[00:04.860 --> 00:10.340]  Good morning, everyone. I'm Jackie Speer, a member of Congress from the 14th District
[00:10.340 --> 00:20.080]  in California, and I'm delighted to join you via this conference setting in a virtual manner
[00:20.080 --> 00:27.320]  for DEFCON's Voting Village again this year. I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am
[00:27.320 --> 00:34.860]  to this effort each year. And a special shout out to Harry Hurstey and all of you who have
[00:34.860 --> 00:43.220]  weathered many storms to make sure that the DEFCON conference and the Voting Village could
[00:43.220 --> 00:50.380]  continue to move forward. There is nothing more precious in our country than the right
[00:50.380 --> 01:01.340]  to vote. And to have it in any way manipulated is the grossest act of war. And we don't talk
[01:01.340 --> 01:09.180]  about that in terms of what Russia did in 2016, but it was for all intents and purposes
[01:10.100 --> 01:18.280]  an act of cyber warfare. So what you do is critical to maintaining our democracy. And
[01:18.280 --> 01:25.740]  I hope that all of you think of yourselves as patriots, because you are. And it is pursuing
[01:25.740 --> 01:33.080]  this patriotic duty to make sure that the right to vote remains preeminent in this country
[01:33.080 --> 01:44.220]  and that it is free from manipulation is what is truly very, very important. So the integrity
[01:44.220 --> 01:52.280]  of our election system has, I think for a number of years, been subject to the impacts
[01:52.280 --> 01:58.900]  of those who want to do damage to us. And I have been concerned about it. I've worried
[01:58.900 --> 02:05.980]  about it. I've spent time talking to Harry about it. I've actually co-sponsored conferences
[02:06.690 --> 02:13.980]  where DEFCON could come to the Capitol and make their case to the members and staff.
[02:13.980 --> 02:22.160]  And Harry has been one of the preeminent speakers on those occasions. And frankly, he scared
[02:22.160 --> 02:27.480]  the living daylights out of me the first time I talked to him, because it made me realize
[02:27.480 --> 02:41.860]  how pervious, how easy it is to have these machines be co-opted, because there isn't
[02:42.060 --> 02:49.320]  some national standard. We have always allowed states to develop their own systems, and so
[02:49.320 --> 02:55.020]  many counties have their own systems, and the number of machines and types of machines
[02:55.020 --> 03:00.820]  have varied. One thing I think we've all come to realize is the importance of a paper
[03:00.820 --> 03:09.480]  trail. Without a paper trail, the ability to act with impunity is indeed very great.
[03:09.820 --> 03:18.580]  On the issue of threats to our elections, I'm a member of the House Intelligence Committee,
[03:18.580 --> 03:26.160]  so I've spent many years now observing this particular issue, and I spend many an hour
[03:26.160 --> 03:34.560]  hearing from experts on Russia and its tactics and its interests. During the Cold War, the
[03:34.560 --> 03:43.980]  Kremlin was very interested in self-content, disrupting our relations with European countries,
[03:43.980 --> 03:52.160]  discrediting opponents of the Soviet Union. And as I describe all of these things, it
[03:52.160 --> 03:58.320]  sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? Because that is Vladimir Putin. He was a KGB operative.
[03:58.320 --> 04:07.180]  He runs the Kremlin as if he is still the head of the KGB. And all of his colleagues,
[04:07.180 --> 04:14.400]  those closest to him, the oligarchs, all were from his early days in St. Petersburg
[04:15.180 --> 04:27.040]  and in the KGB. So much of that mentality continues to infiltrate the theories and objectives
[04:27.040 --> 04:37.960]  of Russia today. So we have had some really remarkable things happen because of the digital
[04:37.960 --> 04:45.300]  connectivity that has grown over the last 20 or 30 years. Accessing government services,
[04:45.300 --> 04:53.900]  we do digitally now. Engaging in commerce is becoming more and more an e-commerce activity
[04:53.900 --> 05:02.040]  and not a retail brick-and-mortar store activity. Advancing our education is done online in
[05:02.040 --> 05:09.120]  many respects today. And in the midst of COVID, it's the only way that we are able to provide
[05:09.120 --> 05:16.720]  educational experiences for our young people. But with all of this greatness that has become
[05:16.720 --> 05:25.900]  associated with the connectivity that we have through cyber, also has come some really
[05:25.900 --> 05:34.160]  great challenges for our democracy and probably the greatest challenge in our history. Countries
[05:34.160 --> 05:43.700]  like Russia and China and even Iran now is looking at opportunities to do us harm on
[05:43.700 --> 05:53.100]  one level or another. So it's very important that we recognize that we have work to do
[05:53.100 --> 06:00.000]  in this field. No longer are our adversaries separated from us by oceans. In fact, they're
[06:00.000 --> 06:09.080]  at our doorstep virtually every day because they can. And because we have not developed
[06:09.740 --> 06:20.620]  a robust level of cyber hygiene that is important on every level of government and commerce as
[06:20.620 --> 06:29.360]  well. We do know that Russia has been very successful. The Senate Select Committee on
[06:29.360 --> 06:38.300]  Intelligence found in their report that in 2016, all 50 states, I repeat that, all 50 states
[06:38.300 --> 06:48.080]  were targeted by the Russian interests in 2016. And for example, in Illinois, Russian cyber
[06:48.080 --> 06:58.720]  actors gained enough access to the voter files in Illinois that they could delete or change
[06:58.720 --> 07:09.120]  voter data. So, I mean, you can imagine what they can do if they were able to do that in 2016.
[07:09.180 --> 07:14.900]  I'm certain that they have improved their skills and it's incumbent on us in each of our states
[07:14.900 --> 07:23.260]  to make sure that our systems are not going to be subject to those kinds of intrusions moving
[07:23.260 --> 07:32.880]  forward. In March of this year, social media companies in conjunction with Grafika were able to
[07:32.880 --> 07:40.800]  identify a Russian internet research agency activity where they had taken it one step further,
[07:40.800 --> 07:50.200]  gotten that much smarter, and were using legitimate third parties in Ghana and Nigeria to be able
[07:50.200 --> 08:00.040]  to move their messages forward. So, that particular operation used authentic and fake accounts
[08:00.040 --> 08:08.240]  to post almost exclusively on racial issues in the United States, promoting Black empowerment
[08:08.240 --> 08:16.540]  and often displaying anger towards white Americans. Their interest is to create chaos to divide
[08:16.540 --> 08:24.660]  our country and, unfortunately, much like the President does in many of his press conferences.
[08:25.460 --> 08:33.020]  And we all should be concerned about the fact that the President of the United States has not found
[08:33.020 --> 08:41.960]  it appropriate to call out Russia for putting bounties, if in fact we can believe what has been
[08:41.960 --> 08:49.660]  reported in the New York Times and other news outlets, putting bounties on U.S. service members
[08:49.660 --> 09:01.180]  by paying Taliban, by believing Russia, by believing Putin in terms of his calling out and saying,
[09:01.180 --> 09:09.060]  no, we didn't do anything, when all the evidence is so strong and all of our intelligence agencies
[09:09.060 --> 09:19.440]  with high confidence were able to say that Russia intended to and did succeed in intervening in our elections.
[09:19.440 --> 09:32.400]  You know, I'm always reminded of the experience of Paul Manafort and his sidekick Rick Gates
[09:32.400 --> 09:44.020]  who met with Konstantin Kalimnik in a cigar private club in New York City, in which Paul Manafort turned over
[09:44.020 --> 09:55.540]  to Konstantin Kalimnik, a known intelligence officer within Russia, turned over campaign polling data.
[09:56.180 --> 10:03.940]  And that should have been it. That should have been enough for all of us to realize that there was an effort
[10:03.940 --> 10:12.660]  to coordinate the campaign of then-candidate Trump and the Russian interference.
[10:12.660 --> 10:23.160]  So I think it's very important for us to recognize that Moscow hasn't gone away, that they intend to sharpen their skills
[10:23.160 --> 10:28.260]  and do whatever they can during this particular election.
[10:28.780 --> 10:40.460]  So, mail-in voting. The president, unfortunately, continues to undermine mail-in voting, which has been with us for a very long time.
[10:40.980 --> 10:47.880]  He is attempting also to suggest that we should postpone the election.
[10:47.880 --> 10:52.780]  Again, another way to distract from what's really important right now.
[10:52.780 --> 10:59.540]  There's no ability, no power by the president of the United States to postpone an election.
[10:59.540 --> 11:05.920]  It's in the Constitution. It's by statute. And the House and Senate would have to act to do that.
[11:05.920 --> 11:12.220]  And there's no interest in either the House nor the Senate to postpone the election.
[11:12.220 --> 11:18.720]  And it's important to remember that in our history, not during the Civil War, not during two world wars,
[11:18.720 --> 11:26.980]  not during the Great Depression, not during the pandemic in 1918, did we postpone the election.
[11:26.980 --> 11:31.080]  We are not going to postpone the election this year.
[11:31.080 --> 11:50.380]  So, our efforts to expand the opportunity that both the president and the first lady, Melania Trump, have voted absentee in previous years.
[11:50.380 --> 11:54.600]  And if it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for every other American as well.
[11:54.600 --> 12:03.320]  A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that two-thirds of Americans support absentee voting.
[12:03.320 --> 12:06.440]  And they think it should be available to any voter.
[12:06.500 --> 12:15.300]  And that you should not be required to have a doctor's order or request in order to have that.
[12:15.300 --> 12:24.780]  So, it is certainly our intention to make sure that vote by mail is protected during this presidential election.
[12:24.780 --> 12:27.280]  There's also been arguments about voter fraud.
[12:27.280 --> 12:37.160]  You may remember that the president created, back in 2017 and 2018, a commission to look at voter fraud.
[12:37.160 --> 12:43.120]  And then, all of a sudden, he disbanded it without much fanfare.
[12:43.120 --> 12:55.940]  But he disbanded it in part because they did not find any voter fraud of any degree that would have impacted any of our elections.
[12:55.940 --> 13:04.480]  So, I think as we defend the right for every American to vote, we've got to make sure there's proper funding.
[13:04.480 --> 13:12.660]  And the CARES Act provided about $400 million to the states to prepare for the election cycle this year.
[13:12.720 --> 13:21.080]  And the HEROES Act, which has been passed by the House but not yet by the Senate, actually provides for $3.6 billion.
[13:21.080 --> 13:27.580]  And has provisions to make sure that early voting will be able to continue.
[13:27.580 --> 13:35.700]  And that we have early voting that is available 15 days before the election.
[13:35.700 --> 13:41.120]  That there should be no excuse needed for vote by mail.
[13:41.120 --> 13:50.080]  And that we should start scanning ballots early so that there won't be the kind of wait come election day.
[13:50.080 --> 14:00.660]  So, having said all of that, let me just say also that John Lewis provided us with some great messaging.
[14:01.220 --> 14:06.560]  He said it's important to get into good trouble, necessary trouble.
[14:06.560 --> 14:13.300]  And I think of all of you in this program as being part of making good trouble.
[14:13.300 --> 14:26.180]  To make sure that we have a heightened understanding of how pervious so many of our systems can be to those that want to do harm to our country.
[14:26.180 --> 14:33.260]  And sometimes, as John Lewis also said, the only way is to get in the way.
[14:33.260 --> 14:44.320]  And I think it's important for us to get in the way of any efforts by Russia or China or Iran or any other country that wants to do us harm.
[14:44.320 --> 14:56.060]  That we make sure that they cannot get in our way of retaining this democracy and protecting it for all future generations.
[14:56.060 --> 15:00.100]  So again, thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you.
[15:00.100 --> 15:10.980]  Remember that you are true patriots. You are a new generation of founding fathers and mothers who realize how important the vote is.
[15:10.980 --> 15:19.540]  And who recognize that we have an obligation to police our own internet.
[15:19.540 --> 15:28.560]  To make sure that hostile and hate speech and misogynistic speech is not tolerated.
[15:28.560 --> 15:47.820]  And that candidates who are running are not treated in a manner of disrespect that creates an environment where there is a suppression of vote because of the hate speech or the misogynistic speech.
[15:47.820 --> 15:57.900]  So I hope all of you have a phenomenal conference. I hope you will provide us in Congress more guidance.
[15:57.900 --> 16:08.080]  We are always open to your insights and recognize full well that you have much to offer all of us in the country.
[16:08.420 --> 16:16.080]  So bless you all and congratulations again for yet another DEF CON that will enlighten all of us.
[16:16.080 --> 16:17.540]  Thank you.
[16:24.440 --> 16:28.260]  Okay, that's great. Thank you so much, Congresswoman.
[16:28.260 --> 16:35.480]  I'll take it from here and we'll get that uploaded and I'll send the link to your staff.
[16:35.540 --> 16:37.000]  Thank you so much.