Trump Dismisses the Russian Hack as Fake News and Blames China Not Russia
We begin with Trump dismissing Putin’s hack into the U.S. government’s computer systems as fake news as he excused Russia and blamed China. We speak with Sean Lyngaas, a Senior Reporter at CyberScoop who covers the Department of Homeland Security and Congress whose latest article at CyberScoop is “Biden Says He Will “Elevate” Cybersecurity as U.S. Hack Investigation Goes On.” He joins us to discuss the possibility that the cyber-espionage attack by the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, could have involved other vectors as entry points into our computer systems other than the Orion software from SolarWinds. And that having leadership that fires the heads of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and is AWOL when America is under attack, makes it difficult to get a handle on the problem, particularly when we have a Commander-in-Chief who sides with the enemy.
Q-Anon is Among Putin’s Many “Active Measures” Campaigns Against the U.S.
Then we speak with Malcolm Nance, a career counterterrorism and intelligence office with over 33 years of experience in combating radical extremism. He is the author of The Plot to Betray America: How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It and we discuss Russia’s multiple “Active Measures” offensives against the U.S. including their promotion of far-right organizations like OANN and Q-Anon, one of whose leaders Michael Flynn is urging Trump to declare martial law in the swing states he lost in order to re-run the election while Trump considers hiring the Q-Anon conspiracy lawyer Sidney Powell as a special counsel to investigate his so-called “stolen” election victory.
There is a Lot More to the Bizarre Vigilante Incident in Houston
Then finally we look further into the bizarre incident in Houston where an air-conditioning repairman was held at gunpoint by a former Houston Police Captain who believed there were 750,000 fake ballots signed by young Hispanics inside the repair man’s truck. Terry O’Rourke, Special Assistant County Attorney of Harris County in Houston, joins us to discuss how his office’s work to ensure a free and fair election and allow for safe voting during a pandemic was attacked at every turn by the same people who funded the ex-cop’s lunatic scheme in coordination with the top Republican leadership in Texas; the governor, the AG and the Texas Supreme Court.
