In the summer of 2018 during the heated election campaign for Sen. Bill Nelson's Florida Senate seat, Nelson warned that Russian hackers had penetrated some of his state's county voting systems. He said of the Russians that "all they have to do, if those election records are not protected, is to go in and start eliminating registered voters."
The warning was confirmed by intelligence officials, who said that there was a "classified basis" for the claim, but at the time the "extent and seriousness of the threat remains unclear, shrouded for reasons of national security." But Nelson's opponent and the eventual victor in the race, then Gov. Rick Scott, called that claim irresponsible and said he shouldn't be talking about it publicly. Nelson's Senate counterpart, Marco Rubio, a Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined him in signing onto a letter urging elections officials to be aware of the potential for hacking and avail themselves up on available federal assistance, but wouldn't warn them of the extent of the problem.
Rubio knew from his position on SSCI as much as Nelson, a member of the Homeland Security Committee. He knew that Russia could infiltrate the voting system to the extent that they could alter election results, but he refused to back Nelson up in 2018. A year later, he's conceding that reality, because the Mueller report revealed that the "F.B.I. believes that this operation enabled the G.R.U. to gain access to the network of at least one Florida county government." Now Rubio is going even further, telling the New York Times in a Friday interview that the Russian hackers hadn't just accessed a voting system, but were "in a position" to change the voter rolls. In 2018 Rubio refused to confirm or deny Nelson's claims.
He knew as much as Nelson knew, and while Nelson was being pilloried in the national press—the Washington Post gave his claims Four Pinocchios, their rating for a "whopper." And now, a year after the fact, Rubio is confirming with the Times that "Russian hackers not only accessed a Florida voting system, but were 'in a position' to change voter roll data."
Way too little and way too late, Marco. This is the guy who still thinks he can run for president (again) someday on his foreign policy "expertise."
