US President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House this week. Photo: AFP
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https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3093741/joe-biden-warns-russia-china-election-meddling United States & Canada
Joe Biden warns of Russia, China election meddling after receiving intelligence briefings
- The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told supports at an online fundraising campaign that Russians were trying to ‘delegitimise’ the election
- China also was conducting activities ‘designed for us to lose confidence in the outcome’ he said, warning there would be a ‘price to pay’ for interference
Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice-President Joe Biden pictured at a church in Delaware. Photo: AP
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is now getting intelligence briefings, and said he has been told Russia continues to try to meddle in November’s US election.
China also was conducting activities “designed for us to lose confidence in the outcome” of the 2020 election, Biden told supporters on Friday during an online fundraiser for his campaign.
“We know from before, and I guarantee you that I know now, because now I get briefings again. The Russians are still engaged in trying to delegitimize our electoral process. Fact,” Biden said.
He warned that if Russia continued to interfere there would be “a real price to pay” if he wins the November election against Republican President Donald Trump.
It is unclear when Biden began receiving the intelligence briefings, which are normal for major party presidential nominees.
Biden said at a June 30 press conference he had not been offered a classified briefing and “may very well” ask for one in the aftermath of reports Trump did not act on intelligence reports that Russia had put bounties on US troops in Afghanistan.
A Biden campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the briefings had begun and said the candidate also receives advice from his team of national security experts.
The former vice-president under President Barack Obama has criticised Trump over reports he does not read his intelligence briefings.
Multiple US intelligence agencies found Russia acted to help Trump in the 2016 election, a charge Russia denies and which Trump has repeatedly labelled a “hoax.”
The White House did not immediately comment. The office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice-President Joe Biden pictured at a church in Delaware. Photo: AP
On the Russian bounty reports, Biden said “the idea that somehow he didn’t know, or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty, if that’s the case.” He added that if Trump “was briefed and nothing was done about this, that’s a dereliction of duty.”
In 2016, nominees Hillary Clinton and Trump were offered the opportunity to be briefed beginning in early August. “The director of National Intelligence has indicated he intends to conduct those briefings pursuant to that long-standing tradition and he certainly is supported by this administration and this White House in doing so,” Josh Earnest, the then-White House press secretary, said in late July of that year.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg