President Trump used a primetime address Thursday night (July 16) to revive disputed claims about election security, including assertions CBS News rated false, misleading, exaggerated or unsupported by evidence.
Trump opened by alleging that China "carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history" during the 2020 election cycle. CBS News rated this claim misleading.
What Trump didn't mention: most voter data — names, addresses, party affiliations — is already publicly available in most states, either for free or for purchase by campaigns and political organizations, the outlet reported. U.S. intelligence agencies have said no foreign actor altered any technical aspect of the 2020 voting process, including ballot casting, vote counting or voter registration. A joint bulletin from the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also found no evidence that cyberattacks affected election infrastructure or the integrity of any ballots cast.
The Chinese Embassy also denied the allegations before Trump even finished speaking, saying China "has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S."
Trump then declared the U.S. election system "falls catastrophically short" of preventing cheating and interference. CBS News rated this false.
CISA said there was "no evidence of any malicious activity" affecting the integrity of the 2024 elections and called the 2020 election "the most secure in American...
President Trump used a primetime address Thursday night (July 16) to revive disputed claims about election security, including assertions CBS News rated false, misleading, exaggerated or unsupport...