Into Trump, Coronavirus and Conspiracy Theories

President Trump announced that he and the First Lady tested positive for COVID-19 on Twitter, in the middle of the night last week.

Brandy Zadrozny spends her days sorting through the chaos of the internet for NBC News, trying to track conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns. As soon as she heard President Trump had tested positive, she knew the internet would explode.

And she was right. QAnon claimed Trump was pretending to have COVID-19 as part of some sort of plan to arrest Hillary Clinton. Other people said he was just trying to get out of the next debate, or maybe even delay the election.

On this episode of Into America, Brandy sits down with Trymaine Lee to break down what she’s been seeing online, where she’s seeing it, and why this spread of misinformation matters.

For a transcript, please visit https://www.msnbc.com/intoamerica.

Further Reading and Listening:

• Facebook bans QAnon across its platforms
• Facebook removes Trump post that compared Covid-19 to flu
• Into America: Into the Rise of QAnon During the Pandemic