Administration: President ordered election safeguards

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration put on a show of force Thursday and said the president has directed a “vast, government-wide effort” to safeguard U.S. elections.

John Bolton, the national security adviser, also wrote in a letter to Senate Democrats that “President Trump has not and will not tolerate interference in America’s system of representative government.”

The warning to American adversaries came as top U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials raised alarms about potential efforts to influence the 2018 and 2020 elections. Homeland security chief Kirstjen Nielsen said, “Our democracy is in the crosshairs.”

“We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said.

They appeared along with National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone and FBI Director Christopher Wray at the White House on Thursday to try to reassure the American people they are doing all they can to address the threat.

“We’re throwing everything at it,” Coats said.

Nakasone, who is also the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, said the command and the NSA are both tracking a wide range of foreign cyber adversaries and “are prepared to conduct operations against those actors attempting to undermine our nation’s midterm elections.”