Reed Statement on Trump Planning Prime-time Speech on 2020 Election Allegations

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today expressed deep skepticism about President Trump's plans to deliver a prime-time national address on Thursday night regarding 2020 election allegations.

"Once again, President Trump is seeking to undermine election integrity and relitigate the 2020 election, which he lost overwhelmingly," said Reed. "Before every election he's ever run, Donald Trump claims the election is rigged against him. Then, if he wins, he says it was fair and if he loses, he ramps up unfounded allegations of fraud and produces no actual evidence. If he had any evidence that could stand up in a courtroom, he'd submit it. Instead, he is going to go on national TV to try to mislead and maybe even flat out lie.

"Donald Trump won an election when Barack Obama was President and when Joe Biden was President. He lost by 7 million votes in 2020 when he was President. Democrats didn't rig anything and nothing was stolen from him. In fact, Trump's own federal cyber experts and election security watchdogs declared the 2020 vote "the most secure in American history."

Senator Reed noted that foreign adversaries routinely seek to influence U.S. elections by spreading disinformation, amplifying political divisions, and attempting to undermine Americans' confidence in democratic institutions. However, unclassified assessments from the U.S. Intelligence Community, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and bipartisan state election officials all note that what these foreign adversaries have not done is alter vote totals, hack voting machines to change election outcomes, or compromise the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.

Senator Reed says the myth of stolen elections must not become a pretext for weakening America's democratic system or stripping states and local election officials of their longstanding constitutional role in administering elections. Senator Reed says there must be robust, bipartisan support for strengthening election security, supporting state and local officials, and combatting foreign influence operations. Allowing the president to "take over" or federalize election administration does not achieve those goals, in fact, it undermines them.

"Last week, President Trump purged members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission," said Reed. "This is part of the Trump Administration's broader campaign to interfere with the 2026 mid-terms. He wants to create new barriers for eligible Americans to exercise their right to vote. He is trying to increase the executive branch's control over U.S. elections in dangerous and unprecedented ways. That is why he keeps demanding passage of the repressive, unworkable, so-called SAVE Act which faces bipartisan opposition. His bill offers no resources and would simply throw the nation's elections into chaos and disenfranchise millions of voters.

"It is notable that President Trump is basing his latest assertions on so-called intelligence that a White House task force is set to declassify this week. The acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Bill Pulte is a partisan attack dog with zero intelligence experience. It is illegal for the DNI to be personally involved in a domestic criminal investigation. The trumped up investigation of Fulton County, Georgia is the same state where Donald Trump is on tape telling Georgia's top election official to "find" enough votes to overturn the election result. President Trump's exact quote to Georgia's Secretary of State was: "I just want to find 11,780 votes." The Republican election official replied by telling the President that Georgia's results are correct," continued Reed.

"It's also unfortunate that President Trump is echoing the talking points of America's foreign adversaries when it comes to U.S. elections and trying to imply that Americans cannot trust their election systems. It's time for President Trump to quit amplifying misinformation and acting like he's an aggrieved victim and to start fixing the very problems he's creating. I believe in the goodness of the American people, the wisdom of voters, and the rule of law. I urge Republicans to join Democrats in standing up for truly free, fair, safe, secure, and accurate elections. And I urge any networks that air this political, ego-fueled address to fact-check it and offer Democrats equal air time to rebut Trump's falsehoods."

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