Thread by @jseldin

New: House Intelligence Committee Chair @RepAdamSchiff tells @CSIS @ODNIgov report on #Election2020 shows that "several agency heads...were not candid w/the country" about election meddling

Per @RepAdamSchiff, that list includes "former Atty General Bill Barr & former director of Nat'l Intelligence John Ratcliffe, his predecessor Ric Grenell, Nat'l Security Adviser O'Brien and others"

"You had top agency heads out pushing a misleading narrative in support of the president..." per @RepAdamSchiff "...deemphasizing the threat from #Russia & suggesting or affirmatively stating a falsehood, that #China was actually the bigger threat to our election"

"That was a disservice...What's more, it leaves us unprepared" per @RepAdamSchiff

W/#Election2020 meddling, "clearly #Russia was not deterred" per @RepAdamSchiff

"It is notable hat #China was deterred" he adds "I don't know that China had a plan to do so, but nonetheless China was deterred from intervening in the way Russia had"

"What we can be assured of is this isn't going to stop" @RepAdamSchiff says of election meddling

Election meddling: "The very best defense is one we were not capable of over the last 4 years" per @RepAdamSchiff "Develop a nat'l consensus that regardless who it helps or who it hurts, both parties will condemn any kind of foreign interference &neither will seek to exploit it"

"Most destructively, the #Kremlin piggy-backed on a falsehood that the former president was pushing, that our elections were marred by massive fraud, that the system was rigged" per @RepAdamSchiff

"It must have been quite a delight for the Kremlin to realize their best propagandist in that respect was the president of the United States, Donald Trump" per @RepAdamSchiff

"There are continuing divisions in our country over the election & many millions of people believe that big falsehood about the election being stolen or rigged" per @RepAdamSchiff "And the #Russia|ns are only to happy to keep fomenting that"

Defending vs #cyber attack / #disinfo - "Depending on the severity ... we should use both defensive & offensive means" per @RepAdamSchiff

W/attacks vs infiltrate critical systems, voter reg. databases, "we should take offensive action to disrupt their technical capabilities"

#Russia-"In #Putin's world view, there are no democrats. There are only autocrats & hypocrites" alleges @RepAdamSchiff "For 4 years we had a president who played into that false equivalency, that false narrative"

"When we weaken our own democracy, we make it too easy for despots everywhere to engage in whataboutism" per @RepAdamSchiff

Schiff praises @POTUS, @SecBlinken standing up to #Putin, #China respectively

House Intelligence Committee Chairman @RepAdamSchiff says Biden administration needs to rebuild trust w/intel allies, in another shot vs Trump

"There were profound concerns among some of our allies that our former president could be trusted w/what they were sharing"

#China: "The threat is extraordinarily grave & it crosses every domain" House Intelligence Committee Chairman @RepAdamSchiff tell s#CSISLive "China is a worthy rival on every respect, on land, on sea, in the air, in space, in the cyber realm, in the diplomatic world..."

"We need to be at the top of our game" to counter #China, per @RepAdamSchiff

"#China through its technological prowess is exporting its version of digital totalitarianism to other countries" w/safer cities initiatives, he says

#Russia "is the kind of threatening actor that you see in a wounded & dying animal" per @RepAdamSchiff "It is a declining power and will lash out like a declining power"