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Donald Trump used a primetime presidential address to revive claims that the 2020 election was stolen, alleging Chinese interference, intelligence cover-ups and widespread vulnerabilities in the US voting system. LBC Washington Correspondent Simon Marks joins James O'Brien to debunk the claims and what he believes the speech could signal ahead of November's US midterm elections. 00:00 | Trump's primetime election speech 01:13 | Claims of Chinese election interference 05:19 | 'Entirely fact free,' Simon Marks reacts 07:46 | 'A warning to America' 09:20 | What the documents actually reveal 11:27 | Why the future of US democracy is at stake Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #jamesobrien #simonmarks #trump #donaldtrump #uselections #midterms #uspolitics #usnews #politics #uselection #midterms2026 #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
This is quite nuanced, isn't it
0:02
This speech that Trump gave. America is back and doing really well
0:06
but we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed
0:11
because no country could be great without fair and honest elections. You have to trust your country
0:19
because if there can be no trust, there can be no greatness
0:24
And that's very simple. No trust, no greatness. Unfortunately, the system we have today falls catastrophically short of that standard
0:34
Tonight, I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure
0:45
This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference
1:01
Just as disturbingly this vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you
1:09
The American people are beautiful, are great American people. The documents cover five major areas of concern
1:16
First, they show that over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle
1:24
the People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history
1:32
resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files. That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening
1:56
This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China has signed a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project
2:10
Compounding the travesty, the second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the deep state
2:18
very, very famous group of people, many cases in our intelligence agency
2:23
agency worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China's sinister
2:30
election meddling. The strategy included efforts to use Chinese contacts with big U.S. companies
2:37
to influence U.S. business leaders to turn against the president of the United States of America
2:44
The Chinese government sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the
2:51
U.S. president and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him, as many
2:58
as they could, and they didn't care what they said. The Chinese government wanted U.S. president
3:05
to lose the next election and the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them charged them billions and billions of dollars worth of tariffs
3:17
and built the strongest military anywhere in the world. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world
3:23
Today I'm asking the office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA
3:30
to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden, to fire those involved in the cover-up and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against these people
3:42
Yet concealing China's meddling was only the beginning. The third set of documents we are releasing proves that for many years
3:51
Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure
3:57
including electronic voting machines and ballot counting systems, dishonest almost all. We should be united, not divided
4:07
In light of the brand new and irrefutable information I have revealed tonight
4:13
my administration is in the process of notifying the states whose election data was compromised by the People's Republic of China and many others
4:24
We will be working closely to mitigate any harm, and we're taking swift action to ensure that sensitive voter data is better protected
4:33
so we can never be bought, we can never be hacked, and we can never watch a stolen election again
4:42
But most importantly, addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the Save America Act
4:53
How easy is that to do unless you want to cheat? The only reason you wouldn't do it is you want to cheat
5:02
because your policies are so bad and your candidates are so pathetic
5:07
that you can't get away or can't get elected any other way
5:11
This landmark bill requires that all voters must show photo, voter ID
5:18
How simple is that? Entirely fact-free. I mean, we knew going into this presidential address
5:24
this primetime presidential address, the kind of thing that presidents book when they've got major announcements
5:30
to make to the American people regarding the affairs of state. Wars, paying tribute to the deaths of people that have died in disasters
5:38
whatever it happens to be. And, you know, last night, ABC, NBC and CNN
5:43
didn't carry the president's remarks live because we all knew that they were going to be dominated
5:49
by what he claims is fresh evidence that the 2020, yes, six years ago
5:55
the 2020 presidential election was rigged. And really, I mean, he ranted and he raged last night
6:03
He once again insisted that Joe Biden's election victory had been rigged
6:08
that it was all the result of a vast global conspiracy stretching from China to Venezuela
6:14
that it involved the deep state that it involved the far left radical wing of the Democratic Party that he now refers to as communists that the media were an integral part of the plot which is why he insisted ABC and NBC were not carrying his remarks last night
6:32
But there is not a shred of truth to any of it
6:37
They published thousands and thousands of pages of documents last night, a trove of documents that they said prove that the 2020 presidential election was rigged
6:47
there is no evidence that can be found in those documents that back up those assertions
6:52
And indeed, after it was all over, and we are going to play this later today on LBC in My American Week
6:58
after this was over, John Solomon, who's now a presidential advisor, was a journalist until they took him into the White House
7:06
He's been amplifying these claims of the election being rigged for six years
7:12
He was collared by reporters in the White House driveway who said, hang on a second, can you just confirm that there is no evidence to support the view that a single vote was flipped as the result of Chinese or Venezuelan interference in the election
7:28
And he said, well, all I can do is go with what the intelligence community says
7:32
And the intelligence community says, yeah, it didn't change a single vote. But I'm still researching it
7:37
He's had six years to research it. So this was, but there was a darker side to this speech, James
7:42
This speech was a warning to America. This was not just a man giving voice to the usual flim-flam about election integrity and I was robbed
7:53
This is a warning to America three and a half months before the midterm elections
7:58
that he is not going to recognize the outcome of midterm elections unless the Republicans win them
8:07
And there were voices last night back in Washington, some of them people who had worked within Trump's administration in the first term
8:16
saying that they believe that this speech was designed to lay the groundwork
8:22
for the deployment of ICE agents and Border Patrol at polling stations in November
8:27
in a bid to intimidate voters, and a warning to America that if Democrats win these midterm elections
8:33
he is going to refuse to accept the outcome, litigate, try and delay the moment when Democrats should be forming a majority
8:42
in the House of Representatives and the Senate if they win, and that this is all preface to what's going to be coming down the road
8:50
in late November and December. This is a Hollywood movie plot, isn't it
8:54
This is the press, it's the Hunger Games or something like that. The president addressing the nation with a farrago of lies
9:01
blatant, provable, obvious lies, in the hope that he will bring enough of the population with him
9:06
to upend democracy itself. Not only did the documents they published last night
9:11
fail to prove that China interfered in the election to the point where they were tipping it in Joe Biden's favour
9:19
but the documents, when you look at them, actually do reveal that the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax
9:25
perhaps was not a hoax after all, and that in fact the Russians were engaged in malign actions trying to boost Donald Trump ability to win that race and also as we know the 2016 race against Hillary Clinton that he did win
9:40
Indeed, and of course none of it addresses the question of why, if they were so successful at rigging this in 2020
9:46
they failed so abjectly to do so in 2024, in exactly the same electoral system
9:51
And huge questions for his CIA director, John Ratcliffe, who was in post in 2020 during the first Trump term
9:58
and absolutely, I mean, you've got to wonder whether he's going to stay in post
10:02
because of this appalling series of developments. On his watch, as it were
10:07
On his watch, nothing was done about. Where do we look now? What could make a difference
10:13
You've mentioned three of the biggest broadcasters electing not to take the thing
10:17
the broadcast itself, the address itself, but the Oval Office is going to be full, sadly, including some British journalists
10:24
of people who will suck up all of the lies, regurgitate them, and disseminate them, to whom do we look now for resistance to what is clearly underway
10:35
Well, I'll tell you one person I think everybody should be looking at more than we have been
10:39
and it's Senator John Ossoff of Georgia. He is increasingly proving to be an extremely effective voice for the Democrats
10:48
both on Capitol Hill and in his native Georgia, as he tries to seek his own re-election this November to the Senate
10:55
he has been challenging Trump and Trump officials continuously, constantly pointing out the extent of the corruption that has enriched the president
11:06
and his family over the course of just the last 16 months since President Trump returned to office
11:12
And I think he's becoming definitely a horse to watch in the race for 2028
11:19
But ultimately, you know, I think there's going to be a massive test for the American people
11:24
coming up in November. If the Democrats win the midterms or if Trump insists that, you know
11:33
he takes action to suppress the vote, particularly minority votes, with all of the gerrymandering
11:38
that's taking place across the South now approved and authorized by the Supreme Court
11:42
to build these new congressional districts, these new constituencies that will favor Republicans
11:49
there's going to be a real, there's going to be a Donnybrook coming where the future of American democracy
11:54
is at stake, and we have to see where that goes and how it plays out
11:59
I'm so glad you're here, for all the obvious reasons, but also because it is absolutely impossible
12:06
to exaggerate the jeopardy of the situation, the peril of the situation. It is very hard to overstate it
12:11
I mean, the more that we talk about this, and then, you know, Trump supporters
12:16
and there are a dwindling band of them who accuse us all of Trump derangement syndrome and insist, no, no, no, no, he's telling the truth
12:22
you know, he's pure as the driven snow. he's telling us in plain sight what he is going to do it is evident they are taking steps day by
12:32
day week by week to game the outcome of the midterms the only elections this man recognizes
12:39
as free and fair are the ones that republicans win yikes
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