Washington – In the wake of a assessment of the U.S. intelligence community detailing influencing efforts by foreign actors ahead of the November election, White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien warned Sunday that any foreign power seeking to mediate in the upcoming game “has serious consequences” has got”.
“Whether it’s China, Russia or Iran, we will not create it, and it will have dire consequences for any country that tries to interfere with our free and fair elections,” O’Brien said in an interview with “Face the Nation, ‘his first since recovering from the coronavirus. “Whether its leaders would prefer Joe Biden rather than Donald Trump, it does not matter. We are Americans. We will not have foreign countries decide who will be our next president. That is scandalous. “
O’Brien said the Trump administration is taking steps to serve foreign influence in the 2020 elections, including through brainwashing of elections and cyber infrastructure and cooperation with states, but acknowledged that Russia, China and Iran are engaged in cyber attacks and phishing attempts.
Malicious actors have also tried to gain access to Secretary of State websites and collect data on Americans, the national security adviser said.
“There are no higher concerns we have than maintaining the free and fair elections that are the cornerstone of our democracy,” O’Brien said. “And look, we know that there are people abroad, the Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians, others who want to take an interest in our democracy. And we will fight against that.”
The National Security Adviser’s warning to foreign governments less than 100 days before the November elections comes after the intelligence community on Friday gave its first public assessment of the candidate preferences of some foreign actors.
According to the assessment, Russia is working on ‘multiplying’ of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and China has the preference that President Trump lose his re-bid. Iran could try to undermine US democratic institutions and the president through online and social media content, the intelligence community warned.
Russia’s influence campaign marks its second attempt to get interested in a US presidential election, and raises questions about whether Mr Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the invasion and whether he sanctioned the country harshly enough. has got.
But O’Brien said that when it comes to Russia specifically, there is not much left to impose sanctions on.
“We have sanctioned the witches of the Russians – individuals, companies, the government,” he said. “We have literally outnumbered Russian spies. We have closed all their consulates on the West Coast. We have closed diplomatic facilities. There is not much left that we can do with the Russians.”
Still, O’Brien said the message to the Russians, Chinese and Iranians the same thing: “Do not get involved in our elections.”
“Do not do it because there will be dire consequences,” he said.
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