Trump speech focuses on elections
President criticizes voting security during primetime address
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WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation Thursday to once again raise doubts about the results of past elections.
Trump began Thursday night with a stark warning about what he described as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections.
"America is back and doing really well, but we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair and honest elections," he said.
He said all Americans should be assured their elections are free of cheating and interference.
"Unfortunately, the system we have today falls catastrophically short of that standard," Trump said.
Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress, saying it's "urgently needed to stop the vulnerabilities that I've mentioned."
As Trump spoke, the White House unveiled a website containing documents that were presented without context and included selectively released pieces of investigation files, intelligence analysis and correspondence.
Notably, Trump focused on China but glossed over Russia, a country that intelligence officials have said favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 and engaged in wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at boosting him over Biden in the latter campaign.
Primetime presidential addresses are typically reserved for major milestones or nationally significant events.
Trump last did it in April to speak on the Iran war, a month after it started.
He said then that the U.S. would accomplish its objectives "very shortly" and that "the hard part is done, so it should be easy." The war, however, has dragged on and strikes between the U.S. and Iran have intensified this week.
Some networks did not air it live
At least some TV networks said Thursday they would not carry the speech live but would air it on their streaming services. ABC, NBC and CNN decided not to air the remarks live but to carry them in full on their streaming services and break into network coverage as needed.
CBS and MS NOW both cut away from Trump's speech before he finished, while Fox News continued to carry his address.
Trump called out the media outlets for not carrying it live and accused them of being "part of a plot."
Networks typically but don't always choose to carry presidential addresses to the nation live. In 2022, when then-President Joe Biden delivered a primetime address full of warnings about Donald Trump and his adherents' "extreme ideology," the networks did not carry it live.
In 2014, the major networks chose to stick with their primetime programming instead of airing an address by then-President Barack Obama on his plans for immigration reform.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday afternoon seemed to be still trying to persuade networks to carry the remarks live, saying, "I think that the mainstream media should air the president's speech and allow the American people to draw their own conclusions from it."
Raising questions about the midterms
Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive claims of past stolen elections in order to delegitimize the 2026 midterm elections, in which Trump's Republican Party is facing headwinds.
"Trump is going to use a primetime address to stoke misleading claims about our elections in order to justify interfering in our midterms. It's on all of us to follow the facts and not accept his constant stream of misdirections and lies," Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said in a statement on X.
"Trump is again trying to drum up baseless election conspiracies ahead of the November elections," New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim said in a post on X. "Americans are tired of endless war, skyrocketing gas prices, and a president that isn't looking out for them. Voters will make their voices heard, whether Trump wants them to or not."
Leavitt didn't answer a question Thursday about whether Trump would accept the results of the midterms, though Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill a day earlier that "of course we're gonna support the results of the midterm elections."