‘Irresponsible’ To Conflate Chinese, Russian Influence Schemes, Democrats Charge

Democratic leaders including Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York faulted the White House on Wednesday for what they called “irresponsible” lumping of dissimilar Chinese and Russian influence schemes.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Updated at 4:15 p.m ET

The White House was “irresponsible” to conflate what it called the threat to U.S. elections from China with the one demonstrated since 2016 by Russia, a group of House Democrats said on Wednesday.

The minority leaders of a number of key committees said they’ve received a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security that they said makes clear President Trump and Vice President Pence are wrongly lumping Chinese influence operations in with the better-known “active measures” waged by Russia.