JUDY WOODRUFF: As we reported earlier, Senator Bernie Sanders confirmed that his campaign
was told by U.S. intelligence officials that Russia plans to disrupt the Democratic primary.
But President Trump pushed back on the intelligence community's assessment of Russian interference
in his campaign, and he accused Democrats of starting rumors.
The president's remarks come on the heels of multiple reports that U.S. intelligence
officials told congressional lawmakers last week that Russia is actively trying to help
the president get reelected.
Yamiche Alcindor takes it from there.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: For more, I'm joined by Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance
for Securing Democracy, a program that tracks Russian influence operations. She was also
a foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, and she served
in the State Department during the Obama and George W. Bush administrations.
Thanks so much, Laura, for being here.
What more do we know about the efforts against the United States, and what's changed since
2016?
LAURA ROSENBERGER, Director, Alliance for Securing Democracy: Yes, so the efforts that
we see in the reports about, you know, trying to help President Trump in his reelection
bid and interfering in the Democratic primary are actually very consistent with the same
things we saw in 2016.
The intelligence community assessed at that time that Russia had three goals. And what
we see now is very consistent with that, trying to divide Americans from one another, trying
the weaken their faith in our institutions and particularly our democratic processes,
and to boost President Trump, who, again, in the 2016 election, the intelligence community
assessed that Russia had developed a preference for.
And so I think that what we really see is very much a continuation of the same intentions.
We see a little bit of a difference in tactics. Some of the big, broad-scale kind of automated
bot-driven manipulation is something we don't see as much anymore.
But we still see a lot of effort to use social media to divide Americans from one another,
to drive particular conspiratorial narratives, and in particular to undermine Americans'
trust and faith in our institutions.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: You mentioned that social media companies are trying to better protect
themselves.
How ready is the United States with Russia's evolving tactics?
LAURA ROSENBERGER: Well, I think we have certainly seen steps by the social media companies since
2016. We have seen steps by the government since 2016.
The problem is, it all falls short. These are the kinds of issues where coordination
is actually completely essential to carrying out the kinds of sophisticated efforts to
systematically detect these operations.
And that requires very clear coordination mechanisms within the government, between
the government and the private sector, and within the private sector. And while we have
seen progress on each of those, they remain largely informal. They remain largely ad hoc.
And, frankly, as we have seen with the president's actions to fire that acting DNI, you know,
in light of these reports, that -- his role is really to coordinate the intelligence community's
work. And, you know, that is exactly a move in the wrong direction from what we actually
need to be having more of.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Now, the Washington Post is reporting that there are intelligence officials
who believe that Russia is trying to interfere in the election by trying to get Bernie Sanders
to win the Democratic primary.
He released a statement. I want to read part of it.
He said, in part: "I don't care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president. My message
to Putin is clear. Stay out of American election, and, as president, I will make sure you do."
How do you think Bernie Sanders and the Democratic primary is factoring into Russia's larger
plans?
LAURA ROSENBERGER: Well, first of all, I just want to say, I think that's a really important
statement from Senator Sanders, I mean, very clear message to Vladimir Putin that weighing
in on American elections is not something that will be tolerated by him and by the American
people.
And so I think that's a really important statement.
For me, it's about dividing Democrats from one another, potentially suppressing ultimate
turnout for the nominee, and really actually, again, just making us doubt the very processes
that elections are meant to be about.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: And the president has called reports that the intelligence community believes
Russia is meddling in the 2020 election as rumors spread by Democrats.
What impact could it have if the president is seen as politicizing the intelligence community,
and not -- and also undermining the intelligence community? What impact could that have?
LAURA ROSENBERGER: When we look back at sort of what's been done over the past few years
on these issues, my own view is that one of the greatest hindrances to doing more to actually
counter foreign interference has been the politicization of this issue.
And so I think it's deeply damaging and leaves our country vulnerable to attack.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thank you so much for joining us, Laura Rosenberger.
LAURA ROSENBERGER: Thank you so much, Yamiche.