Kremlin Rejects Trump’s Election Interference Claim

The Kremlin said Friday that it “firmly” rejects U.S. intelligence findings of Russia’s alleged efforts to interfere in American elections as President Donald Trump pushed for strict voting laws amid unsubstantiated claims of vulnerabilities in the electoral system.

In a 25-minute speech at the White House on Thursday, Trump sought to cast doubt on the integrity of the U.S. electoral process by saying it was vulnerable to manipulation and interference from foreign powers like China, Iran and Russia.

The American president announced the declassification of U.S. intelligence documents outlining the capabilities foreign governments have “to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.”

In response to the allegations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “Russia has never interfered in the domestic affairs of other countries.”

“And we expect that no one will attempt to interfere in ours,” Peskov said during a daily briefing on Friday.

Peskov said Trump was citing “unattributed, unsubstantiated information” from U.S. intelligence agencies and claimed that American investigations into Russian electoral interference allegedly found no wrongdoing.

China also rejected Trump’s claim that it had acquired data on around 220 million American voters, slamming it as “totally fabricated and a malicious smear.”

Trump’s opponents have said his address on Thursday is an attempt to sow confusion ahead of the midterms in November that could deliver a heavy loss to Republicans as the war in Iran and economic issues weigh down on the U.S. president’s approval rating.

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