DNC Chair: Russia’s Pro-Trump Cyber Attacks On Democrats Continued Through Election Day

On the eve of Electoral College electors gathering to vote, acting DNC Chair Donna Brazille said that the Russian hacks against the Democratic Party were even worse than previously reported.

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DONNA BRAZILE, INTERIM DNC CHAIR: Well, first of all, I’m gratified that after seven months, when it was confirmed by our side with security experts, as well as the FBI, that everyone is now taking it seriously.

This was a very intrusive process. The president’s party was hacked. Not the Democratic Party — the president — he is a Democrat. His party was hacked. The e-mails were weaponized. The release of stolen, hacked e-mails caused a lot of confusion and of course it disrupted our daily campaign life.

….

RADDATZ: President Obama also said Friday that the cyber attacks stopped after he warned Putin at an international conference in September. You’ve been briefed on the party’s computer system. Is that right? They stopped?

BRAZILE: No, they did not stop. They — they came after us absolutely every day until the end of the election. They tried to hack into our system repeatedly. We put up the very best cyber security — what I call infrastructure to stop them, but they constantly —

RADDATZ: So why do you think the president would say that?

BRAZILE: Look, I think the president is right to call for a full investigation. Every federal agency involved should be — should put everything on the table, and the Democratic Party will put everything on the table. They came after us daily. Hourly. And there were times when we thought they would penetrate us and we would have another breach, but we had a great —

Any organization that has been subjected to a serious cyber attack can verify that Brazille’s description was accurate. The attacks don’t stop. They are a combination of automated and human activity, and they are relentless.

Brazile’s claim that the attacks continued through election day suggests that the Russians weren’t only out to hack the Democratic Party for information that would help Trump. A foreign government was also attempting to disrupt a major US political party in the middle of a presidential election.

What happened during the 2016 election was the most serious cyber crime ever to be committed against democracy in the United States. It can’t be swept under the rug. The president-elect’s dismissal of the cyber attacks makes it look like he is hiding something. The point of any investigation should be to find out exactly what Donald Trump and his incoming administration do not want the public to know.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association