Duval Times

U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) has delivered closing remarks at a hearing on foreign threats to the 2024 elections. Rubio expressed his concerns about the increasing complexity of foreign influence, predicting that it will extend beyond elections and infiltrate real-time policy debates.

"I just know that this is going to get far more complex, and I predict it won’t just be about elections, it will actually become in real-time, it already is, on policy debates that we’re having here. Should we have tariffs? Should we ban TikTok? You name it, on a weekly basis. Whatever the issue is here, I can see [foreign influence] becoming part of it, even in our daily political debates," said Senator Rubio.

Rubio further highlighted the challenges of protecting elections from professional hackers who constantly attempt to infiltrate various systems including water systems, election systems and hospital systems. He also pointed out the difficulty of combating foreign malign influence which often amplifies existing beliefs in American politics.

The senator provided examples of how different countries have attempted to manipulate U.S. politics. He mentioned Iranian officials advocating for covert social media strategies to pit extremist groups against each other and Russian attempts to undermine confidence in U.S. support for Ukraine by denigrating the Democratic Party before midterm elections.

Furthermore, Rubio addressed Cuban attempts to undermine specific U.S. congressional politicians perceived as hostile in 2022. The senator also spoke about the need for a formalized process to quickly debunk fake content such as AI-generated videos during election campaigns.

He concluded his remarks by stressing the importance of understanding and managing foreign influence as it becomes more sophisticated and widespread: "We really need to get a handle on it. It’s a tough one, but we really need to because it’s going to get far worse, far more sophisticated, with many more players."