Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez wrote an open letter to his Republican counterpart calling on her to condemn the “weaponization” of stolen private data as the 2020 elections approach.
“As the leaders of our country’s two largest political parties, we have a responsibility to protect the integrity of our democratic process,” Perez said to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “That’s why I urge you to join me in condemning the weaponization of stolen private data in our electoral process.”
The letter, published Monday evening on Medium, follows the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report. The redacted report outlines efforts from Russian military intelligence services to hack into computers and obtain documents from people within the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Such documents were shared with DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, along with WikiLeaks for publication.
Perez pointed to an interview by President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Sunday in which he said “there’s nothing wrong” with a presidential campaign taking information from the Russians.
“We are now rapidly approaching Election Day 2020,” Perez said. “In this age of cyberwarfare, we owe it to the American people to make sure that the election is decided by the will of the voters, not foreign governments.”
Perez said the RNC has refused to ignore previous requests from the DNC to condemn the theft of and dissemination of private data during elections, but noted “this time can be different.”
“Under my leadership, the Democratic National Committee will not encourage the theft of private data, nor will we seek out or weaponize stolen private data for political gain,” Perez said. “And I’m calling on you to put country above party and publicly pledge that the Republican National Committee will do the same.”
“The 2016 attacks weren’t the first attempt to undermine our democracy and they won’t be the last,” Perez said. “Let’s make sure the loudest voice on Election Day is the voice of the American people.”
McDaniel has not publicly responded to Perez’s letter.
