is real. That stuffs real. Maybe barack obama wasnt a legitimate president because he was born in kenya. They claim the seth rich Conspiracy Theory, he was murdered by hillary clinton, this dnc staffer. So it combines all this stuff thats been bubbling up for a listening time now and offers this explanation of trump versus this global cabal. But a lot of those we hear that are not supportive of the president , the person in power, these seem to be backers of the current president. Sure, so this is the interesting thing about qanon, is that Conspiracy Theory experts have looked at this and they say normally you get a Conspiracy Theory like, lets say, birtherism, when your side loses. This time, though, its the president s supporters. The republicans control the entire government. So Whats Going On . I think Whats Going On is that the president he made such extravagant promises and his supporters believed in him so much during the campaign. They were chanting, lock her up. Hillary clinton was never going to be sent to prison, but theyre disappointed that she
wasnt so they create this world or believe in this world like qanon where they think Hillary Clintons going to be sent to guantanamo bay. Cnns gary tuckman got a chance to speak to some of these qanon supporters. Reporter you guys are you dont believe in the First Amendment . Reporter you just said the press is the enemy. You guys are weaponized by the cia. Reporter by the cia . I dont know anybody in the cia except a couple people ive interviewed over the years. You believe theres a deep state. Yes. Reporter and what do you think that deep states doing . You think theyre running this country . I think they were and theyre petrified now, because theyre losing their control. Reporter and who is in this deep state . Who are the people in it . I definitely believe that, like, the clintons, the bushes, the obamas. Reporter so you think the clintons, the bushes, and the obamas are running this country as we stand here in the rain . No. Theyre trying. William, you say qanons impact on politics and trump world is dangerous. Explain. Absolutely. Well, we saw in the earlier segment, weve already seen one qanon believer who shut down a bridge. He was armed. He had a weird improvised armored truck. Hes a Hard Core Qanon Guy so we know hes motivated by that. At the same time, obviously, in 2016, we saw someone with pizzagate, you know, an armed person invade a pizzeria in washington. So whats happening here is the qanon people are saying, were not violent, and admittedly, so far, no one that we know of has been hurt by this but at the same time, you know, youre telling people these sort of extravagant Conspiracy Theories about pedophiles and people abusing children and the fact that the idea that essentially democracy is broken, the governments out of your hands, and so then i think naturally, thats going to appeal to some fringe people and as we know, it already has. Increasing emotions and passion. William, thank you very much for your reporting. Its so interesting. Thanks for having me. We have this just in to cnn. First Lady Melania Trump taking sides in her husbands feud with lebron james and you might be surprised whose side shes on. Stay right there. You dont want to live with mom and dad forever, do you . Im making smoothies how do i check my credit score . Credit karma. Dont worry, its free. Credit karma. Give yourself some credit. Occupying our country like another nation would. Now let me put those comments into context for you. Ms13 is only one of 33,000 different gangs in the United States. It makes up roughly 1 of all gang members in this country. Ms13 is not the largest, and it isnt just made up of undocumented immigrants. But it is a serious threat in certain communities, and we went to one area directly impacted by ms13 Gang Violence to get a better understanding of this gang and its targets. Her life was taken, stolen from her. Its not right. She had dreams, she had goals, she had a future. Reporter kayla was just 16 years old, a talented athlete nicknamed the bullet. They named her the bullet because she was so quick. Reporter sadly unable to escape the violence just outside her door. Kayla and her best friend
savagely murdered just blocks from home september 13, 2016. This is where it happened. She was found right here. Reporter attacked with Baseball Bats and a machete, investigators say. Victims of la ma ra, the gang better known as ms13. I miss her every second of the day. Reporter ms13 is one of the most violent street gangs in the United States. Federal and local officials agree. Designated a Transnational Criminal Organization with roots in central america, more than 30,000 members worldwide, up to 10,000 in the u. S. , and as many as 1,000 on long island alone. We have about 500 identified ms13 members here in nassau county. Out of that 500, we have 215 that are active. Reporter how do you identify who is an active member . The number one is
selfadmitting. So theyll be all tattooed up, ms13, selfadmitted, do the signs. When they get arrested, they ask them are you gang affiliated, yeah, im ms13. Reporter what is the gangs m. O. . Kill, rape, control. Reporter ruling by fear, victims of their violence and recruitment are often young. Local Law Enforcement says the gang first came on their radar in 2010, but they started to see an uptick in Gang Violence in 2015. According to intelligence, thats when leaders of ms13 in el salvador made a concerted effort to grow and establish new branches of the gang. Socalled programs in different pockets of the u. S. , including the affluent suburbs of new york city and long island. Why new york is the question and the answer is that in suffolk county, at least, theres a large salvadoran population. Theres also a Record Number of Unaccompanied Minors coming to
suffolk co