Dem
53
Ties
3
GOP
44
Donald Trump is not the only one who might try to interfere with the elections. There are others, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, to name just two. Also the guy who runs Iran, but we don't know who that actually is. Maybe it is Whatshisname, the son of the guy who used to run it. Maybe it is somebody in the IRGC. Who knows? Maybe they will, maybe they won't.
In any event, top Democrats in Congress on the intelligence committees are expecting Donald Trump to claim foreign interference if Republicans lose the House or Senate, and are already gaming out how to deal with that. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) are the current ranking members in the Senate and House respectively, and are likely to become chairmen if Democrats capture both chambers.
They have asked CIA director John Ratcliffe and DNI Jay Clayton to be reachable by phone on Election Day to answer questions about foreign interference in real time. Ratcliffe is a long-time intelligence professional. Clayton, not so much. He spent most of his career as an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell and was later chairman of the SEC. What the Democrats are planning to do if Trump claims foreign interference is to ask them (especially Ratcliffe) for proof of foreign interference. As top intelligence officials in the two chambers, they have a legal right to get that information and also know the sources. By law, Warner and Himes do not need traditional security clearances to receive (top) secret information by virtue of their positions. Ratcliffe knows that. Clayton can be informed of it if need be.
Himes told reporters: "We're making the assumption that the president is not going to accept the results of what looks to be a very challenging election for him and his party. There's a wide array of scenarios that we have war-gamed and trained for." Himes also said that recent meetings with the top intelligence officials gave him confidence that they would not manufacture fake information to please Trump.
Intelligence officials distinguish foreign influence, in which foreign actors try to sway votes (e.g., Iran trying to keep gas prices high) and foreign actors tampering with the technical aspects of voting, such as tampering with voting machine or voter databases. The two Democrats have said they while foreign actors may try to do the former, they don't think they have the capability to do the latter. Part of the "protection" is that the U.S. voting system is so distributed, with over 3,000 counties each running their own show.
Federal law requires that the intelligence agencies inform Congress about potential election interference 120, 60, and 30 days before the election. Warner and Himes said they have not yet received the reports that the law requires the CIA and DNI to give them. They also noted that the previous DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, had zero interest in complying with the law. They are also concerned that the federal government's ability to detect and counter foreign interference has been (intentionally) greatly weakened under Trump.
Both Russia and China like Trump because he is so easy to fool and manipulate. Democrats are much tougher on them because they are not scared of Trump, as Republicans are. On the other hand, Iran hates Trump due to the war he started. So think of the elections as a proxy battle between Russia and China on one team and Iran on the opposing team. (V)