5 things to know about Trump’s election claims

President Trump’s primetime address Thursday from the White House alleged vulnerabilities in the American election system, but the information shared largely didn’t reveal anything new and didn’t provide evidence that any election results from years past were fraudulent.

The president pointed to newly declassified documents that suggest foreign adversaries, particularly China, could interfere with future elections and suggested changes should be made, including passage of his signature voting bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote.

Here are five things to know about Trump’s election claims:

China trailed other US adversaries in meddling in elections

Trump’s biggest accusation of the night was that China was behind an effort to sway the 2020 election.

He accused China of acquiring over 200 million U.S. voter files, which included individuals’ names, addresses, phone numbers, party affiliation and other sensitive data.

However, no hacking is required to obtain that data, which is routinely purchased by political parties in the United States.

A 2021 report from the intelligence community about foreign threats to the 2020 elections concluded with “high confidence” that China did not interfere in the election but did take steps to try to undermine Trump’s reelection. It also said China “probably” continued efforts to gather information on U.S. voters and public opinion to try to influence policy toward China, but that Beijing “did not interfere with election infrastructure, including vote tabulation or the transmission of election results.”

Trump said China has meddled in elections since the 2018 midterms, “in an effort to reduce the U.S. president’s votes and make him resign or prevent his reelection,” he quoted from a CIA report.

He said China also tried to undermine his first administration in 2020, alleging that intelligence from the FBI that same year stated China even tried to create illegal ballots in favor of former President Biden.

China also had a strategy in 2019, he said, that “focused on undermining domestic confidence in the U.S. president.”

However, Trump failed to detail that in 2020, the intelligence community’s top concerns were primarily focused on influence efforts by Russia and Iran.

Among the documents included was a chart breaking down actions taken by Russia, China and Iran, showing that Russia was the only one attempting to target U.S. election processes.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington was quick to refute the president’s accusations.

“China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in other’s internal........

© The Hill