By Mike Smith
Special to FCNP
At the DNC Convention in Chicago, Sen. Mark Warner made his case that we may be facing digital enemies, both foreign and domestic, in this year’s election cycle. He continued his clarion call to guard against election interference, as reported by FCNP.
“Remember back in 2016, we were all caught off-guard and in many ways the Russians had to create fake personas,” to fool Americans, said Sen. Warner during an interview in Chicago. “Unfortunately, Americans now are creating this fake stuff, including the other candidate Trump, himself. All the Chinese and Russians have to do is amplify it.”
“In the 2020 election cycle, we had a collaboration between social media companies to point out fake political content and the foreign interference. However, Twitter and X has become the worst offender with their owner Elon Musk. The owner of X is a promulgator” of disinformation, said the senior Senator who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“We are not seeing the deep fakes that way we thought in this cycle – we see the British and French electorate getting them (fakes) worse right now,” said Warner.
“The barriers to entry for foreign interference and malign influence in our elections have become almost vanishingly small,” said Virginia Sen. Mark R. Warner in a warning letter last spring from his perch as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. His warnings proved prescient, and Iran has indeed hacked both of the major party-political campaigns this past week.
New Energy at DNC
“I thought there was great energy last night,” said Warner. “I was invited to listen up close and Biden went through all his accomplishments. There is frustration in our party because people don’t see how well the economy is doing, the millions of jobs and small businesses started, and people have not fully felt the benefit of all those things yet.”
“Biden was tremendous on the coalition he put together to go up against Putin,” in Ukraine, said Warner. “The Israel and Gaza issue has been really hard. There could be a hostage deal very soon. We have to stay optimistic,” said Warner, predicting that a deal could come soon during the last five months of the Biden Administration.
“Think how different it would have been if it were (President) Donald Trump. Nobody would call him the great coalition-builder,” said Warner.
“He had the lights on him last night and took the time to remind Americans what he has done, but there was a sense of grace in passing the mantle to Kamala Harris,” said Warner.
Va. Delegation coming together
“There is a cross section in our Virginia delegation this election cycle between the regular suspects and then there are a lot of new people, too, which is refreshing,” said Warner about the delegates on the convention floor.
“You can never keep all democrats happy. There is a special place in heaven for our district chairs and our state party chairman. They may need some therapy after trying to bring everyone together,” Warner teased. “You have been around this game for awhile and you know there is some truth to that need.” Susan Swecker from Highland County is the state democratic party chair. Manish Singh is the 11th district party chair from Fairfax.
“I remember when Mame Reilly was running things ten years ago and we were buttoned up. We all miss her,” said Warner of the democratic party operative. She was a veteran political organizer in the Democratic Party who moved with ease in both Virginian and U.S. national political circles.
“I think Jesse Ferguson has done a nice job. I know he is also battling cancer and he has the DCCC to manage and he’s been adept at raising funds and votes,” said Warner. As director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure arm, Ferguson is responsible for the more than $60 million in television ads attacking Republicans this cycle, but he doesn’t plan for this money to be spent on personal attacks like the opponent.
