The Tap: Thursday, January 5, 2017
From Ballotpedia
The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.
Review of the day
The excerpts below were compiled from issue #47 of The Tap, which was published on January 7, 2017. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.
Federal
Russia & the 2016 Election
- U.S. intelligence officials testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee about potential cybersecurity threats posed by the Russian government. The hearing discussed reports that Russia sought to use cyber attacks to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee and to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta was reportedly conducted by Russian actors connected to the Russian government. Russian officials have denied any involvement in the incidents. In statements in October and December 2016, U.S. intelligence officials said that the “Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.” They added that the hacks were “intended to interfere with the U.S. election process” and that “only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.” Last month, the Obama administration imposed new sanctions on the Russian government and expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the country.
- In light of Thursday’s Senate hearing, we took a look at some of President-elect Trump’s past statements on cybersecurity-related issues in our daily briefing on the Trump White House transition. Read it here. Trump has expressed skepticism about claims made by political opponents and by the U.S. intelligence community about Russian interference in the 2016 election. In the first general election debate in September 2016, for example, when Hillary Clinton said that Russia was behind the DNC email hacks, Trump responded, “She said Russia, Russia, Russia, maybe it was. Could also be China. Could also be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.” Earlier this week, after an intelligence briefing on Russian cybersecurity threats was pushed back to Friday, Trump tweeted, “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!” Also on Twitter, Trump quoted Julian Assange, whose website Wikileaks.com published hacked emails from the DNC and Podesta. On January 4, Trump stated, “Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!”
- Key vote: The House passed H Res 11—Objecting to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 as an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace—by a vote of 342-80. In December 2016, the Obama administration declined to veto U.N. Resolution 2334, “a non-binding censure that accuses Israel of violating international law with its construction of settlements in the disputed West Bank and East Jerusalem.” The decision to abstain from the vote broke from the United States’ tradition of vetoing similar measures. The House resolution states that the U.S. “should oppose and veto future United Nations Security Council resolutions that seek to impose solutions to final status issues, or are one-sided and anti-Israel.’”
- The Obama administration announced the release of four Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which brings the total number of detainees down to 55. The detainees, who had ties to various terrorist organizations including al-Qaida and the Taliban, were transferred to Saudi Arabia. President Barack Obama promised to close the prison camp, but he was prevented from doing so by Congress. He said that he will continue to release prisoners until his final day in office. Trump called on Obama to stop transferring individuals, tweeting: "There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield."
State
North Carolina’s Board of Elections
- A three-judge panel in North Carolina ruled that changes to the state’s board of elections could not take place until a lawsuit filed by Gov. Roy Cooper (D) was resolved. Cooper filed the lawsuit in response to a law that would have disbanded the board and given its powers to the state ethics commission. Currently, the board of elections has five members, who are all appointed by the governor, with a 3-2 partisan split in favor of the governor’s party. The new law, though, would make it so that the governor and legislature are responsible for appointing four members each to the ethics commission’s eight seats, with a required 4-4 split along partisan lines. Cooper, who defeated incumbent Pat McCrory (R) in November 2016, broke the Republican trifecta in North Carolina, which had been in place since 2013.
- Control of election rules in North Carolina is particularly important this year, as it will determine who sets the schedule and rules for special legislative elections held in 2017. A court has ordered that 28 legislative districts be redrawn due to racial gerrymandering, and considerably more districts could be required to hold elections if their lines are redrawn in an effort to address those issues. Republicans currently hold a 34-16 majority in the state Senate and a 74-45 majority in the state House.
Preview of the day
There were no items for this day in issue #46 of The Tap, which was published on December 17, 2016. See the "Review of the day" tab for more information.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
