Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that Iran would “double down” its efforts to interfere with the United States’s presidential election so long as there is no resistance from the Biden administration.
The FBI confirmed Wednesday that Iranian hackers stole information from former President Donald Trump’s campaign and shared it with President Joe Biden‘s team prior to the president bowing out of the 2024 presidential race. Pompeo, who was part of the Trump administration, stated that this interference is “deeply concerning,” especially how Iran is “clearly weighing in on one side” to aid Biden.
“If the Iranians don’t feel pressure, if there’s no cost, if we don’t use American power to push back against them, that’s true when they’re trying to assassinate presidents and former officials like myself, that’s true when they are conducting terror campaigns in Gaza, and by Hezbollah in the Middle East, and it is true in interfering in our elections,” Pompeo said on Fox News’s America Reports.
“The Iranians have a full-throated effort to undermine the United States of America, and this administration, the Biden Administration, went back to the Obama policies of coddle, appease, and allow the Iranians to run over them, and sell their goods around the world. And now they’re closer to a nuclear weapon, and continuing to cast their weight in our election against President Trump,” he continued.
Pompeo added that ensuring Iran fears the U.S. is necessary as technology advances, specifically in the areas of artificial intelligence and deepfakes. He also said there is a chance of “serious interference” that could influence “tens of thousands of votes” with Iran’s use of this technology.
“The Iranians have a deep effort, and we’ve done virtually nothing to tell them ‘stop this’ and impose cost in the event that they don’t,” Pompeo said.
The emails the hackers sent to the Biden campaign “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a U.S. government statement.
The hackers have continued to send emails to media organizations concerning Trump’s campaign, and publications have refused to publish the details.
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FBI officials have stated there is no evidence that the Biden campaign solicited or responded to the emails.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign spokeswoman, responded to the news by stating it is “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election,” and that both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris need to clarify whether or not they used this information passed to them by the Iranians.