US President Donald Trump has given a speech in which he blamed China for interfering in the 2020 presidential election and hinted at “shocking vulnerabilities” in the American voting system, writes the BBC.
Trump addressed reporters on the 16th of July, and has previously repeatedly made unfounded assumptions about fraud and foreign influence in the 2020 election, in which he lost to Joe Biden. In the half-hour speech, Trump announced that he had declassified thousands of intelligence files that indicate that Beijing sought to influence the election result in Biden’s favor. US intelligence agencies have previously reported that China did not interfere in the 2020 election.
Journalists were not allowed to ask questions after the president’s speech.
The US president said voter data had been stolen, bought or hacked in 18 states, and he accused those responsible of not raising the alarm and not passing the information on to government officials or Congress. However, Trump did not provide evidence that China had used the information to make changes to the voting system or influence the outcome of the election.
In response to Trump’s statement, the Chinese embassy in Washington told Reuters that it had not interfered and would never interfere in the presidential election.
Meanwhile, Democrats have accused Trump of trying to sow doubt about the security of the midterm elections in November.
They will be decided by which party controls Congress for the rest of Trump’s presidency. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote on social media after Trump’s speech that US leaders are chosen by voters, not the other way around. He added that Democrats will fight like hell to ensure that every American can freely cast their vote without obstruction or interference from Trump.
Trump’s speech came after a new poll showed Trump’s approval rating had fallen to 37%, with many voters pessimistic about the cost of living and a war with Iran.
During his speech, Trump stressed that US voting machines are very vulnerable to influence by foreign agents, including from China, Russia and Iran. The flaws in the American electoral system are well documented, and some of them were fixed after the 2016 election, which Trump won. At the time, US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had interfered in the election through cyberattacks, influence campaigns on social media and sponsorship of campaign activities.
At the end of his speech, Trump again called for the SAVE America Act, which would ban mail-in voting and require proof of citizenship and photo identification. The bill has been in the Senate for months. The president urged Americans to get their representatives in Congress to support the bill, but unless Republicans are willing to abandon long-standing Senate procedures, his efforts will be fruitless.
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