Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and National Security Officials | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    James S. Brady Press Briefing Room  •  August 2, 2018  •  1:15 P.M. EDT

    SANDERS: Good afternoon. Since the beginning of his administration, President Trump has implemented a whole-of-government approach to safeguard our nation's elections. The President has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation-state or other dangerous actor.

    Last year, the President signed an executive order to strengthen and review the cybersecurity of our nation and its critical infrastructure. Last week, the President chaired a meeting of his National Security Council to address ongoing threats. He asked the officials standing next to me to brief the American people on the work being done to protect the integrity of our elections.

    Efforts are underway to provide cybersecurity assistance to state and local authorities, and actions to investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable those who illegally attempt to interfere in our political and electoral process.

    To address these matters further, I want to welcome Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, Director of the National Security Agency General Paul Nakasone, and National Security Advisor Ambassador John Bolton to make some comments and take questions on this topic.

    As you all know, we've addressed what occurred during the 2016 election numerous times and rather extensively. The purpose of today's briefing is about what we are doing now and in the future to protect the integrity of our elections moving forward, and we ask that you stay on that topic.

    In order to help this run smoothly, we'd also ask that you direct your questions to a specific person. And with that, I'll turn it over to Ambassador Bolton to open up and make some comments.

    AMBASSADOR BOLTON: Well, thank you very much, Sarah. What we'd like to address today is election security in the 2018 election and in the future. The President has made it very clear, I think, what his priority is. We've had obviously a number of inquiries from Congress on this, including a letter to me, the past couple days from five senators, signed by Senator Schumer and four others.

    I have responded to that letter today. We've made copies available to you. And it forms a kind of framework for the briefing that the four heads of operating department and agencies are going to give you here today. They are the ones who are implementing and operationalizing the policy that we have developed. There are other agencies involved, but these are the four primary ones.

    And I think it's important that we address the question of the President's involvement in this, his leadership, his determination to prevent Russian and other foreign influence in elections. We meet on this constantly, the senior staff here at the White House. We meet with the heads of the different agencies involved and we discuss it quite regularly.

    In my tenure as National Security Advisor - less than two months - we've already had two full National Security Council meetings chaired by the President and, as I say, countless other discussions as well.

    Since January 2017, the President has taken decisive action to defend our election systems from meddling and interference. This includes measures to heighten the security and resilience of election systems and processes to confront Russian and other foreign malign influence in the United States, to confront such aggression through international action, and to reinforce a strong sanctions regime.

    Now, as you know, elections are administered by state and local governments, so the federal role is to assist them. We'll be addressing that through the comments of the heads of the operating agencies.

    I might also say, by way of introduction, that many federal government actions to protect elections in the United States, such as those implemented by the intelligence community or law enforcement agencies, are necessarily sensitive and highly classified. We do not wish to make the efforts of our adversaries any easier through injudicious public disclosures. Nonetheless, we have offered to do before, and continue to offer, briefings to members of Congress in secure facilities.

    So what I'd like to do here, as Sarah said, is turn the briefing over to the people whose agencies have this responsibility. We'll start off with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. He'll be followed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen. She'll be followed by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, and then finally, the Director of the National Security Agency, General Paul Nakasone.

    So, Dan.

    DIRECTOR COATS: Well, as Director of National Intelligence, I would like the American people to know that the intelligence community and all of its agencies are postured to identify threats of all kinds against the United States. The President has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority. And we have done that, and are doing that, and will continue to do so.

    We have incorporated the lessons learned from the 2016 election, and implemented a broad spectrum of actions to share more information across the federal government, as well as with state and local governments, and also with the public and the private sector. The intelligence community continues to be concerned about the threats of upcoming U.S. elections, both the midterms and the presidential elections of 2020.

    In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States. These efforts are not exclusive to this election or future elections, but certainly cover issues relevant to the election.

    We also know the Russians tried to hack into and steal information from candidates and government officials alike. We are aware that Russia is not the only country that has an interest in trying to influence our domestic political environment. We know there are others who have the capability and may be considering influence activities. As such, we will continue to monitor and warn of any such efforts.

    I am committed to making sure that the intelligence community is working together in integrating across organizations and missions, and seeking greater transparency with the public. The ODNI has instituted a broad spectrum of actions covering collection, analysis, reporting, education, and partnerships all designed to provide the best threat assessments to federal, state, and local officials, as well as to the public and private sector when necessary.

    For example, my office leads the interagency working group - now meeting weekly, as a push towards November - with the Department of Justice, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, and NSA inclusive of regional, cyber, and counterintelligence experts, all focused on ensuring election security and integration of our efforts.

    The intelligence community's focus right now is persistent support to the FBI, to the Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies in their election responsibilities. And my office is ensuring these organizations receive timely and proactive intelligence community support.

    SECRETARY NIELSEN: Well, good afternoon. Thank you all for joining us. I want to start by briefly mentioning that, on Tuesday, DHS hosted the first national cybersecurity summit. This brought together government, industry leaders, and academia to discuss opportunities to join forces to counter threats to our nation's critical infrastructure.

    I want to thank all of those who joined us from academia, government, and the private sector; all who participated; and those who signed up to concrete actions to confront cybersecurity challenges.

    Across every critical infrastructure sector, from energy to financial services, to transportation, to communication, and so many others, a single attack can have widespread and cascading consequences. I look forward to working with the nation's leading minds in the digital realm as we stand up the National Risk Management Center.

    But it's not just risk to our prosperity, privacy, and infrastructure we have to worry about, and that's why we're here today. Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and it has become clear that they are the target of our adversaries, who seek, as the DNI just said, to sow discord and undermine our way of life.

    I fully share the intelligence community and the ODNI's assessments of past efforts and those today to interfere with our election and of the current threat. Our adversaries have shown they have the willingness and capability to interfere in our elections.

    DHS has and continues to work closely with state and local election officials throughout the country by offering a range of services to help identify weaknesses in their election systems. Whether it's offering no-cost, voluntary technical assistance or sharing best practices for securing online voter registration databases, or providing technical advice on ransomware and destructive malware, our department stands ready to provide tailored support based on each jurisdiction's unique needs. This is yet another example where one size does not fit all.

    I am pleased to inform you that, to date, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and over 900 local governments have partnered with DHS in order to bolster the resilience of the nation's election infrastructure. Various states also have organic capabilities, and are engaging with the private sector and academia to improve the security of elections.

    Election infrastructure is not a destination. It requires aggressive and ongoing vigilance. Everyone must play their role to ensure that every vote is counted, and is counted correctly - all of us up here today, members of Congress, state and local election officials, and the public.

    As all of us up here today gain new insights into potential adversaries and campaigns, we are committed to providing our partners with the government's best intelligence and information available. The progress we have made is real, and the nation's elections are more resilient today because of the work we are all doing. But we must continue to ensure that our democracy is protected.

    Thank you for being here. And I'll turn it over to Director Wray.

    DIRECTOR WRAY: Good afternoon, everybody. Last fall, after I - shortly after I became Director, I stood up a new foreign influence taskforce at the FBI, which was designed to identify and counteract the full range of malign foreign influence operations targeting our democratic institutions and our values.

    The taskforce now brings together, across the waterfront, of FBI expertise who are talking counterintelligence, cyber, criminal, and even counterterrorism designed to root out and respond to foreign influence operations.

    For their part, our adversaries' influence operations have encompassed a wide range of activities. So just like we have a multidisciplinary response, that's because the threat is multidisciplinary.

    So just a few examples of some of the things we've seen over the past: targeting U.S. officials and other U.S. persons through traditional intelligence tradecraft; criminal efforts to suppress voting and provide illegal campaign financing; cyberattacks against voting infrastructure, along with computer intrusions targeting elected officials and others; and a whole slew of other kinds of influence, like both overtly and covertly manipulating news stories, spreading disinformation, leveraging economic resources, and escalating divisive issues.

    But it's important to understand this is not just an election cycle threat. Our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis, whether it's election season or not.

    There's a clear distinction between, on the one hand, activities that threaten the security and integrity of our election systems, and, on the other hand, the broader threat of influence operations designed to manipulate and influence our voters and their opinions.

    With our partners, we're trying to counteract both threats. We have three pillars to our operational strategy. The first pillar is our investigations and our operations. And for a variety of reasons, which I hope are obvious, including operational sensitivities - I'm not going to be able to describe the full extent of those efforts, but I will tell you that our foreign influence taskforce works with FBI personnel in all 56 FBI field offices. And even as we speak, we've got open investigations with a foreign influence nexus spanning field offices - FBI field offices across the country. So make no mistake, the scope of this foreign influence threat is both broad and deep.

    The second pillar - I said there were three pillars - the second is focused on information sharing and intelligence sharing. We're working closely with our partners in the intelligence community and in the federal government, as well as with our state and local partners, to establish a common operating picture.

    Just last week, as an example, we disseminated a list to our state and local law enforcement partners of various foreign influence indicators for them to be on the lookout for - things like malicious cyber activity, social abnormalities, and foreign propaganda activities. The idea is to marshal additional eyes and ears in the fight.

    We're also working with our international partners to exchange intelligence and strategies for combatting the threat. Because this is, after all, a shared threat with our allies.

    The third pillar of our approach is based on our strong relationships with the private sector. Technology companies have a frontline responsibility to secure their own networks, products, and platforms. But we're doing our part by providing actionable intelligence to better enable them to address abuse of their platforms by foreign actors.

    So this year, we've met with top social media companies and technology companies several times. We've given them classify briefings. We've shared specific threat indicators and account information, and a variety of other pieces of information so that they can better monitor their own platforms.

    The reality is, it's going to take all of us working together to hold the field, because this threat is not going away. As I have said consistently: Russia attempted to interfere with the last election, and continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day.

    This is a threat we need to take extremely seriously, and to tackle and respond to with fierce determination and focus. And together, with our partners, both those here and some of the other partners we've talked about, I'm confident that we can protect the integrity of our democratic institutions and maintain public confidence in our electoral process.

    Thank you.

    GENERAL NAKASONE: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. I appreciate the leadership and support from the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence.