Fact-checking Trump’s rhetoric on China, the 2020 election, and what the documents show

This article originally appeared on PolitiFact.

President Donald Trump delivered a rare prime-time speech on an issue that has consumed him for years — the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

In his roughly 30-minute speech, Trump said foreign countries — especially China — interfered in the 2020 election. In some cases, he said, the “deep state” hid damning information from him and you.

Policy: Live fact check of Trump’s speech from the White House

Trump cited years-old intelligence community documents, including some that have been declassified or partially redacted, without pointing out the distinction between what China may have planned versus what analysts say it did.

“You have left our elections vulnerable to fraud and theft, and have lost the trust of the American people,” Trump said on July 16, though he did not provide any evidence that votes or election results were affected.

Trump concluded his speech by calling on lawmakers to pass the “Save America” Act, which would require Americans to present government-issued photo IDs to vote and documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register. The legislation is stalled in the Senate amid criticism that it would disenfranchise too many people or impose unnecessary time and financial burdens on a constitutional right.

He watches: Mullen holds press conference on election security after Trump’s address to the nation

Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan organization with expertise in voting technology, said there are several safeguards in place to protect U.S. elections, which include testing equipment before the election and chain-of-custody rules for ballots. Nearly every state has paper ballots that can be used to show evidence of voters’ intentions, “and that’s the most important safeguard of all,” Smith said.

Trump’s speech went beyond numerous judicial decisions, intelligence community reports, and expert opinions that indicated there was no direct foreign interference in the 2020 voting process.

Trump criticized some networks, including NBC, ABC and CNN, for not broadcasting the speech live on their main channel. But such a decision was not unprecedented; ABC, CBS and NBC ran game shows and reruns of a 2022 speech by then-President Biden in which he accused Trump and Republicans of endangering American democracy.

Here’s a closer look at Trump’s claims about China’s interference in the 2020 election.

China obtained voter registration records. This does not prove interference.

Trump began his speech by calling China’s “outrageous” theft of American voter records.

“China carried out what is believed to be the largest election data compromise in history, resulting in China illegally seizing 220 million American voter files,” he said. This information includes names, addresses, phone numbers and voters’ political preferences, which Trump described as an “unprecedented election security nightmare.”

Read more: Here’s what makes US elections so complex and secure

Documents published on a new White House website show that it was not very difficult.

A document titled “Sensitive Government Agency” said voter registration information from 2013 to 2021 was “publicly available for download from commercial websites,” and China appeared to have downloaded it in 2022. In theory, the data could be leveraged to carry out election influence operations, the document said.

Election data experts said obtaining such data is common.

“Just because they have voter registration data, doesn’t mean that state or local voter registration databases or infrastructure has been compromised,” said Ryan Macias, an election security and technology expert who has held federal government positions in the past under the Trump administrations, as well as under Obama and Biden. “This data is information that can be legally purchased by some members of the public.”

Trump said the “deep state” concealed the results, but the Trump administration published the results

Trump said some of the released documents revealed that “members of the deep state” “actively worked to suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s malicious election interference,” and to cover it up from Trump and the American people.

This is misleading.

The intelligence community provided Trump with a classified report on January 7, 2021, on foreign interference, and two months later, under Biden, the National Intelligence Council released the declassified version. That report said China considered — but did not deploy — influence efforts aimed at changing the outcome of the election. The experts stated that they had great confidence in their conclusion.

He watches: The former White House lawyer says Trump is paving the way to declare a state of emergency near the midterm elections

The report included a minority view from the National Cyber ​​Intelligence Officer who concluded that China attempted to undermine Trump’s re-election primarily through social media and official public statements. Some of the efforts were intended to at least indirectly influence candidates, political processes and voter preferences, the official wrote. However, the minority report said there was “no information to suggest that China attempted to interfere in electoral processes.”

John Ratcliffe, then Director of National Intelligence (and now Director of the CIA), sided with the minority view expressed in the report.

Documents released by the White House on July 16 showed some disagreements within the Trump administration in 2020 over China, but that was reflected in the 2021 report.

The Intelligence Community does not routinely release all records because they contain sensitive information, including information about sources or issues that could be used in related investigations.

Trump said China wants him to lose. China believed that Trump and Biden could pose challenges.

Trump said the Chinese government wants him to “lose the next election” because of his plans to impose tariffs and invest in the US military. A CIA memo released by the White House with Trump’s speech said that in mid-2018 “it was the policy of the Chinese Communist Party to utilize all elements, domestic and foreign, that were opposed to the US President in an attempt to diminish the votes of the US President and cause him to resign or prevent his re-election.”

The CIA memo said China was working to influence the results of the 2018 and 2020 elections.

China has analyzed the 2016 results and which countries could be harmed by tariffs, and hopes to prompt representatives from those sectors to pressure Trump. The country has also invited former US government officials and academics to participate in paid lectures in China.

An August 2020 National Intelligence Council assessment also said China would prefer Trump lose. China “may directly attempt to thwart the president’s re-election, including by leaking information or through an online influence network,” she said.

However, the 2021 report said China did not consider a Trump or Biden victory sufficiently advantageous to risk involvement in interference. The report said that Beijing believes that there is a consensus between the Republican and Democratic parties against China in the United States and sees challenges whether Trump or Biden wins.