U.S. President Donald Trump declassified documents on Thursday that he asserted showed China ‘s interference in U.S. elections, reviving his long-running attacks on election security despite a U.S. intelligence assessment that found no evidence Beijing affected the 2020 vote that he lost.
The 25-minute prime-time address underscored Trump’s effort to make election security a central political issue ahead of November’s midterm elections, when his fellow Republicans will be defending their slender congressional majorities.
Trump used his remarks to again press Republicans in Congress to pass legislation imposing new voter identification and citizenship requirements, despite longstanding findings that voter fraud in U.S. elections is rare. The bill has stalled in the Senate amid fierce Democratic opposition.
‘Shocking Vulnerabilities’
Trump said the declassified material would reveal “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.” But many appeared to show the opposite, or were not related to U.S. election infrastructure at all.
The speech came at a challenging political moment for Trump and Republicans, with his approval rating weighed down by the unpopular Iran war and high energy prices. Trump briefly mentioned the war at the outset, saying the U.S. was “winning big,” while listing a series of domestic accomplishments, including tax cuts and his immigration crackdown, before turning to election security.
The president said he was declassifying sensitive information that showed China had illicitly acquired 220 million U.S. voter files, including names, addresses and other data.
He asserted that members of the U.S. intelligence community deliberately suppressed information about the extent of China’s activities.
China’s Efforts
An unclassified 2021 U.S. intelligence assessment found no indications any foreign actor attempted to or succeeded in altering “any technical aspect” of the 2020 presidential election vote, including voter registrations, ballots, tabulations or results.
That assessment was conducted under John Ratcliffe, then Trump’s director of national intelligence and now his CIA director.
The report also found China had pursued an effort dating to at least 2008 to collect information on U.S. voters, public opinion, political parties, candidates and top government officials, likely aiming to use the material to predict election results.
Two people familiar with the matter said the U.S. voter data obtained by China was not confidential – voter files are routinely purchased by political consultants – and could not be manipulated.
Ahead of Trump’s speech, some White House officials expressed concern that disclosing the China information could be misleading, sources told Reuters.
Trump’s harsh language about China risked rocking a relationship that has steadied following last year’s costly trade war. Trump hopes to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September about improving trade relations.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the speech. Before the address, Liu Chang, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said: “China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.”
(with inputs from Reuters)
