Trump recycles and distorts old intelligence reports, claims US elections worse than third-world countries

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who continues to assert without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, delivered a 25-minute address from the White House East Room on Thursday, claiming U.S. elections are vulnerable to hacking and inferior to those in third-world countries. He also renewed allegations that a "deep state" withheld information from him.

"Members of the deep state, very, very famous group of people, many cases, in our intelligence agency, worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China's sinister election meddling, covering it up from both the president and the American people like nobody thought was possible," Trump said during disjointed and often difficult-to-follow remarks.

Intelligence Report Contradicts Claims

Trump's assertions are contradicted by a declassified intelligence report released in March 2021, after the classified version was provided to him on Jan. 7, 2021 — the day after his failed attempt to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election. The report was written or approved by Trump's own first-term political appointees.

Key findings from the report include:

• China obtained publicly available voter registration information but did not attempt to interfere in the actual election process.
• A minority view stated that China preferred Trump to lose to Democrat Joe Biden.
• Russia again worked to help Trump win, though not to the extent it had four years earlier.

SAVE Act and Midterm Election Concerns

The stated purpose of the speech was to encourage Republicans to pass the SAVE Act, legislation promoted by conservatives as necessary to combat largely unsubstantiated voter fraud. However, Senate Republicans have repeatedly told Trump the bill has no chance of passage.

"Congress must pass the SAVE America Act," Trump said. "How easy is that to do, unless you want to cheat? The only reason you wouldn't do it is you want to cheat."

Many Democrats warned the speech had a darker purpose: to create a justification for Trump to dispute midterm election results.

"Trump and Republicans continue to lay the groundwork for interfering with the midterm elections in an attempt to cling to power," Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. "There's one simple reason for this brazen power grab: Republicans know they're going to lose the midterms."

Bipartisan Reactions

The speech united Democrats in opposition — all 24 Democratic governors signed a joint statement condemning the address — while generating comparatively little enthusiasm among congressional Republicans, many of whom want Trump to focus more on economic concerns.

Trump also attacked vote tabulating machines as vulnerable to hacking, without noting that most U.S. jurisdictions use paper ballots that can be hand-counted in election disputes. Georgia's 2020 election — which Trump tried to overturn by pressuring state officials to "find" him sufficient votes — was hand-counted, and Biden remained the winner.

The SAVE Act would mandate voter ID and sharply limit mail voting, which Trump called "inherently corrupt." Democrats oppose the legislation, arguing it would amount to voter suppression.

"This is worse than any third-world country. There's no third-world country that has elections like we have," Trump claimed.