Key events
Trump prompts constitutionality concerns over his call to revoke broadcast licenses
Several major networks declined to air Donald Trump’s primetime televised address on Thursday, citing concerns that the content could be politically partisan or inflammatory.
CNN, ABC and NBC chose not to air the speech live, but CBS, Fox News and MS Now (formerly MSNBC) aired at least large portions of the speech live. Some ABC station station affiliates – including the Washington DC station owned by right-leaning broadcaster Sinclair – also chose to air the speech.
“We’ll be monitoring what the president says tonight, as we always do, but aren’t taking it live, given the president has a well-documented history of saying blatantly false things about elections,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the network’s 9pm anchor, told viewers on Thursday.
Although television networks are not are not legally obliged to grant a president’s request to air a speech live – Joe Biden and Barack Obama had requests for White House speeches to be broadcast live refused during their presidencies – the move drew rebukes from Trump, who called for their broadcast licenses to be revoked.
“Too many Americans have fought and died to defend American democracy,” Bernie Sanders, a Democratic senator from Vermont, posted on X. “All of us, regardless of our political views, must stand together against this dangerous president who is seeking to undermine our Constitution and our basic freedoms.”
More here:
How Trump’s address was bluntly aimed at destabilizing the US electoral system
Sam Levine
Donald Trump used the imprimatur of the presidency and United States intelligence agencies to try to undermine confidence in American elections in a presidential address on Thursday that seemed bluntly aimed at laying the groundwork for further destabilizing the electoral system before November’s midterm elections.
In his address from the East Room at the White House, Trump attempted to give the impression that his administration had uncovered new bombshell findings about vulnerabilities in the US’s election system. China, he claimed, had illicitly acquired voter information on 220 million Americans (many states allow anyone to buy voter roll information; Trump did not say the means by which the nation acquired the data). He claimed that China interfered in other ways to undermine his 2020 campaign and that the information had been suppressed by intelligence officials.
Donald Trump repeated calls in his Thursday speech for the passage of the Save America Act – a rebranded and expanded version of last year’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (Save) act, which passed in the US House but didn’t get a vote in the Senate.
This year’s version includes a very strict voter ID requirement for casting a ballot and a provision that requires states to regularly turn their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security, in addition to criminal liability for election officials who register a voter without proper documentary proof of citizenship.
Last month, US federal court blocked an attempt by Trump to bypass Congress on the Save Act via executive order. This week, House Republicans reupped their efforts to resurrect the bill by linking the measure to an unrelated spending bill and passing both largely along party lines.
After Thursday’s speech, Republicans voiced their support of the Save Act, with representatives like Tim Burchett of Tennessee urging Americans to call their senators.
“We are going to lose our country if we don’t pass the dadgum Save America Act,” Burchett posted on X. “Call your senator and tell them to save our great nation.”
Democrats began denouncing the Save Act even before Trump took to the podium, with Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and the defeated Democratic candidate in the 2024 presidential election, leading the charge.
“Here is what you need to know: The 2020 election was not stolen; we won and he lost,” she wrote on social media. “The Save Act is voter suppression. It is part of a larger agenda of conservatives trying to steal power from the people.”
The denounciations continued after his speech.
“Tonight, Donald Trump reminded us again just how desperate he is to steal the midterm elections. The so-called Save America Act isn’t about stopping fraud, it’s about stopping voters,” JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois, posted on X.
“After listening to the president’s rambling address, I want him to know that the Save America Act is going NOWHERE in the Senate,” Patty Murray, a Democatric senator from Washington state, posted on X. “It belongs in the trash with the rest of Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories. America, use your vote and your voice to save our democracy.”
Read more about the Save Act here:
China, Democrats decry Trump’s latest unverified claims of election interference
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
Donald Trump used a 25-minute primetime televised address on Thursday to make unverified claims about China interfering with the 2020 presidential election and cast extraordinary doubts on the integrity of the US electoral process.
However, the heavily redacted documents released by the White House, purportedly to support the president’s allegations, appeared to undercut the idea that China intended to interfere in the 2020 election – claims which had already been investigated by intelligence officials, who concluded with high confidence in 2021 that China “did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US presidential election”.
On Friday, China’s foreign ministry said the accusations were “pure fabrication” and amounted to “a malicious smear campaign”, Reuters reports.
Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a briefing that Beijing has no interest in interfering with US elections and has never done so. “We urge the US to take a long, hard look at itself and stop making unfounded accusations against China,” the spokesperson said.
Democrats were also quick to decry Trump’s messaging, with Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia and vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, saying that the president’s speech “was just lies and long-debunked conspiracies”.
“This is all just a prelude to interfere in our midterms — don’t fall for it,” Warner posted on X.
“If Trump wins, it’s a fair election. If he loses, there was fraud. Does he realize the election he’s talking about happened under his watch as President? The only reason Trump is bringing this up now is to distract from the fact he’s failed to make Americans’ lives better,” Mark Kelly, a Democratic senator from Arizona, posted on X.
More to come.
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