Networks decline to broadcast president’s primetime address on election integrity
President Donald Trump earlier this month fired the three remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan independent agency that develops guidance for election administration. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move “a brazen attempt to seize control of our elections before a single vote is cast.”
Trump has also renewed pressure on Congress to pass the Save America Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. Critics, including voting rights groups, have warned that the logistical requirements could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters — including married women who changed their names and lack updated citizenship documents, and low-income Americans who do not possess a valid U.S. passport. Trump has called for eliminating the Senate filibuster to pass the legislation, telling a crowd at Mount Rushmore on July 4 that “if we terminate the filibuster as we should do and immediately vote for the Save America Act, then we will not lose an election for a hundred years.”
On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened state election officials with possible prison time if they do not comply with Trump administration efforts to determine whether noncitizens are on voter registration lists. Data shows that noncitizens registering to vote is exceedingly rare, according to the report.
In a televised primetime speech Thursday, Trump declared that the U.S. electoral system is so compromised that “no country can be great without fair and honest elections” and that “the system we have falls catastrophically short of that standard,” according to The Guardian. The address rehashed grievances about the 2020 election, Chinese interference, and the media. The president’s approval ratings are mired in the 30s, and the Iran war continues with no end in sight.
Two of the three major U.S. broadcast networks — NBC and ABC — declined to air the speech on their main channels, judging that it would contain little of public importance. CBS broadcast the address but preceded it with a warning. Anchor Tony Dokoupil told viewers that “Honestly, much of what the president has said on [election integrity] is false.”
Ty Cobb, a member of Trump’s first-term legal team, told PBS on Thursday that he thinks the president’s speech “is intended to add the predicate that he needs to declare an emergency at or about the time of the elections.”