Although the issue may not be top of mind for some voters, Russian election interference efforts continue to have a poignant effect in the United States — just look at who’s in the White House right now. Even still, President Donald Trump and Republicans have consistently politicized the push to protect American electoral system, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bluntly slammed them for during a press conference this Friday. She noted how just the other day, Senate Republicans blocked election security bills including one from the House called the Securing America’s Federal Elections or SAFE Act.
As she explained, discussing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s input on the issue during testimony before Congress delivered on Wednesday:
‘One focus I want to make is in his testimony, he said the Russians are attacking our elections in sweeping and systemic fashion and that they are doing it “as we sit here”… Yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report showing that the election system in all 50 states were targeted by Russia, and yet the president calls this a hoax and Senator McConnell refuses to act… This is about patriotism for our country. Our electoral system is the heart of the matter of our democracy, and yet the Republicans still continue to say — no need to protect that.’
Watch her discuss Russian election interference:
It’s true — among other issues that members of a pair of House committees discussed with Mueller, the FBI director turned special counsel turned private citizen insisted that it is imperative for observers to understand the scope of the threat from Russian interference.
The cyberwarfare has made the election systems of the United States vulnerable, and a collapse of those systems like the Kremlin threatened during the 2016 elections could have volatile, wide-ranging repercussions. And Trump doesn’t even seem concerned! He’s dismissed the whole scandal as a hoax meant to bring him down, and he’s even peddled that line in conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. An absence of criminal charges from Mueller’s Russia investigation for the Trump team over conspiracy does not mean that the president’s behavior is acceptable!
During her Friday press conference, Pelosi noted that House Democrats would also be continuing down a number of other pathways counter to the Trump and Republican line. For instance, although it’s likely to not go anywhere at all for now considering the Republican majority in the Senate and Trump’s occupancy of the White House, just the other day they passed a $15 minimum wage. In the event of a Democratic president post-2020 and a Democratic majority in the Senate, that could actually become law, which the House speaker noted could improve the standing of millions upon millions of Americans.
Congress is coming up on a three week or so recess, which Pelosi referred to as members’ district work period. She noted though that in the meantime — against the whining from President Trump — Congress came together to pass funding measures for the near future, and have thereby avoided another federal government shutdown over lack of funding like the one that marked the beginning of this year. Even under Trump, Democrats are getting to work.
Featured Image via screenshot
