-In an election year, control of the narrative is essential,
but, during the coronavirus pandemic,
candidates can no longer hold rallies,
shake hands, or host town halls.
They are running for president online.
-The central tenets of a campaign simply haven't changed.
I think that the opportunity and the manner in which you do so,
digital has opened the door to a lot of opportunities
and a variety of tactics.
-And it wasn't hard for the Trump campaign to shift gears.
Around 36 million people follow Trump
and his campaign accounts on Facebook.
And more than 100 million people But, the Trump campaign
faced a challenge with numerous reports
surfaced revealing how the administration
mishandled key aspects of the coronavirus response.
-Our system of testing for the virus
across this country is failing.
-As top White House officials can't even agree on basic facts.
-All political campaigns show the best version
of their candidate.
And, after reviewing thousands of social media posts
from the president, his campaign,
and surrogates, we found that the campaign worked
to ensure a different reality played out online.
-Tough steps to defeat a tough virus.
-They rewrote mistakes, deflected blame,
and created distractions.
This spin itself isn't notable.
It's how the campaign's widespread reach
and strategic use of social media,
using manipulated video and false and misleading content,
allows them to rewrite even recent history.
In their version of the story, Trump took all the right steps
to fight COVID-19.
US intelligence agencies issued ominous
and classified warnings about coronavirus in January,
but President Trump only addressed it publicly
after the first case was confirmed in the US.
-We have it totally under control.
It's one person coming in from China.
-Now, to growing concerns about the deadly coronavirus.
-Coronavirus has been reported here in the US.
-President Trump downplaying the threat of coronavirus.
-Data of Trump's posts on Twitter and Facebook,
at this time, shows conversation
about coronavirus was almost nonexistent.
In fact, Trump, instead, was talking the most
about his impeachment trial, the 2020 election,
and Nancy Pelosi.
Meanwhile, the virus was spreading,
largely undetected, across the country.
-Then, as we move into late February and early March,
the numbers are much more significant.
We're starting to really get a grasp
of what's happening in China, the way it might be spreading
to other countries.
-Still, the topic only surfaced at Trump rallies
as a political attack, in late February.
-Now, the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus.
-The Trump administration continues to send out
mixed messages.
-President Trump today denying an obvious shift in tone
from previous statements.
-It went from "We you know, we've got this under control,
you know, fifteen days, this'll be done, no big deal,"
to "Oh, yeah, this is, you know,
a tool that the Democrats wanna use as a hoax,
you know, yada, yada," to, you know,
"Gee, 100,000 people could die".
-And I feel it, actually.
I'm a wartime president.
This is a war.
-March 17th was the first week in which Trump's
most-talked-about topic on Twitter
was coronavirus-related, with the term "Chinese virus".
In the weeks that followed, his posts centered around
fake news, New York, and White House
news conferences.
-So he's a guy who created narratives, you know, back
when he was a reality TV star.
So, you know, it was all fake.
-First, the president and his campaign
aim to rewrite mistakes.
-Your administration do in February for the time
that your travel ban bought you?
-A lot.
-What?
-A lot!
-This video points to Trump's actions in stopping the virus,
but pretty much skips over all of February,
a month in which the administration
was slow to respond.
-Ask them to accelerate whatever they're doing,
in terms of a vaccine.
We will be suspending all travel from Europe
to the United States for the next 30 days.
-The campaign cherry-picked video clips on social media,
amplifying aspects of the administration's response,
some of which were simply not true.
-We've rapidly developed the most expansive and accurate
testing system anywhere in the world.
-In reality, technical glitches and government regulations
caused testing to fall far behind that of other countries,
creating a massive blind spot in tracking the virus' spread.
Other videos took people's statements out of context,
misrepresenting what they said as high praise
for the president.
For example, in this press conference,
Surgeon General Jerome Adams commended the US Public Health
Service Commissioned Corps.
-You're right, Mr President.
They are tireless.
They're doing things that have never been done before.
-But, the ad creates the impression
that he's talking about Trump.
-They're doing things that have never been done before.
-Then, the Trump campaign began to deflect blame
for the consequences in the US, and point to China.
-Coronavirus infected millions, crushed the world economy.
One nation deserves the blame: China.
-If they can shift the blame successfully
in the public's mind to China, rather than to Trump themselves,
there can still be discussions about the pandemic,
about COVID-19, even about the deaths in the US,
but a different culprit would be behind it.
-President Trump said he will announce new guidelines
that aim to reopen the economy.
-Many of the president's supporters
are simply listening to his message that,
"Look, we're on the other end of this, you know.
Things are getting better," and they are then coming out
and protesting and urging some of these Democratic governors,
in particular, to begin reopening their states.
-By early May, the president's tone changed again.
-We have met the moment and we have prevailed.
-With the pretense of victory, Trump and his campaign shifted,
pushing for states to reopen their economies,
despite warnings from health experts.
Coronavirus was no longer the dominant subject.
Trump and his campaign had shifted to focus on charges
against Michael Flynn, slandering the media,
and Nancy Pelosi.
The campaign created even more distraction,
with a flood of negative digital ads
that targeted Joe Biden in mid-May,
questioning his age and tying him to China.
-They're not bad folks, folks.
-Since the outbreak, the Communist Party
has been mobilizing overseas organizations
to buy local supplies and send them to China.
-It is in our self-interest that China continue to prosper.
-The quote in the ad is clipped from then-vice
president's remarks about trade with China.
-A more prosperous China will mean more demand
for American-made goods and services,
and more jobs back home in the United States of America.
So, our desire for your prosperity
is not borne out of some nobility.
It is in our self-interest that China continue to prosper.
-And I honestly think this is one of the things that is
probably a bit disconcerting for the American public
because, in the midst of a pandemic,
in the midst of a crisis like this,
research very clearly shows to us that the thing Americans
crave the most, the thing that the public craves
the most, is to be comforted,
to be assured.
-There's no question the campaign has access
to an advanced digital infrastructure
to push out messaging with massive reach.
This includes attention-grabbing social media posts,
digital ads, a phone app, and online shows.
It's impossible to predict how the pandemic
will be remembered in history, let alone how it will be thought
of a week from now.
Yet, in an election year, one that's taking place
during a global crisis, there will be a continued effort
to show the president's accomplishments
in the best possible light.
In this case, that means changing
the story.