Retired Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers, former head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, said Sunday that Russia has the ability to upend the 2020 election but is unlikely to do so.
Mr. Rogers, who led the NSA during the 2016 election, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Russia primarily is using disinformation to polarize Americans and spread division in 2020.
“Can Russia, at this point, actually change the outcome of the election by altering votes?” CBS’ Margaret Brennan asked. “Do they have that capability?”
“So, do they have capability, yes. Is it likely, no,” Mr. Rogers said. “And we haven’t seen anything to date that would suggest that we’re certainly seeing in cyber, the same level of activity that we saw back in 2016.”
Mr. Rogers said Russia appears less interested in changing votes and more interested in focusing on voter registration rolls, machines used to cast ballots, and computer systems used to tabulate ballots.
On Election Day, Mr. Rogers said he would be looking for widespread challenges affiliated with Americans’ voter registration and not isolated incidents of problems as indicative of potential efforts by a foreign entity to manipulate the 2020 election.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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