As Nov. 5 looms, so do concerns about election worker harassment and AI-fueled distrust sown by foreign adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At home: The United States is experiencing an \u201cunprecedented\u201d and increasing level of threats against public officials at all levels. Abroad: Artificial intelligence is \u201caccelerating\u201d malign influence operations by U.S. adversaries like China, Iran and Russia before Election Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those are two sobering warnings Decision Points received from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in an exclusive interview focused on the current climate of political threats in America and foreign efforts to spread chaos heading into the last stretch of the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have of course heard about the most high-profile recent threats: the two apparent assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump, first in Butler, Pennsylvania, and then at a golf course he owns in Florida<\/a>, barely two months apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But one thing that\u2019s so striking about political threats in 2024 America is how they target officials at every level \u2013 from senior elected officials<\/a> all the way down to election workers<\/a>, who are often temporary hires or volunteers performing basic but vital tasks to get people into the voting booth or get ballots counted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the threats against election workers can be attributed to conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was rigged, a regular refrain from Trump and some of his allies<\/a>. Those lies also fueled the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in which supporters of the former president ransacked the Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump and Republicans have blamed Democrats\u2019 claim that the former president poses a threat to American democracy for the attempts on his life. The man arrested in the Florida incident<\/a> reportedly echoed the \u201cdemocracy\u201d talking point on social media<\/a>, and was also apparently exercised about the war in Ukraine and Trump ending the Iran nuclear deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco speaks during a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force on Sept. 4 in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monaco, who played a central role in launching the Justice Department\u2019s Election Threats Task Force<\/a> in 2021, tells Decision Points about receiving frequent and worrisome reports from U.S. attorneys from all around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. News recently published an opinion piece by Nevada\u2019s Democratic secretary of state, Francisco Aguilar, and his Republican counterpart in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, pleading with Americans to serve as poll workers<\/a> and help fill a staffing shortfall they described as being in the tens of thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a nod to concerns about safety, they cited efforts to beef up security at voting places and to punish those who harass or threaten poll workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These kinds of threats are a real-world concern:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently, the Justice Department has made high-profile announcements about disrupting foreign malign influence operations, including two Russia-linked schemes \u2013 one of which co-opted conservative American commentators<\/a>, another designed \u201cto covertly promote AI-generated false narratives on social media.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I asked Monaco: How is AI changing the foreign election interference game?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the Russian operation listed above, China and Iran<\/a> have turned to AI to target American audiences, Monaco says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iran has used AI-generated content and fake personas to \u201csow discord, to sow distrust, and also \u2026 to use the Gaza conflict, almost like kerosene, to foment discord and distrust, and in some instances, to masquerade as U.S. activists, to promote protests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
From Presidents to Poll Workers<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Foreign Election AI-nterference<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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