Evanina said the upcoming elections face threats from all three countries, as well as from other nations and non-state actors.
“Beijing recognizes that its efforts could affect the presidential race,” said Evanina, by “expanding its influencing efforts to shape the political environment in the United States, putting pressure on political figures it considers to be opposed to China’s interests, and countering Criticism “of Beijing.
Russia’s “persistent goal is to weaken the United States and diminish our global role,” Evanina declared, through a “range of efforts,” such as Internet trolls, to spread disinformation that is “designed to undermine confidence in our democratic process and denigrate what it sees as an anti-Russia “establishment” in the United States. “
Iran has also focused its efforts on online influence operations, such as spreading disinformation on social media and driving anti-American content, to “undermine American democratic institutions and divide the country before the elections,” Evanina warned.
The warning comes a week after Joe Biden, citing intelligence reports he is now receiving, warned that Russia and China are actively trying to cast doubt on the country’s electoral system.
“We know this from before and I guarantee that I know it now because now I receive reports again,” said the alleged Democratic candidate during a fundraiser. “The Russians are still committed to trying to delegitimize our electoral process. Done.”
China and others “also participate in activities designed to make us lose confidence in the outcome,” Biden added.
While it is unclear exactly what type of intelligence Biden received, it is possible that he referred to sessions on electoral security threats led by Evanina. whom ODNI earlier this year singled out for such intelligence-based reports.
Evanina and Shelby Pierson, the intelligence community’s electoral threats executive, provided a classified briefing to the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday on the latest scenario of electoral threats, two people familiar with the meeting told POLITICO.
Evanina’s warning also came the same week as Army General Paul Nakasone, head of the US Cyber Command and the NSA, reiterated that his top priority is to defend the November elections from foreign interference.
“Our No. 1 goal in the National Security Agency and the US Cyber Command is a safe and legitimate election for 2020,” Nakasone said during a webinar organized by the United States Army Association.
“As in 2018, we will know our adversaries better than themselves,” said Nakasone. “We will act when we see adversaries trying to interfere with our elections.”
Earlier this month, the President acknowledged that he had ordered the Cyber Command to carry out a first-of-its-kind offensive digital attack on an infamous Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, before the 2018 midterms.
The attack left the organization, which has close ties to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, offline on election day and for several days afterward to prevent it from spreading disinformation when Americans went to the polls.
Evanina’s statement did not address Trump’s false claims that voting by mail is an attempt to manipulate the election.
Instead, he emphasized that the public “has a role to play in securing elections” by being vigilant for attempts at influence.
“At the most basic level, we encourage Americans to consume information critically, check sources before republishing or disseminating messages, practice good cyber hygiene and media literacy, and report suspicious activities related to elections. the authorities, “said Evanina.
He added: “As Americans, we are all in this together; our choices should be ours. Foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections are a direct threat to the fabric of our democracy. “
Appearing on MSNBC, Schiff voiced “serious concerns” with Friday’s statement “about how it gives a false sense of equivalence between what Russia is doing, what China is doing, what Iran is doing. It is not the same.
“They don’t have the same capacity,” said Schiff. “They don’t have the same plans. They don’t have the same intentions. And, you know, speaking generically of all three, it seems like all three are active in the same way. They aren’t.”
The California Democrat also criticized Friday’s statement, and other warnings from the underground community, as “so generic in some ways that they don’t make sense.” To say that the Russians, for example, are simply trying to denigrate those who are part of an anti-Russia establishment, I think it makes no sense to be useless in any way. “
Schiff said he urged Evanina and other US intelligence leaders to “catch up with the American people about what is happening, to bring them into the conversation so that they are armed with good information about what our foreign adversaries are doing.”
