CNN panelist Maria Cardona claims Trump caused the Charlottesville attack

National security officials, Democratic politicians and members of the media often cite the terrible scourge of disinformation as one of their top concerns. Leading news organizations routinely warn their readers and viewers that right-wing provocateurs, Republican politicians and foreign agents are flooding social media with lies. Technology regulators around the world – from Brazil to the European Union— use the threat of disinformation as an excuse for censorship. In the US, the First Amendment makes it much more difficult for potential censors to outright criminalize disinformation, although this has not stopped politicians from trying; Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz already proposed— wrongly — that disinformation and hate speech are not protected speech.

This statement itself is an example of misinformation because it is a false statement; The Supreme Court firmly holds that hate speech, for example, is protected by the First Amendment. However, when mainstream Democrats make clearly untrue statements, they are rarely labeled as disinformation. This speaks to the one-sidedness of the concept – a one-sidedness that was perfectly demonstrated during the CNN debate on Sunday.

Ironically, the topic of discussion was disinformation. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson about how malicious lies spread by right-wing figures are undermining trust in American democracy. Blitzer invited several panelists to respond. Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist, chimed in with a comment about former President Donald Trump.

“Let’s remember Charlottesville,” she said. “Let’s remember January 6th. All of these events ended in tragedy, and all of these events were instigated and inspired by the words that came out of the mouth of the former president.”

CNN correspondent Scott Jennings, a Republican, then interrupted Cardona to dispute that Trump’s rhetoric was behind the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one person was killed and a dozen others wounded by a white nationalist. Cardona doubled down, saying Trump “came out and said both sides are good people.”

“I think he caused Charlottesville,” she said. “Those people who marched, they marched in support of one person. They marched in support of Donald Trump.”

Discussing disinformation, Maria Cardona says Donald Trump inspired Charlottesville by uttering the oft-used and debunked phrase “good people on both sides,” which somehow happened after Charlottesville.

She then argues that Democratic leaders did not support anti-Israel rallies. pic.twitter.com/KytdgVu4uD

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) November 4, 2024

These statements are blatantly false.

Most obviously: Trump’s rhetoric is not cause a group of white nationalists organized a rally in Charlottesville. Controversy over Trump’s remarks stems from what he said in response to the rally.

And here Trump’s critics also went too far. Like a fact checking site Snopes has came to the conclusionTrump never said that neo-Nazis were very good people. He said neo-Nazis and white nationalists “must be completely condemned.” His “fine people on both sides” comment referred to the debate over whether removing statues of problematic historical figures is a good idea. Indeed, reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom of repealing laws and about Which historical figures deserve new attention.

It’s completely normal to disagree with how Trump handled the episode or to think his condemnation didn’t go far enough. But no serious person has suggested that Trump’s remarks incited racism and violence in Charlottesville in 2017. The rally was organized by outspoken white nationalists Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer to protest the removal of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. statue. Their efforts were not inspired by or championing Donald Trump.

Not once did Blitzer accuse Cardona of spreading misinformation. The job of fixing it was left to Jennings. Remember: this was a discussion supposedly highlighting the toxic spread of misinformation.

This is the kind of blatantly false statement that the presenter would, under any other circumstances, interrupt and correct, especially if, say, the speaker were a Republican. (Although a conservative panelist @ScottJenningsKY did a wonderful job of establishing the truth.)

— Robbie Soave (@robbysoave) November 3, 2024

People spreading misinformation, either accidentally or intentionally, is nothing new. It was happening on television, on the radio, in newspapers, in books and in everyday conversation long before the advent of social media. Commentators who fixate on platforms they don’t trust or partisan actors they don’t like often view misinformation as a genuine pathogenic disease, while ignoring lies from their own end or treating them as mere divisiveness.