Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Fear fueled mishandling of Russian meddling in 2016, Senate says

Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Mark Warner

The Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republican Richard Burr (left) and Democrat Mark Warner, offers the only example of bipartisan congressional efforts to examine election interference.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Fear of being accused of trying to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, and fear of undermining public confidence in our democracy, caused the Obama administration to mishandle its response to Russian interference during the campaign.

That's the main conclusion in the latest bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee about foreign meddling in the last presidential contest, released Thursday.

The report is significant in two ways: For the past two years the panel has been the only part of Congress working in a bipartisan way to assess election interference. And it's latest conclusions underscore what both election security experts and democracy reform advocates have been saying more and more: The fear created by what happened in 2016 is almost as much of a problem in 2020 as any new attempts by foreign powers to hack into election systems or spread misinformation.


The previous administration was "frozen by analysis paralysis," Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said in a joint statement releasing the document. "Obama officials debated courses of action without truly taking one."

The panel's ranking Democrat, Mark Warner of Virginia, said he remains concerned that the fears generated by warning the public about attacks or attempted attacks in the run-up to this November could cause people to lose faith in our entire election system.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The report concedes that the muddled response was partially due to the fact that the extent of what the Russians were doing did not become clear until long after the election.

Reports from various agencies have shown that Russian operatives tried to break into computerized U.S. election systems and used misinformation and publication of thousands of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign to promote Donald Trump.

Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, and his ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told committee investigators that, early on, the level of secrecy surrounding the discovery of what the Russians were doing was reminiscent of the lead-up to the raid in which Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed.

"The major concern I think in the White House was, if we do something or say something, particularly publicly, about this, are we amping it up?" Clapper told the committee.

The committee concluded that:

  • The decision to limit and delay the release of information inadvertently constrained the Obama administration's ability to respond.
  • The rules of cyber-engagement are being written by "hostile foreign actors, including Russia and China" and that the United States needs to take the lead on the issue.
  • More information should be shared within the government and with the public.

Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon, in a separate statement at the end of the report, was particularly critical of the secrecy of the Obama administration. He said the public will never know the extent of the warnings that were given because no records were kept of some of top administration officials's meetings.

Wyden concluded by renewing his concerns that even now congressional staffers are being denied access to some investigatory materials. "It is bizarre that the committee would not heed its own recommendation and grant access to this information to its own staff," he wrote.

Read More

The Evolving Social Contract: From Common Good to Contemporary Practice

An illustration of hands putting together a puzzle.

Getty Images, cienpies

The Evolving Social Contract: From Common Good to Contemporary Practice

The concept of the common good in American society has undergone a remarkable transformation since the nation's founding. What began as a clear, if contested, vision of collective welfare has splintered into something far more complex and individualistic. This shift reflects changing times and a fundamental reimagining of what we owe each other as citizens and human beings.

The nation’s progenitors wrestled with this very question. They drew heavily from Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who saw the social contract as a sacred covenant between citizens and their government. But they also pulled from deeper wells—the Puritan concept of the covenant community, the classical Republican tradition of civic virtue, and the Christian ideal of serving one's neighbor. These threads wove into something uniquely American: a vision of the common good that balances individual liberty with collective responsibility.

Keep ReadingShow less
We’ve Collectively Created the Federal Education Collapse

Students in a classroom.

Getty Images, Maskot

We’ve Collectively Created the Federal Education Collapse

“If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men.” - W.E.B. Du Bois

The current state of public education has many confused, anxious, and even fearful. Depending on the day, I feel any combination of the above, among other less-than-ideal adjectives. Simply, the future is uncertain. Schools are simultaneously cutting budgets and trying to remain relevant, all during an increasingly tense political climate.

Keep ReadingShow less
Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

An oversized gavel surrounded by people.

Getty Images, J Studios

Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

In a recent post we quoted a journalist describing the Republican Party as anti-immigration. Many of our readers wrote back angrily to say that the Republican party is only opposed to immigrants who are present illegally.

But that's not true. And we're not shy of telling it like it is.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Importance of Respecting Court Orders
brown wooden chess piece on brown book

The Importance of Respecting Court Orders

The most important question in American politics today is whether Donald Trump will respect court orders. Judges have repeatedly ruled against his administration.

But will he listen?

Keep ReadingShow less