U.S. officials say Russia smeared Tim Walz, might stoke post-vote violence
Intelligence officials see Moscow’s hand in a fake video accusing the Democratic vice-presidential candidate of abusing a student years ago.
U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday said Russians seeking to disrupt the U.S. elections created a faked video and other material smearing Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz with abuse allegations and are considering fomenting violence during and after the vote.
The faked content accused Walz of inappropriate interactions with students while a teacher and coach. The posts drew millions of views on social media, falsely tarring the Minnesota governor ahead of Nov. 5.
The officials said the Russian videos were part of the most active attempt by another country to tilt the 2024 election. They added that Russian government agencies and contractors, which generally seek to boost Republican former president Donald Trump’s campaign, are considering trying to instigate physical violence in the fraught period after voters cast their ballots.
“Some of these influence efforts are aimed at inciting violence and calling into question the validity of democracy as a political system, regardless of who wins,” a senior intelligence official told reporters in the latest of a series of background election-threat briefings. Russia is “potentially seeking to stoke threats towards poll workers, as well as amplifying protests and potentially encouraging protests to be violent,” the official added.
This was the first such briefing to raise the specter of violence, and the officials struck a tone of greater urgency in describing the disinformation challenges and their limited abilities to counteract them.
“The point of this is information is power,” the senior official said. “We’ve been trying to get as much information about these tactics, their methods and how they are manifesting out to the American people, so that they can be as informed as possible.” The Russian Embassy did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Asked for comment on the report, Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said: “America’s adversaries around the world all want four more years of weak Kamala Harris: Iran has plotted to assassinate President Trump, hacked his campaign, and sent our documents to Democrats, and Vladimir Putin endorsed Harris for President.”
The intelligence officials drew special attention to the period between Nov. 5 and the Jan. 20 inauguration of the next president, noting that several countries stoked division in 2020 and were likely to again capitalize on objections to the vote-counting, congressional ratification and other steps in the process.
“Russia, Iran and China are better prepared to exploit opportunities in the post-Election Day period, in part because of the lessons drawn from the 2020 election cycle,” the senior official said.
Some of the required post-election procedures have tight timing, a vulnerability the officials said other countries might seek to exploit. Foreign adversaries could also claim fraud based on faked evidence or exaggerated conclusions from minor occurrences.
According to a recently declassified intelligence memo released Tuesday, Russian actors have already claimed that there may be voting fraud by immigrants, something officials from both major parties have not found at scale.
The officials offered no estimation of what impact the faked content has had but said they expected further such initiatives from Russia. The State Department on Friday announced a reward of up to $10 million for information about the identities and location of employees at Russian media operation Rybar, which was founded by the late Kremlin-backed mercenary leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin. The department said the operation ran social media campaigns on X with the hashtags #StandwithTexas and #HoldtheLine, as well as the channel #TEXASvsUSA.
As for the effort aimed at Walz, one official said, “Based on newly available intelligence, the intelligence community assesses that Russian influence actors created and amplified content alleging inappropriate activity committed by the Democratic vice-presidential candidate earlier in his career.” The officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
Intelligence officials said analysts examined materials associated with the fake content about Walz over the weekend and concluded that the content was consistent with a pattern of Russian disinformation aimed at undermining the Democratic ticket.
The senior official said Russian operatives have sought to use videos in which people speak directly into a camera and make them go viral on social media.
“This type of tactic is consistent with Russian efforts we have previously noted,” the official said.
In one video, a man who identifies himself as “Matthew Metro” and claims to have been a student of Walz decades ago at a Minnesota high school speaks into the camera with fabricated allegations of abuse, officials said. Millions of people have viewed the video on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Some of the details matched the biography of the real Matthew Metro, who now lives in Hawaii and said he was not the person in the video, The Washington Post reported this week. Metro, who did attend the high school where Walz was employed, said that Walz never taught him and that the allegations in the video were false.
Intelligence officials reiterated that operatives in Russia, Iran and China have been the most active in attempting to sow disinformation related to the U.S. elections and warned that some efforts might grow more pronounced after Election Day. They said Russian influence actors could seek to use disinformation campaigns to foster doubts about the electoral outcome — especially if Trump loses — and potentially try to foment protests or violence. They warned Iran also could be active in trying to stoke violence.
Some foreign actors “will remain committed to trying to undermine American democracy, stoke societal unrest and help their preferred candidate,” the official said.
After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump claimed victory, perpetuated false claims of widespread voter fraud and encouraged supporters to challenge the election results, including in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump has not committed to accepting the outcome of this year’s election and has suggested it may not be fair.
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