DES MOINES, Iowa — National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien sat down exclusively with Local 5's Chief Political Correspondent Rachel Droze Wednesday to talk about his biggest concern this election: foreign interference.
"We have China involved in meddling with our elections, with our political process," O'Brien said. "We have Iran involved in meddling in our elections; We have Russia involved in meddling in our elections, and there are actually some other countries that I'm not going to mention today that are involved in trying to interfere with our elections."
O'Brien said it's important for Americans to double check sources for information they're reading.
"The most important that we do as Americans is we need to make sure that the information you're getting about candidates or about political issues is from a trusted source — that it's good information. Be skeptical of information that comes from overseas," said O'Brien.
He says the National Safety Council (NSC) has held over 60 meetings with senior government leaders over the past several months to ensure that they're doing everything they can as a government to make sure the election infrastructure is safe in all 50 states.
According to O'Brien, the NSC is working with every state's secretary of state to work with the FBI. This way they can track down and disrupt threats and arrest those who are involved in meddling in the election.
The Department of Homeland Security also has a massive program working with the states to make sure that all elections are free and fair.
There have been several security enhancements since the 2016 election. Many of the upgrades were made to technology such as multi-factor authentications and firewalls to detect cyber threats.
Find more information on voting in Iowa by visiting Local 5's Voter Guide.