What he said about China and the 2020 election, what documents show :: WRAL.com

President Donald Trump delivered a rare prime-time speech on a topic that has preoccupied him for years: the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

In his nearly 30-minute speech, Trump claimed that foreign countries — notably China — interfered in the 2020 election. In some cases, he said, the “deep state” hid damning information from him and “from you.”

Trump cited years-old intelligence community documents, some of which have been declassified or partially redacted, without distinguishing between what China may have planned and what analysts say it did.

“Our elections were left vulnerable to rigging and theft, and the trust of the American people was lost,” Trump said on July 16, although he provided no evidence of tampering with votes or election results.

Trump concluded by urging lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to provide government-issued photo IDs to vote and documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register. The bill is stalled in the Senate due to criticism that it would disenfranchise many people or place unnecessary time and cost constraints on a constitutional right.

Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan organization specializing in voting technology, said there are several safeguards in place to protect U.S. elections, including pre-election testing of equipment and chain-of-custody rules for ballots. Nearly all states have paper ballots that can be used to prove voter intent, Smith said, “and that’s the most important safeguard of all.”

Trump’s speech skirted numerous court rulings, intelligence community reports and expert opinions that indicated there was no direct foreign interference in the 2020 voting process.

Trump criticized some networks, including NBC, ABC and CNN, for not airing the speech live on their main channel. But such a move was not without precedent; ABC, CBS and NBC aired and rebroadcast game shows during a 2022 speech by then-President Biden, in which he accused Trump and Republicans of endangering American democracy.

Here’s a closer look at Trump’s claims that China interfered in the 2020 election.

RELATED: PolitiFact’s live blog of Trump’s speech covered what he said about non-citizen voting and fraudulent registrations in Michigan.

China obtained voter registration records. This does not prove interference.

Trump began his speech by describing a “nefarious” Chinese theft of American voter registration records.

“China carried out what is considered the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter records,” he said. This information includes voters’ names, addresses, phone numbers and political party preferences, which Trump called an “unprecedented election security nightmare.”

It wasn’t too difficult, according to documents posted on a new White House website.

A document labeled a “sensitive government agency” states that voter registration information from 2013 to 2021 “is publicly available and downloadable from commercial websites,” and it appears China uploaded it in 2022. The document states that, in theory, the data could be exploited to conduct electoral influence operations.

Election data experts said obtaining such data is common.

“Just because they have voter registration data doesn’t mean state or local voter registration databases or infrastructure were breached,” said Ryan Macias, an election security and technology expert who has held federal government positions in the past under both Trump administrations, as well as under Obama and Biden. “This data is information that can be legally purchased by certain members of the public.”

Trump said the ‘deep state’ hid the findings, but the Trump administration released its findings

Trump said some of the released documents revealed that “members of the deep state” were “actively working to suppress and minimize information about the extent of China’s sinister election interference,” thereby hiding it from Trump and the American people.

It’s misleading.

The intelligence community provided Trump with a classified report on January 7, 2021, on foreign interference, and two months later, under Biden, the National Intelligence Council released the declassified version. This report indicates that China considered – but did not undertake – influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the election. The experts said they had great confidence in their conclusion.

The report included a minority view from the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber, who concluded that China attempted to undermine Trump’s re-election primarily through social media and official public statements. The official wrote that some efforts were aimed at at least indirectly influencing candidates, political processes and voter preferences. However, the minority report states that there is “no information to suggest that China attempted to interfere with the electoral processes.”

John Ratcliffe, then director of national intelligence (and now director of the CIA), sided with the minority view of the report.

Documents released by the White House on July 16 showed some dissension within the Trump administration in 2020 over China, but that was reflected in the 2021 report.

The intelligence community does not routinely release all documents because they contain sensitive information, including about sources or issues that could be used in related investigations.

Trump said China wanted him to lose. China thought Trump and Biden could pose challenges.

Trump said the Chinese government wants him to “lose the next election” because of his plans to pass tariffs and invest in the U.S. military. A CIA memo, released by the White House with Trump’s speech, said that as of mid-2018, “the policy of the Chinese Communist Party was to exploit all domestic and foreign elements opposed to the United States President in an effort to reduce the votes of the United States President and force him to resign or prevent his re-election.”

China is working to influence the results of the 2018 and 2020 elections, the CIA memo said.

China analyzed the 2016 results and the states that could be affected by the tariffs and hoped to encourage representatives of these sectors to pressure Trump. The country has also invited former U.S. government officials and academics to give paid lectures in China.

An August 2020 National Intelligence Council assessment also indicated that China preferred Trump to lose. He said China “could attempt to more directly thwart the president’s re-election, including by disclosing information or through an online influence network.”

However, the 2021 report indicates that China does not view a Trump or Biden victory as advantageous enough to risk getting caught interfering. Beijing believes there is a bipartisan consensus against China in the United States and sees challenges to whether Trump or Biden will win, according to the report.

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