The US Intelligence Community this week released an unclassified version of its report on foreign interference in the 2020 Federal elections. The investigation found no evidence of foreign attempts to manipulate vote counts or other “technical aspects” of the election. That said, there were some significant foreign efforts to influence US voters. Here’s how the influence horse race turned out.
Election influence operations: a win for Moscow.
The most extensive and arguably the most influential disinformation campaign was mounted by Russia. To call it a “win” may be a bit of an exaggeration, given the outcome of the election, but give the Russian organs style points: their influence campaign was complex, sophisticated, long prepared, and carefully thought through. And given that a major strategic objective was to exacerbate fissures and sow mistrust in American civil society with a view to weakening Russia’s biggest adversary, it seems only fair to let Moscow chalk up a W.
[…]