Posted on 07/27/2018 3:34:26 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
President Trump on Friday met with members of the National Security Council about threats to U.S. elections, an issue that has attracted significant attention since Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump convened the meeting to “receive updates on the whole-of-government approach his Administration is implementing to safeguard our Nation’s elections,” according to a statement from the White House issued Friday evening.
A host of cabinet officials attended the meeting, including Secretary of State Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, as well as John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser.
“The President has made it clear that his Administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation state or other malicious actors,” the White House said.
The meeting comes as Trump continues to weather scrutiny for his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last week, during which he cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s judgment that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election – a statement he later tried to clarify by saying he misspoke.
Since then, Trump has speculated on Twitter that Russia might look to meddle in the 2018 midterms to help Democratic candidates.
“I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats,” the president tweeted Tuesday. “They definitely don’t want Trump!”
Trump administration officials have insisted they are taking steps to protect future elections from foreign cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been taking the lead on helping states to protect their voting systems from malicious actors. Officials say that Russian hackers probed digital election systems in 21 states before the 2016 election for vulnerabilities and in a small number of cases successfully breached them.
Other agencies, like the Department of Justice, have implemented measures to protect against foreign influence.
Still, Democrats in Congress believe the administration is not doing enough to protect against the threat, often citing the president’s muddled statements about Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“If the President wants to convince the public that he takes protecting this country seriously, we need a solid plan of action to come from this meeting,” a group of House Democrats said in a statement ahead of Friday’s meeting. “The public needs to know that this is not just another spectacle for the President to put on.”
At Friday’s meeting, the officials discussed threats to U.S. elections from “malign foreign actors, as well as efforts to help states secure their voting systems from cyber sabotage and federal efforts to “investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable those who illegally attempt to interfere in our political and electoral processes.” The statement made no specific mention of Russia.
Trump has held at least one other meeting on election security with cabinet officials in May.
U.S. officials say they have observed continued efforts by Russia to use social media and other avenues to sow discord among the American public, not unlike Moscow’s disinformation efforts in 2016. However, officials say they have not seen any evidence of a broad hacking and propaganda scheme targeting the 2018 midterms.
“We haven’t seen yet an effort to target specific election infrastructure this time, but certainly other efforts – which I would call malign influence efforts – are very active and we could be just a moment away from it going to the next level,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the Aspen Security Forum last week.
“To me, it’s a threat that we need to take extremely seriously,” Wray said.
Still, the Daily Beast first reported Thursday that Russian hackers tried to infiltrate the emails of Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D-Mo.) staffers as she began her 2018 reelection campaign. McCaskill appeared to confirm the report in a later statement, though she described the attack as “not successful.”
AOC is a Rooskie Agent.
Make her prove she isn’t.
ICE at polling stations?
No electronic voting machine should be accessible via the internet, or even an intranet. To update software, the machine should have to be taken to a proprietary software center where the security is tight, and work is constantly monitored.
Some kind of a proprietary verification should be made a few days before the election, that it hasn’t been tampered with.
Do this and it should be okay.
I think there are good cases to be made, that electronic voting machines may be too hard to use safely.
Election security must have VOTER FRAUD as a priority. RATs having been winning via voter fraud for decades. They’re experts as well as desperate, deranged, sore losers when their fix doesn’t work.
Paper ballots. Picture ID’s for everyone.
Mexicans are the ones voting in our elections, not Russians.
Well researched article, you can tell when you get to this part:
“including Secretary of State Mike Pence”
Precisely!!
But the most salient fact is that all of this activity occurred, and was ignored, under the watchful guard of the Obama mis-administration. So let's definitely get a real investigation going!
So is this a preemptive strategy to get people to question the legitimacy of the 2018 elections if the Democrats take the House?
Pubbies should be accepting the premise that the Russians, etc., tried to interfere in the elections, thus, we need photo IDs, a return to paper ballots, etc., to head off these attempts in the future.
Pubbies should use this ‘crisis’ to plug holes in the voting system, including the voting of illegals.
[Then, listen to the Dems whine and scream.]
if the system is networked, it can be hacked. if the system is programmed, it can be reprogramed. if it hasn’t been proven, doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done. if it hasn’t been done, it will be.
No.
This is merely reporting that the arrangements to enforce one Citizen one vote principle being made to be reality.
It is a given that tight monitoring and facial recognition programs will be features of this election. Let the furor over that necessity wax and wane now. If the Democrats take the house, they will have done it honestly. Either way, people violating voter laws are not going to skate by undetected or uncharged after November.
>>since Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.<<
Has this accusation ever been proven beyond a reasonable doubt? Because I have yet to see or hear of any conclusive evidence of Russian interference. I hear accusations everyday but where’s the proof?
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA....
The largest foreign threat to U.S. elections is MEXICO!
Democrat vote fraud will be investigated because America demands that our elections are not to be screwed with.
The the democrat Russian collusion hoax handed Trump a golden egg.
End early voting, same day registration, limit absentee ballots to military and nursing home patients.
Require all other CITIZENS to get off their duff, register, and vote in person, with valid photo ID.
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