On Thursday evening (July 16), President Donald Trump delivered a primetime address to the nation, focusing on a topic that he refuses to let go of – election interference and “vulnerabilities.”
In the 25-minute speech, he reiterated his previous false claims that the 2020 election (which he lost to former President Joe Biden) was “rigged,” and went on to claim that “Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost. This cannot be allowed to continue.”
Trump stated that China was involved in stealing 220 million United States citizens’ voter files and that the intelligence proving that was covered up by insiders with the “deep state,” which extended to state voting rolls. He then announced a release of newly declassified documents by the CIA and other intelligence agencies to back up his claims. He would also attack mail-in voting, despite doing the same in March.
On social media, critics stepped in to disprove Trump’s claims. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky called Trump out in a post on X, formerly Twitter, stating that there was no cover-up of readily available voter information.
Trump would then blast ABC and NBC for declining to air his primetime address as part of a “plot,” claiming they “want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can’t have a great country, and that’s true. You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses.” ABC and NBC did stream the address with analysis, according to the New York Times.
CBS would air the address, but Evening News anchor Tony Doukopil appeared on air before it began and told viewers, “Honestly, much of what the president has said on this topic is false,” adding an explanation for their coverage: “This speech will be made. It will be news. And it is our job to cover the news.”
Indeed, CBS would fact-check Trump’s claims during the address.
The trove of 270 pages of documents released by the White House would also prove to be another embarassment. China is mentioned with Russia and Iran in wanting to influence the 2020 election. But Russia was shown to have undertaken a “range of measures” to actively meddle, proving the opposite of Trump’s claims.
