WASHINGTON: Senior Democrats swiftly rejected President Donald Trump's claims of widespread foreign interference and election vulnerabilities after his prime-time address to the nation, accusing him of reviving false narratives about the 2020 election and laying the groundwork to influence next year's midterm elections.
The criticism came soon after Trump announced the declassification of intelligence, FBI and cybersecurity records that he said showed Chinese election activities, vulnerabilities in US election infrastructure and alleged efforts by government officials to suppress intelligence. He also called on Congress to pass the Save America Act, which would require photo identification, proof of citizenship and tighter restrictions on mail voting.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said Trump's address relied on "debunked lies" and accused the President of attempting to undermine confidence in American elections.
"Tonight, Americans watched Donald Trump air old grievances and desperately try to justify his assault on free and fair elections with lies about the 2020 election he lost," Martin said.
He argued that US intelligence had previously concluded "with high confidence" that China "did not attempt any direct interference with the US election process in 2020" and accused Republicans of trying to "lay the groundwork for interfering with the midterm elections."
Martin said Democrats would continue pursuing legal challenges, voter protection efforts and nationwide organising ahead of the 2026 elections.
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, dismissed Trump's address as an attempt to revisit his 2020 election defeat.
"Donald Trump has chosen to use a primetime address to the nation to – once again – find a new way to relitigate his well-documented 2020 election defeat," Thompson said.
He said foreign governments had sought to influence US elections for years but argued Trump had presented "old, cherry-picked intelligence" while offering "no evidence" that altered previous conclusions about the 2020 election.
Thompson also criticised Trump's administration for ending federal election security programmes, saying Democrats had long supported investments in modern voting equipment and cybersecurity assistance for state election officials.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also challenged Trump's presentation of the intelligence.
"Tonight, Americans heard the president once again repeat claims about our elections that have been investigated for years and repeatedly rejected by the Intelligence Community, the FBI, DHS, DOJ, bipartisan state election officials, audits, recounts, and the courts," Warner said.
Noting that China remained "a serious strategic competitor" that sought to advance its interests against the United States, Warned argued intelligence agencies had consistently concluded that while Beijing considered influence operations during the 2020 election, it ultimately did not deploy a campaign intended to affect the election's outcome.
He added that US intelligence agencies had also concluded that "no foreign government altered vote totals, hacked voting machines, or compromised the integrity of our election infrastructure."
Former Vice President Kamala Harris also criticised Trump's address in a series of posts on social media before and during the speech.
"The 2020 election was not stolen. We won, and he lost," Harris wrote.
She later accused Trump of trying to undermine confidence in the electoral system ahead of the midterm elections, writing that he wanted Americans "to lose confidence in our electoral system so you stay home this November."
The competing claims underscore how election security remains one of the most politically divisive issues in the United States nearly six years after the 2020 presidential election.
--IANS
