Russia is backing US President Donald Trump, China is supporting former US vice president Joe Biden and Iran is seeking to sow chaos in the US presidential election, a top intelligence official has warned in a sobering assessment of foreign meddling.
The statement on Friday by US National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina raises fears of a repeat of the 2016 election, when Russia manipulated social media to help Trump and hurt his opponent, former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former vice president Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment,’” Evanina said. “This is consistent with Moscow’s public criticism of him when he was vice president for his role in [the administration of then-US president Barack Obama’s] policies on Ukraine and its support for the anti-Putin opposition inside Russia.”
Evanina identified Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russia Ukrainian politician, as “spreading claims about corruption — including through publicized leaked phone calls” to attack Biden’s campaign.
The Washington Post reported that Derkach has met repeatedly with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who has pushed conspiracy theories about the former vice president.
Evanina also said that some “Kremlin-linked actors” were spreading false claims about corruption to undermine Biden, while others were trying to “boost President Trump’s candidacy via social media and Russian television.”
Evanina, the top intelligence official monitoring threats to the election, is a Trump appointee.
His statement lists China before Russia, but presents less specific evidence of direct interference by Beijing.
“We assess that China prefers that President Trump — whom Beijing sees as unpredictable — does not win re-election,” Evanina said. “China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China.”
“Beijing recognizes that all of these efforts might affect the presidential race,” he added.
Evanina highlighted China’s criticism of Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure of China’s consulate in Houston and the White House responses to Chinese actions in Hong Kong and the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, Iran is seeking to undermine US democratic institutions and Trump, and to divide the country ahead of the November elections, Evanina’s statement said.
“Iran’s efforts along these lines probably will focus on online influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-US content. Tehran’s motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trump’s re-election would result in a continuation of US pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change,” the statement said.
Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal agreed by Obama and imposed various sanctions on Tehran.
“I think that the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump because nobody’s been tougher on Russia than I have, ever,” Trump told a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Friday evening. “China would love us to have an election where Donald Trump lost to ‘sleepy’ Joe Biden. They would own our country. If Joe Biden was president, China would own our country... Iran would love to see me not be president.”
“I’ll make this statement. If and when we win, we will make deals with Iran very quickly. We’ll make deals with North Korea very quickly. Whatever happened to the war in North Korea? You haven’t seen that, have you?” Trump added.
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