Sen. Mark Warner: Russians and COVID-19 creating a ‘recipe for disaster’ for November election

Sen. Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, cautioned Wednesday about multiple factors that risk threatening November’s presidential election.

Mr. Warner, Virginia Democrat, warned that Russians and COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, may separately and together pose serious problems for the contest.

“We can assure you, the Russians and others are back, and they are trying to mess with our elections. And you add that with the COVID crisis and you have a recipe for disaster,” Mr. Warner said on MSNBC.

The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russians meddled in the 2016 election won by President Trump through an unprecedented interference campaign authorized by Moscow.

Russian hackers stole material from Democrats that was later leaked online during the 2016 race, according to the U.S. intelligence community, while a separate report issued by Mr. Warner’s committee found they also targeted election infrastructure in all 50 states.

In addition to concerns about this fall’s election facing a similar attack, some lawmakers have stressed that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will make it impossible for Americans to safely participate in the electoral process in person.

COVID-19 is transmitted from person-to-person, making it risky for people to gather in groups indoors, including at polling places. Mr. Warner is among the co-sponsors of a bill, the VoteSafe Act, proposed specifically to expand voting options in light of the continuing public health crisis, which experts believe is unlikely to subside before the fall. It faces opposition from Republicans including President Trump, however, who has repeatedly spoken out strongly against mail-in voting.

“I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election, I really do,” Mr. Trump said in an interview aired Sunday on Fox News, albeit without offering evidence to support his claim.

More recently, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate released a letter Monday indicating they believe foreign nations pose a large threat to the election’s security.

“We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November,” Democrats wrote in a letter requesting a briefing from the FBI.

The letter, which was dated July 13 but not released until this week, was signed by Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, as well as Mr. Warner and his Democratic counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee, Chairman Adam B. Schiff of California.

Democrats are hardly alone in believing foreign adversaries will meddle in November’s race. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week he is “confident” that several countries will try to have an impact on the U.S. electoral process this fall.

“I think the American people should rest assured that whether it’s threats of Chinese interference, Iranian interference, Russian interference or North Korean interference, any country, or even non-state actors who now have capabilities to try to meddle in our elections, know that this administration takes seriously its responsibility to make sure every American’s vote is counted, counted properly and that foreign influence is minimized,” said Mr. Pompeo.