(AFP) – President Donald Trump on Thursday reeled off extraordinary claims of voter fraud and Chinese meddling in US elections in a speech to the nation that doubled down on his false claims to have won the 2020 election. Trump’s allegations about the “shocking vulnerabilities” in the American electoral system appeared to lay the ground for the Republican to dispute the results of November’s crucial US midterm elections. “We can never watch a stolen election again,” Trump said in the primetime address, referencing his 2020 presidential election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said he was declassifying huge amounts of intelligence data that showed, among other things, that superpower rival China had illicitly acquired 220 million US voter files. “Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” Trump said in a televised speech from the White House. Trump also claimed there were more than 250,000 non-US citizens registered to vote in four states.
The former reality TV star then turned his fire on US broadcasters who refused to interrupt their programming to carry his speech live, calling out ABC and NBC by name. He called for their licenses to be revoked and baselessly implied they were involved in election rigging attempts. “They and others in the media are part of a plot. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multi-billion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing,” he said.
Trump claims his 2020 election defeat was “rigged,” although more than 60 lawsuits produced no ruling establishing fraud capable of changing the outcome, while recounts, audits, and his own Justice Department found none.
In the run-up to the speech, the 80-year-old president had promised “big news” on election security — but many of the claims appeared to be recycled from intelligence already in the public domain. Billionaire Trump meanwhile devoted little time to what voters appear more concerned about, like the Iran war and the economy. Democrats allege that Trump’s claims are an effort to put his thumb on the scale ahead of the midterms, in which Republicans fear Trump’s unpopularity could lose them control of Congress.
Trump has been pushing lawmakers to pass a major package of fresh voting restrictions called the SAVE America Act ahead of the midterms, 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 and Frankie Taggart
© 2024 AFP
