President Donald Trump’s staff convinced him to tone down the primetime speech he gave on election integrity Thursday evening, after critics alleged it would make false claims about “stolen” elections.
Leading up to the address, Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) demanded TV networks censor the speech, raising fears that Trump would say unproven or disproven claims about voter fraud, in light of his position that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
On Thursday night, Trump made a speech outlining concerns that declassified intelligence documents indicate China meddled in the 2020 election, a move he said was covered up by the “deep state” in the United States. The president’s speech was “pretty vanilla” compared to some of his previous claims, and followed counsel from his team to “not to be crazy,” according to Politico.
“There was going to be a lot of crazier s*** said,” a White House official told the outlet. “It was as on the rails as possible. … The senior team just talked and prepped him. I think they explained the way to be taken seriously is not to be crazy.”
Amid the push for censorship, major networks opted out of carrying the speech on cable, instead pushing it out on digital platforms.
During the address, Trump cited a CIA report in stating that starting during the 2020 election cycle, China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in the illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files. The president also expressed concern about voting machine vulnerabilities to foreign interference, stating that Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, as well as nonstate groups, hold the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.
John Solomon, the former investigative journalist who advised the White House on releasing declassified intelligence documents relating to China, told reporters Thursday evening that U.S. intelligence has “no evidence” that votes were stolen in the 2020 election — “not yet,” he said. He suggested evidence that lies on foreign machines, and that, upon further research, the intelligence community could collect that data down the road.
“All I can acknowledge is what the intelligence shows, right? I don’t know. The intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped, that a foreign power flipped a vote in 2020, 22, or 24. We’re not through all the documents,” he said. “They did it on their own machines. Why is it important that they did it on their machines? Their machine protocols are the same as America.”
“I’m still researching,” Solomon added.
READ IN FULL: TRUMP’S ADDRESS TO THE NATION ON ALLEGED CHINESE INTERFERENCE IN 2020 ELECTION
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is expected to give a briefing on Friday regarding fixing vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems.
“Every American … should be able to agree that we deserve the most secure, honest and fair election system anywhere in the world,” Trump said.
