The two Democrats at the top of Congress's intelligence panels say they are planning for Election Day on one assumption — that the president cries foreign interference — and they have told the nation's spy chiefs to keep their phones within reach.
The top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees said on Wednesday that they are operating on the presumption that President Trump and his allies will allege fraud and foreign meddling in this year's midterm elections in order to justify interfering with the results. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, his Senate counterpart, laid out their preparations in a briefing for reporters, NPR reported.
"We start with the premise that the president is going to do that. It would be irresponsible not to, speaking as somebody who was in the chamber on January 6, 2021," Himes said. "We're making the assumption that the president is not going to accept the results of what looks to be a very challenging election for him and his party." Warner, speaking alongside him, said one route the president could take is claiming foreign interference in the voting process.
Both men sit in the Gang of Eight, the small group of senior lawmakers who oversee the nation's spy agencies and receive their most sensitive briefings. They said they have made clear to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and other intelligence leaders that they must be immediately reachable by phone on and after Election Day if Trump alleges foreign interference — or, as Himes put it, if the president "decides to use allegations of foreign interference as an excuse to seize ballot boxes, question the validity of the election." Himes described exactly what he would do in that moment.
"If, at noon on election day, the president announced that the Iranians have undertaken operation, I'm on TV saying 'I'm Gang of Eight and I have received no such briefing, no such information, and I have no reason to believe that this is accurate.'"
"Now, does that end the crisis? No, but that's the first step," Himes said. The two lawmakers also accused the intelligence leadership of failing to provide Congress with legally mandated pre-election reports on foreign meddling at the 120-day, 60-day and 30-day marks. Himes said they received the required classified summary when Clayton took over as DNI, and one further classified report on Tuesday that they dismissed as a "grabbag" — Russia, Warner said, is "similar to prior occasions, going after Democrats, usually with misinformation," Iran is focused more on disruption in Europe, and China has been "more selective," often on local races. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately reply to NPR's request for comment.
The White House answered the Democrats directly. "President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections," spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement to NPR. "While extreme Democrats and the media continue to dismiss concerns about voter fraud, the Trump Administration is taking decisive action to protect our elections including prosecuting election crimes, strengthening election infrastructure security, and protecting vulnerable voters from fraud and coercion." Trump himself, asked by a reporter earlier this month whether he would accept the election results, replied: "What do you think? Of course I will, but we don't want cheating."
For all their alarm about a false claim of interference, Himes drew a line the two men were careful to state plainly: there is a "profound distinction" between foreign influence campaigns and actual interference with election infrastructure — "messing around with the voting rolls, with the machines" — and, he said, "we have never seen an operation to actually interfere and, as of now, we are not seeing either the capability or the intent to interfere." Their preparations are one part of a wider Democratic effort: Warner said more than 75 groups are meeting regularly, "fully lawyered up," and that the responsibility extends to the press and the public to speak up if something happens. "I think everybody realizes what's at stake here," Warner said. "I mean, the irony of celebrating our 250th anniversary and this the first year we had a completely corrupt election? I think people know what's at stake."