A striking rebuke to Trump team’s claims about China’s election interference

Funny - not really.

Back in September 2020, various Dems were saying the William Barr and other high-level Trump officials were lying about China's efforts to influence the presidential election. Naturally, those claims were attacked by Trump supporters here on DP and elsewhere. Intelligence report released this week says those Trumpies were naughty boys.

A striking rebuke to Trump team’s claims about China’s election interference

The big new headline in a report from the U.S. intelligence community is that it has concluded that Russia spread misinformation during the 2020 election through prominent individuals, including those close to former president Donald Trump. While not named, the report appears to refer to Rudolph W. Giuliani’s exploits in Ukraine. It wouldn’t be the first time Giuliani has been cast as a conduit for Russian misinformation, though it appears to add confirmation.

But the report also casts the Trump team in a particularly dim light when it comes to another country: China.

Before the election, Trump and his allies repeatedly claimed China’s efforts to allegedly help President Biden were comparable to Russia’s efforts to help Trump. Some even claimed China was the worst offender.

The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concludes that, in fact, “China Did Not Attempt to Influence Presidential Election Outcome.”

The report states that China “did not deploy interference efforts.” And it says that while China considered a broader effort to influence the election — i.e. through less nefarious means — it didn’t do that either.

“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught,” the report says. It adds: “Beijing probably judged risk of interference was not worth the reward.”

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In August, national security adviser Robert O’Brien claimed that China had launched actual attacks aimed at election infrastructure.


CNN HOST WOLF BLITZER: China more than Russia right now?
Attorney General William BARR: Yes.
BLITZER: Why do you say that?
BARR: Because I’ve seen the intelligence. That’s what I’ve concluded.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on FoxNews: " China is using a massive and sophisticated influence campaign that dwarfs anything that any other country is doing"

Reports about foreign interference in U.S. politics have been useful to Trump’s campaign. That may not be an accident.

By December, after the election, Ratcliffe was still out there telling CBS during an interview that China had definitely messed with the elections in November. For the first time, he also said that Russia and Iran had also been playing the same game.

Is it arrogance, 'true beliefs', -- WHAT caused these people to lie to the American public when they had to know there was documentation that would reveal their lies?