Trump speech live: President throws US elections into chaos with claims of 2020 China hack and ‘deep state’ conspiracy
In a highly anticipated Thursday night speech, President Donald Trump accused China of carrying out “the largest compromise of election data in history” beginning with the 2020 election, just one of numerous schemes he claims a “deep state” concealed from him and the American public.
The Chinese effort allegedly netted Beijing 220 million files about U.S. voters.
Trump also claimed China sought to pay journalists to write false and negative articles about him.
The White House will release a trove of documents backing up the president’s claims, Trump said, which will show how U.S. elections are vulnerable to “hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference.”
Meanwhile, the White House is furious that many of the major TV news networks are not carrying the president’s ongoing elections speech live on their main channels.
ABC News, NBC News and CNN will run the speech on their streaming channels. Fox News, meanwhile, plans to air the speech in full.
“Cowards,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X of the networks. “NBC and ABC don't want you to hear the truth. All they want to do is hide the facts from YOU.”
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Trump alleges info about Chinese election attacks was kept out of presidential briefings
“Dozens of significant CIA and NSA reports about China's election targeting were kept out of the presidential briefing,” Trump claimed. “These were briefings I would get almost every day. Everything was kept out.”
Trump calls on FBI to revive alleged 2020 investigation about Michigan
The president said he is calling on federal law enforcement to revive an alleged 2020 investigation into voter fraud in 2020 in Michigan.
“The documents state that some canvassers admitted to FBI agents that they signed voter registration forms in other people's names, submitted fraudulent registration for people who did not exist, and received gift cards tied to their number of applications that they produced,” Trump claimed. “In other words, it was pay, play, and cheat. The FBI agents working on the case believe that crimes were committed, yet the Biden Department of Justice slow-walked the investigation and killed it.”
Trump claims security officials underplayed threat of election vulnerabilities
The president alleges Americans have been misled by U.S. officials about the extent of vulnerabilities in U.S. election infrastructure.
“Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, including electronic voting machines and ballot counting systems,” he said.
Trump claims China carried out 'stunning' election scheme beginning in 2020
In a highly anticipated Thursday night speech, President Donald Trump accused China of carrying out “the largest compromise of election data in history” beginning with the 2020 election.
The scheme allegedly netted China 220 million files about U.S. voters.
The Republican further claimed U.S. officials concealed the nature of the threat from him.
Catch up: What the intel community has previously said about 2020 election meddling
Report shows Russia attempted to influence 2020 election by ‘supporting’ Trump
Unlike 2016, no foreign country sought to hack into and meddle with technical US election systems in 2020Josh Marcus
Trump praises achievements to begin speech
Donald Trump began his remarks with a general-purpose stump speech, rather than the anticipated blockbuster news on elections.
The country is “safer, stronger, and far wealthier than it has ever been before,” Trump claimed, while recounting many of his White House’s signature policies.
WATCH: President addresses nation about elections in highly anticipated speech
We’re expecting President Trump to begin his elections speech any minute.
You can watch the remarks live via the White House YouTube channel.
Trump 'desperate' as he goes into election speech, senator says
President Donald Trump is gearing up for his major elections speech, but the pomp and circumstance is actually a sign of weakness, according to one Democratic senator.
“So he's desperate,” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told CNN. “He's very unpopular. He wants to cheat. His avenues are being narrowed. And so this just may be a guy who needs to yell and scream on TV for an hour, but it may land with a giant thud.”
Republican hints that Trump speech will cover China
We still don’t know what President Trump will say in his elections speech tonight, but it could have to do with China, according to one Republican senator.
“I would encourage every American to tune in tonight to the President’s speech,” Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio wrote on X on Thursday afternoon. “This may be the most important Oval Office address since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The time for complacency with China is over.”
GOP senator claims 'four or five' colleagues didn't legally win ahead of Trump elections speech
Some Republicans are calling on Trump to stop talking about the 2020 election ahead of his big speech tonight. Sen. Tommy Tuberville is not one of those people.
During a Thursday interview with Newsmax, the Alabama lawmaker claimed not only that Trump was exposing “crooked” Democrats, but that some of the senators own colleagues had been fraudulently elected.
"We probably have four or five senators that didn't legally win,” Tuberville said, though he didn’t name names. “They shouldn't be up here."
Tuberville went on to baselessly link Democrats to illegal activity and the killing of activist Charlie Kirk.
“They lie,” Tuberville continued. “They cheat. They steal. They've tried to kill the president three times. They killed Charlie Kirk. It’s unbelievable. We need to fight back, and thank goodness for President Trump.”
More on the political discourse ahead of Trump’s 2020 speech in our full story:
Republicans are ‘scared’ Trump will ad-lib his election interference speech: report
One former Trump administration official said the White House would prefer if Trump focused on positive messaging about his effortsJosh MarcusNewerOlder
