Islamist Iranian Attempted Interference in American Elections Is Reminiscent of Russia’s Successful Interference for Donald Trump

The Islamic Republic of Iran hacked into the presidential campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump and stole information and leaked it to major American professional media outlets, which have not published the information, and attempted to hack the campaigns of Democratic President Joseph Biden and Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamla Harris, according to United States intelligence agencies. The agencies last week reported that Iran, like the Russian Federation, attempts to divide Americans and influence elections. The Trump campaign complained of the Iranian cyberattacks and stated that Americans, not foreigners, should be deciding the outcome of U.S. elections, which is right, but inconsistent with their acceptance of Russian interference on behalf of Trump, both during the Republican nomination in 2016 and the 2016 and 2020 general elections, which I have posted about. In 2016, Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee, stole information and publicized it through its cut-out, Wikileaks, during the general election campaign, which was then widely reported by the professional media, with the Trump campaign, of which it had received advanced notice, coordinating its messaging with Wikileaks’ serial publications. Trump then openly invited Russia to search for information on the Democratic presidential nominee, which it started to do within minutes. A Republican special counsel and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee both confirmed the Trump campaign’s acceptance of Russian interference that had been determined by the U.S. intelligence agencies, in addition to the overt and covert Russian interference in American politics, including election interference on Trump’s behalf in both the primary and general elections in 2016. Trump then denied Russian interference in the election on his behalf and his supporters minimized it, hiding behind the special counsel’s rejection of the use of the word collusion because it is not a criminal term and thus not relevant to his criminal investigation, despite the Trump campaign’s welcoming of Russian interference and its more than one hundred unreported contacts with Russians during the campaign and that the special counsel found there was obstruction of his criminal probe, including by Trump, for which he recommended Congress impeach him. Trump had deceived the voters by fraudulently claiming he was not trying to engage in business with Russia during the campaign. Americans should reject foreign interference in their politics, especially covert election interference by hostile, authoritarian regimes like Islamist Iran and imperialist Russia, and stand for their independence.