Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson Friday said he's seen no credible evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud, and he's much more concerned about Russian interference than he is the United States Postal Service.
"As recently as late July, our intelligence community has warned us about the disinformation campaign promulgated by the Russian government," Johnson, who served in the Obama administration, said on CNN's "New Day." "They've warned again about the threat to our election infrastructure and the attempts to hack into the presidential campaigns, and that's where our attorney general and our president and our intelligence community and the rest of our community ought to be focused right now, on the direct threat presented to our democracy."
Johnson added that Russia likely takes the absence of a clear public warning from President Donald Trump as a "green light" to interfere in the elections.
"The reality is, there is no complete line of defense when it comes to the threat of cyber attacks on our democracy," he said. "The only way you can stop it is to make the behavior cost prohibitive by the bad actor, to put in place sufficient deterrence on the bad actor."
The Trump administration has had almost four years to be working on the issue, he added, but without the president making a direct statement, the "ongoing information op" will continue to be directed at the Ameircan people.
Johnson also on Friday rejected Attorney General Bill Barr's contention that there is no systemic racism involved in law enforcement.
"There is ample evidence of racism in America's police departments," said Johnson. "The video of George Floyd's life being snuffed out is exhibit "A." And we see this over and over and over again. There are far too many people recruited to our nation's police departments who are not there to protect and serve, but are there to act as the neighborhood bully, who do not appreciate that black lives matter. This is an endless, far-reaching problem."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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