CBS News
Transcript: David Becker and Chris Krebs on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Sept. 15, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with David Becker, Center of Election Innovation and Research executive director and CBS contributor, and Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and CBS News cybersecurity expert and analyst on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Sept. 15, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: For more on the upcoming election and the efforts underway to secure the vote, we turn to David Becker. He’s a former civil rights attorney at the Department of Justice who now leads the center of election innovation and research. He’s also a CBS contributor on election law. And Chris Krebs, the former director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, now an expert and analyst here at CBS Good to have you both. David, let me start with you. We saw this letter this past week from Secretaries of State in all fifty states and District of Columbia, issuing concern that we could see voters disenfranchised because of this increase in mail returned as undeliverable at higher than usual rates, even in cases where a voter is known not to have moved. And Donald Trump was tweeting about this this morning, you can’t trust the Postal Service. How much of a problem is this going to be for mail in voting?
DAVID BECKER: Well, it’s a potential problem. I’m hearing this from- from state officials and local officials, of course, there in the States, and we are seeing mail voting spread as an option around the country. I think we’re likely to see less mail voting than we did in 2020 because hopefully we won’t have a pandemic to deal with in 2024, but it’s a significant problem, and it really stresses the importance of voters to make a plan when they’re voting. Almost every voter in the United States has an option to vote early in person. 97% of all of them in every state except for Mississippi, Alabama, New Hampshire, 36 states and DC do offer mail voting without an excuse. But if you’re going to vote by mail, get your ballot early. Request it early. Make sure you get it and then return it early. If you’re going to return it by the mail, that’s fine. Just do it very early. There’s also options for drop boxes and dropping it off at election offices and vote centers. That’s going to be incredibly important for voters to self educate about those options, just in case there are problems with the Postal Service.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And it’s this coming week, right where it’s voter registration, voter awareness what is it?
DAVID BECKER: So this coming week, on Tuesday, is National Voter Registration Day–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Registration Day.
DAVID BECKER: There’s still plenty of time to register. As we sit here today, there’s three weeks left in every state. Some states go much longer than that, but no matter where you are, if you’re an eligible voter, you can go to vote.gov That’s a great place to start. Taylor Swift mentioned it earlier this week, and it’s a great place to start and get registered. Every eligible voter in the United States can still check their registration and get registered for at least three weeks.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Put it on your to do list. Chris, I want to talk about some of the information environment issues that we are in. It is not every face the nation that we begin talking about rumors of cats and dogs and geese in Ohio, the reason we’re doing it is because the Republican nominee on the debate stage repeated something that started as a Facebook rumor that got amplified that the senator from Ohio says resulted in calls to his office this you watch this kind of echo chamber and ecosystem of information, what do you make of a moment like this, and how frequently things like this get replicated now, like, how does someone at home navigate truth when we I went through fact check after fact check, the police chief, the mayor, the governor, and again and again and again, I was told, Nope, you’re wrong.
CHRIS KREBS: Yeah, I mean, the fact of the matter is social media, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, X, whatever, it’s not the real world. It’s not reality. And so it provides an environment where specious claims like this can catch fire, but they tend to be constrained to that platform. What we saw on Tuesday was the firewall between mainstream and reality in this extremely online ecosystem breakdown, and they crossed over. And keep in mind that these social media platforms, well, Facebook has a billion plus users on a monthly basis. X has much, much fewer. And so what happened Tuesday night was the vast majority of people. There were 57 million, I think, viewers of the debate, the vast majority of them had never heard about this cats and dogs being barbecued in Springfield, Ohio, and the, you know, I expected it because, you know, unfortunately, David and I have to live in this world to anticipate what’s coming. And so I had seen it going through social media for a couple days, and I fully expected it to jump, you know, into the conversation, go mainstream, and boom, there it is. So to your question, or to your point, how does one kind of introduce some kind of personal resilience here? And it’s exactly doing what you do. Go to mainstream outlets and trusted outlets and and do a little bit of fact check and verification, and listen to the public officials, listen to Governor DeWine, listen to the mayor and the city manager, who’s to know better than someone that’s actually willing to put their face in their name to a claim, rather than someone randomly on a social media platform.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And this will become increasingly relevant as we get to voting and going to voting facilities, not Facebook rumors, the elected officials, the people who hold office. That’s who we as journalists cite. And that’s who people at home should look to.
CHRIS KREBS: Well, and to David’s point about vote.gov and having a voting plan, yes, that is absolutely critical. But when you do come across rumors online of registration dates changing or voting locations or precincts closing, there are ways that you as an individual voter can go confirm and that tends to go to the local election official or the Secretary of State trusted info 2024 that’s the campaign that the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State election directors have mounted now for three election cycles in a row. It’s go to the- the authoritative source in your jurisdiction, which tends to be your secretary of state, your state election director, or your local election officials.
MARGARET BRENNAN: David, in the last election, we saw some of those local officials stand up in a way that was it took a lot of guts to stand up to federal pressure. You saw that in the state of Georgia, you saw that in the state of Arizona. You speak to election officials in states around this country right now, where are you seeing that strength, and are there areas of concern?
DAVID BECKER: So I’m seeing tremendous strength from the election officials, despite the fact that they’ve been under pressure, stress, abuse and harassment for four years now that their work has continually withstood every bit of scrutiny that’s been applied, and the fact that since 2020 every election they’ve run has been run very well and similarly withstood that scrutiny, but they’re still exhausted this disinformation environment Chris is talking about, that has real world impacts on our Neighbors, on our fellow citizens who are working every day to give us all our voice. They are answering questions that are have no bearing to reality all the time, about importing voters, about problems with the voting process, and they’re having to navigate those, while they’re also still having to plan for an election that is likely going to be very high turnout, probably similar to 2020, perhaps even higher. People are very interested in this election, but they’re ready. But one of the best things we can do is support them. Is to support them by, as Chris suggests, listening to the actual information, going to the official sources for real information, getting information, and making a plan in advance about how you’re going to vote. And then finally, one of the things I always encourage, if you have any doubts or questions, volunteer to be a poll worker. You will learn so much about the process. You will find out how the process and why the process is so secure, how many redundancies and checks and balances and pieces of transparency are in place in that process that will really help your election officials out, because then you become an evangelist for our very effective election system out in the community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So Chris, we are seeing more foreign efforts to meddle in this election. We expect in the coming days, federal officials to file charges related to that Iranian hack and dump campaign that seems to have been foiled thus far, but attempt to hurt Trump campaign. How much more of this is coming?
CHRIS KREBS: Well, my sense, and based on prior experience, particularly in 2020 where we saw the Iranians try to meddle in that election, the Russians, the Chinese going back to 2016 with the Russians, is that they tend not to just have a single effort or work stream. There’s an overarching strategy, a multifaceted, multi prong campaign that they’ve pulled together. We certainly know this with the Russians, that there are various work streams that they have launched against the US. The Iranians very likely have the same so perhaps this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I’ve said that before. Not all of these activities, these work streams, will be successful, or will break through. But the hack-and-leak campaign specific to Iran. But the main point, and what I am observing out of the United States government, is that they are looking to keep constant pressure, consistent engagement against the Russians, against the Iranians, against the Chinese throughout the course of this election and afterwards, remember, we have to run through the tape here, and that tape is inauguration.
MARGARET BRENNAN: David, quickly, it is illegal for a non citizen to vote in a federal election. In some localities, they can vote in municipal elections. Donald Trump is talking about this as a real concern.
DAVID BECKER: Yeah, and it’s not a real concern. And even Republican states that have looked into this have found incredibly small numbers of even potential non-citizens registered. We have found virtually zero non-citizens actually voting. Georgia did a full audit of its list and found zero non citizens voting. That’s because the protections in place are very effective. We- it’s illegal to- to vote as a non-citizen. Ideas required to register to vote, and if you’re a non-citizen and you register and you vote, you will go to jail and you will be deported. So it’s very important how effective those those deterrence mechanisms are. This is not a problem. You’ll hear that from Republican and democratic election officials across the country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Gentlemen. Thank you both.
DAVID BECKER: Thank you Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll be talking a lot in the coming months. We’ll be right back.
CBS News
North Carolina governor’s race rocked by CNN report on Mark Robinson’s alleged incendiary comments
Editor’s note: This story contains highly offensive language.
Washington — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, posted a slew of incendiary, explicit and racist comments on a pornographic website more than a decade ago, according to a CNN investigation released Thursday that has shaken the state’s gubernatorial race.
The report focused on comments made by an account with the name “minisoldr” on a pornographic website called Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012. The account used the name “mark robinson” in its profile and a number of biographical details posted by the account line up with Robinson’s own history, according to CNN. The network reported that Robinson appeared to use the account name on other platforms over the years, including YouTube and Pinterest, and that the email address associated with the account belonged to Robinson.
On the Nude Africa forum, the user expressed a desire to “bring [slavery] back” and “buy a few” slaves, while identifying himself as a “black NAZI,” according to CNN.
“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few,” the account wrote in a discussion about Black Republicans in 2010, according to CNN.
“I like watching tranny on girl porn!” the minisoldr account also posted on Nude Africa, according to CNN. “That’s f****** hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in! And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”
In March 2012, minisoldr posted a preference for Hitler over former President Barack Obama’s administration: “I’d take Hitler over any of the s*** that’s in Washington right now!”
Minisoldr also used racist language to vilify civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!” the account posted in October 2011, according to CNN.
Reports emerged earlier Thursday that CNN was planning to publish a damaging story that could lead other Republicans to call on Robinson to drop out of the race. In a video posted to X before the CNN story was published, Robinson flatly denied that he said anything in the CNN report and insisted he won’t drop out. North Carolina will begin mailing ballots to members of the military and voters outside the U.S. on Friday.
“The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” Robinson said in his video. “You know my words, you know my character and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before.”
Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Robinson echoed those comments in an interview with CNN. “This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said, adding that he wouldn’t “get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies” when presented with evidence that the account belonged to him.
Robinson, who is 56 and married with two children, has a history of inflammatory remarks that have widely circulated since he won the state’s Republican primary in March. Serving as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor since 2021, he gained prominence in Republican circles after he delivered a pro-gun rights speech that went viral and kickstarted his political career. He’s made inflammatory comments across a number of topics — from Islam to abortion to feminism — but he’s been especially vocal on LGBTQ+ issues.
If elected, Robinson would become the first Black governor of North Carolina. Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Robinson for governor, has referred to him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
The lieutenant governor blamed the CNN report on his Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.
“You all have seen the half truths and outright lies of Josh Stein,” Robinson said, claiming that Stein leaked the story to CNN.
The report’s release has spurred concern among Republicans about their nominee’s prospects in the coming election. Sen. Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican, told reporters ahead of its release on Thursday that “North Carolinian voters are smart, and they know how to pick each and every candidate based on their own merits.”
When asked whether Robinson should step down, Budd said he didn’t have enough information.
“They’ve been assaulting him for years,” Budd said before the article was published. “We’re going to gather our facts through the weekend.”
contributed to this report.
Certain boxes of waffles sold at Costco Wholesale stores in the Midwest are being recalled because they may contain plastic, according to a notice by supplier Kodiak Cakes.
The recall involves Kodiak Power Waffles Buttermilk & Vanilla 40 count with the UPC code 705599019203 and a use-by date of Jan. 10, 2026, and only impacts products with the lot code 24193-WL4 and a time stamp of 12:00-23:00, according to the Park City, Utah-based company.
The recalled products were sold at Costco warehouses in 13 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The action was initiated “due to the potential presence of soft plastic film,” according to Kodiak, which noted that no injuries or illnesses had been reported.
Those who purchased the recalled product can return it to their local Costco for a refund.
People with questions can email Kodiak at: flapjacks@kodiakcakes.com or call 801-328-4067. Messages will be returned between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mountain time, Monday through Friday.
Tyson Foods is misleading shoppers and investors over its ability to reach “net-zero” carbon emissions by 2050 as well take other steps aimed at protecting the environment.
Tyson, the world’s second-biggest meat processor, should have to curtail its climate claims or release a substantial plan to support its claims, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group. The complaint is part of an effort to “hold the biggest, most powerful contributors to the climate crisis — across industries — accountable for greenwashing,” EWG stated.
Tyson Foods has said since 2021 that it would hit net-zero emissions — the point at which the amount of greenhouse gases a company emits is offset by the emissions that are removed from the atmosphere — by 2050 by using more renewable energy and no longer contributing to deforestation.
The Arkansas-based meat company also sells a brand of “climate-friendly” beef that Tyson says is made with 10% fewer emissions than conventional meat.
A spokesperson said Tyson does not comment on litigation, but defended the company’s “long history of sustainable practices.”
The suit against Tyson was filed in Washington, D.C., which has a consumer protection law in place that lets consumer groups sue companies for false advertising.
The same claim of greenwashing — a term attributed to environmentalist Jay Westerveld that refers to making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or service — was made in February in a suit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James against JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, over its claim it would reach net-zero emissions by 2040.
James’ suit against the Brazilian meat conglomerate came after Earthjustice successfully challenged JBS’ environmental messaging before an ad industry self-regulatory organization in 2023.
Livestock production accounts for 14.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions globally, with cattle responsible for two-thirds of the total, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Science-Based Targets Initiative, a UN-backed agency that reviews net-zero goals, is calling for the food and agricultural sector to reduce its emissions by 3% annually between 2020 and 2030.
Delta Air Lines last year dismissed as “without legal merit” a suit filed by a passenger that alleged the airline’s claim to be “the world’s first carbon-neutral airline” to be marketing spin. Coca-Cola is currently defending itself in a similar case in which the beverage make is accused of overstating its recycling efforts.
North Carolina governor’s race rocked by CNN report on Mark Robinson’s alleged incendiary comments
Costco supplier recalls waffles sold at warehouse stores in 13 states
Tyson Foods misleads shoppers about its carbon emissions, climate group says
North Carolina governor’s race rocked by CNN report on Mark Robinson’s alleged incendiary comments
Costco supplier recalls waffles sold at warehouse stores in 13 states