President Trump said on Friday that the US will be “very cautious” after the intelligence community warned that China, Russia and Iran are trying to take an interest in the 2020 elections.
“Well, we’ll look at it very closely,” Trump said when asked at a press conference in Bedmin, NJ, about what he intends to do after an assessment by the intelligence community is published.
‘You told me it came out a while ago, and I heard it came out. It came out just a while ago, and we’ll be looking at that very closely. ”
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He spoke shortly after the intelligence community said Iran would “undermine” President Trump, while Russia was working to “primarily denigrate” former Vice President Joe Biden, and that China “preferred” that Trump “win no reelection.”
When a reporter asked about Russia, which intervened in the 2016 elections, Trump asked why she did not begin to mention the threat posed by China.
“Do you think China could be a bigger threat? I mean, I think it’s maybe. I mean, you’ll have to figure it out, ‘he said. ‘But we will see them all. We have to be very careful. ”
Director of the National Center for Counterintelligence and Security Bill Evanina on Friday revealed additional information about those threats.
‘In the run-up to the 2020 US election, foreign states will continue to use covert and public influence in their attempts to weigh the preferences and perspectives of American voters, shift US policies, and increase unity in the United States and the confidence of the American people in our democratic process, ”Evanina said in a statement.
Bejing prefers a Trump loss because Chinese officials see him as unpredictable, and tried to influence the election and shape policy by putting pressure on political figures they see as opposed to Chinese interests, Evanina said.
Tensions have been high for months between China and the US, with the Trump administration sanctioning top Chinese officials linked to human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the attack on political freedoms in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Trump has criticized China for its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, calling it the “Chinese virus.” He also signed an executive order banning TikTok in 45 days over concerns that the app’s owner, ByteDance Ltd., could share user information with the government.
On Friday, he contrasted that with how he believed Biden would treat Beijing: “If China made a deal with the United States with Biden in leadership, they would have owned our country.”
Meanwhile, Evanina said the intelligence community was assessing “that Russia is using a range of measures to demigrate in the first place from former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.”
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“This is in line with Moscow’s public criticism of him when he was vice president for his role in the Obama administration’s policy on Ukraine and its support for the anti – Putin opposition in Russia,” he said. said Evanina.
As for Iran, the intelligence community said it was “trying” to undermine democratic institutions, President Trump, and “divide the country” ahead of the election.
“Iran’s efforts along these lines are likely to focus on online influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recycling anti-American content,” Evanina said. “Tehran’s motivation to carry out such activities is driven, in part, by a perception that President Trump’s re – election would result in a continuation of US pressure on Iran in an effort to combat regime change.”
However, Evanina assured the public that the “IC is also doing everything in its power to both combat cyber and influence efforts aimed at our electoral process.”
“Our election should be ours. “Foreign efforts to influence or interest our elections are a direct threat to the fabric of our democracy,” he said.
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Trump appeared to challenge this assessment, saying, “I think the last person who wants to see Russia in office is Donald Trump, because no one is smarter about Russia than I ever have.”
He also said that the foreign targeting of post-in-votes was a threat to the integrity of the elections, arguing that it was “much easier for them to forge and send in votes.”
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
