The Note: Trump White House MIA in election meddling fight
American politics is under attack. Who, exactly, is leading the fight back?
The TAKE with Rick Klein
American politics is under attack. Who, exactly, is leading the fight back?
Last week brought news that Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office was the subject of a phishing attempt that appears to be linked to Russia. Then came Tuesday’s revelation of 32 "inauthentic" Facebook pages and accounts playing on divisive political issues.
The former attempt was thwarted by Microsoft. The latter was caught and shut down by Facebook itself.
As for the federal government? A bipartisan group of congressional chiefs of staff told reporters Tuesday that there’s not even a White House point person for lawmakers concerned with ongoing election meddling. "We need more leadership from the White House," one chief of staff said.
Administration officials are claiming to get it, and to be getting serious: "Mark my words: America will not tolerate this meddling," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday, in sentiments echoed by Vice President Mike Pence.
Their words are marked. But federal actions still don’t appear close to meeting the active threats.
The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks
President Trump tried this week to take a victory lap for reuniting families that his administration separated at the border.
At the same time, a top uniformed official testified on Capitol Hill that he warned the administration the policy of separating families would be harmful to children.
Cmdr. Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps said he raised a number of concerns to the administration.
"There is no question that separation of children from parents entails significant potential for traumatic psychological injury to the child," White said during the hearing.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, asked two questions of the administration officials testifying Tuesday: "Who thinks zero tolerance has been a success?" and, "Who thinks the family separation policy has been a success?” he said. “Just raise your hand."
No one did.
Not the representative from the Department of Homeland Security, or from the Department of Justice, or from the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, or from Immigration and Customs Enforcement or from the Border Patrol.
The hearing in Washington came the day after a federal judge also found government officials at a Texas migrant detention facility had been giving psychotropic drugs to children without consent of their parents, in violation of child welfare laws.
The TIP with Mariam Khan
Expect to hear more about Facebook’s concerns about a nefarious political influence campaign when the Senate Intelligence Committee holds an open hearing Wednesday titled, “Foreign Influence on Social Media Platforms: Perspectives from Third-Party Social Media Expert."
The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, told reporters Tuesday he has a "pretty high-level of confidence" that Russia is behind the coordinated disinformation campaign Facebook said it discovered on its social networking site.
But the committee’s Republican chairman, Richard Burr, would not go that far.
"I’ll let Facebook be the ones to really analyze or make attribution to who was behind it, but there’s tremendous similarities with what Facebook uncovered and what we’ve seen in the past," Burr said.
Facebook, though, is being circumspect as well. Asked about Warner's assertion that Russia is involved, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, made it clear it’s not accusing any group or country.
"In this situation, we have shared our technical details with law enforcement and we believe law enforcement and the intelligence community will have a lot more data upon which they can draw, and if they want to make an attribution decision that's up to them,” Gleicher said.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"A man in this courtroom believed he was above the law." — Prosecutor Uzo Asonye in his opening statement Tuesday at Paul Manafort’s criminal trial in Alexandria, Virginia.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Wednesday's episode features ABC News' Kyra Phillips on Paul Manafort’s trial and what it means for the Mueller investigation, ABC News' Rebecca Jarvis on Facebook removing 32 pages and accounts as part of an ongoing political influence campaign, and ABC News' Conor Finnegan on why 3D-printed guns have Trump’s attention.
ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" Podcast. Rick Klein and MaryAlice Parks interview Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and American Conservative Union chair Matt Schlapp.
The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the key political moments of the day ahead. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.
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