—
President Donald Trump delivered a rare primetime address Thursday, unveiling newly declassified documents he claimed prove China interfered in the 2020 presidential election.
Speaking for roughly 25 minutes from the East Room before invited guests and a restricted press pool, Trump argued the documents show Beijing meddled in the race. The president accused China of compromising the voter files of 220 million Americans, impacting numerous states. Trump said members of what he called the “deep state” intelligence community worked to bury the evidence during his first administration.
Trump demanded accountability and used the news to continue his push for the SAVE America Act, his signature election integrity legislation. (RELATED: No Path, No Votes: Inside the GOP Revolt Threatening Trump’s SAVE America Act)
The documents show that “over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of 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.
“That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening. This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China assigned a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project, compounding the travesty,” he continued, adding that the meddling also affected the 2018 midterms.
China also worked to turn public opinion against him in 2019, the president alleged.
“The Chinese government sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the U.S. president and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him, as many as they could, and they didn’t care what they said,” Trump said, citing the new documents that were declassified during his speech.
Trump went on to accuse China of attempting to manufacture illegal ballots for then-candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 election. The documents, according to the president, show that “rouge bureaucrats” tried to conceal intelligence uncovered by the FBI that revealed the Chinese meddling.
“Documents show that during this period, dozens of significant CIA and NSA reports about China’s election targeting were kept out of the presidential briefing. These were briefings I would get almost every day. Everything was kept out,” the president said.
One email that was kept out of his briefings, Trump added, shows that intelligence analysts had intentionally edited them to withhold information. Intelligence officials also knew that the United States’ election machines have long been exposed to attacks, the president claimed, noting that U.S. adversaries like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have tried to compromise America’s voting structure.
“This is a cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy. Many people have questioned whether it could actually be possible to electronically manipulate vote totals or change election results on these terrible machines, today we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the corrupt Maduro regime in Venezuela, and that’s exactly what happened. Conspiring to digitally rig their own country’s elections in 2020, and that’s what they did,” Trump continued.
The president directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate, fire and, and prosecute those involved and ended with a call for Congress to take action: “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?”
The SAVE America Act has continued to stall in the Senate. The legislation would crack down on mail in voting and would require Americans to show an ID to vote and provide proof of citizenship when registering. Several sources close to the situation previously told the Caller that the legislation does not and will never have the votes because of some Republican holdouts, though another source said the president and his team are still exploring ways to get the legislation passed.
“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. Together, we will restore faith and confidence in our country, and we will be bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,” the president concluded.
