Under pressure from Russian election interference, Vance gives the wrong answer

If you saw and believed a viral video last week of someone in Pennsylvania tearing up ballots, I have some bad news for you: As the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency explained Friday, the video was “manufactured and amplified” by Russian actors.

If this news sounds familiar, it’s not your imagination. Days earlier, US officials exposed a smear campaign against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, which apparently also stemmed from of a propaganda channel linked to the Kremlin.

On the same day as those revelations, The Washington Post reports this about a Republican operative allegedly “working directly with Russian military intelligence to release deepfakes and spread disinformation targeting Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.”

A month earlier, federal prosecutors warned the public about this alleged Russian payments to prominent far-right media personalities.

There is a reason that U.S. intelligence agencies continue to warn the American public that Russia “a wide range of influencing efforts“focused on the American elections.

It was against this backdrop that Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and faced an important set of questions about Kremlin-linked tactics. If Axios notedthe Ohio senator largely expressed his indifference.

When asked on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” what price Russia should pay for its efforts to manipulate American voters using a fake video showing ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania, Vance said the country should not base its policies on ‘a foreign country spreading videos on social media’. media.”

Appearing on a network his running mate hysterically targeted, Vance said of Russian election interference, “I think it’s bad, but social media posts and social media videos, Margaret, you want us to go to war because the Russians made a ridiculous comment. video or paid for it?”

When Margaret Brennan reminded her guest that there are options beyond war, the senator said ridiculed the Biden administration’s sanctions on Russia.

When asked if he would at least call on Moscow to call it off, Vance said he could, but Russia would probably just do it anyway.

The same morning, the Ohioan appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and wondered whether he would describe Russia as a “enemy.” In the same interview, Kristen Welker presents asked“Under a Trump/Vance administration, can you promise here today that the US will remain a member of NATO?”

The senator replied“Of course we will fulfill our NATO obligations. But I think it’s important, Kristen, that we recognize that NATO is not just a welfare client.”

That wasn’t a definitive ‘yes’.

A day earlier, Vance appeared on a podcast and downplayed Ukraine’s geopolitical significance. In the same interview, the Republican suggested that the United States was partly to blame before the war in Ukraine, before addingreferring to our NATO allies: “I mean, look, if I was a European country, I would feel a little bit sad in some ways… Because these guys don’t even have their own country anymore. They just do what the United States tells them to do.”

As extraordinary as it is to watch Donald Trump reflect a Kremlin-friendly scriptLet’s not overlook the extent to which his running mate is doing the same.