Police: Fake News Brought Armed Man To Pizzeria
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Now we know fake news equals real bullets because a bogus news story prompted a man with an assault rifle to enter a pizza shop in Washington, D.C. yesterday and fire his weapon. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The suspect was arrested outside of the restaurant. We've learned that his name is Edgar Maddison Welch and that he's 28-years-old. He told police he had come to investigate an online conspiracy theory called Pizzagate. Sharif Silmi was at the restaurant with his wife and his three young children and just short time ago, he told us what he saw.</s>SHARIF SILMI, WITNESS: I was actually playing ping-pong with my wife at the time. And the suspect walked in. He walked behind me. We -- I assumed he was a security guard, you know, several people seen him with the gun and were obviously, you know, starting to kind of move around and shake things up. And so an employee came and grabbed me and let me know that this was indeed somebody that wasn't supposed to be there and was a gunman and obviously my first reaction was get my family out and, you know, get my kids out and my wife did the same and thankfully we're out of there, the staff there did amazing job getting everyone out.</s>KEILAR: CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Joe Johns joins me now along with CNN Senior Media Correspondent Brian Stelter, host of "Reliable Sources". So we have to do some explaining through all of these. But Joe I just want you to start by telling us what we know about the suspect at this point and time?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you mentioned there Brianna, this 28-years-old, his named is Edgar Maddison Welch, he's from Salisbury, North Carolina, walked into the restaurant over the weekend. Had a rifle in this hand. The rifle apparently went off. The police showed up. The people around here scattered and when they took him into custody apparently they found a couple other weapons in his possession. Took him down to the police station, asking him a few questions and he said he was here essentially to reinvestigate Pizzagate. He's expected to show up sometime this afternoon in D.C. Superior Court for his first court appearance. He was initially charged with armed, dangerous weapon. So we're going see if that charge changes in any way and talk to the lawyers in a little while, Brianna.</s>KEILAR: OK. So he's investigating Pizzagate. For the uninitiated on this fake news story, what is Pizzagate?</s>JOHNS: This is something that really started picking up steam around the end of October just before the election. And then into November, it really picked up steam. Apparently started with the Wikileaks release of stolen e-mails from John Podesta, the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton and apparently they got a hold of the information, massaged it, put a lot of lies in there, and turned it into this amazing story, all untrue about Hillary Clinton, John Podesta somehow being involved in a child sex ring that emanated apparently outside of -- or inside this restaurant. So they took pictures. They took other information and created a whole false story around this restaurant, Hillary Clinton and John Podesta.</s>KEILAR: So, Brian Stelter, how did that proliferate? I mean Joe's describing the lengths at which the perpetrators of this fake story went to. They took -- we've heard from the owner of this place, they took photos from his associates Instagram accounts of children, right? Just innocent photos that you would post of like your kids on Instagram and sort of put it along with this false narrative about a child sex ring operating out of a -- kind of a random pizza parlor.</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Right. I think it almost like a snowball. This is a snowball effect. They start at the top of the hill with a couple false details. And then as it rolls down the hill, it picks up steam, picks up speed, gets more attention, they add new more false information which keeps people interested in the story. And we say, story because this is a fake news story. It's completely unhinged. It's more than a fake news story, Brianna. It's a full- fledged conspiracy theory. This was one of many anti-Clinton conspiracy theories in the weeks and days leading up to Election Day. And this one is continued to progress and evolve, things are rolled down that snowball hill even after Election Day which may be why this man decided to drive from North Carolina to Washington in order to investigate it himself. It is a real-life example of the consequences of the internet echo chamber. You know, the same computer, the same laptop, the same to the phone that gives us instant access to the truth also allows us to wall ourselves off and only hear fictions. And that's what seems to happen in cases like this.</s>KEILAR: Yes. Maybe the computer and some suspension of disbelief is allowing that as well. All right. Brian Stelter.</s>STELTER: Exactly.</s>KEILAR: Joe Johns, thank you so much for explaining this, both of you. Moments ago the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reacted to what we were just talking about before we were speaking with Joe and Brian. His latest tweets from president-elect Donald Trump on China and also Donald Trump's recent call with Taiwan's president. Let's listen to what Josh Earnest said.</s>JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can confirm that U.S. officials including senior officials of the National Security Council have been in touch with their Chinese counterparts to reiterate our country's continued commitment to a one China policy. This is a policy that is based on three joint U.S.-China communiques that were negotiated by different U.S. presidents and different parties and of course by the Taiwan Relations Act. This is a policy that's been in place for yearly 40 years and it has been focused on promoting and preserving peace and stability in the strait. This has -- the adherence to and commitment to this policy has advanced the ability of the United States to make progress in our relationship with China. And of course, has benefited the people of Taiwan. Taiwan after all is the ninth largest trading partner of the United States and they certainly benefit from peace and stability in the strait and pursuit of and commitment to that peace and stability advances U.S. interests. If the president-elect's team has a different aim, I'll leave it to them to describe.</s>KEILAR: Stability enhances U.S. interests, that is the word from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. And up next, a big win for Native Americans fighting to stop a pipeline project, but what happens once President Obama leaves office here in the coming weeks?