US adversaries are working at cross-purposes trying to influence elections in the country, with Russia and Iran hoping for different outcomes in the presidential race, an unnamed official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) claimed on Monday.
The source named China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran as the parties “targeting House and Senate races around the country” as well as the presidential election in November. Smaller nations “may be trying their own influence operations,” the ODNI alleged, as reported by the Associated Press.
China’s “influence operations” are allegedly targeting candidates from both main parties, while Beijing remains neutral on the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Russia supports Trump due to his supposedly favorable stance on the Ukraine conflict and praise for President Vladimir Putin, the US intelligence community believes. Iran supposedly opposes the Republican candidate out of concern that with Trump back in office, an escalation would follow.
Senior Russian officials have said it makes no sense for their country to meddle in the US presidential election, even if it wanted to, since American elites are dedicated to antagonism and won’t let any leader steer away from this path.
US policies during Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency were consistent with that assumption. He started delivering American weapons to Ukraine and otherwise contributed to events going toward open hostilities, which started in February 2022 under his successor, Joe Biden. On his campaign trail, the former president claimed without evidence that Russia would have been too scared to use its military against Kiev, were he in office.
The ODNI previously claimed that foreign nations are using AI-generated content in their purported attempts to meddle in the US electoral processes, but offered no examples or explanations of how its attribution to foreign players was made.
The tactics that US officials ascribe to its adversaries resemble what Israel, a key US ally, has allegedly been doing in this election cycle. According to a New York Times exposé, West Jerusalem has been deploying fake social media accounts and fake news websites to bombard the American public and elected officials with narratives favorable to Israel.
