“The failure to secure our elections is the biggest threat to national security since Trump took office.” – Glen Reaux

By Glen Reaux

On July 25, 2019, The Senate released its Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Russian Interference in the 2016 elections ^{1}.  Three days later on Sunday, the 28^th, The Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats submitted his resignation, effective August 15, 2019.  Just 4 days earlier, Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified before Congress on Russian Interference in the 2016 elections and possible crimes committed by President Trump.  The fact that these three events happened so close to each other is not a coincidence.  It is obvious that, the Senate Committee Report and Coats resignation were precipitated by Mueller’s Congressional testimony that the Russians interfered in the 2016 elections.  Mueller’s assertions are backed-up by tons of evidence collected during his investigation and summarized in Volume I of his report.  Despite Mueller’s testimony, after the completion of the hearing, Trump echoed his mantra that the Russia investigation was a witch hunt while launching new attacks against Mueller.  The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report confirmed Mueller’s report and directly disputed Trump’s witch hunt claims.  Director of National Intelligence Coats, to whom all 17 of the nation’s intelligence agencies answer to has disagreed with Trump’s Russian witch hunt lies on many occasions.  In opposition to the President, he has defended his agencies and their findings throughout his tenure.  Knowing that the Senate Report was a confirmation of both the Mueller Report and of the intelligence community, Coats obviously felt that he could no longer work for Trump.  In light of Trump’s denials and Mueller’s testimony, many Americans will ask the question after reading the Senate Intelligence Committee Report, Why Are Republicans Blocking Election Security Bill Read the Report?  Could this possibly be Dan Coats reason for resigning?

The heavily redacted Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report details how Russia “directed extensive activity, beginning in at least 2014 and carrying into at least 2017, against US election infrastructure at the state and local level.”  It highlights two vital points:

1. That determined foreign actors can gain access to America’s election infrastructure,
2. Russia is very proficient and is willing to meddle inside of it in 2020.

Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a member of the committee stated: “The facts are clear: The Russian government mounted a deliberate and systematic attack on America’s election infrastructure in 2016,”

In the past, elections officials operated under the assumption that since our election system consists of independently operated state, local and county systems, it was safe against outside and foreign forces.  But, the report explains that just the opposite is true.  Because of the lack of standards in our election infrastructure, our system is vulnerable and extremely hard to protect.  To protect our system, a program to modernize and protect our infrastructure must be lead by the highest officials in our government and on a national level.  Such an effort has not occurred and Republicans in the Senate have voted down needed funding for election security.  Majority Leader of the Senate and Trump ally, Mitch McConnell has refused to allow any new bills for election security to come to the floor for discussion.  To further complicate things and put our national security at risk, so-called-president Trump raves on about the Russia witch hunt while refusing to accept the evidence provided by Director of National Security, Dan Coats and the 17 intelligence agencies.  Is Trump’s position a lack of confidence in the best intelligence apparatus in the world or an invitation and request from Russia to repeat their interference and help him to get re-elected in 2020?  Does anything else make sense?  After all, he is the only nationally elected official in our government that disputes the facts.

The report states that it is likely that the Russians targeted election systems in all 50 states during the 2016 election.  The report goes on to state that Russian military hackers significantly penetrated the election systems in 21 states.  Michael Daniel, a top cyber-security expert in the Obama Administration testified in 2017 to the committee that: “I would have characterized it at the time as sort of conducting the reconnaissance to do the network mapping, to do the topology mapping so that you could actually understand the network, establish a presence so you could come back later and actually execute an operation.”

In the report, all of the states mentioned were identified by a number except Illinois.  The report states, that by the end of 2018: “Russian cyber actors had successfully penetrated Illinois’s voter registration database, viewed multiple database tables, and accessed up to 200,000 voter registration records.” Hackers were able to take out “an unknown quantity of voter registration data” and “we’re in a position to delete or change voter data,”

What this means is that when the time comes for you to vote in 2020, whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent, the Russians have the power to strike you from the voter rolls and prevent you from voting, especially if you may be voting against Donald Trump, Putin’s frisky,big brain, little, female lap dog in heat.  Not only do they have the power to interfere and swing the election in Trump’s favor, Trump has publicly invited them and all interested foreign powers to do just that.

In stark contradiction to the logical and effective approach of standardizing our election procedures which would provide greater election security, the report recommended that states remain in the lead in reference to handling national elections.  In rebuking the report’s recommendations, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said, “I cannot support a report whose top recommendation is to ‘reinforce state’s primacy in running elections.”  The report also stated that the government must tell potential adversaries that it will view attacks on election infrastructure as a “hostile act” and communicate that it will respond accordingly.  The report also states that Congress should re-evaluate the $380 million appropriated for election security grants in 2018.  However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on the record for preventing additional election security funding.

On  August 1, 2018, during consideration of an Appropriations bill to fund securing future elections against Russian hacking and other forms of attacks, Senate Republicans blocked an amendment backed by Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to provide $250 million for states to harden their voting systems against cyber attacks.

The amendment was supported by 49 Democrats, Independent Senators and one Republican Senator, Bob Corker of Tennessee.  The bill would have passed, but Republican leaders changed the rules and insisted on a 60 vote threshold, so the amendment was not able to pass.  This intentional act on the part of the Republican-controlled Senate to leave our election system open to Russian hacking is a dereliction-of-duty by Republican Senators and a violation of their oath to “protect the constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.”

So, despite the fact that funds had already been approved in the national budget, under the leadership of self-proclaimed Grim Reaper McConnell, Republican Senators intentionally and unanimously with only Bob Corker dissenting, invited foreign election interference by voting against securing our election system.  This is unprecedented in American history.  To put this in common sense terms this is the same as a bank getting robbed of billions of dollars and afterwards leaving the doors to the vault wide open and firing all of its security personnel.  Do you think the bank would not be robbed again? Duh!

On May 16, 2019, in a Mother Jones article, a top Senate Republican stated that Mitch McConnell will not even let any election security bill come to the floor for a vote:

“The Senate will not vote on any legislation to protect US elections from foreign interference, a Republican committee chair said, despite the consensus of the intelligence community that Russia will once again seek to hack election systems and manipulate American voters in 2020.”

“The reason, said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Wednesday, is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has decided not to bring any election security bills to the floor for a vote. Bunt’s remark occurred during a hearing of the Rules and Administration Committee, which has oversight of election administration. When Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) asked Blunt, the chairman, whether he was planning mark-ups of any of the several election security bills pending before the committee, Blunt responded that it would be fruitless to advance legislation that McConnell would not allow to come up for a vote.”

The Republicans have worked hard to put themselves in the unenviable position of actually being more of a threat to our American democracy and national security than the Russians.  After Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, the Democrats motivated by Mueller’s warning that Russians are going to continue interfering in our elections, put forth 5 Bills in the House and Senate that would provide more funding for election security and make it mandatory to report to the FBI any contacts with foreigners proposing to interfere in our elections.  The Republicans not only blocked all 5 bills, they refused to offer any bills of their own.  Also, they did not propose any compromises for the Democratic bills.  “Moscow Mitch” McConnell responded by calling the bills proposed by the Democrats as “partisan.”  He further stated that the President and the Republicans had done all that was necessary to secure the elections.

When one evaluates the “witch hunt” comments by Trump and his open invitations to foreigners to interfere in our elections which is a violation of U.S. election laws, there can only be one conclusion.  These illegal actions on the part of the President are not only unpatriotic, they are also an active attack on your constitutionally guaranteed right to vote and representation.  His refusal to accept the intelligence agencies conclusion that Russia hacked our election is dangerous.  His lack of leadership in efforts to protect our elections is a threat to national security.  Everyone should look at the big picture which includes Trump’s behavior, the Republicans refusal to acknowledge and act upon the Senate Intelligence Committee Report along with the Republicans in the House and Senate that have fought hard against and blocked attempts by Democrats to fund election security.  This picture proves that the Trump and “Moscow Mitch” McConnell-led Republican Party is a bigger threat to our election infrastructure and national security than the Russians.

After all, can you trust our national security to someone so un-American that in front of the entire world he bent the knee, kissed Putin’s ring and then puckered up and kissed his ass ?

“The failure to secure our elections is the biggest threat to national security since Trump took office.” – Glen Reaux

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Linked Sources and Documentation

1. Senate Select Committee Intelligence Report downloadable: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume1.pdf

Copyright © 2019, Glen Reaux, all rights reserved