Russia is targeting Joe Biden and wants Donald Trump to win the election. China is doing the opposite, hoping Biden will replace Trump in the White House. That’s the conclusion of U.S. intelligence which released an extraordinary statement yesterday outlining in broad strokes the threats posed by foreign governments to the upcoming presidential election. But there is so much more to this story. Why did the director of counterintelligence release a statement now?
Politico writes it’s all about 2016 and Democrats efforts to bring to light disinformation campaign they feel Barack Obama “soft-pedaled” in 2016. According to Politico, Democrats want to “make as much noise as possible, early and often.”
“For weeks, top Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate have been blaring warnings and demanding briefings and public disclosures from the intelligence community, shrugging off Republican charges that they’re politicizing intelligence.
“And Democrats can now point to evidence that their pressure campaign might be working. On Friday, the Trump administration’s counterintelligence chief publicly confirmed that Russia is attempting to harm Joe Biden’s candidacy in 2020.“
And one Democratic Senator who has been briefed on classified intelligence says it’s much worse than the Trump administration has admitted. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) writes in the Washington Post that the “warning lights are flashing red. America’s elections are under attack.”
“I was shocked by what I learned — and appalled that, by swearing Congress to secrecy, the Trump administration is keeping the truth about a grave, looming threat to democracy hidden from the American people. On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement that only hints at the threats. The facts are chilling. I believe the American public needs and deserves to know them. The information should be declassified immediately.”
Senator Angus King (I-ME) told Politico: “Normally the customer of the intelligence community is the president, the national security apparatus, the secretary of Defense and members of Congress. But every four years, the customer should be the American people.”
