Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) publicly admitted that she is aware of China’s preferences for the elected President of the United States in this November’s election.
“China would prefer Joe Biden,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
"China would prefer Joe Biden." – Nancy Pelosi pic.twitter.com/gI1RHmFNOu
— Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) August 9, 2020
While Pelosi recognized that China prefers that Trump lose the November election, she claims that the threat they present is “not equivalent” to the interference conducted by Russia.
“Russia is actively, 24/7 interfering in our election,” she said. “They did so in 2016, and they are doing so now.”
Pelosi took her original statements one step further with Chris Wallace on “Fox News on Sunday” by claiming that China is “not really getting involved in the presidential election.”
“They try to blanket it with the Chinese, they said, prefer Biden — we don’t know that, but that’s what they’re saying, but they’re not really getting involved in the presidential election,” she claimed.
A statement released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday confirmed and acknowledged that China is a threat and has an agenda for the United States election, citing the recent actions taken by the Trump administration as the prime motivator.
“We assess that China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection,” the statement read. “China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China. Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current Administration’s COVID-19 response, closure of China’s Houston Consulate, and actions on other issues.”
The DNI’s report, also claims that Russia and Iran also present a threat to the integrity of the upcoming election using “online influences” and social media.
“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran.”
When asked what the administration will be doing to address any interference, White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that cyber teams and The Department of Homeland Security is set up to stop Russia and China from attempting to “engage in influence operations” such as accessing government websites and “collecting data on Americans.”
“China, like Russia and Iran, have engaged in cyberattacks and fishing and that sort of thing with respect to our election infrastructure and with respect to websites,” he said.
NEWS: Following latest @ODNIgov warnings of #electioninterference, National Security Adviser @robertcobrien tells @margbrennan #China and #Russia are “absolutely” "trying to access secretary of state websites,” and other critical election infrastructure ahead of the 2020 election pic.twitter.com/xEn7QMGPa9
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 9, 2020
