A smear campaign aimed at Minnesota governor and Democrat Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz was initiated by Russia, according to U.S.
intelligence officials.
“The intelligence community assesses that Russian influence actors created and amplified content alleging inappropriate activity committed by the Democratic vice presidential candidate during his earlier career,” an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters at a Tuesday briefing.
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The Harris-Walz campaign was quick to respond to the report.
“Vladimir Putin wants Donald Trump to win because he knows Trump will roll over and give him anything he wants. We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections,” campaign spokesperson Morgan Vinkelstein told NPR.
The posts to X (formerly Twitter) included a video of a man who claimed to be a former student of Walz’s from his days as a high school teacher.
The man made assault allegations against Walz in the video. However, the man isn’t who he claims to be.
The Washington Post interviewed the actual former student whose name was used by the man in the video, and he said that the incident described in the video did not happen.
Nevertheless, the false allegations were shared millions of times by pro-Trump and QAnon accounts before the original post was removed.
“This video is consistent with the pattern of Russian influence actors seeking to undermine the Democratic presidential ticket by fabricating allegations against them,” the anonymous official said in the briefing. “One of their tactics they use is these staged direct-to-camera videos and trying to make them go viral.”
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