Trump says US will 'counteract' any attempt by Russia to meddle in the 2018 midterms
'We won't allow that to happen,' the president says of foreign interference
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.President Donald Trump has claimed he is not worried about Russian meddling in the 2018 midterm elections, on the same day his national intelligence director said it’s “highly likely” that Russia will be “doing something” in the midterms.
"The Russians had no impact on our votes,” Mr Trump told reporters at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. “Certainly there was meddling. Probably there was meddling from other countries.”
Asked if he was worried about Russian meddling in 2018, Mr Trump responded: "No, because we'll counteract whatever they do.”
"We won't allow that to happen. We will counteract it very strongly,” he added. “We're doing a very, very deep study and coming out with very strong suggestions on the 2018 election.”
That same day, however, director of national intelligence Dan Coats told a Senate committee that it is “highly likely” that Russia will be “doing something” in the 2018 midterms.
"We have not seen evidence of a robust effort yet on the part of Russia, but we know their malign activities continue to exist," he said.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has charged 13 Russian nationals with staging a physical and digital inference campaign in the 2016 US election. According to an indictment, the Russians used social media to “sow discord in the US political system,” and some even posed as US citizens to do so.
US officials have said that Moscow also tried to hack into US voting systems, but that they were unable to change any votes. The Department of Homeland Security has also said there is no evidence to suggest that votes had been altered.
Mr Trump has cast doubt on the US intelligence community’s findings before, at one point claiming the hackers could have been a single individual "sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds”. In November, Mr Trump signalled that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials of meddling in the election. He later walked the comments back after criticism.
The US State Department, meanwhile, has yet to spend any of the $120m it was given to fight foreign election meddling, according to the New York Times. None of the department's 23 analysts tasked with countering Moscow’s efforts speak Russian, the paper reported.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments