Election meddling? Never heard of it.
President Donald Trump used Tuesday’s State of the Union address as a platform to double down on the unfounded argument that undocumented immigrants are pouring into the country and harming Americans. But his speech failed to mention what the intelligence community uniformly agrees is one of the top threats facing the country and democracy as a whole: Russian meddling in U.S. elections.
Just last week, the intelligence community told Congress that Russia meddled in the 2016 and 2018 elections — and that they were certain, based on the assessment of every branch of the intelligence apparatus, that Russia was actively planning to interfere in the upcoming 2020 election. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats put it bluntly in his prepared statement to Congress on January 29.
“We expect our adversaries and strategic competitors to refine their capabilities and add new tactics as they learn from each other’s experiences, suggesting the threat landscape could look very different in 2020 and future elections,” Coats said.
View the complete February 6 article by Danielle McLean on the Think Progress website here.