Former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon is suggesting President Donald Trump’s claim that his political opponents are trying to steal the election from him is only benefiting Russia.
CBS’ Margaret Brennan asked Gordon about remarks Trump made during a campaign rally on Saturday night.
“And it’s Democrats, they’re going to they’re trying to rig this election. … If you go to New Jersey, if you go to Virginia, if you go to Pennsylvania, if you go to California to look at some of these races, every one every one of these races was a fraud, missing ballots,” Trump said.
Gordan explained the president “carries disproportionate responsibility” to send a positive message on voting.
“That message that you can’t trust our system, that you can’t trust the vote, that you can’t trust the other party that you can’t trust is exactly what the Russians particularly hope to achieve,” Gordon said.
She continued, “And their aim would be to sow the divisions and to get Americans to say, you know what, it’s not worth it. I can’t trust it. We’re not going to vote.”
Watch her remarks below:
Gordon made it clear there is more than just one voice undermining the system.
She stressed when the opposing party “says that a difference in policy means that he is malfeasant or evil or being controlled, that too is undermining it.”
Gordon’s comments come more than a week after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned Russia is trying to undermine the confidence Americans have in mail-in voting, as IJR previously reported.
The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis said in a bulletin labeled “For official use only,” Russia was “likely to continue amplifying criticism of vote by mail and shifting voting processes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine public trust in the electoral process.”
