U.S. Officials Address Iranian Election Interference Threat After Trump Campaign Claims Email Hacking

U.S. officials address Iranian election interference threat after Trump campaign claims email hacking.

Transcript

00:00Can you comment more broadly on the threat of Iranian interference in the election?

00:04So this is something that we've raised for some time, Julian. We've raised concerns that

00:08Iranian cyber actors have been seeking to influence elections around the world,

00:13including those happening in the United States. These latest attempts to interfere

00:18in U.S. elections are nothing new for the Iranian regime, which from our vantage point has

00:24undermined democracies or attempted to for many years now. Any kind of malign destabilizing

00:32activity that the Iranian regime could partake in, and certainly trying to meddle and influence

00:37elections, I would certainly count that high among them. We continue to have a number of

00:43tools in our tool belt to hold the Iranian regime accountable, and we won't hesitate

00:48to use them, certainly not just unilaterally, but also multilaterally through entities like

00:54the G7 and otherwise. But specifically on actions, on deterrent actions as it relates to this,

01:00I will let my colleagues at the FBI and DHS speak to it.

01:04We've said many times that this administration strongly condemns any foreign government or

01:09entity who attempts to interfere in our electoral process or seeks to undermine confidence in our

01:14democratic institution. And so we take this type of reports of such activity extremely seriously.

01:22And so, again, we do not tolerate. We do not tolerate this type – anything like this,

01:26influence or interference efforts. And so – and we have made that very clear with foreign actors

01:33that such influence or interference is unacceptable. And our efforts to protect our elections have

01:38grown significantly over the years, even as the threat landscape has become increasingly

01:43complicated. But for this particular question, I would have to refer you to the Department

01:49of Justice and FBI. I cannot comment on the veracity of the claims that Iran was involved.