Trump election speech to spotlight China voter-data claims
CBS News reported Trump is expected to discuss alleged Chinese access to voter data while pushing a GOP-backed voting bill.
By Frankie Delgado · News Reporter
4 min read
President Trump is delivering a prime-time White House address Thursday on elections, with CBS News reporting that part of the speech is expected to focus on allegations involving Chinese access to U.S. voter data.
The address is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET from Washington, D.C., according to CBS News. Correspondents and contributors for the network are set to provide analysis after the remarks.
The speech comes as Trump continues to claim, falsely, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. No evidence has emerged of fraud on a scale that would have changed the result, and courts rejected nearly all of the dozens of lawsuits brought by the Trump campaign and its allies after the election, according to CBS News and Campaign Legal Center records cited by the network.
What intelligence agencies have said
CBS News reported that U.S. intelligence agencies have drawn a sharp line between foreign efforts to influence voters and foreign interference with election systems.
Election influence can include attempts by foreign governments to shape voter opinion by backing or attacking candidates, spreading false claims or undermining confidence in elections. Election interference refers to efforts to alter the technical process, including voting, counting ballots or changing voter registrations.
The National Intelligence Council found in 2021 that several countries tried to influence the 2020 race, according to CBS News. The council assessed that Russia tried to harm Joe Biden’s campaign, Iran tried to harm Trump’s campaign, and Venezuela, Hezbollah and Cuba may have used smaller efforts against Trump.
But the council said it found no signs that foreign countries tried to change any technical part of the 2020 voting process, including ballot casting, vote counting or registrations. The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security also found in 2021 that there was no evidence a foreign government-linked actor stopped people from voting, changed votes, or disrupted the counting or reporting of results, CBS News reported.
The China question
China’s role in the 2020 election has been debated inside the intelligence community, according to CBS News. A 2021 National Intelligence Council report said most U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that China did not try to influence the outcome because Beijing did not see either a Biden or Trump win as worth the risk of being caught meddling.
The same report included a minority view from the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber, who believed China took some steps to undermine Trump, largely through social media posts, official statements and other influence efforts, CBS News reported.
Even so, the full intelligence community, including that minority view, agreed China did not interfere with election infrastructure, vote tabulation or the transmission of election results.
Separately, the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber found in April 2020 that Chinese intelligence analyzed voter registration data from multiple U.S. states to conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 general election, according to a declassified but heavily redacted report cited by CBS News. It remains unclear how China obtained the data or how sensitive it was. CBS News noted that voter registration information is public or available for purchase in many states.
Trump’s voting bill push
Trump is also pressing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which CBS News described as his top legislative priority.
The measure would require people to show in-person proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register for federal elections. It would also require photo ID to vote, and that ID would need to include proof of citizenship, according to CBS News.
Critics have warned the bill could block millions of eligible voters from casting ballots. Republicans have promoted it as a safeguard against noncitizen voting, which CBS News noted is exceedingly rare.
The House has passed versions of the bill, but CBS News reported it does not have even a simple majority of support in the Senate. Trump also wants to attach other GOP priorities, including bans on mail-in voting and on transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.