The nation’s top official for safeguarding election infrastructure called the spread of election fraud allegations “irresponsible” after being asked about such claims by former President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk.
Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in a news conference Monday that it’s “very unfortunate and very irresponsible” for anybody in a position of influence or authority — regardless of party or politics — to “be spreading inaccurate information about our elections.”
Easterly didn’t mention anyone specifically by name. She was responding to a question about Trump and Musk spreading “baseless” claims of widespread election fraud.
“It is corrosive to our democracy,” Easterly said. “It does the work of our foreign adversaries for them, and it’s creating very real threats to election officials of both parties.”
Easterly also warned that election officials are braced for disruptions throughout Election Day and in the days that follow, adding that results are not official until they are certified by chief election officials at the state level.
“We are in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation being aggressively pedaled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” Easterly said.
Trump has already said without evidence that electoral cheating is underway. The former president has amplified unverified allegations about fraud in Pennsylvania and spread other conspiracies.
An analysis of Musk’s posts on X by Bloomberg News, from December 2011 to October 2024, found that immigration and alleged voter fraud has become, by far, his favorite and most popular policy topic online.
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