A prominent Republican voice on foreign policy has accused the Biden administration of “covering up” Iranian threats against former President Trump, following the hacking attack on the Trump campaign.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) argued that the Biden administration was sending the wrong message to Tehran.
“This Iranian plot is ongoing, and Biden and Harris are not saying anything, and the Department of Justice is trying to cover it up, so what message does that send to Iran? They know they can continue to try to remove Trump with impunity,” Waltz, 50, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“They tried to hack Trump’s campaign — they did this week — they’re trying to kill Trump, and we know from intelligence that Iran doesn’t want Trump back,” he added.
On Saturday, the Trump campaign acknowledged that Microsoft had been the victim of a hack that it reported was carried out by Iranian actors. Microsoft did not disclose the names of the victims of the attack.
Contains multiple media POLITICO and The Washington Post He claimed to have received documents from the Trump campaign that appeared to be part of the hack.
The information sent to the news organizations included a 271-page document about Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, which appears to be a review of publicly available material on him.
The dossier, which assessed Trump’s potential vulnerabilities, was prepared by the law firm Bland Woodward, which works for several of Trump’s advisers. Politico was also sent a dossier on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was rumored to be a finalist for the vice presidential spot.
“These documents were illegally obtained from foreign sources hostile to the United States and were intended to interfere in the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout the Democratic electoral process,” campaign communications director Steven Chang said in a statement.
Walz serves on the House Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. Rumored to be a key foreign policy candidate Slot if Trump wins the 2024 election.
He highlighted alleged attempts by Iran to assassinate President Trump, including recent federal charges filed against Asif Merchant, a 46-year-old Pakistani national, in New York City for plotting the assassination.
Federal court documents do not explicitly say that Trump was the victim of the conspiracy, but Attorney General Merrick Garland later confirmed that was the case.
“There were multiple assassination plots by the Iranians. The Pakistani was recruiting women as lookouts. He was recruiting hit men and providing down payments. He was even recruiting protesters to create a distraction,” Waltz said.
“But when the Department of Justice announced the indictment, they didn’t even name Trump as a target. They downplayed it and just said he was a politician. So this wasn’t an isolated incident in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
Iran is widely believed to be seeking revenge against President Trump, who ordered the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020. The Trump administration claimed that Soleimani was “developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”
U.S. officials have long alleged that Soleimani was involved in the proliferation of improvised explosive devices that killed and injured thousands of American soldiers during the second Iraq war.
Moreover, the attack came in the context of a series of provocative actions taken by Iran in the region, including: Trump did not retaliate..
Waltz argued that it was clear why Iran wants Trump dead.
“He held them accountable. And when you layer that with how Biden and Harris have treated Iran, Iran knows they are sympathizers,” he argued.
U.S. intelligence officials said Iran was targeting President Trump through a propaganda campaign.
In 2021, the Director of National Intelligence Declassified An assessment that Iran targeted President Trump during the 2020 election.
“We assess that Iran conducted a multipronged, covert influence campaign aimed at undermining former President Trump’s reelection chances without directly supporting any rival,” the document reads. “We assess that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved this campaign.”
And last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Reiterating concerns over Iranian interference and He told reporters The committee said it had “not observed any change in Iran’s preferences” during the election. It did not elaborate on the alleged campaign against Trump.
Tehran has officially denied the allegations of election interference.
“Iran is not engaged in any objectives or activities intended to influence U.S. elections,” the Islamic Republic of Iran’s mission to the United Nations told The Washington Post earlier this month.
The Washington Post has reached out to the White House for comment.
Concerns about Trump’s safety have grown even more since a failed attempt to assassinate him last month during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which the suspect, Matthew Thomas Crooks, eventually crawled into a shed about 130 yards from Trump and fired a shot that grazed one of his ears.
The attack left one person dead and two seriously injured, and authorities are continuing to investigate the motive and security failures.
So far, investigators have publicly suggested this was a domestic incident, not a foreign attack on President Trump.
