Against a backdrop of indifference from President Donald Trump’s White House, the DHS is allowing its teams created to fight election interference to wither and is unprepared to fend off almost certain attempts by foreign actors to tamper in 2020.
According to a Wednesday Daily Beast report, the task forces formed in response to Russia’s meddling in 2016 have been gutted. The teams were created primarily to ensure that other countries don’t change American vote counts, and to expose efforts by foreign actors to sway political opinions on social media.
DHS employees are reportedly frustrated that such a critical area of security is being neglected as the White House forces a massive (and disproportionate) amount of energy to be spent at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We know Russia is going to be engaged. Other state actors have seen the success of Russia and realize the value of disinformation operations,” a DHS official told the Daily Beast. “So it’s very curious why the task forces were demoted in the bureaucracy and the leadership has not committed resources to prepare for the 2020 election.”
