During a nationwide broadcast on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his claims of pervasive voting irregularities and international meddling, doubling down on his persistent narrative that he was the rightful victor of the 2020 presidential race.
Throughout the address, Trump highlighted what he characterized as deep flaws within the nation’s voting infrastructure. Commentators noted that these assertions could lay the groundwork for upcoming disputes regarding the results of the November midterm elections.
”We can never watch a stolen election again,” Trump said during the primetime address, referring to his loss in the 2020 presidential race to Democrat and former U.S. President Joe Biden.
The president also revealed plans to declassify a massive trove of intelligence files. He claimed these documents prove that Beijing illicitly intercepted the private information of millions of citizens across the United States.
”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,” Trump said in a televised speech from the White House.
Additionally, Trump asserted that over a quarter-million non-citizens were unlawfully added to voter registries across four separate states.
His grievances extended to prominent American broadcast networks, specifically naming ABC and NBC for opting out of airing his speech live. Accusing the media outlets of participating in election manipulation, Trump demanded that their broadcast permissions be stripped.
”They and others in the media are part of a plot. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multi-billion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing,” he said.
While Trump continues to insist that the 2020 vote was compromised, more than 60 lawsuits contesting the results were dismissed by courts for lacking substantial evidence of fraud.
Furthermore, numerous independent recounts, comprehensive audits, and an inquiry by his own Department of Justice concluded that no widespread anomalies occurred that could have reversed the election’s final outcome.