‘Plenty of Reasons To Be Concerned’: National Security Advisor Warns of Russian Interference in 2024 Election

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned there’s “plenty of reasons to be concerned” about potential Russian interference in the 2024 presidential election.

Sullivan made the network rounds Sunday to discuss some of the most pressing international issues currently affecting the U.S., including Russian meddling.

NBC’s Kristen Welker said, “As you know, the intelligence committee has said that in 2016 and in 2020, Russia interfered in the presidential elections. Are there concerns or even evidence that Russia is planning to interfere in the 2024 election?”

Sullivan answered, “I can’t speak to evidence today but I can tell you, of course there are concerns.” He continued:

There’s a history here in presidential elections, by the Russian Federation, by its intelligence services. And there’s plenty of reason to be concerned. And this isn’t about politics, this is about national security. It is about a foreign country, a foreign adversary, seeking to manipulate the politics and democracy of the United States of America. We will be vigilant on that, and we will engage the Congress on a bipartisan basis, because this should be above and beyond politics.

National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone told an audience in New York last month that the war in Ukraine hasn’t dampened Russia’s desire to manipulate the election’s outcome:

This is an important year for them. They are looking at this [US election] and I would anticipate, with the challenge that they have in Ukraine, this is obviously where they want make an impact.

At the same conference, FBI chief Christopher Wray added:

If anything, you could make the argument that their focus on Ukraine has increased their desire to focus on trying to shape what we [the US] look like and how we think about issues because US policy matters deeply to their utterly unprovoked and outrageous invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. intelligence concluded that Russia was able to skew public perception in the 2016 presidential race, helping Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton — a claim Trump has called a “hoax” — and that Vladimir Putin authorized Russian agents to meddle in 2020.

“Russian state and proxy actors who all serve the Kremlin’s interests worked to affect U.S. public perceptions,” according to a declassified U.S. intelligence report.

Watch the clip above via NBC News.