Heinrich Statement on Continued Russia Election Interference
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement after the U.S. Justice Department publicly announced its coordinated response to Russia’s efforts to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This follows Heinrich’s past work on the Committee, in which he played a key role in the investigation of Russia’s efforts to interfere with prior United States presidential elections.
“Vladimir Putin and his propaganda efforts continue to target American voters, election systems, and democratic institutions. It’s a playbook we’ve seen before, and we’re not going back,” said Heinrich. “The 2016 election made clear how important it is to get out in front of these foreign interference campaigns so we can root them out and hold Kremlin-backed bad actors accountable up front, rather than after Election Day. I commend the Justice Department’s decision to quickly and decisively act to thwart these activities that directly threaten Americans’ most fundamental freedom: our freedom to vote. The integrity of our democracy hinges on Americans' ability to fairly choose our own leaders.”
A comprehensive list of Heinrich’s extensive actions to counter the unjustified aggression and malign foreign influence campaigns of Vladimir Putin’s Russia can be found here.
Additional Background on Heinrich’s Leadership to Protect America’s Democracy and Counter Russia’s Malign Disinformation Campaigns:
As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Heinrich played a key role in investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere with the United States’ 2016 election. After the investigation concluded, Heinrich joined the Committee in releasing recommendations on election security and findings regarding Russian targeting of election infrastructure.
During the investigation, Heinrich questioned Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey in a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing about foreign influence operations and their use of social media platforms. Heinrich has been outspoken on the need to erect barriers against unfettered foreign influence over American voters online by establishing the same transparency and disclaimers for social media ads that exist in political TV advertisements.
Heinrich also worked to pass legislation to help safeguard voting systems, registration data, and ballots from theft, manipulation, and malicious computer hackers. In 2018, Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined U.S. Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in introducing the bipartisan Secure Elections Act, a bill to strengthen election cybersecurity in America. The Senators originally introduced the legislation in 2017, and worked with stakeholders to revise and strengthen the bill.
In the lead up to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Heinrich also joined the bipartisan members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in urging President Joe Biden to make sure that the United States is sharing as much intelligence as possible with Ukraine.
Heinrich has also repeatedly condemned former President Donald Trump’s uplifting of Kremlin propaganda and disinformation. This includes Heinrich’s speech when he voted to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2020, saying, Trump was “more focused on lobbing insults and spreading Russian conspiracy theories on Twitter than he is on his intelligence briefings.”
Heinrich said in that floor speech: “Right now, patriotic Americans working in the State Department, for our intelligence agencies, and serving in the military are defending us from grave threats. These Americans pledge to obey the orders of their commander-in-chief. They trust that their commander-in-chief's loyalty and sole focus is squarely on the best interests of the United States of America. I don't say this lightly: President Trump has betrayed that trust. He promised to put America first. Instead, he put himself first.”
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