Trump plans primetime address on election integrity

President Trump is set to deliver a rare primetime address Thursday night on election integrity, returning to a subject he has used for years to cast doubt on U.S. voting systems despite repeated reviews that found no evidence to support his claims that he won the 2020 election.

The White House has not provided a full outline of the 9 p.m. ET speech. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump would present what she called “findings” about election integrity.

“It will shock you if you have an honest eye listening to the president tonight and everything he is saying will be backed by facts and by evidence that will be provided this evening,” Leavitt said at a White House briefing.

Leavitt also said Trump would discuss the SAVE America Act, legislation that would require Americans to present proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a form of ID when voting. Trump has pressed Congress for months to pass the measure, which has stalled in the Senate. Opponents point to evidence that voter fraud is extremely rare and say some citizens do not have ready access to the required documents.

Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that he won the 2020 election. Numerous reviews have debunked his allegations. A federal intelligence report released in March 2021 found: “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 was a declassified version of one provided to Trump and other officials on Jan. 7, 2021.

Democrats moved ahead of the speech to challenge Trump’s expected message. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor that the address was not only about 2020 but about the next midterm elections.

“Trump’s primetime speech tonight isn’t simply about relitigating his overwhelming defeat in the 2020 election; it’s about undermining the 2026 election before a single vote has been cast,” Schumer said. “Trump won’t expose anything of substance about 2020 — he’ll just echo the same stale, baseless, pathetic lies he’s repeated for six years.”

Other Democratic senators issued similar warnings. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland said the administration’s attacks on election workers and “illegal” raids on election offices were designed to prevent eligible U.S. citizens from voting. “Let’s let that sink in as we watch the false claims from this president, who, bless his heart, just cannot accept what all of the evidence has shown us: is that there is nothing improper that happened in 2020,” she said.

Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said Trump would deliver a “prime time presidential sour grapes address” while “his war in the Middle East spirals out of control and the cost of living continues to rise.” Sen. Raphael Warnock, also of Georgia, said Trump lost the state in 2020 after votes were “counted, recounted, audited, and litigated,” and said the speech was “about 2026.”

The address comes as Trump’s war in Iran nears the five-month mark and his approval rating remains near second-term lows. The Guardian reported that U.S. forces launched attacks for a sixth straight day Thursday, striking targets near Tehran and a ship military officials accused of trying to break the U.S. blockade, while Iran retaliated with missiles and drones aimed at U.S. allies in the region.

Some television networks are weighing how to cover the remarks. CNN media analyst Brian Stelter reported that NBC and ABC planned to stream the address online but not carry it live on television. ABC said its special report team was prepared to interrupt programming “should significant developments occur,” while NBC officials said the network planned to air a special report after the remarks.

When a reporter asked Leavitt whether Trump would accept the results of this November’s elections, she did not answer directly and instead told reporters to watch the speech.