The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

OPINION | What Americans need to know while watching conventions

2020-08-19T21:34:25.696Z


Why is President Donald Trump helping Russia and hurting the United States? That's not a question most Americans probably want to ask themselves right now, but ...


Editor's Note: Samantha Vinograd is a CNN National Security Analyst. She is a senior advisor to the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, which is not affiliated with the Joe Biden campaign. Vinograd served on President Barack Obama's National Security Council from 2009 to 2013 and in the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush. Follow her on Twitter @sam_vinograd. The opinions expressed in this comment are yours. See more opinion pieces at cnne.com/opinion

(CNN) - Why is President Donald Trump helping Russia and hurting the United States? That's not a question that most Americans probably want to ask themselves right now, but they should.

With the clock ticking towards Election Day, President Trump has inserted himself squarely into the matrix of threats to electoral security, undermining his own national security team and American democracy. By tweeting and amplifying content officially attributed to a Russian-influenced operation and by taking active action against key electoral infrastructure such as the United States Postal Service. And by not holding certain bad actors accountable, Trump himself is the biggest threat to a free and fair vote in 2020.

There are active foreign threats facing the US elections. Last month, after facing pressure, mainly from Democrats, the US intelligence community (IC) released information about certain threats to electoral security abroad. The IC issued a second statement earlier this month that specific foreign actors are targeting the US elections: They cited China, Russia and Iran. While their statements are useful in terms of informing the general public about various streams of threats, they confusingly bundled threats of very different scales and scopes (apples and oranges) in the same basket.

Active and covert Russian-influenced operations are apparently a bigger threat to Americans than public criticism of the Trump administration by the ruling Communist Party of China. But the IC indicated that Russia prefers Trump to win the 2020 elections, while China prefers him to lose. Trump may think it more politically and personally expedient to focus on China's election interference and ignore Russia's attacks. Furthermore, it is clear that he has never liked to acknowledge that he is Putin's preference.

LOOK: Joe Biden is officially the Democratic candidate for the US presidency.

Shortly after the CI statement, US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told CBS that China and other countries are attacking the websites of secretaries of state, which sounds like an accusation that China is involved in cyberattacks against critical electoral infrastructure. That is the first time we have heard about this alleged Chinese operation: the IC's statements on threats to electoral security did not mention any Chinese cyberattacks. While the intelligence community has indicated that unidentified adversaries "seek to compromise America's electoral infrastructure" and say it is monitoring "malicious cyber actors," we have seen nothing to corroborate O'Brien's specific accusation against China.

If O'Brien's allegations are true, it would be a major escalation by China that should warrant some kind of response. But we have not heard of any punitive measures planned by the Government against the individuals and entities involved in the recently revealed threats to electoral security. (A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said last week that Beijing has never interfered in the US elections, but the government's statements should be taken with more than a grain of salt.)

That is a dangerous approach. With several foreign threats now public knowledge, it appears the president is choosing to do nothing about it. Rather than taking action to counter foreign attacks on American democracy, he is playing dodgeball and not holding the attackers accountable. When recently asked about foreign meddling, he directed his anger at the Democrats, saying they were the "meddlers" by insisting on mail ballots. The fact that the president of the United States has not punished the actual attackers only allows people like Vladimir Putin to continue attacking the country. In the absence of a political response to their electoral interference, bad actors have no reason to stop while they're at it.

But Trump has not only failed to punish certain foreign actors, he is helping them.

The recent intelligence community statement on electoral security threats said, in particular, that Russia prefers Trump in 2020 and that Moscow is actively working to denigrate rival Joe Biden. The IC even specifically cited one player in Russia's influence operations against the United States: Andriy Derkach. The statement said that Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker, "is spreading claims about corruption, including by publicizing leaked phone calls, to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and the Democratic Party." Democrats have consistently raised concerns about Derkach's actions and work with certain Republican lawmakers.

  • MORE: New Senate Report Details Alleged Russian Interference in Trump's Election

The US intelligence community couldn't be clearer: Derkach is part of the Russian attacks on American democracy.

As president, Trump had to have had access to the highly classified underlying intelligence that led the IC to its conclusions on Derkach, not to mention access to the highly classified underlying intelligence on the Russian election attacks in general. Trump is not known for spending a lot of time reading classified intelligence. But with the information about Derkach now public, there is zero chance that the president is unaware of the findings of the US intelligence community. Yet he aided Russian intelligence with the click of a button: On Sunday he retweeted content that Derkach leaked, allegedly from a conversation between Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. (Poroshenko has reportedly said the audio is fake.) Simply put, Trump helped spread Russian disinformation, and the reason seems obvious: it's about winning a second term.

When it comes down to it, Trump prioritizes his perceived personal needs over all of us: the security of our elections, our physical safety, and more. This is probably why Putin prefers him: he is the antithesis of what a democratic leader looks like.

In addition to giving certain attackers a free pass and apparently assisting and inciting Russian influence operations against us, Trump and his designees also appear to be involved in active measures targeting the key electoral infrastructure: the Postal Service. Louis DeJoy, appointed by Trump's postmaster general, will testify before Congress next week on allegations that his recent operational changes will hamper the Postal Service's ability to support voting by mail in November. And Trump's spreading of disinformation about voting by mail amounts to influencing operations against the Postal Service while attempting to denigrate the service's perceived capabilities to handle mail-in ballots.

Actions speak louder than words. It is obvious that the Postal Service will face an unprecedented burden in this election cycle. A patriotic president would go out of his way to shore it up so that Americans can vote safely from their homes. Trump, however, is doing the opposite. In fact, Trump said he opposes the additional funding for the Postal Service because he doesn't want it to be used for voting. Instead of giving it the resources it needs to support free and fair elections, Trump is trying to undermine it.

It goes without saying that a sure-win candidate would not try to stop Americans from voting. And a president who cares about her country's democracy would not help foreign actors who attack it. So as Americans tune into the conventions and try to understand the electoral threats we face, they must be aware that President Trump himself is our main source of electoral insecurity.

Donald TrumpJoe Biden

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-08-19

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-28T08:54:49.817Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.