, Columnist
Biden Declares Asymmetric Warfare on Election Meddling
It’s good that the candidate is threatening serious punishment, but for Putin it’s probably still worth the gamble.
Hey, you, stop that meddling!
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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Joe Biden is taking a stand. The Democratic presidential candidate warned that a Biden administration will inflict severe punishment, including sanctions, on any nation that meddles in the 2020 elections. This is exactly the statement we should expect presidential candidates to make, and it represents a creative effort to rebuild a deterrent against foreign interference that collapsed in 2016.
Yet it may not be enough, because the payoff for successful intervention is so high and the interest of Biden’s opponent in preventing that interference seems so low.