President Donald Trump on Thursday evening expressed concern about vulnerabilities in the United States’ voting systems, reiterating a call for lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and voter ID.
He also said broadcast networks ABC and NBC, that chose not to air his speech live should lose their licenses.
“In a rare move, NBC and ABC Fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech,” he said. “They knew what it was about, because of the fact that they don’t like the topic, because they know how corrupt our system is, and they don’t want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason.“
”Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multibillion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money,” he said.
Trump says China acquired U.S. voting records
Citing newly declassified documents, Trump alleged that starting in 2020, China “carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.”
Trump said the information breached includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data needed to register to vote in the United States.
“This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare,” he said during a 25-minute speech in the East Room of the White House.
Trump shared that his administration, through the White House Government Transparency Task Force, will release findings through the White House’s website that show foreign interference.
Trump argued that those who were tasked with ringing the alarm bells did not do so and instead said the 2020 presidential election was “the most secure” in history.
According to CBS, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., denied allegations that it has interfered in U.S. elections.
Trump said the current election system falls “catastrophically short,” so, the administration would be immediately declassifying and releasing the “critical intelligence” which points to “shocking vulnerabilities” in America’s election systems.
“Just as disturbingly, this vital information has, for many years been covered up and hidden from you, the American people,” he said, adding, “But that all changes right now.”
Trump has long believed that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen from him. With the COVID-19 pandemic underway, Americans voted in historic numbers through mail-in ballots during Trump’s first term.
After results showed that President Joe Biden won the election, Trump and some allies claimed there were issues with mail-in ballots, with voting machines and foreign interference. But in the years since, state audits and recounts have reaffirmed Biden’s win.
In his remarks Thursday, Trump said he wasn’t trying to “weaken confidence in elections, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly, and that’s what we’re doing.”
He added, “Every American, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent, or otherwise, should be able to agree that we deserve the most secure, honest, and fair election system anywhere in the world. Secure elections should be a-partisan. Really, we should be together. Republicans, independents, everybody, and it should not be a partisan issue. It should cause to unite us, not to divide us.”
Trump says U.S. elections face cyber threats
Trump said that due to the findings of the new documents, he was asking the CIA, Department of Justice and FBI to investigate “how and why such crucial information” was hidden and China’s interference was minimized all these years.
“Tonight we’re releasing all of those findings and spanning from January 2020 to June 2026. This is a cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy,” Trump said.
He shared that the documents being released by the White House will cover “five major areas of concern,” all that fall under the umbrella of election security and national concern.
Trump said, “in mid 2018, China was working to influence the results of the U.S. midterm elections and later the results of the 2020 presidential election itself. Separately, in mid-2019, the Chinese government’s strategy against the United States was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the U.S. president.”
The president announced that according to the Department of Homeland Security, the administration had found approximately 278,000 non-citizens on state voter rolls. While that number came from states willing to comply, Democratic-led states didn’t give the administration their voter roll information.
It’s the latest issue related to immigration and election security that’s close to the president’s heart and those of his supporters.
Trump reiterates support for SAVE America Act
For example, Republicans’ latest sweeping reform bill is looking to establish proof-of-citizenship and voter ID requirements for federal elections. The House has passed the SAVE America Act, but it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
Trump has told senators he won’t sign other bills until they approve the SAVE America Act.
“But most importantly, addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the SAVE America Act. How easy is that to do, unless you want to cheat?” he said.
“To all Americans, I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call your representatives in the House and Senate, and demand that they pass the SAVE America Act without delay,” Trump added later.
The legislation has been championed by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who told the Deseret News in a statement that Trump shared the concerns of millions of voters across the country who believe federal elections lack security.
“It has been amazing to see President Trump champion my legislation, the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register and cast a ballot — which many Americans are shocked to discover is not already national policy,” Lee said. “The United States should not have a less secure voting system than Bulgaria or Bangladesh.”