Washington — The senator. Mark Kelly said Sunday that the federal government must do its part to inform Americans about the wide range of election misinformation that is being consumed on social media platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House, to spread the information that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5.” he added. Kelly said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan“.
Kelly, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he has seen these disinformation operations target not only his home state of Arizona, but other battleground states as well.
“There is a very reasonable chance, I would say between 20 and 30 percent, that the content that you see, the comments that you see, are coming from one of these three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” Kelly said . .
CBS News
At a hearing last month by a committee on foreign threats to the 2024 election, Kelly presented screenshots of Russian-made web pages showing fabricated headlines designed to look like Fox News and the Washington Post, aimed at voters in battleground states.
“So my constituents in Arizona and others are seeking to influence the outcome of this election, and that is absolutely unconscionable,” Kelly said at the Sept. 18 hearing. “We need to do something about this.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump each have the support of 49% of Arizona voters, according to CBS News. battlefield tracker by September 30.
In another battleground state, Pennsylvania, Trump returned Saturday to hold a rally in Butler three months after assassination attempt on him. He was joined by members of his own party and billionaire Elon Musk, who said Trump was the only way to preserve democracy and warned of a final election if he did not win in November.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Kelly called the social media mogul a hypocrite.
“He’s standing next to the man who tried to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, saying this will somehow be the last election and they’re going to take away your vote” , Kelly said. “And you know, it just doesn’t pass the logic test.”
At the White House press conference on Friday, President Biden – speaking from the podium for the first time since taking office – expressed confidence in a free and fair election, but made alluding to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in his concerns about its success. a peaceful transfer of power.
“The things that Trump said and the things he said last time when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Mr. Biden said. “If you notice, I noticed that the Republican vice presidential nominee didn’t say they would accept the outcome of the election, and they didn’t even accept the outcome of the last election.”
