On Sunday speaking with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi posited that although Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, has indicated that Russia prefers President Trump and China and Iran prefer presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Russia is the greater threat to interfere in the 2020 election.
Bash initiated the exchange by referring to Evanina, saying, “A top elections official in the office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed on Friday that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Joe Biden, while both China and Iran don’t want President Trump to win reelection. You suggested in a statement that the threats posed by these three countries are not equal.”
“That’s right,” Pelosi answered.
Bash pressed, “Tell us more about that, please.”
“They’re not equivalent,” Pelosi opined. “And that’s why Senator Schumer — excuse me — Leader Schumer, Chairman Schiff, and — I don’t know what they call him in the Senate — I think it’s vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, Warner, have sent a letter to them saying, the American people need to know what Russia is doing to interfere in this election.”
“What can you tell us, about somebody who’s privy to that intelligence, without —” Bash started to ask.
Pelosi interjected, “Well, we can — no, we can tell more than what the intelligence community put forth. They responded positively, put more information out there, but there is more that needs to be put out there. No sources and methods. Nobody understands that better than us.”
“Can you lean into it a little bit more, for the sake of voters wondering what’s going on?” Bash queried.
“Well, I can’t divulge information that is classified,” Pelosi replied. “That’s why we want them to do it. But I will say this, that, for some reason, they have tried to have some equivalence. I take second place to no one on my criticism of China for over 30 years. They have — I have said to my staff the other day, they say I’m the most unliked American in China — disliked American in China.”
“They say, no, they don’t say that,” she continued. “They say you’re the most hated American in China, because of their human rights violations, their trade policy, their proliferation of weapons and that.”
Bash commented, “Right.”
“But — so, I have no — take no criticism for saying this,” Pelosi stated. “But the Chinese, they — what they said is, China would prefer Joe Biden. Whether they do — that’s their conclusion, that they would prefer Joe Biden. Russia is actively, 24/7 interfering in our election. They did so in 2016, and they are doing so now. And they say that to a certain extent, but they need to tell the American people more. The American people, I believe, think they should decide who the president of the United States is, not Vladimir Putin making that decision for us.”