President Donald Trump used a rare prime-time White House address to announce the declassification of documents he says support claims that China interfered in the 2020 election. But fact-checkers say some of the key assertions made during the speech lack important context.
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In a televised address that lasted about 30 minutes, Trump argued the nation’s election system remains vulnerable to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.
“The People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” Trump said.
The president claimed China obtained 220 million U.S. voter files. However, PolitiFact’s Lou Jacobson said the information cited by Trump is largely public and commercially available.
“That’s true, apparently, but these are not a state secret,” Jacobson said. “Basically, anybody can buy that data commercially, and folks who work in politics do it all the time.”
Trump also accused what he called the “deep state” of concealing information about foreign interference from the American public. But Jacobson disputed that claim as well.
“The reality is that the intelligence community gave Trump a classified report on January 7, 2021, about foreign interference,” Jacobson said.
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One of the newly declassified documents references Chinese efforts to target Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
For years, U.S. intelligence assessments have concluded that foreign adversaries have targeted American election systems. At the same time, years of recounts, audits, lawsuits and election reviews have not uncovered evidence of enough fraud to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat.
The president also repeated a longstanding claim about mail-in voting.
“Mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt,” Trump said.
The claim conflicts with statements from election officials, including Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina García, a Republican, who said safeguards are in place to protect vote-by-mail ballots.
“We have checks and balances, and it’s very safe to vote-by-mail in Miami-Dade County,” García said.
García said roughly one-third of Miami-Dade voters cast ballots by mail.
Trump is urging Congress to pass sweeping election legislation known as the “Save America Act,” which would require voter identification and proof of citizenship. The proposal faces long odds in the Senate, in part because critics argue it could make it more difficult for eligible Americans to vote.
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