President Donald Trump is set to deliver a primetime address this week, focusing on elections and potentially revisiting long-debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The speech comes as he escalates calls for Republicans to pass tighter federal voting rules for November’s midterm elections.
Election Security and Voting Rules
Trump has been guarded about the details of his speech, scheduled for 9 p.m. on Thursday. He faces numerous domestic issues, including recent deadly shootings and a collapsing deal to end the war with Iran. When asked for a preview of the speech, Trump offered scant details but said he has ‘really big news.’ He also hinted that he would discuss other issues, saying ‘we’ll be discussing other things, too’ and that ‘it’s going to be a very big announcement.’
Trump has used the power of the primetime presidential address to deliver politically charged speeches before, including one in December when he sought to blame the challenging economic climate on Democrats. Thursday’s address seems poised to go even further, using the moment to amplify election concerns before an audience of millions in an effort to boost Republican prospects before midterms that threaten to hobble Trump for the remainder of his term.
On Monday, Trump repeated baseless claims of voter fraud in the Los Angeles primary race for mayor, citing California’s slow vote count. Federal prosecutors said they were opening fraud investigations in the state last month after Trump drew attention to the claim. The president’s preoccupation with voting fraud and election security dates back at least to 2016, when he refused to say whether he would accept defeat to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Previous Election Controversies
After winning the 2016 election, Trump convened a voting integrity commission to support his claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote, though the commission disbanded without uncovering any such evidence. Four years later, after he lost the 2020 election to Biden, Trump again claimed cheating and zeroed in on the Democrat’s narrow win in Georgia. Trump called the state’s secretary of state and pressured him to ‘find 11,780 votes,’ just enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.
Repeated audits and reviews, many run by Republicans, including Trump’s own then-attorney general, have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020. Before winning in 2024, Trump was again laying the groundwork to claim cheating if he lost. After returning to office, he stocked his administration with officials who back his false claims of 2020 election fraud.
Original reporting: NBC Connecticut — read the source article.
