Russia working to ‘denigrate’ Biden
China, Iran don’t want Trump to be re-elected, U.S. intel officials reveal
WASHINGTON— U.S. intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection bid, the country’s counter-intelligence chief said in the most specific warning to date about the threat of foreign interference.
U.S. officials also believe China does not want Trump to win a second term and has accelerated its criticism of the White House, expanding its efforts to shape public policy in America and to pressure political figures seen as opposed to Beijing’s interests.
The statement Friday from William Evanina is believed to be the most pointed declaration by the U.S. intelligence community linking the Kremlin to efforts to get Trump re-elected — a sensitive subject for a president who has rejected intelligence agency assessments that Russia tried to help him in 2016. It also connects Moscow’s disapproval of Biden to his role as vice-president in shaping Obama administration policies supporting Ukraine, an important U.S. ally, and opposing Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Asked about the intelligence assessment Friday evening in Bedminster, N.J., Trump appeared to dispute the idea that Russia was disparaging Biden. “I think the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump because nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have — ever,” he said.
But the president seemed to agree with the intelligence indicating China didn’t want him re-elected. “If Joe Biden was president, China would own our country,” he said.
Evanina’s statement, three months before the election, comes amid criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats that the intelligence community has been withholding from the public specific intelligence information about the threat of foreign interference in American politics.
“The facts are chilling,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal wrote in an op-ed published Friday evening in the Washington Post. “I believe the American public needs and deserves to know them. The information should be declassified immediately.”
The latest intelligence assessment reflects concerns not only about Russia, but China and
Iran as well, warning that hostile foreign actors may seek to compromise election infrastructure, interfere with the voting process or call into question voting results. Despite those efforts, officials see it as unlikely that anyone could manipulate voting results in any sweeping way, Evanina said.
“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer,” said Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
“We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia and Iran.”
Concerns about election interference are especially acute following a wide-ranging effort by Russia to meddle in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf through both the hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social-media campaign aimed at sowing discord among U.S. voters. Trump has routinely resisted the idea that the Kremlin favoured him in 2016, but the intelligence assessment released Friday indicates that unnamed Kremlin-linked actors are again working to boost his candidacy on social media and Russian television.
The White House reacted to Friday’s news with a statement saying “the United States will not tolerate foreign interference in our electoral processes and will respond to malicious foreign threats that target our democratic institutions.”
Tony Blinken, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign, responded that Trump “has publicly and repeatedly invited, emboldened, and even tried to coerce foreign interference in American elections. ... Joe Biden, on the other hand, has led the fight against foreign interference for years.”
Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, said Friday that they were “pleased that Mr. Evanina heeded our call to make additional details public about Russia’s malign interference campaign.” But they also criticized him for naming Iran and China “as equal threats to our democratic elections.”
When it comes to Russia, U.S. officials assess that it is working to “denigrate” Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia “establishment” among his supporters, Evanina said. U.S. officials believe that tracks Moscow’s criticism of Biden when he was vice-president for his role in Ukraine policies and his support of opposition to Putin inside Russia.
Though U.S. officials allege that China has its own preference, Friday’s statement did not directly accuse Beijing of election interference or taking action to prop up Biden. Instead, the statement said, China views Trump as “unpredictable” and does not want to see him win re-election.
On Iran, the assessment said Tehran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, as well as Trump and divide America before the election.
“Iran’s efforts along these lines probably will focus on online influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating antiU.S. content,” Evanina wrote. “Tehran’s motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trump’s re-election would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.”