3 Weeks To Go And Vladimir Putin Could Still Help Donald Trump, Ex-Administration Official Says
WASHINGTON ― With just three weeks before the November 3 election, one major question remains unanswered: What does Russian dictator Vladimir Putin have up his sleeve to help President Donald Trump?
“I don’t think they want to miss this opportunity, to poke the United States one more time,” said Miles Taylor, once the chief of staff at Trump’s Department of Homeland Security and now a fierce Trump critic.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress last month that Russia is already interfering in the 2020 election by “actively” spreading propaganda through social media and friendly news outlets “primarily to denigrate (former) Vice President (Joe) Biden,” Trump’s Democratic challenger.
What’s unclear is if that is the extent of the effort, or if something else is in the works for the campaign’s closing days. Four years ago, Russia was releasing emails stolen from Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign on a daily basis through its ally, WikiLeaks, and Trump was citing them at his rallies as proof of his opponent’s “corruption.”
“We love WikiLeaks,” he said repeatedly.
Taylor said that campaigns have gotten more careful about online security since 2016, but that it was possible Russia still plans some type of propaganda dump targeting Biden in the coming weeks. He said Putin could also be planning something to disrupt the election itself ― sabotaging key polling places in swing states, or taking down the power grid in a major city ― although something that dramatic was less likely.
More important, Taylor said, is Trump’s attitude toward Putin. “There’s a concern that the president is passively welcoming that assistance from the Russians.”
Trump has over the past four years repeatedly shown his willingness to receive foreign help to win and his unwillingness to tell Putin to stay out of US. elections.
In 2016, he solicited help from Russia, and then centered his entire campaign during the final month on that material stolen by...
