Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, apparently thinks his hard line on encryption is going to help him win this election.
The North Carolina Republican’s dogged efforts to give law enforcement guaranteed access to secure devices has been a central plank of his recent work in Congress. But whether these efforts help or hinder the incumbent remains to be seen, Martin reports. Burr’s stance has alienated the tech world and libertarian Republicans, but won plaudits from the law-enforcement community.
“I’m sure that encryption will come up because it’s part of the whole question of how do we stay safe in the future,” Burr told POLITICO before Congress adjourned to campaign for the November elections. In North Carolina, the well-heeled tech community carries a rapidly growing amount of clout and is marshaling its resources for Burr’s opponent, Deborah Ross. Yet with a string of terror attacks across the U.S. and Europe, Burr’s hard-line, pro-law enforcement approach to encryption could also win him adherents from people voting on national security concerns.
Yeah, that's the same Burr who is continuing to endorse Donald Trump, the guy who goes around spouting stories stemming from Russian government hacks of the DNC, hacks that the U.S. government—which Burr works for!—has confirmed. The guy who continues to insist that we don't know whether Russia had anything to do with this cyber attack, despite the fact that "senior U.S. intelligence official assured NBC News that cybersecurity and the Russian government's attempts to interfere in the 2016 election have been briefed to, and discussed extensively with, both parties' candidates, surrogates and leadership, since mid-August," and to say otherwise is "willful misrepresentation."
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Hillary Clinton needs Deborah Ross in the U.S. Senate. If you live in North Carolina, click here to get out the vote on her campaign.
So just to sum up. Russia is almost certainly conducting cyberattacks on the U.S.—its political parties (or at least one of them), its state elections systems, and its government. Trump denies those attacks, and continues what appears to be a cozy relationship with Russian authorities. And Richard Burr—Mr. Cybersecurity—doesn't see any problem continuing to support Trump? He's going to run on his "national security" record while backing the guy who presents such a security risk?
You can't make this shit up. Burr deserves to be ousted in this election for many reasons, including the fact that as Intelligence Committee chair, he's in a position to strip away our individual cyber security—our privacy—and he has every intent to do so. But he really deserves to be fired by the people of North Carolina for saying Donald Trump in the White House is safer for the nation than you having a cellphone the government can't break into.