Washington Free Beacon senior editor Bill Gertz joined syndicated radio host Mark Levin on Friday to discuss his new book, iWar: War and Peace in the Information Age, and the intelligence community's new report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election released hours earlier.
The CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency concluded in the report that Russian President Vladimir Putin led a covert effort to interfere in the U.S. 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump's candidacy and damage Hillary Clinton.
"Why do you think so many people played down Russia's involvement in cyber warfare? Of course they are involved in it in a big way," Levin asked Gertz.
"It is amazing to me that there seems to be a kind of–I think it is a result of Russian influence operations. They are trying to influence," Gertz said. "One of the things in this report that came out, the headline is that Putin led this effort to try to get Trump elected and denigrate Clinton, but the real target was our democratic system. He was attacking the democratic system, trying to undermine it."
The two later discussed populist movements around the world, and Gertz detailed the differences between the United States and nationalist movements in other countries. He also elaborated on his proposal to defeat adversaries promoting disinformation.
"They don't understand the idea of rule by law, freedom, democracy, liberty. That is what the United States needs to be promoting and challenging these autocratic and communist regimes around the world," Gertz said. "This is one of the key recommendations I make in iWar. We need a new entity that is going to promote liberty and democracy and freedom and counteract lies and disinformation. It is so urgently needed."
Gertz's book, iWar, was released on Jan. 3.