In the News
On March 1, 2018, Senator Warner delivered the keynote address at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's launch of the Global Russia Project. Video of the speech and text of Senator Warner's remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Historic Context
After the Berlin Wall fell, the United States reached out to the “new Russia” under Yeltsin and attempted to bring it into the western community of nations. We, perhaps naively, assumed that Russia’s eventual integration into institutions like the G7 and the EU was both natural and inevitable. Many of us imagined that, after the failure of communism, the allure and the success of western, free-market democracy would attract and breed success further east. At the same time, we watched as Russia’s conventional military capabilities atrophied and its economy stagnated, and concluded that the Russian threat was reduced. Facing this changed world, we declared victory in the Cold War, and moved on.
We turned our focus from superpower rivalry to counterterrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the challenges emanating from failed states. We worked to track, chase and kill terrorists around the world. This was a logical and understandable transformation, given the 9/11 attack, and other threats to our security posed by failing states. However, there was a cost to these decisions – and we took our eyes off the re-emerging threat posed by Russia.
What we did not imagine at the time – and perhaps we should have – was the resentment many Russians felt at the economic uncertainties of the free market… the chaos and inflation that wiped out life savings… the corruption of a small clique of oligarchs… and the loss of the Soviet Union’s superpower status.
These feelings fed directly into ordinary Russians’ desire for stability and their disenchantment with the Russian experiment with democracy, ultimately entrenching President Putin’s authority.
Meanwhile, Putin continued to nurse a grudge against the West. He called the demise of the Soviet Union the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” He used his growing control of television, the press, film, and popular culture to stoke and encourage Russian disillusionment.
Putin relied on these powers to boost his standing with the Russian public and breed a new Russian nationalism. And he began an ambitious program of rearmament – all with the aim of challenging the United States and the global order.
So while our gaze shifted away from Russia – which we began to write off as a “regional power” – Russia never really lost focus on us. Its geo-strategic aim remained squarely targeted on the western liberal order, and more specifically, on what its KGB-trained leadership still views as the “Main Enemy” – the United States.
So Russia diligently honed and updated its toolkit for a different kind of Great Power rivalry. They couldn’t match us in the old Cold War paradigm, so Russia needed a strategy that would allow them to compete with us on the new emerging battlefield. Russia’s Chief of General Staff, General Valéry Gerasimov, gave Putin exactly what he needed.
Gerasimov and Hybrid War
General Gerasimov outlined a new security doctrine for the Kremlin – one that was more suited to the type of fight they could win, and one that could bring Russia back on par with the West.
He recognized a “blurring” of the lines between war and peace in the 21st century. He emphasized “non-military means” … “informational conflict” … and measures of a “concealed character.” Gerasimov outlined a vision for Russia’s military doctrine that relies not just on the conventional military, but on asymmetric means.
In Gerasimov’s vision, hacking, cyberattacks, information warfare, and propaganda would be the weapons of choice. He painted a vivid picture of a fight in the shadows – a type of “hybrid warfare.” It is a fight the Kremlin is intent on winning.
Putin quickly went to work implementing the doctrine across the border in Ukraine, employing “little green men” and information warfare to create a state of perpetual chaos and instability. He also targeted Estonia and Georgia, and continued to invest in the types of deniable, asymmetric tools that would help him overcome the West’s more traditional advantages. He has now aimed those weapons directly at the United States, and we are inadequately prepared to defend ourselves.
Today’s Asymmetric Weapons
In recent months, Senator Cardin and the Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delivered an extremely well researched report on Russia’s asymmetric assault on European democracies. They outline a comprehensive array of weapons in the Kremlin toolkit, including the use of organized crime, corruption, energy security, and even the Russian Orthodox Church to increase Russian influence. We don’t have time to get into all of those today, but I recommend that everyone read Senator Cardin’s excellent report.
What I do want to address today are the three main avenues of attack that Russia employed during the 2016 election: the targeting of election infrastructure; the hacking and weaponized leaks; and information warfare. The Senate Intelligence Committee – on a bipartisan basis – is intently focused on each of these three areas.
First, the beauty and curse of our voting system is that it is fragmented and decentralized. But that thought is less comforting than it might seem, since non-national elections can often come down to a few hundred votes, and even Presidential elections can be decided by a few thousand votes in one swing county in one battleground state.
And even the threat of potential Russian incursions is enough to undermine public confidence in our electoral process. The Russians have tremendous cyber capacities, and we still have much work to do to ensure that our elections infrastructure can withstand anything the Russians or others might try.
Second, the Kremlin has gone to great lengths to foster one of the most permissive environments for malicious cyber activity in the world today, including hacking and weaponized leaks. While Putin maintains some of the most prolific state-sponsored cyber capabilities, much of his active measures have not been state-led.
The Kremlin is able to employ, co-opt, and at times, compel assistance from a detached corps of non-governmental hackers that Russia has nurtured, and now harbors from international law enforcement.\
Rather than being always government-employed and taking direction top-down, these hackers are generally free to engage in criminal activity and money-making endeavors around the globe… as long as they keep their activities focused away from the private accounts of Russian oligarchs.
When it suits them, Putin and his cronies are able to utilize these capabilities to further their own active measures campaigns, while allowing the Kremlin to deny any involvement. Putin himself has trolled us here in the states by denying meddling during the U.S. election, but allowing for the possibility that, quote, “Russian patriotic hackers” may have done something.
Hacking is obviously not unique to the Kremlin; however, weaponizing leaks from those hacks is a growing part of the Russian playbook.
The truth is, we should have seen this coming a lot sooner. Recall in 2014, when a bugged phone conversation between then-Assistant Secretary of State Toria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine made its way onto YouTube, where it caused a diplomatic uproar. In retrospect, we should have seen this incident as a test-run for the types of attacks and leaks we saw during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
Third, the Kremlin is also making an unprecedented investment in 21st century information warfare.
During the Cold War, the Soviets tried to spread “fake news” that the U.S. government was involved in Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and that the American military had manufactured the AIDS virus. Much like today, their aim was to undermine Americans’ faith in democratic government.
But the widespread use of social media has allowed Russia to super-charge its disinformation efforts. Before, the KGB had to go through the tedious, time-consuming process of starting a newspaper in a neutral country, or crafting a dubious forgery that would ultimately be seen by a very small audience.
Now they have instantaneous access to hundreds of millions of social media accounts where propaganda and fake news can spread like wildfire. While we all recognize the power and value of social media platforms, from the viewpoint of a hostile intelligence organization, they are nearly ideal vehicles for information warfare.
The rise of new platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has reshaped our entire culture, and the ways we communicate and access information. But while we marveled at the new opportunities offered by this technology, our government and the companies themselves were slow to appreciate the ramifications of offering free and almost instantaneous access to millions and millions of Americans, and the degree to which these platforms could be abused.
Tracking the impact of Russian disinformation is inherently difficult. One 2011 Russian operations manual suggests that disinformation “acts like an invisible radiation,” silently and covertly pushing you in the direction that the Kremlin wants. But you don’t even know you are being attacked.
That’s how the Russians were able to target and co-opt unwitting Americans into spreading their content online. They even succeeded in transferring these efforts from Facebook into the real world – at one point, spurring a pair of dueling rallies at an Islamic center in Houston. The Russians succeeded in pitting Americans against Americans from a troll factory half a world away.
The Threat Continues and Expands
These active measures have two things in common: They are effective, and they are cheap.
We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on national security, and in this arena, we’re on our heels. The Kremlin is spending pennies on the dollar, and wreaking havoc.
Worse still, they haven’t stopped. The fact is, this threat did not go away on Election Day. Russian operatives remain active today, stoking hate and discord online.
We saw Russian-linked accounts pushing hashtags on both sides of the NFL national anthem debate. We’ve seen them attack the President’s National Security Advisor. We saw them push the “Release The Memo” controversy. More recent reports suggest that they were even stoking anger on both sides of the gun debate after the Parkland shooting.
And now that this playbook is out in the open, we have to worry about more than just the Russians. These tools can be used by other actors across the board – China, non-state actors, and terrorists.
What Can We Do?
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers in this space – no single counter-measure that will stop this wave of attacks from Russia.
As the premise of Carnegie’s Global Russia Project notes, Russia seeks to take advantage where it can to amplify internal divisions. It is focused on boosting cynicism and tearing down Western institutions from the inside.
In response, we need to start right here at home. We need to recognize the threat, expose Putin’s game-plan and inoculate our society against these efforts.
In order to do that, we need to understand the Russian playbook and deliver a thorough accounting of what they did in 2016. This is why our Committee investigation, as well as the Mueller inquiry, is so critical. We have to get to the bottom of what happened, and we need to do so in a bipartisan way. Politicization will only undermine the American public’s understanding of the threat.
The question of whether any Americans knew about or assisted Russian efforts in 2016 is vital. However, it is only one part of the important work our committee is doing. This is not about Democrats or Republicans – this is about defending Americans and our institutions from a foreign attack.
Next, we have to recognize that we have much work to do to strengthen our security against these asymmetric threats. Our strategies and our resources have not shifted aggressively enough to target these new threats in cyberspace and on social media.
Russia spends about $70 billion a year on their military. We spend ten times that. But we’re spending it mostly on weapons designed to win wars that take place in the air, on land, and at sea. And while we need to have these conventional capabilities, we must also expand our toolkit so that we can win on all the battlefields of the 21st century. Until we do that, Russia is going to continue getting a lot more bang for its security buck.
No one questions that America possesses superior technological capability. But ironically, our technological dependence makes us more vulnerable on the asymmetrical battlefield where Russia attacks us.
We must spell out a deterrence doctrine, so that our adversaries don’t see cyberattacks against us as a “free lunch.” The U.S. has often done too little to respond to cyberattacks against us or our allies. When we do respond, it has often been done quietly, and on a one-off basis. That has clearly not been enough to deter our adversaries.
We need to make clear to Russia and other nations, that if you go after us using cyberweapons or disinformation, we’re going to call you out, and we’re going to punch back.
We need to more quickly attribute cyber-attacks. And we need to increase their costs with robust sanctions and other tools. That should include the sanctions against Russia passed overwhelmingly by Congress, but which the President has refused to implement.
The sad truth is, we are handicapped in our response by a lack of Presidential leadership. We need a president who recognizes this problem, not one who sees any discussion of Russian election interference as an affront. We need a president who will lead not just a whole-of-government effort, but a whole-of-society effort, to protect our institutions. We need someone who will unite our country against this threat.
We can’t let Putin and his allies succeed. We have to – as a nation – learn how to fight back and shine a light on this shadow conflict. We have to get our act together here at home. Otherwise, we’ll still be shooting blindly into the shadows.
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To the editor:
Virginia’s Main Street banks play a vital role in ensuring a vibrant economy, providing the necessary capital for building homes, businesses and schools. As leaders in our communities, banks have invested in financial education, community revitalization and philanthropic programs.
The pendulum has swung too far, and it’s time to right-size regulation in a more tailored approach.
U.S. Senate Bill 2155 — the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act — is a carefully crafted bipartisan bill that makes commonsense improvements to the nation’s financial rules. It allows Main Street banks to better serve their customers and communities by opening doors for more creditworthy borrowers and businesses. It strikes the right balance between ensuring fundamental standards while offering flexibility to meet the specific needs of Virginians.
I want to thank Virginia’s U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, for cosponsoring S. 2155. These sensible regulatory changes will help banks like ours continue to serve our communities and make it easier to help our neighbors purchase a home or expand their business.
With frequent gridlock in Washington, this bipartisan legislation is a shining example of how our elected leaders can advance solutions by working together and across the aisle.
JEFFREY V. HALEY
President and Chief Executive Officer
American National Bank
By Rick Finley For The Virginian-Pilot
RURAL VIRGINIA is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession. Eighty-five of Virginia’s 133 counties and cities have shed jobs since 2007. Our state’s southern and western regions are facing particularly dim economic prospects. Nearly half of their residents rated the economy as “poor” or “not so good” in a recent Washington Post poll.
Well-intentioned but overly restrictive regulations on financial institutions deserve some of the blame. Federal officials put these measures in place after the financial crisis to protect Americans from Wall Street’s predatory behavior. But the rules have hobbled many of the credit unions and community banks that are so vital to small towns and medium-size cities across Virginia.
Thankfully, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are working to advance a bill that seeks to ease this regulatory burden. It’s one of the most bipartisan pieces of legislation we’ve seen in a long time, and if it becomes law, it will help rejuvenate communities throughout Virginia that the economic recovery has left behind.
Big banks helped cause the 2008 financial crisis. For years, they pushed mortgage loans onto customers who were unlikely to be able to pay them back. The banks packaged these loans and sold them to investors. When people failed to keep up with their payments, a chain reaction of defaults followed — one that nearly broke the global financial system.
To prevent risky lending practices from ever again wrecking the economy, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. Regulators subsequently wrote thousands of pages of rules fleshing out and clarifying the law’s provisions.
As leaders from both parties now acknowledge, Dodd-Frank’s central flaw is its indiscriminate treatment of all lenders — including the credit unions and community banks that had virtually nothing to do with the 2008 crisis. The burden of complying with these complicated rules has hamstrung Virginia’s smaller financial institutions and diminished their ability to help communities bounce back from the Great Recession.
Take the regulation that requires lenders to stringently evaluate a borrower’s ability to repay a mortgage. This mandate makes sense for large banks with a history of giving loans to borrowers with questionable prospects for repaying them.
But it makes little sense for credit unions, which are small, member-owned institutions. Credit union members put their own money at risk when they make loans. So they have a strong incentive to lend responsibly.
Further, since only members can borrow from credit unions, they tend to know far more about their borrowers than a larger bank does. This knowledge allows them to make sensible lending decisions without the need for onerous federal oversight.
Dodd-Frank’s regulations cost Virginia’s 140 credit unions $478 million a year — and another $144 million in lost revenue. Not only is that a direct cost borne by Virginia’s 2.6 million credit union member-owners, but it’s also money that can’t be lent out to small businesses looking to hire more workers or families hoping to purchase homes.
The bill championed by Kaine and Warner — SB 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act — would undo much of this damage.
For starters, it would exempt small financial institutions that don’t make many mortgages from rules requiring them to disclose all sorts of information on those mortgages. Collecting and reporting that data can be very expensive and time-consuming — and thus raise the cost of credit for consumers.
The act also would allow credit unions to classify loans made to small-scale landlords purchasing one- to four-unit properties as real estate loans, rather than business loans. That distinction matters because credit unions can only lend a certain percentage of their assets to businesses.
This change could free up an estimated $4 billion for credit unions to lend to small businesses across the country. It would also put credit unions on equal regulatory footing with banks — and thus increase competition, to the benefit of consumers.
Common-sense regulatory reform for credit unions and community banks would inject new life into communities all over Virginia. It’s time for the rest of the Senate to join Kaine and Warner and hold Wall Street accountable without hindering small financial institutions.
Rick Finley is CEO of WJC Federal Credit Union in Damascus.
Editorial Board Published 5:25 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018 | Updated 6:17 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018
From an early age, schoolchildren in Virginia learn about the native people of this land and the history of interactions between the tribes and colonists.
“When the first English settlers founded Jamestown in 1607, the Monacan lived above the falls of the James River.” This and many other facts are recited to our kids, and they mostly learn them to pass SOL tests or spur projects in social studies.
But behind our school history textbooks’ version of facts lie many real-life truths. Tribal people have been treated shamefully for centuries in Virginia. In the old days, they widely faced rape, murder, deceit, family separation, disease and land theft. In recent decades, discrimination and disadvantage have still pursued some in their communities.
Across America, this of course is not unique. No consistent and public response to these injustices, that is sympathetic and educated and progressive, has ever taken hold.
We have to own what happens in our own state, though. So let’s be plain about Virginia’s horrific history of treatment of Native Americans. And let us dedicate our future civic progress - at least in some small way - to be intentional and inclusive of these communities. So they can share in gains our Commonwealth makes going forward.
This week, we do celebrate progress. A step. Just a small one - but one long needed.
Six tribes in Virginia have claimed their rightful federal recognition, thanks to President Donald Trump, thanks to Republican lawmakers and to some Democrats who played a key role, such as U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
This recognition for the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Nansemond and Monacan people cracks some barriers. They will now be more able to pursue advances in education, housing and health care.
Bertie Branham, a Monacan Indian, explains cookingBuy Photo
Bertie Branham, a Monacan Indian, explains cooking techniques to a group of second graders from Covington at the Monacan Indian Village at Natural Bridge in this file photo. (Photo: File/News Leader)
Trump deserves credit for signing the legislation, as does U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st District, for working on its behalf. “Today, we celebrate a decade of hard work,” Wittman said in a release Monday night. “This is an issue of respect. Federal recognition acknowledges and protects the historical and cultural identities of these tribes.”
Warner and Kaine helped get the measure approved in the Senate.
The recognition from the U.S. government has changed futures for many tribes across the country. It’s time for Virginia’s native people to share more broadly in this chance for success.
We hope for continued enlightened moves to do right by these communities.
Our View represents the opinion of our Editorial Board: Roger Watson, president; David Fritz, executive editor; and William Ramsey, news director.
By Editorial Board
In the government shutdown crisis that Congress moved to resolve on Monday, or at least put on pause, there were so-called leaders who saw an opportunity to score cheap political points. Others went AWOL from their duty to help end the standoff. And then there were some, Republican and Democrat alike, who tried to make government work.
Among the unfortunate new lows of the episode: Vice President Pence using soldiers as political props, attacking Democrats as he spoke to U.S. troops in the Middle East. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whose job of protecting the United States should be above politics, choosing to pile on instead: “Benefits for millions of illegal immigrants instead of paying Americans who put their lives at risk daily to protect ours? I don’t think so.” And, sadly, President Trump himself, approving an attack ad that accused Democrats of being “complicit” in murders committed by undocumented immigrants. All of this nastiness eroded rather than built the trust needed to end the dispute.
Then there were those who could have helped to end the standoff and failed to do so. That starts, again, with Mr. Trump, who repeatedly appeared ready to make deals before the shutdown began but backed away each time. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) also sat by, unwilling to make simple commitments that would have broken the logjam. An assurance that House leaders would allow an up-or-down vote on “dreamers” legislation would have helped unlock negotiations earlier. It also would have been the right thing to do.
By contrast, a bipartisan group of 25 senators spent the weekend talking instead of excoriating one another. This included Democrats who had voted earlier to keep the government open, such as Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), and Republicans who had voted to force the standoff, such as Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). The talks resulted in compromise; Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) ultimately promised to bring an immigration bill to an up-or-down vote in the Senate within three weeks, and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) joined most other Democrats in voting to reopen the government with that commitment in hand. Partisans on both sides could find grounds for displeasure, but the bargain was reasonable. If the deal does not result in the passage of an immigration bill, Democrats still have leverage over federal funding next month.
From here, that core group of moderate, dealmaking lawmakers should feel empowered. The broad middle in both houses of Congress should no longer wait for direction from a chaotic White House or spineless congressional leadership. They may discover that they have more in common with members of the other party also interested in competent, responsive government than they do with the ideologues in their own camp.
Because what distinguishes the senators working toward a solution, including Virginia Democrats Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, is not a lack of ideals but an interest in achieving positive change — including, most importantly, for hundreds of thousands of dreamers. These are law-abiding immigrants, brought here as small children, eager to contribute to the only country most of them have ever known. They need solutions, not political one-upmanship.
WASHINGTON — Today U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to warn of threats to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and highlight the constitutional crisis that would likely ensue if the President were to interfere in the Mueller probe. In recent weeks, a growing chorus of voices in Congress, the media, and the White House have begun pushing a coordinated narrative undermining the credibility of the Special Counsel’s investigation and the FBI itself. Sen. Warner today responded to these “troubling” signs that the President may be considering firing Mr. Mueller or top FBI/DOJ brass, pardoning potential witnesses, or otherwise interfering in Mueller’s investigation.
Sen. Warner called on Senators from both parties to “make a clear and unambiguous statement: that any attempt by this President to remove Special Counsel Mueller from his position, or to pardon key witnesses in an effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation, would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of Executive branch responsibilities and authorities.”
He continued: “These are red lines, and we simply cannot allow them to be crossed.”
Senator Warner’s remarks as prepared for delivery follow:
Mr. President –
I rise today concerned about threats to the Special Counsel’s critical investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Over the last several weeks, a growing chorus of irresponsible and reckless voices have called for President Trump to shut down Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. At first, these calls came from the fringes of our political discourse – those who would refuse to put our country and our security before base political instincts. Earlier this year, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle were right to push back on those misdirected calls and urge that the Special Counsel be allowed to do his job without interference.
However, in recent weeks, those voices seem to be growing in stridency and in volume. Just this weekend, one major news organization suggested that Special Counsel Mueller could be involved in a “coup” against this President. One senior advisor at the White House has now outrageously alleged, “The fix was in against Donald Trump from the beginning.”
These statements are reckless. They are inappropriate. And they are extremely worrying.
They are also at odds with the President’s own lawyers, who have pledged to cooperate with the Special Counsel.
Beyond being irresponsible, the seemingly coordinated nature of these claims should alarm us all – particularly since, in recent days, these baseless accusations have been repeated by several members of the House of Representatives.
I believe it is up to every member of this institution, Republican or Democrat, to make a clear and unambiguous statement: that any attempt by this President to remove Special Counsel Mueller from his position, or to pardon key witnesses in an effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation, would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of Executive branch responsibilities and authorities. These are red lines, and we simply cannot allow them to be crossed.
Let’s remember why Special Counsel Mueller was appointed in the first place – and why it remains so critical that he be permitted to finish his job, without obstruction.
Recall, last spring, we were all reeling from a series of confounding actions by this President, beginning with the firing of FBI Director Jim Comey on May 9, 2017. Mr. Comey was fired just two months after publicly revealing the FBI’s ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign, and – as we would find out later – after several attempts by this President to improperly influence Director Comey.
Try to put yourself back into those dangerous days. Director Comey’s dismissal was met with confusion and widespread condemnation. We needed a stabilizing action from our nation’s law enforcement leadership. We needed some certainty that the facts would be found and brought to light – regardless of what they were.
Eight days after Mr. Comey’s firing, Trump appointee and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to oversee the investigation into “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”
His appointment reassured Americans that there would be a full and thorough law enforcement investigation. The announcement was met with support on both sides of the aisle and received nearly universal praise. In fact, many of the same people who are attacking him today praised Mr. Mueller’s appointment just months ago.
Indeed, there is much to praise. The fact is that Robert Mueller has impeccable credentials as a man of the law. He has assembled a team that includes some of the nation’s best investigators, and he is leading this investigation with the professionalism that it deserves.
Mr. Mueller is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a lifelong Republican, appointed to his current role by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, also a Republican. In fact, all of the major players to date in this investigation – former Director Comey, current FBI Director Wray, Rosenstein, and even Attorney General Sessions, who has recused himself – are all Republicans. The charges of Democratic political bias are baseless, given the makeup of the leadership team.
In recent weeks, much has been made of some political opinions expressed by an FBI agent during the election last year. This specious line of argument conveniently ignores the fact that, as soon as Mr. Mueller learned about those comments, he immediately removed the agent in question from the investigation. If anything, this incident only adds to Mr. Mueller’s credibility as a fair and independent investigator.
Mr. President, I stand here as the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. We are in the midst of our own investigation into the Russian incursion, and I’m proud of the way Chairman Burr and our Committee members have taken on this difficult task. We’ve made tremendous progress in uncovering the facts of Russian interference in our elections. Our Committee’s work helped expose a dark underbelly of disinformation on our social media platforms. We have successfully pressed for the full accounting of Russian cyber efforts to target our state election systems. And, despite the initial denials of any Russian contacts during the election, this Committee’s efforts have helped uncover numerous and troubling high-level engagements between the Trump campaign and Russian affiliates – many of which have only been revealed in recent months.
We’ve got some work to do yet. But, this Committee has gone out of its way to ensure continued bipartisan backing for this effort, and I’m committed to seeing this through.
However, it should be very clear that our Committee cannot and will not stand as a substitute for Mr. Mueller’s investigation. As Chairman Burr and I have noted on numerous occasions, the FBI is responsible for determining any criminal activities related to this inquiry. As such, Mueller has already moved to indict two individuals and has negotiated two additional guilty pleas. This is an investigative path reserved solely for law enforcement, and it is essential that it be permitted to go on unimpeded.
The country no doubt remains severely divided on the question of the last election; however, the national security threat facing us today should demand that we rise above the partisan differences. No matter the political divide, surely each of us – and all Americans – should want to know the truth of what happened during last year’s election. And, no doubt, we all want to know as quickly as possible.
The President has long called the investigation into Russian meddling into the 2016 election a witch hunt, and he has done much to discredit the Intelligence Community’s unanimous assessment of Russian interference in our election. The failure of this White House to lead a whole-of-government approach to prevent this type of election interference in the future – either by Russia or some other adversary – defies understanding. The President’s refusal to accept the Intelligence Community’s assessment and his blatant disregard for ensuring Russia never again infiltrates our election process has been unnerving and cause for significant concern.
In recent days, the President has said he is not considering removing Special Counsel Mueller. But the President’s track record on this front is a source of concern. I’m certain many of my colleagues believed that he wouldn’t possibly fire Mr. Comey, either.
Firing Mr. Mueller or any of the top brass involved in this investigation would not only call into question this Administration’s commitment to the truth and the rule of law. It also has the potential to provoke a constitutional crisis. In the United States of America, no one is above the law. Not even the President. Congress must make clear to the President that firing the Special Counsel, or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential witnesses, is unacceptable, and would have immediate and significant consequences.
I hope my concerns are unfounded, but there are troubling signs. It is critical that we as elected officials, and as citizens, speak up against these threats now…before it is too late.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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Warner on Senate Floor: Pass the DREAM Act Now
Dec 14 2017
Opening Statement of Vice Chairman Warner from Senate Intel Open Hearing with Social Media Representatives
Nov 01 2017
As Prepared for Delivery
In this age of social media, you can’t afford to waste too much time – or too many characters – in getting the point across, so I’ll get straight to the bottom line.
Russian operatives are attempting to infiltrate and manipulate social media to hijack the national conversation and to make Americans angry, to set us against ourselves, and to undermine our democracy. They did it during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. They are still doing it now. And not one of us is doing enough to stop it.
That is why we are here today.
In many ways, this threat is not new. Russians have been conducting information warfare for decades.
But what is new is the advent of social media tools with the power to magnify propaganda and fake news on a scale that was unimaginable back in the days of the Berlin Wall. Today’s tools seem almost purpose-built for Russian disinformation techniques.
Russia’s playbook is simple, but formidable. It works like this:
- Disinformation agents set up thousands of fake accounts, groups and pages across a wide array of platforms.
- These fake accounts populate content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, and others.
- Each of these fake accounts spend months developing networks of real people to follow and like their content, boosted by tools like paid ads and automated bots. Most of their real-life followers have no idea they are caught up in this web.
- These networks are later utilized to push an array of disinformation, including stolen emails, state-led propaganda (like RT and Sputnik), fake news, and divisive content.
The goal here is to get this content into the news feeds of as many potentially receptive Americans as possible and to covertly and subtly push them in the direction the Kremlin wants them to go.
As one who deeply respects the tech industry and was involved in the tech business for twenty years, it has taken me some time to really understand this threat. Even I struggle to keep up with the language and mechanics. The difference between bots, trolls, and fake accounts. How they generate Likes, Tweets, and Shares. And how all of these players and actions are combined into an online ecosystem.
What is clear, however, is that this playbook offers a tremendous bang for the disinformation buck.
With just a small amount of money, adversaries use hackers to steal and weaponize data, trolls to craft disinformation, fake accounts to build networks, bots to drive traffic, and ads to target new audiences. They can force propaganda into the mainstream and wreak havoc on our online discourse. That’s a big return on investment.
So where do we go from here?
It will take all of us – the platform companies, the United States government, and the American people – to deal with this new and evolving threat.
The social media and innovative tools each of you have developed have changed our world for the better.
You have transformed the way we do everything from shopping for groceries to growing our small businesses. But Russia’s actions are further exposing the dark underbelly of the ecosystem you have created. And there is no doubt that their successful campaign will be replicated by other adversaries – both nation states and terrorists – that wish to do harm to democracies around the globe.
As such, each of you here today needs to commit more resources to identifying bad actors and, when possible, preventing them from abusing our social media ecosystem.
Thanks in part to pressure from this Committee, each company has uncovered some evidence of the ways Russians exploited their platforms during the 2016 election.
For Facebook, much of the attention has been focused on the paid ads Russian trolls targeted to Americans. However, these ads are just the tip of a very large iceberg. The real story is the amount of misinformation and divisive content that was pushed for free on Russian-backed pages, which then spread widely on the News Feeds of tens of millions of Americans.
According to data Facebook has provided, 120 Russian-backed Pages built a network of over [3.3] million real people.
From these now-suspended Pages, 80,000 organic unpaid posts reached an estimated 126 million real people. That is an astonishing reach from just one group in St. Petersburg. And I doubt that the so-called Internet Research Agency represents the only Russian trolls out there. Facebook has more work to do to see how deep this goes, including looking into the reach of the IRA-backed Instagram posts, which represent another 120,000 pieces of content – more Russian content on Instagram than even Facebook.
The anonymity provided by Twitter and the speed by which it shares news makes it an ideal tool to spread disinformation.
According to one study, during the 2016 campaign, junk news actually outperformed real news in some battleground states in the lead-up to Election Day.[1] Another study found that bots generated one out of every five political messages posted on Twitter over the entire presidential campaign.[2]
I’m concerned that Twitter seems to be vastly under-estimating the number of fake accounts and bots pushing disinformation. Independent researchers have estimated that up to 15% of Twitter accounts – or potentially 48 million accounts – are fake or automated.[3]
Despite evidence of significant incursion and outreach from researchers, Twitter has, to date, only uncovered a small percentage of that activity. Though, I am pleased to see, Twitter, that your number has been rising in recent weeks.
Google’s search algorithms continue to have problems in surfacing fake news or propaganda. Though we can’t necessarily attribute to the Russian effort, false stories and unsubstantiated rumors were elevated on Google Search during the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, YouTube has become RT’s go-to platform. Google has now uncovered 1100 videos associated with this campaign. Much more of your content was likely spread through other platforms.
It is not just the platforms that need to do more. The U.S. government has thus far proven incapable of adapting to meet this 21st century challenge. Unfortunately, I believe this effort is suffering, in part, because of a lack of leadership at the top. We have a President who remains unwilling to acknowledge the threat that Russia poses to our democracy. President Trump should stop actively delegitimizing American journalism and acknowledge this real threat posed by Russian propaganda.
Congress, too, must do more. We need to recognize that current law was not built to address these threats. I have partnered with Senators Klobuchar and McCain on a light-touch, legislative approach, which I hope my colleagues will review.
The Honest Ads Act is a national security bill intended to protect our elections from foreign influence.
Finally – but perhaps most importantly – the American people also need to be aware of what is happening on our news feeds. We all need to take a more discerning approach to what we are reading and sharing, and who we are connecting with online. We need to recognize that the person at the other end of that Facebook or Twitter argument may not be a real person at all.
The fact is that this Russian weapon has already proven its success and cost effectiveness.
We can be assured that other adversaries, including foreign intelligence operatives and potentially terrorist organizations, are reading their playbook and already taking action. We must act.
To our witnesses today, I hope you will detail what you saw in this last election and tell us what steps you will undertake to get ready for the next one. We welcome your participation and encourage your commitment to addressing this shared responsibility.
[1] Oxford Internet Institute (Phil Howard): “Social Media, News and Political Information During the U.S. Election: Was Polarizing Content Concentrated in Swing States?” (September 28, 2017);
[2] USC: “Social Bots Distort the 2016 U.S. Presidential election Online Discussion,” (November 2016)
[3] University of Southern California and Indiana University: “Online Human-bot Interactions: Detection, Estimation, and Characterization” (March 2017).
Boston Globe: An overdue effort on Internet ads
Oct 30 2017
As Americans have learned since the last election, Internet ads can race halfway around the world before truth-squadders are even aware of their existence, much less who paid for them. But we now know that in the 2016 campaign cycle, at least 3,000 digital ads that ran on Facebook were linked to Russia, and more than 450 Facebook profiles were tied to Russian operatives, who spent an estimated $100,000 on those ads. And that Russians also spent considerable sums for advertising on Gmail and YouTube.
That’s valuable information to have, but it is scant comfort to learn it long months after the votes were counted. This country must do better to safeguard future elections.
The Federal Election Commission, never good at acting until it has to, in part because it often finds itself in partisan gridlock, has been caught flatfooted by the outside deluge of online ads. So, too, were the social media companies themselves. Embarrassed by post-election revelations, they are now promising to do more on their own to scrutinize ads, perhaps as a way to forestall new laws or regulations. Expect them to underline their planned ad-policing efforts when executives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter testify before House and Senate intelligence committees on Wednesday. But given their past asleep-at-the-switch performances and the too-little, too-late nature of those initiatves, leaving ad oversight to them is hardly a promising course.
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Now Senators Amy Klobuchar, Mark Warner, and John McCain have stepped up with a bill that would apply the laws that govern broadcast political advertisements to the Internet ad sector.
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Specifically, paid Internet ads related to campaigns or elections would have to have clear and conspicuous disclaimers saying what entity was paying for them, the same way TV, radio, and print ads do. Further, those ads would have to include easy access to the name and street address, telephone number, or web address of the ad purchaser.
Facebook Will Disclose More on Political Ads, Similar to TV (1)
Facebook Inc. said it will start disclosing more about political ads, bringing the social network’s rules closer to what’s required of traditional mediums like television.
Amazon, Facebook and Google beef up lobbying spending
Additionally, any website with 50 million or more monthly users would be required to provide the FEC with digital copies of the ads from any entity that spends more than $500 on them and to detail the amount of spending, the audience targeted, the period during which they ran, the rates charged, the number of views generated, and the contact information of the purchaser. Those social media companies would also be required to make reasonable efforts to ensure that foreign entities weren’t buying ads on their platforms in an attempt to influence US elections.
“This would be a real step forward in providing transparency,” says Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy at Common Cause. “It is not a panacea, but it is a critical step toward updating the law.”
The hope is that the proposed law would have two effects. First, by mandating more transparency, it should make foreign agents more cautious about attempting to interfere in US elections via digital ads. Second, by requiring greater information, it should give media outlets and other interested parties a way to discern who is behind those ads.
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As the favored candidate of Russia and a man who can barely force himself to acknowledge the Russian election-interference efforts, President Trump can’t be counted on to play any kind of leading role in passing this legislation. That will be left to Congress.
The danger is that this will come to be seen as a partisan issue. It isn’t and shouldn’t be. In the 2016 election cycle, we saw a serious attack on American democracy. Efforts to prevent a second such occurrence need to be pursued with bipartisan determination.
