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King Says Homeland Security Isn't Giving Public Necessary Information About Election Disinformation

Kevin Dietsch
/
AP Images
King says the Department of Homeland Security is failing to publicly report all credible information about attempts by foreign powers to influence American elections.

U.S. independent Sen. Angus King says the Department of Homeland Security is failing to publicly report all credible information about attempts by foreign powers to influence American elections. King is pointing to reports that the Department had information back in July about Russian social media efforts designed to question the mental health of the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

King says the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which he serves, never received the memo that was published this week by ABC news. He says the Department has a responsibility to release such information to the public.

“What they really are not doing is reporting to the American people,” says King. “This isn’t an argument between the Congress and the President. This is the American people’s right to know what their tax dollars are paying for in terms of intelligence.”

King says the only way to combat this kind of disinformation from Russia or any other nation is to publicly expose the source.

“This ought to be all hands-on deck, any information, credible information, about these Russian activities should be made public as quickly as possible so the public then knows who is behind the charges and misinformation they are being subjected to,” he says.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.