CHRIS CUOMO (CO-HOST): You’re not going to persuade a guy who wants to go with an assault rifle into a pizzeria to self-investigate. By the way, you can dismiss that as bad English, Abby, I don’t think it is. I think it’s speaking to his state of mind, which is, I don’t believe. They’re all lying to me. I will investigate. And that’s where he comes up with something silly, like self-investigate.
ABBY PHILLIP: The difference between a conspiracy theory and clippings in a newspaper in a paper bag is that we have people with actual prominence disseminating this information. To me, that’s been the most damaging thing about this cycle is seeing how far fake news can go being propelled by people with status and who should know better. Including --
CUOMO: Like [President-elect Donald Trump’s] national security advisor Michael Flynn?
PHILLIP: Michael Flynn, the candidate himself, including the campaign manager and so on --
ALISYN CAMEROTA (CO-HOST): Let me give people a little context. So, Michael Flynn has tweeted out that he has sort of fallen for some of these fake, B.S. stories.
PHILIP: This one in particular.
CAMEROTA: And this is his son -- his son, Michael Flynn Jr. Here's his tweet: “Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it’ll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many ‘coincidences’ tied to it.” In other words, this is where we are, prove to me that it didn't happen. That's not the standard that we normally use. You have to prove it did happen.
PHILLIP: Undermining truth as the foundation of how we interact with each other is really dangerous, and it’s not just dangerous for the people who happen to be on the other side of it right now. But it's a risky thing for everyone to do. If you undermine truth today for someone else, it's going to come back to your side.
