U.S. intel officials say Russia is behind attempts to smear Tim Walz

Source: NPR

Updated October 22, 2024 2:23 PM ET


Russia was behind salacious false claims against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz that circulated widely on social media last week, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

"The intelligence community assesses that Russian influence actors created and amplified content alleging inappropriate activity committed by the Democratic vice presidential candidate during his earlier career," an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday.

"Vladimir Putin wants Donald Trump to win because he knows Trump will roll over and give him anything he wants. We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections," said Morgan Finkelstein, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Last week, posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, accused Walz of wrongdoing when he was a high school teacher and football coach. That included a video purporting to show a former student making allegations against Walz, which was shared by an X account that has promoted the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory. However, the Washington Post interviewed the actual former student, who is not the man in the video and who said the alleged incident never occurred.


Read more: https://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5161376/russia-tim-walz-video-disinformation