One of the bedrock principles of the American republic has been our commitment to a fair democratic process and open and honest elections. But the U.S. and other Western democracies are facing a bleak new reality where the threat of cyberattacks may become the norm.
Foreign hacking into America’s democratic process isn’t just a problem for Presidential campaigns anymore. In my race for Congress in California's 48th District against Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, we’re already seeing some of the same hacking attempts that we saw in the last election.
With the revelations of the Russian government’s attempted interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the democratic foundation of America was immediately threatened. U.S. Intelligence agencies concluded that Russian agents hacked into the DNC and forwarded the contents to Wikileaks in an attempt to engage in an “influence campaign” that would benefit Donald Trump and “undermine public faith in the US democratic process.”
Despite this overwhelming evidence, Congressman Rohrabacher continues to protect and defend the Russian government, even going as far as meeting with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who conspired with the Russians to distribute the illegally obtained documents. It's no surprise he has been called "Putin's favorite Congressman.”
We need members of Congress who will stand up and defend our elections from attacks from foreign governments, not regurgitate their talking points.
I will do just that, as I respect the intelligence community’s consensus about Russian interference in the 2016 election and have called for a federal investigation into the ways in which American political organizations can better protect themselves from cyberattacks.
I also called out Congressman Rohrabacher for not only meeting with Assange, but defending the people who are behind the cyberattacks and trying to clear their names. Even worse, he came out of the meeting committed to meeting with President Trump to ask for a federal pardon for Assange.
As a result of my efforts to defend our elections, I've since been threatened by Assange, and targeted by hackers.
This development shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s listening to the experts. Intelligence officials have warned the American public repeatedly that the Russian hacking into the 2016 election wasn’t a one off attack, and that they would be back for more in 2018 and 2020, particularly if they were unchecked.
Unfortunately, due to the utter lack of leadership from Congressman Rohrabacher and this administration in challenging an attack from Russia on sacred American institutions, these sorts of cyberattacks may just be an additional challenge that Congressional campaigns have to deal with from now on.
But despite the attempts to intimidate me, I will keep calling for the necessary investigations and oversight in order to protect our democracy, even if I become a target for the hackers. As your Congressman, I will lead the effort to protect our democracy from cyber attacks from foreign governments, not placate them like Congressman Rohrabacher.
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