Top national security officials held a press conference Thursday to declare that Russia is meddling in the 2018 midterm elections and to talk about the strategies they plan to use to combat the interference.
The officials — National Security Adviser John Bolton, FBI Director Chris Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Director of the National Security Agency Gen. Paul Nakasone, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — were undermined by President Trump when he said, “We are being hindered by the Russian hoax, it’s a hoax,” at a rally in Pennsylvania last night.
National security expert Juliette Kayyem told Boston Public Radio Friday that the five national security officials are “trying to ignore” the president’s public comments and tweets.
Kayyem believes that regardless of what the officials say, they can not disregard what Trump says and tweets. “That is impossible to do because our enemies and our allies don’t ignore him, they look at the tweets,” she said.
Despite this, Kayyem still sees yesterday’s press conference as a step forward for the administration. “To a certain extent, it was the first time that leaders in the … U.S. government were signaling to Russia that they’ve been exposed," she said. "At the very least, we have statements from people who are responsible to say we are aware of this, we are targeting it, and we are hoping to fight it.”
