US media report on intelligence findings that Russia wants to support the Democrat Sanders in addition to President Trump in the election campaign. He spoke in a speech on the reports.
By Torsten Teichmann, ARD Studio Washington
Russia is trying to create chaos and sow hatred, Senator Bernie Sanders said at a campaign freeze in Bakersfield, California. He was informed a month ago that the Russian leadership may be trying to support his candidacy. Sanders did not say why he did not speak until the Washington Post reported it.
The Senator is currently leading polls on the Democratic presidential candidacy. US law enforcement officers had found evidence in the 2016 election campaign that Russia had tried to use Social Media to get Sanders forward even then – against Hillary Clinton.
Russian influence in the election in 2016
In February 2018, 13 Russian citizens and three companies were charged in the United States. You tried to influence the choice; spread derogatory information about Clinton online, disparaging Republican candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to support Sanders and then-Donald Trump.
At the Democrats’ debate last Wednesday in Las Vegas, Sanders had suggested that a group of supporters, known as Bernie Bros, could be influenced from outside. There is no evidence of this, the Washington Post quotes an expert from the Atlantic Council. The debate about the integrity of the US presidential election is hardly over.
Earlier this week, a secretary-general coordinator, Joseph Maquire, told MPs that Russia preferred President Trump’s re-election in November. Trump reacted annoyed and replaced Maquire with the US ambassador to Germany, Grenell.
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