It seems the Democrats might be looking to push another Russia interference narrative after the 2020 election. But this time, it won’t apply only to the presidential race. With current polls showing that the Democratic Party has a decent chance of gaining control of the Senate, left-leaning lawmakers seem “concerned” that Russia could cost them the opportunity to control the executive and legislative branches. 

According to The Hill, “Senate Democrats say Russian operatives are already waging a disinformation campaign aimed at disrupting the 2020 election, and at least one senator says bots with suspected ties are waging Twitter attacks on their campaign.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, claimed that Moscow is attempting to influence the result of the election. “This is going on right now, according to the nation’s intelligence leadership,” he said. “You’ve got the intelligence leadership saying the Russians are working very hard to do in 2020 what they tried to do in 2016. That’s the biggest tell out there.”

William Evanina, the director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released a statement in August explaining that Russia “is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.’” 

Wyden insisted that the intelligence community needed to take more action to prevent a similar scenario as what happened in 2016. “I want them to put out more information, more specifics and not do what they did in 2016, which is be kind of cautious,” he said. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) echoed Wyden’s sentiments. As the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2018 midterm election cycle, he stated that he is “very concerned” about interference in both the presidential and Senate elections. 

Van Hollen indicated that Senate Democrats are planning to compel another vote on the DETER Act, which would require the director of national intelligence (DNI) to provide Congress with a report detailing any foreign interference within 60 days of the election. If the DNI concludes that the Kremlin meddled in the race, the U.S. will levy sanctions on the Russian economy within 30 days. 

The senator explained that Moscow is trying to meddle in the 2020 campaign using the same tactics that it implemented in 2016. These include hacking into Democrats’ computers to find sensitive information to leak to the public and using social media to spread misinformation. 

The F.B.I. has also learned that Russia seeks to interfere in the election as well. Bureau director Christopher Wray told members of the House Homeland Security Committee that U.S. intelligence officials “have seen very active efforts” by the Kremlin to influence the results of the 2020 elections. 

One Democratic senator, who spoke with The Hill on condition of anonymity, stated that “we have seen evidence of bots that are operating to respond to tweets that don’t represent real people.” 

He continued, claiming that Russian operatives were targeting his campaign. “So we’ve been working with a number of entities to try to shut that down to the extent that we can,” he said. 

After President Trump won the 2016 election, Democrats and their allies in the corporate press incessantly claimed that Hillary Clinton’s loss resulted from Russian interference. Not only that, but they also attempted to paint Trump as a collaborator with the Kremlin using the failed Russiagate narrative. It seems they might be gearing up to do the same in 2020.

Reports have already indicated that Russia isn’t the only foreign entity that is trying to meddle in the election. While the Kremlin seems to be set on ensuring another Trump victory, China is also sticking its fingers into the U.S.’s electoral process. Except, the country’s communist government is pushing for Biden to win. 

Of course, if the Democratic Party thinks it can push another Russiagate narrative if they lose in November, they would be utter fools to think that the American public would fall for that particular ruse. Unfortunately for them, the people have already seen that particular narrative fall apart over the past four years, and that dog won’t hunt any longer. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try, does it? 

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