China seeks Trump’s defeat, Russia trying to denigrate Biden: US intelligence
Washington, Aug 7 (efe-epa).- China is interfering in the November presidential elections so that President Donald Trump be defeated while Russia is trying to denigrate presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, a top United States intelligence official said Friday.
“We assess that China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection,” the director of National Counterintelligence and Security Center, William Evanina, said in a statement.
He also noted the intelligence assessment suggested that “Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment’.”
Iran is also seeking “to undermine US democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections,” he added.
The agency that Evanina heads is part of the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, which brings together the country’s main espionage services.
Evanina had on July 24 released an unclassified overview of foreign threats to the 2020 election. He had pledged that he would continue to update the public and other key stakeholders on the evolving election threat landscape.
“Today, we are making good on that promise by sharing additional information with the public on the intentions and activities of our adversaries with respect to the 2020 election,” the US official said.
“This information is being released for the purpose of better informing Americans so they can play a critical role in safeguarding our election.”
The White House issued a statement, stressing that the US “will not tolerate foreign interference in our electoral processes” and warned that it “will respond to malicious foreign threats that target our democratic institutions.”
“The United States is working to identify and disrupt foreign influence efforts targeting our political system, including efforts designed to suppress voter turnout or undermine public confidence in the integrity of our elections,” it added.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in the US on Nov. 3, in which Trump will seek re-election while Biden will be aiming to bring the Democrats back in power.
The path to Trump’s re-election has been complicated by his handling of the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic.
According to the average of national polls by aggregator Real Clear Politics, Biden leads Trump 49.1 percent to 42.7 percent. EFE-EPA
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