US President Donald Trump used a 25-minute prime-time address on Thursday evening to present a series of newly declassified documents that he claimed provided irrefutable evidence of Chinese interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump lost the election to Joe Biden six years ago. His decision to devote a special address to the subject underscored his effort to make election security a central political issue ahead of November’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their narrow congressional majorities, Reuters reported.
The speech also came at a difficult moment for the president, whose approval ratings have been weighed down by the unpopular war in Iran and high energy prices.
Trump briefly referred to the fighting at the outset, saying that the US was “winning big”. After listing domestic achievements, including tax cuts and his immigration crackdown, he turned to his claims about the 2020 election.
Stolen Voter Data or Public Records?
Trump said the declassified material would reveal “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure”. He claimed that China had illegally obtained 220 million US voter files containing names, addresses and other personal information.
He also accused members of the US intelligence community of deliberately concealing and suppressing information about the extent of Chinese cyber activity.
Previous intelligence assessments, however, directly contradict his allegations. An unclassified US intelligence report from 2021 found no evidence that any foreign actor had attempted or succeeded in altering “any technical aspect” of the 2020 presidential election, including voter registrations, ballots, tabulations or results.
The assessment was conducted under John Ratcliffe, then Trump’s director of national intelligence and now his CIA director.
Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the information obtained by China was not confidential. Voter files are publicly available and routinely purchased by political consultants for research and campaigning. The data itself cannot be used to manipulate the voting process.
Before the address, some White House officials also expressed concern that releasing the material could give a misleading impression of China’s activities.
Documents That Undermine Trump’s Case
A closer examination of the files presented by Trump suggests that many have little connection to the security of US elections.
One CIA report, prepared only last month, concerned Venezuela’s election rather than the US electoral system.
Another document stated: “We assess that vote tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to compromise election results.” The finding appears to contradict Trump’s description of the system as highly vulnerable.
A third CIA document detailed attempts by Chinese spies to target Biden’s campaign but also stated that Beijing “does not currently intend to covertly interfere to try to sway the outcome of the election”.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sharply criticized the president’s remarks.
“Trump’s shocking ‘bombshells’ about China are totally bogus”, he said. “The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election.”
Pressure for Tougher Voting Rules
Trump also used the address to renew pressure on Republican lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act.
The legislation would require photo identification to vote and proof of US citizenship to register, while significantly restricting mail-in voting.
Trump claimed that his administration had uncovered more than 275,000 non-citizens registered to vote in four states. It was unclear, however, how many had actually cast ballots.
Systems designed to verify citizenship have previously misidentified naturalized US citizens as non-citizens. Studies have also found that voting by non-citizens is exceedingly rare and that electoral fraud in the US is uncommon overall.
The bill has passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives several times by a simple majority but faces strong opposition from Democrats in the Senate. It does not have the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
Democrats and voting-rights activists argue that the measure is intended not to protect the electoral system but to suppress legitimate votes, particularly among minorities and low-income groups.
Major Networks Show Little Interest
Trump’s rhetoric comes at a sensitive moment for international diplomacy. Relations between Washington and Beijing have only recently stabilized following last year’s costly trade war, while Trump hopes to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in September to discuss improving trade ties.
Beijing has strongly rejected allegations of interference. Before the address, Liu Chang, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said: “China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.”
Two of the three major US broadcast networks and CNN declined to air the speech on their primary platforms, denying it the kind of coverage generally reserved for presidential addresses on matters of major national importance.
Some Republican leaders have privately urged Trump to focus instead on the issues of greatest concern to voters, particularly the high cost of living.
The president's claims nevertheless retain broad support among rank-and-file Republicans. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that 63% of Republicans believed the 2020 election had been stolen, a figure that has remained largely unchanged despite the absence of evidence.
Democrats need to gain only three Republican-held seats to win control of the 435-seat House of Representatives. Their prospects in the 100-seat Senate are more difficult, with several decisive races taking place in Republican-leaning states.
(Reuters, Max)