Every US state must prepare for Russian election interference in midterms, says homeland security chief Kirstjen Nielsen

Ms Nielsen says there is 'no question' Moscow interfered in 2016

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has said every US state needs to prepare for attempts by Russia to interfere in November’s midterm elections.

Ms Nielsen said there was no question Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election. But she would not go so far as to agree with the US intelligence community’s assertion that Russia interfered in Donald Trump’s favour.

“I haven’t seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favour a particular political party,” she said in an interview with NBC’s Peter Alexander.

The interview on Thursday followed a highly controversial press conference between Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Mr Trump appeared to side with the foreign leader over his own intelligence agencies on allegations of election interference. Mr Trump reversed his comments a day later, but they had already sparked outcry and action in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he had asked two committees to hold hearings on possible Russian sanctions, in an effort to prevent meddling in the coming midterms. Mr McConnell stated unequivocally that it was clear Mr Putin had “ordered an influence campaign” in 2016.

US intelligence officials have warned that Russia will likely attempt to sway the November midterms, through both influence campaigns and cyber attacks on US voting systems.

National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said last week that Russia efforts were “persistent, they’re pervasive and they are meant to undermine America’s democracy on a daily basis”.

“The warning signs are there,” he added. “The system is blinking. And it is why I believe we are at a critical point.”

Congress recently announced $380m in funding to improve states’ election security. According to a recent survey by Politico, however, few states plan to update their voting infrastructure before November. Only 13 states said they would use the money to buy new voting machines, and at least 22 said they had no plans to replace their machines before the election at all.

In an interview on Wednesday with CBS, Mr Trump for the first time said he held Mr Putin personally responsible for the 2016 interference and said he had told him it must stop.

“I let him know we can’t have this. We’re not going to have it and that’s the way it’s going to be,” he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.