Trump's Election Integrity Speech Lays Groundwork for Midterm Interference: Ari Berman
July 17, 2026
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11:51Now PlayingTrump's Election Integrity Speech Lays Groundwork for Midterm Interference: Ari Berman
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In a primetime address on Thursday, President Trump accused China of meddling in U.S. elections in his latest effort to spread doubt about the U.S. voting system ahead of the midterm elections in November. Trump announced he was declassifying documents that show what he called "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure," but offered no evidence that China or any other country directly interfered with recent elections.
"If Trump was trying to build … a smoking gun case that the 2020 election was stolen, he failed miserably," says Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for _Mother Jones_. "I am still very concerned that this speech is intended to lay the groundwork for the administration to interfere in the midterms."
Berman argues that U.S. elections are "secure" and that results are "audited extensively at the state level" and reviewed at the federal level. He says the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden, was "found to be the most secure in American history."
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