Donald Trump has teased “really big news” for his Thursday night address, amid expectations that he will present what he claims is significant evidence related to voter fraud.
A White House official told Reuters the speech is expected to include declassified intelligence tied to investigations into U.S. elections and alleged weaknesses in voting machines.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent progressive Democrat, said television networks have a responsibility not to broadcast the remarks if Trump uses the platform to mislead the public.
Asked Tuesday about what he planned to say, Trump declined to offer details but suggested the announcement would be major.
“I’d rather save it, it will concern [election machines]. It’s really big news. It’s really, really big news,” he said from the Oval Office.
“Our country has to shape up. What we’re going to be talking about Thursday, it doesn’t get bigger,” Trump added.
The president may also use the 9 p.m. ET televised address to revive his disproven claim that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election against Joe Biden.
Courts, election reviews and Trump’s own Justice Department during his first term found no evidence of widespread fraud, including claims that voting machines were manipulated.
The federal cybersecurity watchdog joined other federal, state and local officials in declaring the vote ‘the most secure in American history.’
Asked if his speech would address election machine integrity, Trump told reporters on Tuesday, ‘It will concern that subject’ among others, but gave no details.
Donald Trump promised ‘really big news’ from his Thursday night speech as he’s expected to address declassified intelligence of voter fraud
An administration official told Reuters that the address will reveal information from investigations into US elections and what the White House says are voting machine vulnerabilities
Propelled by Trump’s repeated claims that U.S. elections are ‘rigged,’ the administration has for over a year sought to increase federal oversight of election administration and reshape the way Americans vote — an effort that legal experts say would take power away from states in violation of the US Constitution.
With Republican control of Congress at stake in the November midterm elections, Democrats and some election security experts have expressed concerns that the Trump administration plans to interfere in those contests.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested the networks shouldn’t even bother to air it.
‘He’s basically doing a made-for-TV broadcast about election fraud and conspiracy theories,’ she told MeidasTouch.
‘I don’t think we should be contributing to the platforming of lies about our elections. Many news outlets oftentimes may receive transcripts [in advance], and I think we have an ethical obligation not to air things that undermine our elections that are not rooted in evidence and in fact.’
Meanwhile, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff spoke to MS NOW, suggesting he’d heard rumors that Trump might try and declare his and fellow Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock’s victories ‘illegitimate.’
‘I expect him to use whatever he puts out there on Thursday as a pretext, either for some attempted unconstitutional use of federal power to interfere in the election, or to give his proxies and loyalists in state and local jurisdictions some cover for whatever they might attempt or to lay the groundwork for challenging the result.’
Ossoff slammed the President for focusing on this when he had so many other key issues to deal with.
Left-wing New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested the networks shouldn’t even bother to air it
Meanwhile, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff (pictured left) spoke to MS Now, suggesting he’d heard rumors that Trump might try and declare his and fellow Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock’s (pictured right) victories ‘illegitimate’
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How should the nation respond if claims of election fraud continue without solid evidence?
‘You’ve got the American public broadly furious with the president for war and tariffs and health care cuts that are making everything more expensive,’ Ossoff said.
‘So now he’s pivoting from ballroom obsession to election conspiracy theory obsession, this is politically disastrous for Republicans in Georgia.’
By casting the 2020 election as illegitimate, Trump is laying the groundwork to challenge Republican losses and undermine Democrats if they win back power in Congress in November, multiple election experts have said.
An administration official, who discussed the plans on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that Trump will discuss in his speech national elections and what White House officials view as voting machine flaws that could permit foreign cyber intrusion.
The administration official said Trump would discuss newly declassified intelligence related to 2020.
Election officials say they are confident that machines are adequately secure and no evidence has been found of foreign intrusions that changed results of past elections.
A forensic analysis submitted last year by Mojave Research, a contractor hired by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, found flaws in voting machines seized in Puerto Rico but no evidence of hacking.
Gabbard, whose resignation was effective last month, also produced her own report that outlined significant vulnerabilities in voting machines and further safeguards, such as updating their software, that could be implemented, three sources familiar with the matter said.
A forensic analysis submitted last year by Mojave Research, a contractor hired by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, found flaws in voting machines seized in Puerto Rico but no evidence of hacking
Trump appointed Bill Pulte (pictured left), director of the federal mortgage regulator, last month as Gabbard’s interim replacement and said he had authorized Pulte to declassify documents related to the 2020 vote
The White House, however, has delayed releasing the report, and Trump has persisted in trying to prove that his 2020 defeat was due to fraud.
He appointed Bill Pulte, director of the federal mortgage regulator, last month as Gabbard’s interim replacement and said he had authorized Pulte to declassify documents related to the 2020 vote.
The White House also recently formed a task force to investigate elements of the 2020 election, three sources familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
One source said journalist John Solomon, a former Fox News contributor, is working on the effort.
Solomon, the source said, has requested access to files related to an analysis that dissented from a U.S. intelligence assessment in 2021 that found no indications that a foreign actor had tried or succeeded in altering ‘any technical aspect’ of the 2020 vote.
The unclassified version of the assessment judged that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized parts of his government to conduct influence operations aimed at boosting the vote for Trump and undermining public confidence in the U.S. electoral process.
China considered conducting influence operations designed to change the election outcome but decided against doing so, while Iran pursued a ‘multi-pronged’ covert influence campaign to undercut Trump’s candidacy, the assessment said.
The report was drafted by the National Intelligence Council, the top body of U.S. intelligence analysts, along with the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the State Department’s intelligence bureau and the National Security Agency.
