While some anticipated Trump would use the speech to continue relitigating his 2020 election loss, he didn’t dwell on that as much as many predicted.
Sure, saying the election system is woefully inadequate feeds into Trump’s claims about the election six year ago, but he didn’t allude to many specifics from that race.
In addition to the China allegations, Trump referenced FBI files citing potential voter registration fraud in Michigan in 2020. But this issue has been known about for years. Trump suggested it had been covered up, though, and said he would have FBI Director Kash Patel look into it.
Just a reminder: Trump’s own appointees from his first term, including former Attorney General William Barr, have said his claims about the 2020 election being stolen were bogus. And courts that dealt with fraud claims from Trump and his allies in the months after that election found virtually none of them had merit.
On Thursday, Trump mocked the government officials who labeled 2020 the “most secure election” in American history and alleged members of the “deep state” were covering up what really happened. But he didn’t repeat his frequent false claim that he actually won.
