Investigative Group
Trump Supporter Says CNN Reporter ‘Ambushed’ Her In Interview About Russian Troll Group
Donald Trump at a rally in Washington, D.C. (Creative Commons/Flikr JoshuaMHoover)
A Florida woman who operates a pro-Trump Facebook page said she felt “ambushed” when a CNN reporter showed up on her front lawn last weekend to ask about Russian trolls.
“First of all, he was not invited to come to my home. He surprised me. He ambushed me, trying to coerce me into giving them the answers they were looking for,” Florine Gruen Goldfarb told The Daily Caller News Foundation of her interaction with CNN’s Drew Griffin.
“He was very unfair,” she added.
Griffin, microphone in hand and camera man in tow, visited Goldfarb’s Pembroke Pines home and questioned her about her Russian-trolled pro-Trump Facebook group. (Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been closely examining the Russian troll entity.)
Troll-group “Being Patriotic” contacted Goldfarb’s Team Trump Broward County Facebook group during the 2016 presidential campaign to push for pro-Trump rallies throughout Florida.
Goldfarb’s group, which organized numerous rallies in Broward County during the campaign, hosted one in Ft. Lauderdale on Aug. 20, 2016, that “Being Patriotic” promoted
Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals earlier this month for operating Internet Research Agency — a Russian company that used fake social media personas to plant political ads and promote political rallies on Facebook and Twitter.
Mueller’s indictment notes some U.S.-based groups cooperated “unwittingly” with the Russian trolls.
Social media heavily criticized Griffin for his interview tactics. Critics accused him of “punching down” via badgering a private citizen at her home and wondered why he approached her with a rolling video camera rather than interview her in a less-confrontational way.
While Goldfarb repeatedly denied knowledge of Russians operating “Being Patriotic,” Griffin tried to force her into admitting Kremlin agents infiltrated her group.
“I have nothing to do with the Russians,” Goldfarb said at one point during the interview, adding she knew everyone who attended her rallies and none of them were Russian.
“But apparently, you did. Maybe you didn’t know it, but you did,” Griffin replied.
“Well, there you go,” Griffin said after Goldfarb ended the interview and went inside her house.
“Trolls” have inundated Goldfarb — Americans, not Russians — following the CNN report. But she also received an outpouring of support.
“I have been for the last few days deleting and blocking the trolls. Still not finished,” she said. “Also I am receiving several hundred [instant messages] from many supporters with positive comments on [Facebook].”
Griffin has not responded to a request for comment about his interview with Goldfarb.
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