The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, promised this Thursday, during the last presidential debate before the elections on November 3, that if he wins, those who interfere in the elections and the sovereignty of the United States
"will pay a price."
Meanwhile, the president, Donald Trump, assured that no one has been
"tougher"
than him against Russia.
Biden questioned that Trump has not held Russia's President Vladimir Putin accountable or held accountable for the 2016 election interference.
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"I don't know why he hasn't said a word to Putin about that ... Any country that interferes with us will actually pay a price, because they are affecting our sovereignty," Biden promised.
The former vice president focused his attacks on Russia, noting that, according to intelligence reports, there are foreign governments "trying to
interfere in the results of the election
."
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Oct. 23, 202001: 46
"I do not understand why this president does not confront Putin, when he is paying rewards to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, and when he is involved in activities to try to destabilize" the transatlantic organization, NATO, he said.
[Follow our coverage of the 2020 presidential elections]
A few days ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned that Iran and Russia obtained US voter registration information to interfere in the presidential elections.
Both countries rejected the FBI statements.
However, Google claimed that it detected and blocked more than 25,000 disinformation emails targeting US voters from Iran.
Likewise, Biden attacked in particular Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who, he indicated, has been singled out as a "piece" of Russia, who passes him false information with the purpose of blocking his victory at the polls on May 3 November.
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During his turn, Trump did not answer directly about Russia's electoral interference, but insisted that
"no one has been tougher"
than him on sanctions against Russia.
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In addition, he added, his government has managed to get NATO member countries to contribute an additional 130,000 million dollars to the organization's coffers to "defend themselves against Russia," for a total of 420,000 million a year.
The Trump administration announced
sanctions against Iran on
Thursday,
but there were no new announcements regarding Russia.
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Last month, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against four officials linked to the Kremlin, for their electoral interference efforts in the United States, mainly the freezing of assets.
However, according to experts, these sanctions are likely to have a miniscule impact because they have no significant financial assets in the West.
On the other hand, Trump repeated his accusation, without evidence, that
Biden allegedly received money from Russia
, something the former vice president denied.
The debate, in Nashville, Tennessee, dominated by issues of national security and foreign policy, comes at a time when Biden leads Trump in most national polls.
On Thursday, officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that Iran is actively interfering with the presidential elections, while maintaining concern about
interference by Russia
, which has managed to
hack into
local government
computer networks
and state.
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Although they did not offer details, officials made it clear that, as in 2016,
Russia's operations would be aimed at helping Trump
win re-election.
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Oct. 23, 202001: 04
For now, the authorities have no evidence that Russia has managed to manipulate or alter the electoral registers.