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Trump blows past the intelligence to accuse China of backing Biden
Source: Politico
Trump blows past the intelligence to accuse China of backing Biden
Officials who have seen the underlying intel say the president and his allies are misrepresenting what it says.
By NATASHA BERTRAND
09/01/2020 04:54 PM EDT
From the president’s Twitter feed to the Republican National Convention to Fox News, a new talking point has taken hold among Donald Trump and his allies: that U.S. intelligence shows that China would prefer a Joe Biden presidency and is trying to help him win.
“Just In: Chinese State Media and Leaders of CHINA want Biden to win ‘the U.S. Election,’” Trump tweeted on August 26. “Beijing Biden is so weak on China that the intelligence community recently assessed that the Chinese Communist Party favors Biden,” Donald Trump Jr. said at the RNC. “Our intelligence community has concluded that China prefers Joe Biden’s candidacy to the reelection of President Trump,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote for Fox last week.
But the intelligence community has said no such thing, according to public statements by the country’s top counterintelligence official Bill Evanina and multiple sources who have seen the underlying intelligence. And national security officials and others briefed on the latest election threat intelligence are now expressing concern that the Trump administration is trying to draw attention away from the more acute threat posed by Moscow, which is again trying to boost Trump’s reelection, they said.
“China is the bigger and longer term threat to U.S. national security,” said an official who has seen the underlying intelligence. “But it does not pose the most acute threat to this election. Russia does.”
-snip-
Officials who have seen the underlying intel say the president and his allies are misrepresenting what it says.
By NATASHA BERTRAND
09/01/2020 04:54 PM EDT
From the president’s Twitter feed to the Republican National Convention to Fox News, a new talking point has taken hold among Donald Trump and his allies: that U.S. intelligence shows that China would prefer a Joe Biden presidency and is trying to help him win.
“Just In: Chinese State Media and Leaders of CHINA want Biden to win ‘the U.S. Election,’” Trump tweeted on August 26. “Beijing Biden is so weak on China that the intelligence community recently assessed that the Chinese Communist Party favors Biden,” Donald Trump Jr. said at the RNC. “Our intelligence community has concluded that China prefers Joe Biden’s candidacy to the reelection of President Trump,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote for Fox last week.
But the intelligence community has said no such thing, according to public statements by the country’s top counterintelligence official Bill Evanina and multiple sources who have seen the underlying intelligence. And national security officials and others briefed on the latest election threat intelligence are now expressing concern that the Trump administration is trying to draw attention away from the more acute threat posed by Moscow, which is again trying to boost Trump’s reelection, they said.
“China is the bigger and longer term threat to U.S. national security,” said an official who has seen the underlying intelligence. “But it does not pose the most acute threat to this election. Russia does.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/01/trump-says-china-supporting-biden-407054
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