{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-statement-on-continued-russia-election-interference", "Heinrich Statement on Continued Russia Election Interference", "2024-09-05", "2024", "2024-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "NM", "Martin Heinrich", "H001046", "www.heinrich.senate.gov", "heinrich", "https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement after the U.S. Justice Department publicly announced its coordinated response to Russia\u2019s efforts to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This follows Heinrich\u2019s past work on the Committee, in which he played a key role in the investigation of Russia\u2019s efforts to interfere with prior United States presidential elections.\n\n\u201cVladimir Putin and his propaganda efforts continue to target American voters, election systems, and democratic institutions. It\u2019s a playbook we\u2019ve seen before, and we\u2019re not going back,\u201d said Heinrich. \u201cThe 2016 election made clear how important it is to get out in front of these foreign interference campaigns so we can root them out and hold Kremlin-backed bad actors accountable up front, rather than after Election Day. I commend the Justice Department\u2019s decision to quickly and decisively act to thwart these activities that directly threaten Americans\u2019 most fundamental freedom: our freedom to vote. The integrity of our democracy hinges on Americans' ability to fairly choose our own leaders.\u201d\n\nA comprehensive list of Heinrich\u2019s extensive actions to counter the unjustified aggression and malign foreign influence campaigns of Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia can be found here.\n\nAdditional Background on Heinrich\u2019s Leadership to Protect America\u2019s Democracy and Counter Russia\u2019s Malign Disinformation Campaigns:\n\nAs a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Heinrich played a key role in investigating Russia\u2019s efforts to interfere with the United States\u2019 2016 election. After the investigation concluded, Heinrich joined the Committee in releasing recommendations on election security and findings regarding Russian targeting of election infrastructure.\n\nDuring the investigation, Heinrich questioned Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey in a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing about foreign influence operations and their use of social media platforms. Heinrich has been outspoken on the need to erect barriers against unfettered foreign influence over American voters online by establishing the same transparency and disclaimers for social media ads that exist in political TV advertisements.\n\nHeinrich also worked to pass legislation to help safeguard voting systems, registration data, and ballots from theft, manipulation, and malicious computer hackers. In 2018, Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined U.S. Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in introducing the bipartisan Secure Elections Act, a bill to strengthen election cybersecurity in America. The Senators originally introduced the legislation in 2017, and worked with stakeholders to revise and strengthen the bill.\n\nIn the lead up to Russia\u2019s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Heinrich also joined the bipartisan members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in urging President Joe Biden to make sure that the United States is sharing as much intelligence as possible with Ukraine.\n\nHeinrich has also repeatedly condemned former President Donald Trump\u2019s uplifting of Kremlin propaganda and disinformation. This includes Heinrich\u2019s speech when he voted to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2020, saying, Trump was \u201cmore focused on lobbing insults and spreading Russian conspiracy theories on Twitter than he is on his intelligence briefings.\u201d\n\nHeinrich said in that floor speech: \u201cRight now, patriotic Americans working in the State Department, for our intelligence agencies, and serving in the military are defending us from grave threats. These Americans pledge to obey the orders of their commander-in-chief. They trust that their commander-in-chief's loyalty and sole focus is squarely on the best interests of the United States of America. I don't say this lightly: President Trump has betrayed that trust. He promised to put America first. Instead, he put himself first.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-statement-on-continued-russia-election-interference"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2424099259078503, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}