The surprise White House election security briefing came at a crucial time for Republican lawmakers

FAN Editor

Thursday’s surprise White House briefing on election security efforts featured an all-star cast of top administration officials. One by one, each official laid out what his or her agency was doing to defend the 2018 midterm elections against foreign interference of the kind that marred the 2016 presidential election

The timing was significant. It occurred during the last White House press briefing before President Donald Trump departed for vacation Thursday afternoon, making it the last big, unified messaging opportunity the administration would have until after Labor Day. Trump himself had instructed his national security team to “tell the American people all we are doing to protect our elections,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told NBC News.

The efforts that were outlined Thursday, such as stepped-up cooperation between the FBI and private social media companies, are the kinds of policies that should benefit voters.

But there is another group that stands to gain from Thursday’s briefing: Republican members of Congress, especially the members seeking reelection in tough races, as they also leave Washington for their own August recesses this week.

After eight years of a Republican-controlled House, Democrats need to gain at least 23 seats in November to retake the lower chamber, and historical trends are in their favor..

To win back the House, Democrats are focused on flipping seats in Republican-leaning congressional districts, where independent and moderate GOP voters have soured on Trump. For Republicans defending seats in these crucial districts, the president is a topic they would likely rather avoid talking about.

On Capitol Hill, that can mean deftly hopping into an elevator when they see reporters approaching. But back home, where they will spend the next month campaigning, it won’t be as easy.

During an election year, members of Congress often fill up their August recess calendars with town hall events and constituent meetings, and this year is no exception. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., plans to hold 12 town halls during the August recess.

And already, Republicans at some town halls are fielding tough questions about Trump and Russia from their constituents. At a town hall hosted by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., on Wednesday, questions about special counsel Robert Mueller and about Russia dominated the evening.

Until Thursday, these lawmakers had few good answers to give their constituents about what was being done to protect U.S. elections.

Meanwhile, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll in July showed that two-thirds of Americans don’t think Trump has been tough enough on Russia. And 70 percent of respondents said they believed Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. In another recent pollfrom Quinnipiac University, 51 percent of Americans said they believed the Russian government has compromising information on Trump.

Against the backdrop of these polls and of Trump’s widely criticized performance in a joint summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July, are two more ongoing events that could weaken Trump and, by extension, the party he leads: The ongoing criminal case against Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who is on trial for fraud in Virginia; and the federal investigation into Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, in New York.

This is not the kind of news that Republican legislators are eager to answer questions about this August. But at least now, Republicans going home to swing districts to campaign have many more answers than they had at the beginning of this week.

Thursday’s briefing contained point-by-point plans for how the Trump administration is countering Russian influence efforts in the midterm elections.

From FBI Director Christopher Wray, a three-pronged strategy relies on investigations, intelligence sharing with allies, and working with tech companies to address threats in real time.

From Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen came news of the launch of a new national risk management center to coordinate public and private efforts to defend so-called “critical infrastructure,” which includes election systems.

And from National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone, assurances that the NSA is “tracking a wide range of foreign-cyber adversaries.”

The only voice missing was that of the president himself.

Since taking office, Trump has struggled to separate his anger over the investigation into whether his campaign conspired with Russian election hackers in 2016 from his mandate to confront Russia over what most Americans, and members of his administration, clearly see as an ongoing, hostile attack on the nation’s democratic systems.

Thursday’s briefing solved a problem that had been weighing on congressional Republicans as they packed up to leave Washington for the month. It provided them with real answers to tough questions about Russia they’ll likely face when they’re back home.

But even with good answers in hand, Republicans in Congress still cannot ever be completely prepared for what Trump might inject into the 2018 campaign cycle. Case in point: The war that Trump declared earlier this week against the billionaire Republican mega-donors, Charles and David Koch.

“Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn,” Trump tweeted Tuesday, after the Koch’s donor network declined to endorse a Republican senate candidate who Trump had backed in North Dakota. “They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, I’m for America First & the American Worker – a puppet for no one,” wrote the president.

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