Top officials warn of foreign interference in 2024 election

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Top U.S. leaders are sounding the alarm about foreign interference in the 2024 election. There are concerns that our government isn’t doing enough to safeguard the election system from bad actors.

Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) says he’s worried the 2024 election is vulnerable to disinformation and propaganda from other countries.

“Whether it’s Russia or China or Iran, to try to interfere in our elections it’s cheaper than trying to attack our country outright,” Warner said. “Unfortunately, a lot of Americans now believe a lot more conspiracy theories than they did a few years ago.”

This week Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s President Xi Jinping. He told CNN during their private discussion he warned Xi not to interfere with U.S. elections.

“The United States is very clear eyed about the challenges posed by the PRC,” Blinken said at a press conference on Friday.

Saurav Ghosh is a campaign finance expert with the Campaign Legal Center. He has concerns that efforts to safeguard U.S. elections are coming up short.

“We haven’t done enough to address it, despite some of the clear threats that we saw in 2016,” Ghosh said.

He says a key issue is dark money, or campaign spending where the donor is secret. Federal law prohibits foreign campaign contributions, but he argues that’s tough to actually enforce.

“It’s tricky to even say that we have a clear idea where the money influencing elections is coming from. We often don’t,” Ghosh said.

Plus, the rise of artificial intelligence makes election meddling cheaper and easier than ever.

“Foreign actors will see that we not only can spend money in secret, but we can spend really small amounts and have a devastating impact,” Ghosh said.

“That can happen at a scale and speed that I think we need to be careful about. I think the tech companies need to do more,” Warner said.

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While Sen. Warner wants tech companies to do more to identify and take down information, Ghosh says it’s on Congress to reign in A.I. and reform campaign finance laws.

Protecting our elections uniformly requires laws, it requires Congress to take the lead,” Ghosh said.

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