U.S. intelligence officials have warned lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election to help President Donald Trump get re-elected. The president is calling it hoax. However, the man President Trump nominated to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and who resigned the post in 2019, warns that the Russians are back at it. WGVU attended the January World Affairs Council of Western Michigan luncheon where the former ambassador sounded the alarm.
“The Russians are very good at election meddling. They’re not new to this. They have some skill in terms of their cyber capabilities. Their troops on the ground in various countries and how they can work their magic.”
The former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman Jr. is running again for Governor in Utah and is asking what state officials are doing to secure the system because the Russians infiltrated a couple dozen state voter registration files in recent years.
“We don’t have any idea the extent to which the Russians are prepared and capable of interfering in our local elections. This is what I am concerned about most…this is county commission, mayor, city council. Imagine just flipping the outcome of a race upside-down causing complete havoc. And, therefore calling into question the trustworthiness of that which we prize most our local, democratic processes. That would be catastrophic.”
Huntsman explains the Russians use their cyber capabilities for political purposes. The goal for the United States is to sow seeds of doubt and division.
“You have a racist incident somewhere in the United States they will spin up a website and they will throw out extremist language pretending to be an American or an American organization. Guess again, it isn’t and we fall for it. And they’re very good at it. They have troll farms right outside of St. Petersburg that do this kind of thing run by Putin’s, Mr. Prigozhin, Mr. Putin’s former chef. And they’ll continue doing this kind of thing and they will confuse us. They will hoodwink us. They will sow seeds of doubt wherever they can. It’s a tool that they can use and there’s nothing we can do in response. It’s not shooting somebody. It’s almost worse.”
Patrick Center, WGVU News.
