Mark Warner highlights Trumpers’ flub on claims of election interference

The Trump regime has been trying to gem up evidence that there was foreign interference in the 2020 election, which no one on that side can still concede Donald Trump lost, but the only reason they would concede that he lost, if pressed, would be to claim that there was foreign interference, so that they could use that excuse to do something funny with the 2026 midterms.

Are you there with me?

The problem that Mark Warner highlighted today in a U.S. Senate hearing was the Trumpers’ inability to file the required paperwork to back up their bullshit claims.

“For the first time since 2017, in the aftermath of Russia’s intervention in our 2016 elections, the annual threat assessment includes nothing — nothing — about adversary attempts to influence our elections. Now, I don’t believe that this omission means the threat has disappeared. It means that the intelligence community is no longer being allowed to speak honestly about it,” Warner said, as he prepared to begin questioning of Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, and FBI Director Kash Patel about the rather glaring omission in the annual threat assessment.

I mean, if you’re trying to lay the groundwork that China interfered in our 2020 election, you need to put pen to paper, right?

“Are you saying there is no foreign threat to our elections in the midterms this year?” Warner asked Gabbard, who replied:

“As I stated in the outset of my remarks, this year’s annual threat assessment matches the prioritization of threats and …”

“Please answer the question, yes or no. Is there foreign threat interference to our elections this year? Are there foreign threats that the president has laid out?” Warner interjected.

“Please allow me to answer the question, sir,” Gabbard said. “The intelligence community has been and continues to remain focused on any collection and intelligence products that show a potential foreign threat.”

That ain’t yes or no, but it was as close as Gabbard would get.

Which seems to undercut what the Trumpers have been up to of late.

What’s left of The Washington Post reported last month that MAGA activists have circulated a draft executive order encouraging Trump to declare a national emergency around the midterm elections to “deal with the threat of foreign powers accessing critical election infrastructure and interfering in U.S. elections.”

If you’re gonna do that, it would help to have the DNI and FBI in on the scheme.

Warner told Gabbard and Patel that “the failure to provide any reports or the failure to have any mention of a foreign threat assessment” would lead him to “draw the conclusion there must be no foreign threat to our elections in 2026.”

“That brings me a question that I have for both you, ma’am, and Director Patel. There are reports that in 2020, the president was preparing an executive order to potentially seize ballots or bring in federal forces. There is a published report that there is a similar EO being drafted right now about 2026, citing China. Director Patel, do you have any knowledge of that draft EO?”

Patel: “Thank you, Vice Chairman. I do not, sir.”

I like Election Year Mark Warner.