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First of All with Victor Blackwell

"We Ain't Buying It: Boycotts Take Aim At Biz Not Opposing Trump; Target, Home Depot And Amazon Called Out For "Enabling" Trump Policies. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired November 29, 2025 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:46]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, first of all, thank you for joining us on the holiday weekend for a special edition of the show. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. So this time of year, right after Thanksgiving is usually a layup for big retail companies. But this year has not been business as usual. Activists are upset that corporations are not speaking out against policies promoted by the Trump administration.

And so now they want their money to talk like the No Kings protest or the Target Fast. The branding for this pressure campaign is "We Ain't Buying It". Organizers want you to pull back from spending money at Target and Home Depot, and Amazon. Now in a press release, they say the companies have caved to Donald Trump's bigoted and anti-democratic attacks on our communities and our values. From cravenly abandoning their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion to enabling the terrorizing of our communities. Corporate collaboration must stop now.

Now, the boycott puts another bullseye on Target. A retailer has been open about seeing their bottom line be impacted by this previous boycott after dropping DEI initiatives. But is the holiday timing a game-changer?

LaTosha Brown is co-founder of Black Voters Matter. That's one of the groups leading this "We Ain't Buying It effort".

LaTosha, welcome back to the show. Let me start here. So we know about the reason behind the Target focus. Tell me about why you're also focusing on Home Depot and Amazon.

LATOSHA BROWN, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK VOTERS MATTER: You know, when we look at Home Depot, it's interesting. Home Depot has actually built, their business is based on home improvement and construction. And they've built their business on the backs, quite frankly, of immigrant labor in an industry that depends on immigrant labor. But what we've seen is they've actually been colluding with ICE to provide information to surveillance.

One of the groups that's a part of the coalition that two of the workers that were in the store that they called, that ICE actually came in their store and attacked while they were in there. And so Home Depot has also been capitulating. They have aligned themselves with this administration that is creating hurt and harm on the very people who have helped to build this business.

BLACKWELL: And Amazon.

BROWN: And Amazon, what we see at Amazon is also they've been supporting, just for a tax break, they've been supporting this administration providing a million dollars for the inauguration, you know, so that they can get tax benefits at our expense. And what we're saying is that we expect corporations to be accountable to the customers. You can't align yourself with an administration that does not, that is hurting and harming our communities. We won't buy it. We ain't buying it.

BLACKWELL: Now, before we get to some of the goals of this protest, this boycott, Walmart rolled back their DEI. There have been ICE missions and operations outside of those locations. Why these two are not the others?

BROWN: Well, you know, part of what we're asking people, and I think what you're going to see across the board this weekend, what you're going to see across the board is that many of those companies, they're going to see some -- they're going to see their sales be down. What we wanted to do to send a message with these three, it's measurable. You can, they're focused, we're focused on that. But we're saying we ain't buying it. We're not standing with any company. Right.

These are -- these three are just the beginning. They're not the end. Those other companies as well, we're asking people, we've been asking people to hold their money, to not support and shop with companies that do not align with the values that we believe that supports our communities, including these other companies.

These three companies just happen to be the companies that we decided that because of what was happening, because we're seeing egregious nature, that we would find focus on those three companies.

BLACKWELL: And so how long is this going.

BROWN: For this particular action, this is from -- this is throughout the weekend up until Monday, which we're calling Cyber Shutdown Monday. But we're hoping that people take ownership. And we've already been seeing it. We have over 100 organizations that have signed on that are part of this effort, millions of people that are participating. And we're hoping that folks will take their ownership, that they will come much more disciplined consumers and that this will continue as we go forward.

BLACKWELL: And so if people hold their sales until Tuesday, right, what you were going to buy on Amazon, what were you going to get at Target, you hold until Tuesday, what do you think the impact of the pressure campaign will be?

[08:05:05] BROWN: Well, let me tell you this. In this weekend alone, 20 to 30 percent of retail sales happens that when you're looking at the fourth quarter earnings, it is determined on this week for many businesses, particularly retail businesses, right? Six months out. This is projection. Not just only for the fourth quarter, but this is the most important, I think Consumer weekend. That's why it was called Black Friday on Friday.

And so this will send a message that in this short period of time that is known as the retail moment, is called Black Fridays because many companies that is -- this is when they go into the black, right?

BLACKWELL: Sure.

BROWN: So that's why it's the impact based on this has been a sales, a major sale, a cultural day where people shop and buy, a buy by holiday shopping during this weekend.

BLACKWELL: Okay, so there seems to be one difference between the We Ain't Buying It effort and let's say the Target Fast. The Target Fast had a specific list of demands. They wanted five specific things.

I went to the website for this effort, and I didn't see any list of demands. So what is the measurement of success here, just to impact sales for three or four days, or do you want something in exchange?

BROWN: That's a great question. I think there's a couple of things. One, the Target Fast is now the target boycott. But this isn't a boycott. This is a consumer action. What we're saying is three things.

One, reclaiming our power as consumers, that we will make more conscious choices. That part of the reason why we're working with 100 aligned organizations and millions of people because we want as consumers we have a responsibility to be much more conscientious of how we spend our money.

The second thing is really around redirecting our resources that we're asking people to not spend with these large retailers, but we also are encouraging them to spend with small and local and black owned businesses, many of them that have taken a hit in this economy. And then the third thing is really around resistance, that we're sending a message loud and clear that those companies that align with policies that hurt and harm us, that we are resistant, we will not support them.

And so it's not just about how the bottom line of these companies in a boycott is also about the consumers' reactions. It's also about us really building a muscle. That as consumers, we're saying and taking our power, and that we have to be more conscious around our spending choices.

BLACKWELL: And so -- and you were on the show with Pastor Jamal Bryant who's one of the leaders of the Target Fast. And after months of that effort, Target acknowledged that foot traffic was down at stores, sales were down, the stock price was down. Brian Cornell, the CEO, transitioned away from that role, and still Target did not change their DEI policies that led to the boycott.

BROWN: Well, just as Target is making a choice, so are we. So we're making a choice that we are not going to stand and support businesses that one have literally built this idea, you know, saying one hand they were saying that o we are welcoming and we want to support communities. And then what you're seeing is the moment that they abandon those values, they abandon that which tells you that they've used identity just as a marketing ploy, not necessarily because it's been a value.

And so what we're people have power, we have choice. And just as they're making choices to abandon these policies that we believe actually help and support our communities, we're making a choice. We ain't buying it to spend with them as they undermine and align themselves with policies that hurt and harm us.

BLACKWELL: And again, you say that this is just the start. Have you efforted conversations with the executives of these companies?

BROWN: Some of them, members of our -- yes, I know. I know that Target, I myself have not because as we said, this is a consumer action. So, for us, I want to be clear to make the distinction that we're doing a consumer action. But as a part of that, the Target boycott and others that are part of our coalition have been in conversation, have been open on that. And I'm hoping that those companies see how serious we are on this and that this isn't about one organization, one company, even one boycott action.

This is about how do we change the culture of consumers? How do we change the culture of those of us who have resources in such a way that we're going to spend them with companies that feel that they are more responsible to our communities.

BLACKWELL: All right, LaTosha Brown, I thank you so much for joining me. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

BROWN: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: November is dedicated to raising awareness of Alzheimer's, and the black community in particular needs to pay attention to. I want you to hear from someone who knows the personal toll and is now doing his part to raise awareness. Actor Brandon Claybon from the new daytime drama "Beyond the Gates" is here.

Plus, for this special holiday edition of the show, a hot take. It is controversial. Okay, let me just prepare you. Is it time to retire grandma's recipes? We'll get into it ahead.

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[08:14:35]

BLACKWELL: So we're near the end of November, and a month aimed at Alzheimer's awareness, but we need to pay attention to this disease and brain health every month, and especially in the black community. A recent study found that annual dementia diagnoses among black adults May triple by 2060. Already, older Black Americans are twice as likely as older whites to have Alzheimer's or another form of dementia.

65 percent of black Americans say that they know somebody with Alzheimer's or dementia, yet less than half report feeling confident that they can get competent care. And by the way, we see the disparities not just in people getting the care, but among caregivers, too. Half of black Americans say they've dealt with discrimination while trying to get care for someone with Alzheimer's. That's according to the Alzheimer's Association.

And my next guest is working with that organization to raise awareness, especially in the black community. Brandon Claybon works with the Alzheimer's Association. He's also one of the stars of beyond the Gates, the first hour long daytime soap to center on a black family. Good to have you in studio.

BRANDON CLAYBON, ACTOR, "BEYOND THE GATES": Yes. Thank you for having me.

BLACKWELL: And so let's start here with what drew you to this cause. Your own story.

CLAYBON: Well, Alzheimer's runs in my family on both sides. Ever since I was a kid, I was affected by my grandmother having the disease, and anyone who's had family members to have the disease, you know how you're affected, especially with your loved ones losing their memory, losing, you know, how to take care of themselves, losing really who they are, and forgetting who you are.

And hopefully, you know, with me partnering with the Alzheimer's association, we create more awareness. And when I say awareness, I mean raise money for research because although we can slow down the disease, there's no cure. So hopefully in my lifetime, we'll find one.

BLACKWELL: And it was. Were there other members of your family as well who were impacted by it?

CLAYBON: Yes, cousins, aunts. You know, I have a big family. So a lot of people.

BLACKWELL: Speaking of big families, and this is why I think this is important to have this conversation this weekend, is because this may be the only weekend of the year where you see your aunties or your uncles or your grandma, maybe even your parents. And this may be the moment where you notice a difference this year versus last. And I know some of what you want to do is to eliminate the stigma around brain health and dementia.

CLAYBON: For sure. Also, this month is also National Caregivers Month. Most of caregivers are in your family. And I think it's important to really put a spotlight on that because you have to take so much time and energy in taking care of your loved ones and not only in the holidays, but 365.

BLACKWELL: Yes. CLAYBON: You know.

BLACKWELL: And so it's also important I read some of the statistics around black people and families at the top. This is one that stood out to me when I read it from the Alzheimer's Association. More than 1 in 5 black Americans 70 and over is living with Alzheimer's. And so there are a lot of families that, you know, may not discuss this, but it's something that they're dealing with, especially in our communities.

CLAYBON: Especially in our community. And that's one reason I feel like I have to talk about it. Being on a show like "Beyond the Gates", it's given me a platform to create more awareness. And once again, I want to highlight. We need money for research for sure.

BLACKWELL: Research for sure. Let's talk about the soap.

CLAYBON: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Okay. First new soap in 25 years. First hour-long daytime drama that center around a black family. I was on set before the premiere. What's it feel like to be part of this, and I'm going to call it this part of history on television.

CLAYBON: Yes. It's absolutely remarkable. I mean, to be around legends like Tamar Tuney, Clifton Davis. I'm learning each and every day I'm on set. You know, we work Monday through Friday, 365 around the clock so.

BLACKWELL: And more than just being centered around a black family, you are your character, Martin Richardson, Congressman Martin Richardson, father of two. First interracial, same sex marriage in daytime. How does that impact your approach to the role? What it -- what feels like to do it? Because it's not just another job, it's a great job. Yeah, but not just any old job.

CLAYBON: Well, I also know the weight that's on my shoulders. Representation matters, and to be the first of anything. How incredible is that? So I'm just happy to be a part, and I've been able to talk with other friends and family members to get, you know, some advice on certain things. So it's been great.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Have you had fans come up to you? Because the show's been on for several months now. And talk to you about what it means to see you on television.

CLAYBON: I've had fans from D.C., New Orleans, Atlanta, L.A., New York, just stop and just say you remind me of myself. Thank you so much for what you do. And I get caught up. I mean, I love the love. So it's absolutely amazing.

BLACKWELL: Well, that's good. I mean, were talking a little bit during the break about how, you know, I watch. Right. I have watched. I'm caught up on the series.

Martin Richardson is a great father, great husband, has to have the worst attendance record in Congress. You're always at the club Orphege.

CLAYBON: Exactly.

BLACKWELL: When are we going to see Martin actually do some congressional work? We do talk politics.

[08:20:08]

CLAYBON: Well, you should see in the next season. He's going to be working a lot. He's going to be on the campaign trail. So you will see.

BLACKWELL: Anything else you can tell us about what's coming up on the show?

CLAYBON: Just more drama, sex, rock and roll. You'll see.

BLACKWELL: Sounds like daytime.

CLAYBON: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Brandon Claybon, thank you so much for coming in.

CLAYBON: Thank you so much for having me.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

CLAYBON: Appreciate it.

BLACKWELL: All right, you can count on me to ask the tough question. So here is one. Okay. Is it time to rethink grandma's recipes for the sake of our health? Okay, it's delicious, but maybe we need to make some changes. I'll explain and dig into some of the alternatives with Chef Shawn Osbey. Next.

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[08:25:11]

BLACKWELL: Y'all, please don't come at me for this, but after Thanksgiving, now really feels like the right time to ask a pretty controversial question. It came to me as I was remembering this scene. You know immediately what movie this is from.

This is Soul Food. I love this movie. And classic cooking scene. And maybe you had something similar play out for real in your own kitchens during Thanksgiving week. Maybe it will again for Christmas, gathering around and cooking recipes passed down in the case of this movie from Big Mama. She gave all these recipes to the family, and the scene evokes the connection to our families. This is the connection that we only get sometimes this time of year.

You see the food, you can almost taste the flavor, but what you really feel is the nostalgia. And yet, as I see the cup of butter being poured over the dumplings. You see that cup of butter? That's the peach cobbler. The frisk going into the fryer, the dumpling going in. I can't help but wonder, do we need to rethink some of these recipes?

Remember, Big Mama lost her leg in this movie? Hear me out. It may be that food's good for the soul, but is it really good for the heart or our bodies in general?

Chef Shawn Osbey, A.K.A. the Traveling Chef, is with us. Chef, thanks for coming in.

SHAWN OSBEY, CHEF: Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: Okay, so there are two schools of thought here. One is, listen, it's just a day. Enjoy it. Have all the butter and the sugar, and the marshmallows. And it really doesn't turn out to be a day. It's the leftovers, and it's a week. But the other one is, no, we need to make these changes. And some people don't need to have this even once. Where are you on this?

OSBEY: I believe it's just the day. You know, if you can. If you really can control it and have it for the day, let's do that. But I do appreciate the good, traditional full-fat.

BLACKWELL: Yes. I mean, I think, you know, it tastes great. That's why we keep doing it. And it's the emotional connection to it. My thing is, it's not the day, it's the leftovers. The next day.

OSBEY: It does turn into a --

BLACKWELL: Yes. It's a party at somebody else's house. Then you get to Christmas. All right, but you brought some alternatives that we're going to go through some of the traditional stuff, seasonal foods that we may see again at Christmas.

And let's start with the turkey, because typically, you know, that comes with to get that beautiful golden exterior.

OSBEY: A lot of butter.

BLACKWELL: A lot of butter. Okay.

OSBEY: Yes. So what you can do is just get a turkey breast. They sell these nice frozen turkey breasts just like turkey. What you're going to do is you're going to reduce the dark meat. All the thighs, the legs that hold a lot of fat in those, you're going to make a marinade. Cook it the same way you would do turkey, but you just have nice white meat. It's actually lean.

Instead of the butter, we can make a nice marinade with olive oil, fresh herbs, garlic. Pack a lot of flavor. But you're reducing all that fat and butter.

BLACKWELL: And you're promising that. We're not sacrificing any of that flavor.

OSBEY: We're not sacrificing any flavor.

BLACKWELL: Okay, so let's try it. OSBEY: I'm going to give you a taste here.

BLACKWELL: All right. And this is, I got to tell you, this is the first time I've sat down at this desk and had a knife and fork and napkin. So this is -- this is a first for the show, Victor.

OSBEY: So our gravy as well. So the gravy is just a natural drippings off the turkey. I reduced it down and got a nice dressing. There's no roux in here. There's no butter in here as well. So just a nice.

BLACKWELL: Okay, it looks good. It looks good. Now you have to eat as well, because I can't be on television sitting here eating by myself.

But it looks great. I get the turkey breast. Let's see if it lives up to the flavor test. And so what's in this to make sure we keep that flavor even as we cut the butter?

OSBEY: So what we did was we just impacted a lot of -- infused a lot of flavor. So we got garlic. We got parsley, rosemary, thyme, and we got a little bit of citrus in there to give it a little pop. And it's a great little marinade you can do with turkey. It works really well.

BLACKWELL: That tastes like the season, right?

OSBEY: It tastes like -- it tastes like season.

BLACKWELL: Yes. I don't know if "First of All" has like a stamp of approval, but it gets it. So now let's talk about collards.

OSBEY: All right.

BLACKWELL: Because typically there. What are you putting in to make through the flavor?

OSBEY: So a traditional recipe is, you know, pork products. There's a ham hock or a ham bone or fat back, something like that creates that great pot liquor that we all used to. But we're going to switch that out. Use smoked turkey.

BLACKWELL: Okay.

OSBEY: You get that same smokiness. You get the leanness from the turkey, and it just reduces the fat content and the sodium literally by half.

BLACKWELL: And this one I've had before, and it's good.

OSBEY: It's really good.

BLACKWELL: All right, now, candied yams. Candied yams. And for me, when you do it right, you've got the marshmallow, you've got the butter, white sugar, brown sugar. You got to cut some of that, right, to keep it healthy.

OSBEY: Absolutely. So I'm not a marshmallow guy in my candy yams at all. But with these, so we took some regular sweet potatoes or yams, we put them in the oven and baked them halfway, and then we're going to take them out, peel the skin, slice them into your. Some people like cubes, some people like rounds. And what I do is take a little olive oil, and I crisp them up and brown them. What that does is get the natural sugar in the sweet potatoes or in the yams.

[08:30:04]

BLACKWELL: And so now I'm not going to be shy because, you know --

OSBEY: Come on. Come on and do it.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let's get some of that.

OSBEY: And so what else we did. So we made a nice little glaze for these candy yams. Instead of using brown sugar, refined sugar, white sugar, what we did was we used natural sugars. We got honey, a little maple. We used that vanilla. We used nutmeg and cinnamon. All those same notes. But we reduce the butter. There's no marshmallows. There's no brown sugar. There's no white sugar.

BLACKWELL: That is good. That's good. I'm still going to miss my marshmallows. I just remember that from my childhood.

OSBEY: Yes.

BLACKWELL: But this conversation is about, do we need to break up with some of those nostalgic feelings for our health?

OSBEY: I feel like this version of candy yams, you won't miss. You won't miss the --

BLACKWELL: No, it's really good. It's good. And you know what? I feel like I could have these at other times of the year.

OSBEY: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: Because I really felt bad having marshmallows in, like, April. All right. And green bean casserole. I'd never had green bean casserole.

OSBEY: So green -- that's another one that's just packed with a lot of calories and a lot of fat. You know, use a condensed cream of mushroom soup that goes in there. Some people put a roux in there, heavy cream cheese, fried onions. I mean, it's just a lot, a lot of things that turn a traditional healthy green bean into something that's just totally not that, you know.

So how we did -- we did the alternative to get that same creaminess and that same kind of texture you like from the traditional green bean casserole is we took our fresh green beans, we blanched them a little bit, sauteed them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and we did roasted mushrooms. We just took some shiitakes. We got some white buttons, some portobellos in there. We roasted them down with garlic and fresh herbs.

And then I took them in the blender, just buzzed them down, and got them really bouncy.

BLACKWELL: I got a little room left.

OSBEY: Yes. So what we did was we created a nice little cream with the mushrooms.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

OSBEY: Instead of using that condensed soup, all that salty sodium, it's just all vegetables packed in here, and it's going to give you that same -- that same feel. Instead of the fried onions, we just did those crispy mushrooms on top. And then that's alternative.

BLACKWELL: As I eat this macaroni and cheese, can it be saved?

OSBEY: So leave macaroni and cheese alone. It's something about that dish that just -- we just need to kind of let that be, you know?

BLACKWELL: It is what it is.

OSBEY: Exactly. It is what it is.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And is this affordable? Because, you know, I don't know what the cost of your oil is versus an unsalted stick of butter.

OSBEY: It's very affordable. You know, a great olive oil will run you know, eight bucks for a nice bottle smoked turkey. You know, smoked turkey leg or thigh will run you about, you know, six to seven bucks. I mean. I mean, this is -- it's basically your same Thanksgiving dinner. It's nothing. Nothing out of the -- out of the ordinary.

BLACKWELL: Well, I will say it is delicious.

OSBEY: Thank you. I appreciate that.

BLACKWELL: Thank you for coming in.

OSBEY: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: You know, it's a controversial conversation.

OSBEY: It is. It really is.

BLACKWELL: We need to retire some of those recipes. But these are excellent stand ins. Chef Shawn Osbey. Thank you so much.

OSBEY: Thanks.

BLACKWLELL: All right. Artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly, and a lot of it is targeted at the black community, from the story of a fake missing black truck driver to the story of a content creator who says that AI is stealing her face. My favorite pieces so far from a series that we call The Algorithm. Those are up next.

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[08:37:55]

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: Another black truck driver has gone missing. What is going on?

BLACKWELL: Have you seen this post about this black truck driver who vanished mid route? It's gone viral. His name is Eric Darnell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eric Darnell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eric Darnell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eric Darnell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eric Darnell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eric Darnell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just went missing in the middle if one of his deliveries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he was headed to Memphis coming from Phoenix, Arizona.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was talking to his wife at 3:45 that morning, got off the interstate to get a cup of coffee and then she never heard from him ever again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outside of Little Rock, Arkansas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's where his truck was found.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they said his phone had just stopped pinging. All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While it was inside a truck. That don't even sound right. But his keys in his log book was gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His family is looking for him. And he was the provider of his family with kids and all that.

BLACKWELL: And then this story got even worse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eric Darnell have been found --

UNIDENIFIED FEMALE: Deceased. He was hung.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With a rope tied around his neck and he was hanging from a tree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they're saying it could have to do with hate crime.

BLACKWELL: So now at this point, we wanted to learn more about Eric Darnell and tell his story. But the more we looked into it, the odder it seemed. We called the Birmingham Police Department, the Jefferson County, Alabama Sheriff's Office, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. That's according to the story where he's from. But they had no record of a missing Eric Darnell.

And CNN researchers found no evidence of a 38-year-old Eric Darnell in Alabama. We reached out to the Little Rock police and the Pulasi County, Arkansas Sheriff's office. They have no report of a missing truck found with a wallet inside. We're still waiting to hear back from state law enforcement though.

And so now what about the photos? Well, CNN analysis and an expert at the University of California at Berkeley determined that the photo of the driver is fake. And that picture of the truck is likely AI generated too. However, we did find this man.

ERIC DARNELL: My name is Eric Darnell.

BLACKWELL: Are you a trucker?

DARNELL: I am not a trucker, no.

BLACKWELL: Are you 38 years old?

DARNELL: I am 38, yes.

BLACKWELL: Do you live in the Birmingham area?

DARNELL: I do not.

[08:40:00]

BLACKWELL: When did you first hear about what was going on with this missing trucker story?

DARNELL: I heard about it earlier this week, but I ignored the mentions and the notices that I got. They came from people on Facebook that I had no connection with. So I naturally assumed it was just some type of spam. A friend of mine, who I actually knew had privately messaged me and sent me that same screenshot, and I'm just like, hey, I'm getting this a lot.

It's. No, can't be. And he was like, no, it's going viral on TikTok. And then I was like, well, send me the link. He sent me the link, and there I was, all over TikTok. My family, we just lost our father recently. So for my siblings, my mom, to get phone calls and messages, you know, sending their condolences, I'm also an educator. I had past students and current students reaching out to me, making posts, sending their condolences. That was a lot for them.

BLACKWELL: Listen, the people who shared this story, they meant well because they know that there are racial and gender disparities in the coverage of and the investigation of missing persons. And social media can be a way to share real stories. However, there's no evidence that the story of missing trucker Eric Darnell is true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And also, after working on that story, another similar case popped up on my algorithm. This now is the story of a content creator who told me that AI is stealing her face.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Y'all, please tell me you've seen that video of the bride saying, you can't hurt me. This is what my mother in law bought to wear to our wedding.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Y'all, please tell me you've seen that video of the bride saying, you can't hurt me. This is what my mother in law bought to wear to our wedding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Think about the implications of what you just saw.

BLACKWELL: Hey, if you were on social media, you got to pay attention to this. Deep fakes are not just for celebrities and politicians anymore. Some content creators are using just everyday people's faces to make videos, and some of them are pretty convincing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was looking at certain videos, and I came across this one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw the original video of the Door Dash girl, and I'm a little bit confused now that I woke up and see everything that's happening. When I saw it, I said, hey, I understand why Door Dash.

Well, I guess hired you and why you're a block from the app. Now, as for the guy --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a little weird, right? Why are they saying the same thing? In a very similar tone and a very similar cadence.

CHRIS BLACK, CONTENT CREATOR: My name is Chris Black.

BLACKWELL: When did you first realize what was happening here?

BLACK: It actually came up from another person's tick tock video. And funnily enough, they didn't understand what was going on. They were like, wow, is there a script going on? And essentially I was like, no, that -- that one on the right is AI. Like, you can -- like, people wouldn't read everything the same way. There's a little bit of a different cadence there.

So some creator makes this video, some program rips this video based on popularity. Whatever program they use to have the AI, they use that same transcripts down to the way they speak, down to the pauses, down to the enunciations.

BLACKWELL: And Chris noticed something else about the account that posted that suspicious video on the right.

BLACK: They're echoing a lot of mannerisms of black and brown people and minorities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her homegirl should have had some money. BLACK: If we can, like, get all the enunciations and, like, the

different ways that we as people speak or of different cultures speak and different, like, looks and feels of culture, then we can pretty much replicate anything. Like, even -- even the videos that I had shared, they were saying, like, things that are very typical in our community to say. So they're echoing voices and sentiments. And I'm like, oh, that's really dangerous.

Because in an era where we feel like there's so much information, there's more misinformation than ever. And all it takes is one video or two or a couple of videos that have the same premise, the same idea to make you think that something is true.

You can literally have anybody say whatever you want and start a narrative. And then you can have a fake background in the back saying that this is real. They can say, well, look at all these eight black people jumping this white baby in Colorado. And then they'll have 10 other accounts make the same video. And you're going to keep scrolling and be like, man, actually, that must have happened.

You can incite so much emotion, which leads to someone feeling some type of way, doing some kind of thing, buying something. You can incite emotion of something that you didn't. That doesn't exist anymore. You can do whatever you want now with this new form of AI video creation.

This is most likely a real woman's face. It's most likely that woman's same voice.

BLACKWELL: yes, it is. And we found her.

MIRLIE LAROSE, NEWS PRODUCER: My name is Mirlie Larose. They're stealing my face.

BLACKWELL: When did you first hear about this account and your image?

LAROSE: Back in August was around the time I was getting messages from my friends and my family asking me like, hey, is this you?

UNDIENTIFIED FEMALE: Racism in 2025 is actually insane.

LAROSE: Within the first two seconds, I was like, was this me? Did I talk about this? And then after a while, I'm like, something's not right. There's no way this is me because I never share this opinion.

BLACKWELL: How many videos do you think there are of you on this account?

[08:45:00]

LAROSE: They probably have over 25 posts, and about 20 posts are of me.

BLACKWELL: What's the fear about what's next potentially for this account? LAROSE: My fear is, truthfully comes from my safety. We all can be

victims sometimes people take opinions to the highest extent and we'll take our life for it. We just seen it happen a few weeks ago with Charlie Kirk.

BLACKWELL: And you also work in journalism?

LAROSE: I've been a news producer for more than two years now. These kinds of accusations going to tarnish my name at some point if I don't get ahead of it.

BLACKWELL: And so what have you tried to do to stop it?

LAROSE: I've reported the pages. I've commented underneath. I've communicated with TikTok and TikTok has done nothing about it.

BLACK: Most of us have hundreds of hours of us speaking or at least 100 photos of our faces or something like that. There's so much for AI to just kind of, you know, use as their data set. So there isn't -- I don't really think there's anything we could do.

BLACKWELL: So we reached out to TikTok about the account that posted the deep fakes of Mirlie and a spokesperson tells us that after our call, they remove that account for violating their rules. They also say that if this happens to you should go to TikTok.com slash legal slash report slash privacy.

This is also part of their reply. As AI evolves, we're continuing to update and build new detection models to identify AI generated content. We're also partnering with experts on media literacy content.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[08:50:54]

BLACKWELL: The gap between the eight black men elected to Congress from South Carolina and the ninth Congressman Jim Clyburn, is nearly 100 years. Clyburn went on to be a kingmaker in Democratic politics and a member of leadership. Well, now he has a new book out about "The First Eight." We recently spoke about why the book is relevant today.

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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): What is President Trump doing? Is it doing exactly what Hayes did in 1876, exactly what the courts did with the slaughterhouse cases and other cases that led us to 95 years without representation of African Americans here in South Carolina, when the state was majority African American, 55 percent of the state was African American, where they had zero representation.

And the laws that they put in place in order to make that work is what you see what the Supreme Court is doing now with the challenge that you talked about earlier there in Louisiana. If that case is successful and the Supreme Court rules the way people think they will, we will be right back to where we were doing Jim Crow.

And that's why I call Project 2025 Jim Crow 2.0. And this book is a primer for anybody who wish to know what is going on around us today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: One of the first eight is Robert Smalls. His life story is incredible, but a lot of people don't know it. Writer Rob Edwards wants to change that. I spoke with him earlier this year for Art is Life, about his new graphic novel "Defiant" and the real life hero who inspired it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB EDWARDS, WRITER, "CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD" AND "PRINCESS AND THE FROG": Hi, my name is Rob Edwards, writer of "Captain Brave: New World" and "Princess and the Frog." And I'm in Beverly Hills right now talking about "DEFIANT."

"DEFIANT" is the history of a slave named Robert Smalls when he was 23 years old. What he's known for is that he commandeered the ship that he was conscripted to work on, it was a confederate ship that ferried munition from one place to another. And one night, when the white crew took off for the night to let them guard the munitions, he commandeered the boat, got past five military checkpoints just as the captain surrendered the ship to the union army and quickly became one of the most famous black people in the world.

When we started thinking about it was like you're hearing the story and you say, like, wow, this guy's a superhero. Rather than writing a book that I thought was going to be a little dusty and maybe people wouldn't read it, you know, he lived many extraordinary lives.

And so from that, you know, tell the story of a live action superhero in a superhero way. We came out with a comic book series and now the graphic novel, it's coming out on Juneteenth. Who do you most want to be inspired by the story? And I think it's like -- it's a teenage kid, you know, as -- a lot of them are counting themselves out. They don't know how they can contribute to the world. It's tough out there, you know, and what better story to hear about than a story of a slave, the lowest of the low, who goes on and becomes a congressman. He ran for five times against Jim Crow.

So if that guy can go from where he started to where he ended up, then there's hope for any of us. Even if you got like a c minus in science, you know, you can plow through it.

Huge political figures, governors, presidents are telling us that we don't need to study these things, that we don't need to know them. And I think more important than anything right now, as we're talking about the 14th Amendment is coming back around and stuff, we need to learn our history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: "DEFIANT: The Story of Robert Smalls" is available now. And Rob tells us there could be announcements from for a movie in the works soon.

[08:55:06]

Now if you see something or someone I should see, tell me. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, X, Bluesky and you can listen to our show as a podcast. First of All, is also now streaming live and available anytime in the CNN app. For more information, visit CNN.com slash watch.

Thank you for joining me today. I'll see you back here next Saturday, 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Smerconish is up next.

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