President Donald Trump’s nationally televised address on election security immediately set off a wave of reaction across Washington, with Republican lawmakers and senior administration officials urging Congress to move quickly on legislation they say would strengthen the integrity of future elections.
Speaking directly to the nation Thursday evening, Trump announced that his administration was declassifying hundreds of pages of government records that he said detail previously hidden concerns about the security of America’s election infrastructure. Among the issues highlighted during the address were allegations that the Chinese government obtained a massive amount of U.S. voter-registration information and that intelligence officials failed to fully inform the public about the scope of the threat.
The president argued that Americans deserve complete transparency on any foreign effort to gather sensitive election-related information. He said the newly released materials would allow the public to examine what he described as serious national security concerns for themselves rather than relying solely on government interpretations.
