FBI Director Wray Gives Rare On-Camera Interview To Quell Election Hacking Fears

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FBI Director Christopher Wray gave a rare on-air interview Thursday, addressing election hacking and foreign threats, as well as taking a swipe at Bob Woodward’s White House memoir.

“I think Americans can have confidence in our election system,” he told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell. “The use of social media is a bullhorn that allows that kind of information warfare to be inflicted much more effectively, So that’s why it’s something that remains a concern, and could influence individual voters if we’re not, as Americans, vigilant about who’s saying what and where their information is coming from.”

He added that while Russia is a threat that the FBI is taking seriously, China is currently the number one concern.

“There’s no country that presents a more broad and more comprehensive threat to our ideas, to our innovation, to our economic security, in many ways, to so much of our daily lives, than China does,” he said. “We spend a lot of time working on Russia, too, but…China is our top priority in that space.”

On purely domestic matters, Wray was succinct.

He dismissed Woodward’s memoir, “Fear,” out of hand. “I have not seen a nervous breakdown of executive power. I have not read Mr. Woodward’s book – and I’m not sure whether I’ll ever find time,” he said.

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