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During a sitdown interview with Time magazine, President Biden said China may meddle in the upcoming US election and that “all the bad guys” are rooting for former President Trump in November’s race.

In the interview, President Biden said, “There, there, there, there is evidence that meddling is going on. I’m not going to get into, I don’t think I should from an intelligence standpoint, there.” He added, “I think China would have an interest—let me put it like this—would have an interest in meddling. Everybody, all the bad guys are rooting for Trump, man. Not a joke. Think about it. Think about it.”

President Biden’s comments come shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that China was seeking to influence the upcoming elections. Secretary Blinken said, “We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible.” According to Secretary Blinken, he directly told Chinese President Xi Jinping that China’s alleged influence was “totally unacceptable.”

Digging Deeper:
Taiwanese groups had previously reported a significant disinformation campaign by Chinese actors during Taiwan’s national elections earlier this year. These tactics included using artificial intelligence to manipulate videos and distort the words of at least one US member of Congress, raising concerns about similar risks in the US election.