https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/us/politics/russia-2020-election-trump.html
By Eric Schmitt, David E. Sanger and Maggie Haberman
The New York Times
April 24, 2019
WASHINGTON -- In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign,
she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as
homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms
of interference in the 2020 election.
President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in front of
the president.
Ms. Nielsen left the Department of Homeland Security early this month
after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions with the White House.
Officials said she had become increasingly concerned about Russia’s
continued activity in the United States during and after the 2018 midterm
elections -- ranging from its search for new techniques to divide
Americans using social media, to experiments by hackers, to rerouting
internet traffic and infiltrating power grids.
But in a meeting this year, Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff,
made it clear that Mr. Trump still equated any public discussion of malign
Russian election activity with questions about the legitimacy of his
victory. According to one senior administration official, Mr. Mulvaney
said it “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below his level.”
Even though the Department of Homeland Security has primary responsibility
for civilian cyberdefense, Ms. Nielsen eventually gave up on her effort to
organize a White House meeting of cabinet secretaries to coordinate a
strategy to protect next year’s elections.
[...]
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