Thread on our bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Russia report

"At the direction of the Kremlin," Russians threatened our democracy in 2016—and that threat remains for 2020. And one issue they exploited is racial tensions in America.

America’s Achilles heel is rooted in racism, and this report confirms that Russia exploited deep racial divisions in a “strategic assault on the United States” to “sow discord” in America in the 2016 presidential election. Here's how they did it:

Russian voter suppression efforts came in three forms.
1) convincing left-leaning audiences to boycott the election
2) promoting third-party candidates
3) Attacking Hillary among left-leaning audiences

Russians' “overwhelming operational emphasis on race” exploited “hot-button” controversies and used social media to stir up outrage. They used issues like race and immigration to “pit Americans against one another and against their government.”

There’s more: “No single group of Americans was targeted by IRA operatives more than African-Americans.” They posed as Black Americans on social media to explicitly tell Black people “Don’t Vote At All” and “Our Votes Don’t Matter.”

Together with my Republican colleagues, we've now confirmed what I talked about in August 2018: Russians targeted Black voters, and we must act urgently to protect our country’s elections. This is an ongoing threat and we must be prepared.

And let’s be frank: it’s time for Trump to stop using Twitter to play into our adversaries’ hands. With every deranged tweet, he advances foreign interests by dividing Americans. Social media companies must account for the role they play in amplifying Trump's dangerous rhetoric.

I think of America as a family—and like any family, we have issues. We have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation that we need to confront.

But someone came into our house and inflamed these tensions to turn us against each other. We can't let that happen again.