Swamp Stories Episode 8: The Russians Are Coming

“Now, 21st century soldiers of a different sort sit in dark rooms in far corners of the world, seeking to disrupt our elections, trying to sow division through digital warfare and disinformation campaigns. All with one goal: to weaken democracy and true self-government here and around the world.”

This week’s episode of Issue One’s “Swamp Stories” podcast covers how, over the past few years, we’ve seen foreign actors from countries like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran either attempt to or succeed in interfering in U.S. elections to disrupt our political system and divide the American people.

Listeners will hear from:

• Senator James Lankford (R-OK) about how the federal government is working with states to secure their elections, improve their ability to mitigate attacks, and how the two can join forces and respond if interference does occur.
• Tim Roemer, former ambassador to India and 9/11 commissioner, who talks about new threats to our democracy and how aggression from our foreign adversaries has changed in recent decades.
• Liz Howard, Counsel for Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, talks about her time as an election administrator in Virginia and explains measures that could help strengthen our nation’s election infrastructure.
• Nick Penniman, Issue One’s Founder and CEO, about the work our organization is doing to secure our elections.

Our elections and democratic institutions are at stake. We must work together to fight back and prevent foreign disruption in our political system.

Learn how we can do that in this week’s episode, “The Russians Are Coming.”