(CNN) Twitter on Sunday took down a tweet containing a false claim about coronavirus death statistics that was made by a supporter of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory -- a post that President Donald Trump had retweeted earlier in the day.
The tweet -- which has been replaced with a message saying, "This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules -- from "Mel Q," copied from someone else's Facebook post, claimed that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had "quietly" updated its numbers "to admit that only 6%" of people listed as coronavirus deaths "actually died from Covid," since "the other 94% had 2-3 other serious illnesses."
That's not what the CDC said.
As of Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, Twitter had not removed a second tweet, also retweeted by the President on Sunday, that spread the same false claim. The second tweet, by Trump campaign adviser Jenna Ellis, linked to an article on the right-wing website Gateway Pundit that was based on the QAnon supporter's tweet.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on Trump's retweets.
barnardNDT on August 31st, 2020 at 13:18 UTC »
The damage is done. My parents started telling me last night covid is a hoax and a fake because of this retweet by the president.
pretend-hubris on August 31st, 2020 at 10:29 UTC »
Has access to the best scientific advisors and intelligence briefings in the country..... prefers the juicy sounding fake stuff on social media.
Kie723 on August 31st, 2020 at 09:52 UTC »
Why does trump jump on anything which makes covid seem not as bad as it really is?