Trump's address likely to cast new cloud over midterm elections

President Donald Trump is set to deliver a national address Thursday, a speech critics fear will further erode trust in U.S. voting systems and serve as a pretext to influence the upcoming midterm elections. Trump plans to focus on his persistent, debunked claims of winning the 2020 election, a move that raises concerns among those who believe he aims to create a narrative of unfairness should Republicans perform poorly in November.

This potential strategy echoes past patterns where Trump has amplified doubts about election integrity as voting nears. In 2020, this escalated into efforts to overturn the results, culminating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. His subsequent pardons for some involved in the riot sent a message that undermining democracy could be acceptable.

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It doesn’t get bigger, because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country.

The president's interim director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, has been reportedly tasked with finding evidence of "rigged elections." Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating the 2020 elections in Georgia, a state Trump lost, despite multiple confirmations of its fairness by Republican state officials and forensic audits. The administration's demands for voter rolls have also heightened concerns about potential infringements on electoral processes.

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We’ll be discussing other things too, but it’s going to be a very big announcement.