US President Donald Trump has alleged China interfered in the 2020 election, claiming Beijing accessed voter data, as he declassified what he called “critical intelligence” revealing vulnerabilities in US election infrastructure
US President Donald Trump(Image: Getty)
US President Donald Trump has alleged China played a part in manipulating the 2020 election, when he was defeated in both the electoral college and popular vote by Joe Biden. Trump declared during his prime-time speech on Thursday, July 16, that he is instantly declassifying and unveiling “critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in election infrastructure.
“This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference,” he stated. “Just as disturbingly, this vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you.”
Trump claimed China unlawfully obtained access to US voter information.
Trump has made claims that China has ‘meddled’ in previous US elections(Image: Andrew Harnik, Getty Images)
“That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities. Which is exactly what was happening,” Trump declared.
Voter information is generally accessible public record in most states. Trump announced before his speech that it would contain “really big news” about election security. He informed reporters on Tuesday: “It doesn’t get bigger, because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country.”
For years, Trump has maintained the defeat to Biden was a consequence of voter fraud.
Biden secured the election with 306 electoral votes and 51.3% of the national popular vote. Trump obtained 232 electoral votes and 46.8% of the popular vote.
In January 2021, US intelligence compiled a report which determined there was no foreign meddling in the 2020 election. This was released publicly by the Biden administration in March that year.
“We have no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results,” the report, published under Trump, stated.
“We assess that it would be difficult for a foreign actor to manipulate election processes at scale without detection by intelligence collection on the actors themselves, through physical and cyber security monitoring around voting systems across the country, or in post-election audits,” it concluded.
