Trump alleges ‘shocking vulnerabilities’ in US election security ahead of midterms

US President Donald Trump gave a prime time speech in which he accused China of interfering in the 2020 election and suggested there were “shocking security vulnerabilities” in American voting systems.

Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Trump repeatedly made false claims about voter fraud and foreign interference in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

In a half-hour speech three months before the midterm elections, he said he had declassified hundreds of intelligence files supporting his claims that Beijing was trying to influence the election in favor of Biden.

The US intelligence community had previously concluded that China did not interfere in the 2020 election.

As Trump delivered his address, he spoke in front of several members of his senior team, but reporters were unable to ask the president questions.

In his remarks, he accused China of “illegally obtaining” 220 million voter files, which included personal information.

Trump said voter data in 18 states was “bought, stolen or hacked by China” and accused “those responsible for sounding the alarm” of failing to disclose the discovery to government officials or Congress.

Trump did not provide evidence that China used the information it allegedly collected to change voting systems or influence election results.

In response to his speech, the Chinese Embassy in Washington told Reuters that Beijing “has never and will not interfere in presidential elections.” The BBC has approached China’s foreign ministry for comment.

Democrats, meanwhile, accused Trump of trying to raise doubts about the security of midterm elections in November that will determine control of Congress for the remainder of his presidency.

“Let’s be clear; in America, voters choose their leaders, not the other way around,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on social media after his speech.

“Democrats will fight like hell to ensure that every American voter can vote freely without obstruction or interference from Donald Trump,” he added.

The president’s comments contradict previous U.S. intelligence assessments. A 2021 report by the US National Intelligence Council said there was “high confidence” that China did not interfere in the 2020 presidential election.

“We assess that China made no effort to interfere and considered but did not implement influence efforts to change the outcome of the US presidential election,” the report said. The statement was included.

It was stated that this was most likely because China “does not view either election outcome as advantageous enough to risk backlash if caught.”

Trump made his White House speech after the release of a new poll by the Washington Post-Ipsos that showed his approval rating had fallen to 37% and many voters were pessimistic about the cost of living and the ongoing war with Iran.

Elsewhere in the speech, the president claimed that U.S. voting machines were “extremely vulnerable” to interference from foreign adversaries, including Russia, China and Iran.

The shortcomings of the US election infrastructure have been well documented. Some of these were addressed after the 2016 election won by Trump, when the US intelligence community found that Russia had engaged in a concerted campaign of election interference, including hacking, influencing social media and funding electioneering activities on the ground.

During the speech, Trump also claimed that a state investigation by Michigan law enforcement uncovered a voter registration fraud scheme by a group affiliated with Democrats, but that he was restricted by the FBI from taking action before the statute of limitations expired.

“Payment, game and fraud,” he said, although he offered no evidence that votes or tabulations had been tampered with or that voting machines had been hacked.

Separately, Trump said the Department of Homeland Security found 278,000 noncitizens were registered to vote. He did not say whether any of these people voted or had any influence on the election outcome.

At the end of his speech, Trump again called for passage of the SAVE America Act, which would ban most mail-in voting and require proof of citizenship and photo ID for voter registration to vote.

This law has been pending in the Senate for months.