Downplaying Russian election interference a careful game
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has spent the past two years either downplaying or expressing doubts about Russia’s 2016 election interference.
But while Trump’s efforts have been loud and often counterfactual, those around him have engaged in a subtler brand of diminishing Russia’s interference. The statements they make are often strictly true or at least defensible, but they’re also carefully worded to invite the wrong impression. And that impression is always: It wasn’t that big a deal.
Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday became the latest top official to participate in the subterfuge.
In a major speech on China, he claimed that Russia “wants a different American president” and that the nation “is meddling in America’s democracy.”
He even made this claim: “As a senior career member of our intelligence community told me just this week, what the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country, and the American people deserve to know it.”
Almost every element of what Pence said echoed what Trump said last week at the United Nations:
One problem: The administration still has yet to produce evidence of actual election interference by China — or even cite credible specific allegations.
Just a couple months ago, in fact, Trump’s top national security advisers didn’t specify any major efforts by any country except Russia. A hastily arranged White House conference call after Trump’s U.N. claim last week attempted to substantiate it, but instead cited propaganda efforts, like the newspaper insert, and tariffs.
The anonymous administration official on the call cited how China was targeting “farmers and workers in states and districts that voted for the president.” The official said the efforts focused on “certain districts and states with tariffs, but go beyond that.” There was no elaboration.
Trump was also later pressed on the claim and both suggested there was evidence he couldn’t share and cited the tariffs. “They’ve actually admitted that they’ve gone after farmers,” Trump said.
Trump was specific in citing a paid insert in the Des Moines Register in a tweet after he spoke at the U.N.
Except … none of that is really election interference, and it’s not anything like what Russia did during the 2016 election.