(AFP) – US President Donald Trump will deliver a primetime address Thursday featuring major revelations about election security, the White House said, as he doubles down on his false claims that he won the 2020 vote. Trump has promised “big news” on a topic that he has revived ahead of crucial midterm elections in November in which his Republican Party could lose control of Congress.
But there is widespread skepticism about what Trump is likely to reveal, while his obsession with the election he lost to Joe Biden six years ago could turn off voters more worried about the Iran war and the economy. Several major US networks will not break into their evening broadcasts for the speech. ABC confirmed to AFP that they would not do so, while NBC and CNN were also reportedly due to skip it.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Trump would “shock” viewers in the speech airing at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Friday). “President Trump will deliver a major address to the nation on protecting the integrity of our elections, and we encourage every American to tune in,” Leavitt told reporters. She added it was “very possible” Trump would mention Iran and the economy at the start of his speech.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung called NBC and ABC “cowards” for not running the address. Democrats allege that Trump’s claims about election fraud are an effort to tilt the scale ahead of the midterms. More than 60 lawsuits by Trump and his allies produced no ruling establishing fraud capable of changing the outcome in 2020, while recounts, audits, and his own Justice Department found none.
– Third impeachment? – CBS News reported that part of Trump’s speech would touch on previously unreported allegations of Chinese meddling in US elections, including that it had compromised US voter data. It said he would also raise claims that the Central Intelligence Agency knew about the Chinese actions and failed to share the information with Trump during his first term as president.
The heads of the CIA, FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Department of Homeland Security have been invited to be present while Trump gives the speech, CBS said. The billionaire president has been pushing Congress to pass a major package of fresh voting restrictions called the SAVE America Act, but there is little appetite even in his own party. The act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote — which is already required by law in federal and state elections — and photo identification at polling places, while imposing new limits on mail-in ballots.
Trump has never accepted his election loss to Democrat Biden. Months later, he whipped up supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump could face a third impeachment trial if Democrats seize control of the House of Representatives in the midterms. He was impeached twice in his first term — including for alleged incitement of the January 6 riots. His last major televised address to the nation was on April 1, when he gave his first full public justification of the Iran war more than a month after the US-Israeli military campaign began.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
