President Trump claimed Tuesday his administration will work to stop Russian meddling in future elections, and suggested the possibility of paper ballots as a backup for electronic voting.
"I think you have to be really watching very closely — you don't want your system of votes to be compromised in any way," Trump said during a joint news conference with the Swedish prime minister. "We won’t allow that to happen."
While critics have said the administration has not done nearly enough to confront the Russian threat, Trump said that "we are doing a deep study and coming out with some very strong suggestions on the ‘18 election" in November.
Trump has previously disputed troves of evidence that Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election. On Tuesday, he acknowledged the Russian meddling and said others may have been involved as well, but they had no influence on the outcome.
"Russians had no impact on our votes whatsoever," Trump said. "But certainly there was meddling and probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals." Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election through hacked emails and so-called "fake news." The probe includes any links between Russians and Trump's election campaign, although the president and his aides have denied any collusion.
In questioning Trump's commitment to stopping the Russians, Democrats pointed to recent testimony by National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers, who said Trump has not ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to disrupt Russian cyberthreats that may be supported by President Vladimir Putin.
"It is extraordinary, confounding and dangerous how little the Trump administration is doing about Putin’s campaign to undermine our grand democracy," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Some Republicans also have questioned Trump's strategy.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told CNN it is "troubling" that a lead agency has not been assigned to counter the Russian threat.
"The only way we’re going to get results is going to be to have an offensive capability that makes them think twice about interfering," Rounds said.
In discussing ballot security during the news conference Tuesday, Trump floated the idea of paper ballots as insurance for computerized systems.
“One of the things we're learning is it's always good — it's old-fashioned — but it's always good to have a paper backup system of voting,” Trump said. “It's called paper. Not highly complex computers, paper. A lot of states are doing that."
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