CNN —
U.S. intelligence agencies announced Tuesday that Russian operatives created and amplified false online content attempting to smear Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.
The content in question included manipulated audio content that circulated on social media platform ” said the official. The Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) told reporters on Tuesday.
The statement was based on newly available information and analysts worked over the weekend to analyze media content, officials said.
Some posts spreading fake content on X received hundreds of thousands of views, and those numbers were amplified by right-wing figures. The episode had echoes of the bizarre and false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that sought to smear Democrats in 2016.
This is Russia’s eleventh-hour effort to negatively influence the 2024 presidential election in favor of former President Donald Trump, who U.S. intelligence assesses to be the Kremlin’s preferred choice. This is the evidence.
With only two weeks left until Election Day, accusations of foreign interference are extremely politically sensitive. Intelligence agencies have repeatedly exposed influence operations by Russia and Iran aimed at damaging Vice President Kamala Harris and President Trump, respectively, to weaken their influence over the American people.
In a statement, the Harris-Waltz campaign expressed concern that the media coverage could amplify false Russian claims.
“We believe it is possible to report on Russian targeting operations without further exposing their already well-proven false claims,” Morgan Finkelstein, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Waltz campaign, said in an email. “There is,” he said.
The information linking the attack on Mr. Walz to Russia was part of a broader U.S. intelligence assessment released Tuesday on the foreign threat landscape to the election.
According to the assessment, U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia and Iran may attempt to use disinformation to incite violence in the days and weeks between Election Day and vote certification. I’m concerned.
Russian operatives are likely to question the integrity of the U.S. presidential election regardless of the outcome, but they are likely to be “more active” if Harris wins, ODNI officials told reporters. told.
U.S. intelligence officials also plan to closely monitor Iranian operatives after Election Day. When false claims of voter fraud spread online in 2020, Iranian operatives created a website to blackmail U.S. election officials over mugshots, according to the Justice Department.
