United States President Donald Trump on Thursday revived sweeping and unsupported claims of voter fraud and Chinese meddling — firing a clear warning shot ahead of midterm elections that many expect him to dispute.
In a primetime White House address, Trump portrayed the US electoral system as dangerously exposed and urged lawmakers to adopt new restrictions on voting, despite scant appetite for the measures even within his own Republican Party.
“We can never watch a stolen election again,” Trump said, referring to his 2020 defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said he was declassifying intelligence that showed, among other things, that China had illicitly acquired 220 million US voter files.
“Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” he said from the White House.
