Biden Intel Officials Warn 'Foreign Efforts' to Spread Doubts About Election

U.S. intelligence officials this week sounded the alarm about "foreign efforts to undermine America's democracy" by casting doubts on the results of the upcoming general election.

"As we approach Election Day, the intelligence community is also stressing that foreign efforts to undermine America's democracy won't end on Nov. 5," a senior intelligence official, whose name was not given by NBC News, said in a virtual briefing with reporters Tuesday.

The official added the intelligence community predicted foreign adversaries will "continue their campaigns by calling into question the validity of the election's results after the polls close," using "tactics similar to those that they are using today to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and election processes, as well as to further exacerbate divisions among Americans."

American intelligence agencies have identified Russia, China, and Cuba as the foreign adversaries looking to influence the elections by undermining or boosting certain candidates in congressional, state-level, and local races whose elections could impact those countries.

"Havana may be, as it has done in previous cycles, trying to curry favor from congressional and subnational politicians that it believes would support its preferred policies," the senior intelligence official said during the briefing.

Russia's "primary focus is on an individual candidate's stance on Ukraine and further aid to Kyiv," they added.

Iran is also seeking to influence the election by focusing on the presidential race, according to officials, while China is targeting "10s" of races and is actively working to spread derogatory materials about candidates on social media.

"Two methods they use are foreign influence firms or commercial firms, and the other is to use witting and unwitting Americans to launder narratives through authentic U.S. voices," the official said during the briefing. "Fundamentally, we assess that foreign countries calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans compared to content with clear signs of foreign propaganda and thus make their content appear to be coming from others."

Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and Cuban officials all denied  their governments were making any attempts to influence U.S. elections by covert means, NBC News reported.

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