Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press conference on Tuesday that Russian hackers had breached a second county’s voter databases in the 2016 election:
NEW: Following a briefing from the FBI, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis revealed Tuesday that a second county in the state was hacked during the 2016 election.
Robert Mueller’s report on interference with the election said that “at least one” Florida county had been breached.
— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) May 14, 2019
From the AP:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — After an FBI briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says Russian hackers gained access to voter databases in two Florida counties ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
DeSantis said Tuesday the hackers didn’t manipulate any data and the election results weren’t compromised.
The governor said he signed an agreement with the FBI not to disclose the names of the counties, but elections officials in those counties are aware of the intrusions.
And this has journos demanding an apology from the Washington Post’s fact checker who gave Sen. Bill Nelson 4 Pinnochios for claiming that this behavior was continuing in 2018 and that he had seen “classified” intel to back it up:
When Bill Nelson stated this, the Washington Post gave him Four Pinocchios https://t.co/I6GLij2Een https://t.co/DlEQqSZbe8
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 14, 2019
Remember – ex-Sen Bill Nelson D-FL took a lot of flak from GOP during the 2018 campaign for saying that this happened https://t.co/bhhf3DFjH1
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) May 14, 2019
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He was “hosed,” even:
Bill Nelson got hosed pic.twitter.com/NJ724khiOL
— Sam Stein (@samstein) May 14, 2019
Glenn Kessler defended his 4 Pinnochios fact check, saying it was about Nelson’s statements on the 2018 election and not the 2016 election, which we already knew about before today:
Nope. Read the fact check. Nelson was talking about 2018, not 2016. That is what he was fact checked on — that the Russians had access in 2018, on top of what they tried in 2016. DeSantis is referring to 2016, not 2018. https://t.co/bxDpv5lbLy
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 14, 2019
They don’t care:
No, he didn't. Nelson claimed the Russians were in the systems in 2018. No evidence has ever emerged to prove that. People kept mixing up 2016 and 2018. There's been little debate about 2016. https://t.co/6K4bWppFmb
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 14, 2019
We should note that one of the statement Kessler based his 4 Pinnochios ruling on is the “Russians ‘are’ in our voting systems”:
Let's clarify: Nelson said two things & refused to clarify. Nelson said @ least once that Russians "are" in our voting systems (present tense; likely not true but do we believe the FBI now?) & other times Nelson said "have penetrated" (past tense; true)https://t.co/EFKIVmFVG6
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) May 14, 2019
So, Nelson was still wrong:
Going to be some really bad Bill Nelson takes today.
But even if DeSantis wasn't talking about 2016 (he was, not 2018), there is still no real evidence Bill Nelson knew anything specific. https://t.co/Y9tjStmsXz
— Matt Dixon (@Mdixon55) May 14, 2019
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