Fla. Dem demands election security

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz asked President Trump to take action to bolster election safeguards.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, want President Donald Trump to take action to bolster election security in time to protect the 2020 elections.

They called integrity of the nation’s elections “a matter of great national security.”

“It is your responsibility, as commander in chief, to address the threat of cyberattacks, influence operations, disinformation campaigns, and other activities that undermine the security and integrity of U.S. democratic institutions,” they wrote in letter to Trump. “We implore you to treat this issue with seriousness and with the utmost sense of urgency and concern that it demands.”

The letter, dated Wednesday and publicly released by the members of Congress on Thursday afternoon, also excoriates Trump for ignoring the problem.

“Although individual agencies are working to do their party to prevent another attack on our elections — by all accounts — you are not,” they wrote. They said the president’s lack of interest or action on the issue is “deeply troubling and suggests a total disregard of a proven threat to our national security and our democratic system of government.”

The New York Times reported in April that former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had tried to get the White House interested in preparing for Russian attempts to interfere in the 2020 election but was told by Trump’s acting chief of staff not to bring the subject up in front of the president.

Wasserman Schultz and Thompson asked Trump to designate a point person at the White House to coordinate efforts to defend against the kind of foreign interference that marked the 2016 presidential election.

Extensive evidence gathered by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, congressional committees and news organizations shows that Russia engaged in widespread efforts to manipulate public opinion.

The issue received renewed attention in Florida after Muller’s report was released, and the FBI in May confirmed to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida congressional delegation that voter registration records — but not voting systems — in two Florida counties were hacked by the Russians in 2016. The elected officials said the names of the counties are classified, and they couldn’t identify them. Elections officials in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties have said repeatedly it wasn’t them.

Russian hackers were responsible for stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. The emails were published by WikiLeaks and often were timed to hurt the Democrats.

Wasserman Schultz, who represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties, was a casualty of the Russian hacking and email publication. She was chairman of the Democratic National Committee until emails stolen by the Russians showed some party staffers favored Clinton while Bernie Sanders was still a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. That produced a firestorm that led her to announce her resignation as national chairwoman on the eve of the 2016 convention.

Thompson is a Mississippi Democrat.

JOE RAEDLE/GETTY U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz speaks at a committee hearing on election issues in May. She is demanding that President Trump take actions to protect election security.