Washington: Senior White House adviser Peter Navarro on Friday indicated that allegations of Chinese interference in the 2020 US presidential election would not automatically alter the Trump administration’s broader engagement with Beijing, saying election security and US-China policy should be treated as “separate lanes” even as he defended President Donald Trump’s push for tighter election safeguards.
In an interaction with reporters at the White House a day after Trump unveiled declassified material that he said exposed vulnerabilities in the 2020 election, Navarro asked whether the allegations against Beijing could prompt changes to US trade policy, and replied: “I think they’re separate lanes.”
“China has already, predictably, denied everything, which you would expect,” he said.
“The story, this isn’t a story about China. It’s about the American refusal at the political level to safeguard our election system, and that happened because there are nefarious actors domestically who wanted that 2020 election to go in a different way than the voters did.”
Navarro nevertheless argued that material released by the Trump administration should raise fresh concerns about China’s activities before the 2020 election.
He alleged that China had accessed voter-related data and metadata in the run-up to the election, saying such actions, if undertaken, demonstrated “mal intent in terms of what you might do with that election.”
“That should raise really deep concerns among the American people,” he said.
Navarro also claimed newly declassified documents showed divisions within the US intelligence community over whether China was attempting to influence the election.
According to Navarro, those differences were not fully conveyed to the President through intelligence briefings.
“We have revelations based on documents that have been released, that show that there was division among the intelligence community about whether or not the Chinese were influencing the election or were trying to steal the election or not,” he said.
When a reporter asked why China should not face consequences if it attempted to interfere in a US election, Navarro declined to discuss possible punitive measures.
“That’s a serious matter. It’s not what I’m going to be talking about today,” he said.
Instead, he argued that the immediate priority should be strengthening domestic election safeguards.
“I think the focus needs to be on the fact that there’s holes in our election system that can and will be exploited by bad actors, both foreign and domestic.”
Navarro used the briefing to promote President Trump’s proposed Save America Act, describing it as legislation requiring voter identification, proof of citizenship and tighter controls on absentee ballots.
“That’s why the Save America Act is critical,” he said. “It’s the most reasonable bill in the world. It’s ID check. You can bring in an ID. Check whether you’re a citizen.”
Reporters also asked whether the latest allegations against Beijing should affect Trump’s plans to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House during an expected visit later this year.
Navarro declined to weigh in.
“Above my pay grade,” he said.
He instead returned to the administration’s central message that the declassified material was intended “to help the American people understand the vulnerabilities in our election system.”
“The Save America Act is the key to saving that,” he added.
(IANS)
