MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace suggested on Monday to Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., that America may need to have its midterm election monitored by foreign countries.
"The threats to our elections in what, two-and-a-half weeks, are so pervasive, and they’re so dire, and they include violence – I mean do you think it’s time to ask for friends and allies to come over and help us monitor our elections?," Wallace asked.
She added, "We used to do that in other burgeoning and threatened democracies."
"I know why you’re asking what you’re asking, and you’re not wrong," Himes responded but said it was something that the United States needs to deal with "ourselves."
"No, look, this is something for us to work out ourselves. At some point the United States is going to need to collectively decide that not only are we going to oppose Russians and Chinese and North Koreans and Iranians messing around with our elections, but we’re not going to allow the Republican Party to do it either," he said.
Wallace said in addition to the threat from the GOP, there are foreign actors that pose a threat to our elections.
"We’re so focused on our own pretty splendid efforts to destroy our democracy from the Republican Party in this country that we forget there are foreign actors that represent a threat as well," she said.
Himes, who also serves on the House Intelligence Committee, suggested that foreign countries jockey for influence over American elections in different ways.
"We’ve known for a long time that our antagonists abroad, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, they have all got an interest in influencing our elections, and they do it in different ways. We know what Russia did in 2016 with the purchase of ads on social media and the creation of fake accounts," he said. "The Chinese are a little more targeted. They’re in the business of supporting legislators or candidates that they think might be more pro-China than others, and they do it in a much more subtle way than the Russians do."
MSNBC'S EX-REPUBLICAN FLACK NICOLLE WALLACE HAS HISTORY OF FAWNING OVER LIBERAL GUESTS
MSNBC'S EX-REPUBLICAN FLACK NICOLLE WALLACE HAS HISTORY OF FAWNING OVER LIBERAL GUESTS
"We’ve known for a long time that our antagonists abroad, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, they have all got an interest in influencing our elections, and they do it in different ways. We know what Russia did in 2016 with the purchase of ads on social media and the creation of fake accounts," he said. "The Chinese are a little more targeted. They’re in the business of supporting legislators or candidates that they think might be more pro-China than others, and they do it in a much more subtle way than the Russians do."
The Democratic lawmaker said he was more concerned about interference domestically than from other countries.
"When you’ve got a state like Nevada that has basically emptied their bureaucracy for counting the votes and is slowly replacing them with people who have very easy jobs, because their job is simply to install Donald Trump as president," he said. "I worry kinda more about the domestic stuff than some of what I see in the intelligence committee."
