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Trump Doubles Down on Election Attacks 07/17 06:31
President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation Thursday to
elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S.
elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting
laws ahead of the midterms.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the
nation Thursday to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the
legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more
restrictive voting laws ahead of the midterms.
Trump's amplification of debunked theories about the election six years ago
and his inability to accept his loss led to one of the darker moments in
American history when a mob of his supporters led a violent attack on the U.S.
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the final days of his first term.
Now back in power, Trump opted to revisit the subject, despite persistent
voter concerns about the cost of living, American forces escalating strikes on
Iran in a conflict for which there is no end in sight, and an immigration
crackdown facing bipartisan scrutiny for its sometimes deadly tactics.
His address Thursday hinged on contradictions.
A twice-elected president complained about his one personal defeat, alleged
a cover-up by officials in his own first administration and surfaced claims
about countries attempting to harm his own prospects while staying silent on
steps taken by other nations to boost him.
Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in
Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support from his fellow
Republicans.
"America is back and doing really well, but we still have a major challenge
that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair
and honest elections," he said.
Trump doesn't raise doubts about his election wins
Trump began Thursday night with a stark warning about what he described as
flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified
documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he lost the presidential
election and when his party suffered losses.
Trump's speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways
that lacked key context and did not produce evidence that votes had been
manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.
Notably, Trump focused on China but glossed over Russia, a country that
intelligence officials have said favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 and engaged in
wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at boosting him over Democrat Joe Biden
in the latter campaign.
Despite focusing on China in his speech, Trump did not criticize or issue a
warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he has long praised.
Election security experts say America's decentralized voting system, with
the power over elections residing with the states instead of the federal
government, is a strength. Americans vote in more than 10,000 different
jurisdictions with different rules, making the nations' elections
extraordinarily complicated but safe from widespread fraud.
No credible intelligence has emerged showing that the vote count in 2020 was
manipulated by foreign actors. Repeated audits and reviews -- manyrun by
Republicans, including Trump's own then-attorney general -- have found no
significant fraud occurred in 2020.
Even if substantiated, Trump's claims did not amount to conduct that would
have altered the outcome of any race, let alone the 2020 race for the White
House.
He also did not raise doubts about his election wins in 2016 or 2024.
As Trump spoke, the White House unveiled a website containing documents that
were presented without context and included selectively released pieces of
investigation files, intelligence analysis and correspondence.
Former intelligence official calls address 'dangerous'
Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence in Trump's
first term, called the president's address "a dangerous speech about an
incredibly important topic." She said the intelligence community throughout
Trump's first term was alarmed about foreign interference in elections, but
Trump scoffed at them, angered at the investigation of his campaign's
relationship with Russia.
"He had an entire term to deal with it and I don't know how you can believe
how the same community that told him about it, that was excoriated about it"
wouldn't warn him in 2020, Gordon said on CNN.
Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff last
month and was seated in the East Room for Trump's speech, later told MS NOW
that "the intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped --
that a foreign power flipped -- a vote in 2020, '22 or '24."
But, he added, "We're not through all the documents."
Trump urged the Justice Department to conduct investigations and
prosecutions, though it was unclear from his speech what sort of criminal
conduct -- if any -- could be identified, proven and charged.
In a contrast with his concerns about foreign interference in elections,
Trump in his new budget proposes a $707 million cut in the U.S. Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Agency, the group charged with protecting American election
systems from overseas cyberattacks. Trump and other conservatives have been
frustrated that the organization pushed back on election claims in 2020 and
beyond.
Some networks did not air it live
In past presidencies, primetime addresses have typically been reserved for
major milestones or nationally significant events.
Trump last spoke to the nation in April, giving an address on the Iran war a
month after it started. He said then that the U.S. would accomplish its
objectives "very shortly" and that "the hard part is done, so it should be
easy." The war, however, has dragged on and strikes between the U.S. and Iran
have intensified this week.
Trump also delivered a politically charged primetime speech in December in
which he sought to blame the challenging economic climate on Democrats.
ABC, NBC and CNN did not air Thursday's remarks live but carried them in
full on their streaming services.
CBS and MS NOW both cut away from Trump's speech before he finished, while
Fox News continued to carry his address.
Trump called out the media outlets for not carrying it live, accused them of
being "part of a plot" and suggested their broadcast licenses be revoked.
Networks typically -- but not always -- carry presidential addresses to the
nation live. In 2022, when Biden delivered a primetime address full of warnings
about Trump and his adherents' "extreme ideology," the networks did not carry
it live.
In 2014, the major networks chose to stick with their primetime programming
instead of airing an address by President Barack Obama on his plans for
immigration reform.
Democrats accuse Trump of seeking to discredit next election
Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive false claims of past stolen
elections in order to delegitimize the 2026 midterm elections, in which Trump's
Republican Party is facing headwinds.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia called Trump's claims "totally
bogus."
"The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not
even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election," Warner said in a
statement on X. "A single concurring opinion suggested China may have tried to
sway voters' opinions ... but that's been public knowledge since 2021."
Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the administration
committee that handles federal voting issues and elections, said Trump is
trying to sow confusion before the midterm elections.
"This is a pretext for the president, I think, calling into dispute the 2026
elections," Morelle said on C-SPAN, adding that "we have secure elections."
"I heard no concrete allegations that foreign actors actually changed the
results of an American election," Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said
on CNN.
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