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Friday, March 29, 2024

Russia trying to 'denigrate' Biden campaign -Wray

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Russia trying to 'denigrate' Biden campaign -Wray
Russia trying to 'denigrate' Biden campaign -Wray

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans' confidence in the election process.

Lisa Bernhard produced this report.

(FBI DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER WRAY): “Yes, I think the intelligence community's consensus is that Russia continues to try to influence our elections.” FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election with a steady steam of misinformation aimed at stopping Democrat Joe Biden from winning the White House.

“We certainly have seen very active - very active - efforts by the Russians to influence our election in 2020 through what I would call more the ‘malign foreign influence’ side of things -- social media, use of proxies, state media, online journals, etcetera.

In effort to both sow divisiveness and discord - and I think the intelligence community has assessed this publicly - primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment.” Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee that Russia is also trying to sap Americans' confidence in the election process, echoing a Department of Homeland Security bulletin from earlier this month that said the Russians were “amplifying criticisms” of mail-in ballots.

President Trump himself has repeatedly and without evidence questioned voting by mail, a long-established method in the U.S. which is expected to see a surge in use due to the coronavirus.

On Thursday Trump escalated his unfounded attacks by tweeting, (quote): "Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to “voters,” or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want." Election experts who have studied decades of U.S. elections say fraud is rare.

Twitter on Thursday attached a warning label to Trump’s tweet that linked to an article titled, “Voting by mail is legal and safe, experts and data confirm.”

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