Iran’s interference in elections aims to support appeaser Harris

An oppressive foreign government is exerting all its influence to promote its preferred candidate for the Presidency.

However, in 2024, this isn’t a fictional tale about Russia trying to elect Donald Trump.

Instead, it’s a deadly serious endeavor by Iran to support Kamala Harris — and eliminate Trump.

On July 12, just before the initial attempt on Trump’s life, a Pakistani individual named Asif Merchant was detained in a murder-for-hire inquiry as he was getting ready to flee the country.

Merchant, who has connections in Tehran and Karachi, is accused of trying to arrange the assassination of various former and current US officials.

While the names of these officials haven’t been revealed by prosecutors, a high-ranking law enforcement source verified to NBC News that Trump was a target on the list.

FBI director Christopher Wray stated that the plot was “planned by a Pakistani individual with strong ties to Iran and is a tactic straight from the Iranian playbook.”

Another aspect of the Iranian strategy is encouraging the murder of the former President while he plays golf:

Two years ago, Iran released an animated video depicting a remote-controlled weapon shooting Trump while on a golf course in West Palm Beach.

The video is not entirely accurate — it’s situated at Mar-a-Lago, which doesn’t have a golf course, instead of the nearby Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach, where the second individual attempting to assassinate Trump, Ryan Routh, planned his attack last month.

Merchant came to the US in April from Pakistan, having spent time in Iran, and came on the FBI’s radar.

He portrayed himself as a representative of foreign interests to the would-be assailants he sought to hire.

However, the individuals he paid $5,000 as an advance on the contract turned out to be undercover FBI agents.

There is no apparent link between Merchant and Thomas Crooks, the sniper who shot at Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The blogger Marcy Wheeler, who isn’t a Trump supporter, speculates if Merchant or intermediaries like him were involved in Routh’s plot to kill.

When he was arrested, Wheeler mentions, “Routh had six cellphones in his truck, at least two of which used different carriers, and four more cell phones in the box he left at a neighbor’s.”

According to Justice Department documents, Merchant was cautious about cell phone security, although not to the extent that Routh was.

Routh’s efforts to involve himself in Ukraine’s defense against Russia may have influenced his operational security.

In his self-published book “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” Routh also criticized Trump for ending Barack Obama’s Iran deal and openly invited Tehran to assassinate the former president: “You are free to assassinate Trump.”

The Trump campaign alleges that US intelligence had warned the candidate about “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”

“Big threats on my life by Iran,” Trump himself posted on the social media site X.

“Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again.”

Tehran’s motivation goes beyond seeking revenge on Trump for the drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander known for sponsoring terrorism.

Iran desires a return to the relaxed environment of the last Democratic administration, when Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the “Iran deal” — eased sanctions and released billions of dollars in assets to the Islamic Republic.

Despite liberal accusations of Trump being cozy with dictators, it is only with Trump’s Democratic adversaries that Iran’s cruel and corrupt regime finds solace.

The bounty placed on Trump’s head is just one of the many ways Iran is trying to influence the outcome of our election.

They’ve also provided Democrats, progressive activists, and media with information obtained through hacking the Republican campaign.

Why does this threat to our election integrity — and American lives — not receive the same attention as Russian interference?

The bias in the media against Trump isn’t the complete picture: Iran’s violent infiltration into America poses a threat to many other individuals, such as Salman Rushdie, who was injured in an assassination attempt two years ago.

While Iran’s power in the Middle East weakens as Israel targets Hezbollah and other proxies, in the US, Tehran sees an opportunity — if the right candidate wins in November.

The totalitarian state hopes that a Harris administration will be as compliant as Obama’s was, and could pressure Israel to halt its campaign against Iran’s allies.

When Americans go to the polls, they must take this foreign interference seriously — and not give Iran any satisfaction.

Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review and editor-at-large of The American Conservative.