US President Donald Trump on Thursday described the country's election system as “broken” and claimed foreign interference was rampant, as he announced the declassification of a series of reports on “election integrity”.
“Every American deserves to know that when they cast their vote, that vote will be counted accurately in a system … one where cheating and interference are not just difficult but virtually impossible,” Mr Trump said in a primetime address.
It comes as the President continues to press Congress to pass the Save Act, which would, among other things, require voters to present proof of citizenship.
He accused China of interfering in US elections, saying Beijing was behind the “largest compromise of election data in history”: the acquisition of 220 million US voter files.
These allegations contradict an unclassified 2021 US intelligence community assessment that found no indications any foreign actor attempted to alter or succeeded in altering “any technical aspect” of the 2020 presidential election vote, including voter registrations, ballots, tabulations or results.
Mr Trump claimed that the US intelligence community had deliberately suppressed information about the extent of China's activities.
“China engaged in other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign,” said Mr Trump.
Before Mr Trump's speech, a Chinese embassy representative told Reuters that Beijing “has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the US”.
The claims appear to be the latest attempt by Mr Trump to support his debunked claims that the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, was rigged.
Mr Trump also claimed that the Department of Homeland Security had found more than 250,000 foreign citizens had registered to vote in the country.
“Since Democrat states refuse to share their voter files, the real number is actually much higher than that,” he said.
It is unclear how DHS reached its findings or whether the non-citizens had engaged in voting.
The reaction to Mr Trump's speech by critics was swift.
“His speech was just lies and long-debunked conspiracies about the 2020 election,” said Democratic Senator Mark Warner on X. “This is all just a prelude to interfere in our midterms – don’t fall for it.”
Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar said on X: “I hope he gets the help he so desperately needs. This is just pathetic and deranged.”
