Pence Slams Beijing Over Alleged Election Meddling
CURNOW: U.S. intelligence agencies said Russia was the culprit in election interference two years ago, but the U.S. Vice President Mike Pence now says China is taking that to a whole new level. He's accusing Beijing of running a divisive influence campaign ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. And the main target according to Pence is Trump voters.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The tariffs imposed by China to date specifically targeted industries and states that would play an important role in the 2018 elections. By one estimate, more than 80 percent of U.S. counties targeted by China, voted for President Trump and I in 2016. Now, China wants to turn these voters against our administration.</s>CURNOW: But Pence didn't stop there. He also slammed China for a near collision between U.S. and Chinese warships. So, Security Analyst Samantha Vinograd joins me now to talk about all of that. Sam, good to see you. You used to work in the Obama White House. What did you make of that speech?</s>SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: What I make of it is that this is not a speech about election interference. If this was about election interference, Vice President Pence would have talked about the other state-sponsored election interference attempts that had been referenced by the National Security Adviser and by the Secretary of State. We have both of those officials citing Russia, of course, China, Iran, and North Korea as having both the intent and the capability to interfere in the U.S. elections. Instead, Vice President Pence chose just to focus on China which really signals to me, Robyn, that this was a political speech. This was not about security. And it's actually really dangerous, because now, we have the Vice President of the United States telling the world that the number one election interference risk is coming from Chinese propaganda. That's ridiculous. And can lead to a gross misallocation of resources that should be spent, for example, looking at Russian covert activity, Iranian covert activity, North Korean fiber hacks, and that sort of election interference.</s>CURNOW: OK. And also, I just want to talk about the -- him conflating security issues around election security, and then the trade war and tariffs. Because if China -- it wasn't only just China who targeted Trump country, essentially. I mean, I know the Europeans were also in terms of this trade war, focussing, say, on Jack Daniels and a variety of, you know, other Trump-country-type targets, because that was the point of the trade war. So, that's again, a weird way to perhaps conflate the two. What do you think was also key, though, from a political point of view about this speech?</s>VINOGRAD: Well, that's an excellent point, Robyn, and what's key to me, is that the Vice President is trying to use politics and play politics, again, under the guise of national security. As you pointed out, the Europeans were choosing to focus on products that were really made in states and areas that were pro-Trump in the past, and it's nothing new for the Chinese to use propaganda in the United States. The South Koreans several -- a decade or so ago or two decades ago, put factories in certain states because they had political implications. This is not a new practice by countries. What is new is, again, waving the flag of election interference when in fact this is a political issue that the Vice President and the President are sensitive about.</s>CURNOW: OK. We're going to have to leave it at that. Thanks so much for joining us, Sam Vinograd.</s>VINOGRAD: Thanks.</s>CURNOW: I appreciate it. You're watching CNN. Stay with us.