Trump speech lays groundwork for him to tamper with midterm results, critics warn

Democrats and advocates sound alarm at Trump rehashing false claims about 2020 election in his primetime address

Democrats and voting rights groups say Donald Trump’s primetime speech making unverified claims of Chinese interference in the 2020 election is the clearest sign yet that the president is laying the groundwork to tamper with the results of November’s midterms.

The upcoming elections to decide the balance of power in Congress and many state legislatures will be a major test of Trump’s appeal to voters two years after he resoundingly beat the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris to return to the White House. With polls showing that the president is disliked by majorities of voters and his Republican allies are at risk of losing their control of the House of Representatives, the president’s Thursday evening speech rehashing allegations about the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden sparked fears he was already looking for ways to ensure November’s results are in his favor.